Category: Music Reviews

Posted on: July 2, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Gerald Albright – Sax For Stax (CD)

Gerald Albright has sold over 1 million copies of eir albums since ey debuted all the way back in 1987. “Sax For Stax” is a collection of tracks that continue to cement eir place as an important part of current jazz history. This is due to the fact that the album consists of eight covers of Stax classics, featuring tracks such as “What You See Is What You Get”, a…

Posted on: June 30, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

John Mayer – Where The Light Is: Live In Los Angeles (CD)

John Mayer has slowly grown on me in the years since debuting on radio stations all across the country. “Say” was the track that really clinched that, being a perfect blend of soulful rock and honest vocals. Now, “Where The Light Is” gives me an idea of the live allure that Mayer has, placing listeners in three different positions – seeing Mayer acoustically-based, as a trio, or as a full…

Posted on: June 29, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 8

G-Unit – Terminate on Sight (CD)

“Terminate on Sight” was produced by 50 Cent, and one would be pretty dense if they did not hear eir distinct style permeating every pore of this album. The disc starts out with “Straight Outta Southside”, and as one can expect, the track pays homage to the N.W.A. classic “Straight Outta Compton”. The track would be better if it did not follow forth from one of the best rap songs…

Posted on: June 29, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Night Ranger – Hole In The Sun (CD)

Night Ranger has always seemed to be a band that never got to that highest level of popularity, despite having such hair metal classics as “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me” and “Sister Christian”. “Hole In The Sun” showcases the band’s ability to create good hard rock. This is first evidenced during the introductory track to “Hole In The Sun”, “Tell Your Vision”. The grit and grind that is present…

Posted on: June 28, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Foals – Antidotes (CD)

Fans of Foals’ former acts, The Edmund Fitzgerald and Face Meets Grill, should immediately be fans of Foals’ work. This is not because the work on “Antidotes” is just copying what the individual band members have done in the past, but rather that the work put forth by Foals here is heads and shoulders above the body of work of either predecessor act. “Antidotes” begins with “The French Open”, a…

Posted on: June 27, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 2

G.G. Elvis and the TCP Band – A Punk Elvis Tribute (CD)

Wikipedia puts G.G. Elvis and the TCP Band as a nardcore act. While I had no idea what nardcore was (essentially, it is a brand of punk rock that originally was present in acts from the Oxnard city of California. Saying that, the G.G. Elvis and the TCP Band is an all-star band in sorts, as it consists of members of Ill Repute, Aggression, Nofx, and the Bad Samaritans. The…

Posted on: June 26, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 2

Definitely, Maybe (CD)

Definitely, Maybe is a film that shows the difficulty that individuals have in trying to explain the twists and turns of a parent’s past life to a child, that may not understand exactly what that parent is talking about. Clint Mansell previously of Pop Will Eat Itself was tapped to do the score of the film, and while individuals may not be familiar with too many of the films with…

Posted on: June 25, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Curt Smith – Halfway Pleased (CD)

Curt Smith, individuals may know, was the individual (that along with Roland Orzabal”, founded the act Tears For Fears. “Halfway Pleased” is the latest solo album from Smith, and Europeans have actually had to pleasure of familiarizing themselves with the album for well over a year after American audience began to have a shot. To put this is in some kind of chronology, the tracks from “Halfway Pleased” are those…

Posted on: June 24, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Motley Crue – Saints of Los Angeles (CD)

It’s been a long, strange trip for Motley Crue. They have been dead, doing their own things, blasted to their gills on panoply on drugs, and have made some of the most memorable hard rock ever. So, with all four original members back, what the hell type of music are they capable of? “Face Down In The Dirt” is the first song on “Saints of Los Angeles”, and it starts…

Posted on: June 23, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Lex Land – Orange Days On Lemon Street (CD)

There are two distinct styles that are struggling for dominance during the early reaches of “Orange Days On Lemon Street”. There is a folk sound that reaches out to fans of Vetiver and Devendra Banhart, but there is a decidedly pop influence here that plays on female artists that range from Natalie Imbruglia to Alanis Morrisette and Tori Amos, even touching a little on Amy Winehouse before the track ends.…

Posted on: June 21, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Between The Trees – The Story and The Song (CD)

Between The Trees has been around since 2005, and despite their relatively new founding, each of the tracks during “The Story and The Song” showcase a maturity that few acts are able to bring forth to their music. The act smartly links together the electronic-pop of acts like The Red Hot Valentines with current emo acts like Coheed and Cambria and A Static Lullaby. “The Forward” is the first track…

Posted on: June 21, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Rose Hill Drive – Moon is the New Earth (CD)

The first track on “Moon is the New Earth” is “Sneak Out”, and the overall sound of the band sounds like a mix of The Vines and Queens of the Stone Age. The act is able to throw in intense guitars and draw them back masterfully for the vocals to reach prominence at all of the right times. “Sneak Out” continues to plug at the same points throughout the entirety…

Posted on: June 19, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Jesse James Dupree and Dixie Inc – Rev It Up and Go-Go (CD)

Individuals may remember who Jesse James Dupree is from eir stint as the lead singer / guitarist of Jackyl, a hair metal band that may be best known for “The Lumberjack”. “Rev It Up and Go-Go” is Dupree’s second solo album, and is full of fun rock that will keep individuals listening in through the entirety of the track. This means that the introductory track plays very heavily on Dupree’s…

Posted on: June 18, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

OST: The Love Guru (CD)

The Love Guru is a Mike Myers-focused film that centers around eir character, who is left at the doorstep of an Indian ashram (holy teacher) as a young child. Fast-forward a number of years, and a grown-up Myers is attempting to break it big in the field of self-help and spirituality. Eir ticket to the big time is punched when Myers gets a major client – Darren Roanoke (played by…

Posted on: June 17, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Rahway – Snitches Get Stitches (CD)

“Machine” is the first track on “Snitches Get Stitches”, and it shows that Rahway is an act that really appreciates 80s metal, with hints of “Dog Eat Dog”-era Warrant, Motley Crue, and even a little bit of the stoner-metal put forth by acts like Corrosion of Conformity and Fu Manchu. The result is something that is heavy as hell, catchy as all-get-out, and is current as well. A number of…

Posted on: June 17, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Saiah – Evolution (CD)

Saiah has been in the rap game in one form or another for about a decade. It has been in the last few years that Saiah’s star has rapidly started to rise, growing from a Richmond attraction to an East Coast phenomenon seemingly overnight. It is on this wave of success that Saiah comes forth with his “Evolution”, a fourteen track tour-de-force that accurately describes the effect that Saiah’s album…

Posted on: June 17, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Reed Waddle – Piece By Piece (CD)

“The Beast Within” will be Reed Waddle’s claim to fame. The first single off of his new album “Piece By Piece”, the track has a timeless quality to it given by the honest and smooth vocals of Waddle. The slight hint of electronic fuzz that plays at the corner of the track links the alt-rock of Waddle to storied acts like the Red Hot Valentines and Desert City Soundtrack. This…

Posted on: June 17, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Davina Robinson – The Blazing Heart (CD)

“The Blazing Heart” is the first release by Davina Robinson. “Making Love To Your Girlfriend” is the track that listeners may already be familiar with; the track was a runner-up for VH1’s Song of the Year contest, and received honors in the Great American Song Contest. Beyond that, our Japanese readers (all 1.2% of our traffic) may know Davina Robinson from playing a number of shows around the country. For…

Posted on: June 17, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Julian Sakata – See? (CD)

“The Day I Wasn’t Attacked” is a perfect piece of melodic rock, with Julian’s vocals taking a dominant position, while the instrumentation provides the perfect highlighting for everything that Sakata does on the track. The strong opening to “See?” continues with the disc’s second track, “Suffer The Young”. “Suffer The Young” shows Sakata’s vocals as being influenced by the past and present in pop music, taking on hints of Jakob…

Posted on: June 17, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Jimmy Reeves – The Axe and The Tree (CD)

“Jonah” is a good place to start with Jimmy Reeves. The track needs little more than an acoustic guitar to paint a perfect backdrop for Reeves’s vocals to flitter over. The emotional content of Reeves’ lyrics here are similar to the work of the Goo Goo Dolls, Collective Soul, but vary from those two acts in the presence of a slight bit of Thom Yorke in the overall mix. What…