Category: Music Reviews

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…

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

Abney Park – Lost Horizons: The Continuing Adventures of Abney Park (CD)

While I have heard of a number of different technology and art projects that were done in the Steampunk style, I don’t believe I had heard of a Steampunk band until I had a chance to hear Abney Park’s latest album, “Lost Horizons: The Continuing Adventures of Abney Park”. The album starts out with “Airship Pirate”, a track that ties together Depeche Mode, Apocalyptica, and even Sisters of Mercy into…

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

Dennis Wilson – Pacific Ocean Blue – Legacy Edition (CD)

This re-release of Dennis Wilson’s “Pacific Ocean Blue” marks the 30th anniversary since the album was originally released, but does not just stop with placement of the original album on CD. Rather, the Legacy Edition has a number of additions and bonus features that very few, if any Beach Boys and Dennis Wilson fans were previously familiar with. The first disc features the album as it was originally released, from…

Posted on: June 14, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

The Cure – Freakshow (Mix 13)

The Cure are getting a ton of buzz for the two singles that they have released off of their latest, as of yet untitled, double-disc. “The Only One” was the first track, and “Freakshow” is the second. The Cure have come out with a very different sound than they have in the last few years, tying together the punk style that they first started off with in the late seventies…

Posted on: June 12, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

James Hunter – The Hard Way (CD)

James Hunter starts off “The Hard Way” with a brand sixties rock that has no direct contemporary influence. I could hear “The Hard Way” on the radio and be assured that the track is from over 40 years ago, that is how solidly Hunter is entrenched in that style. After that introductory track, “Tell Her” comes forth with a sound that follows pretty directly from “The Hard Way” but approaches…

Posted on: June 10, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Robin Thicke – Magic

The beginning of “Magic’ starts out with a decidedly seventies Latin-tinged type of instrumentation. The funk and soulful clap present in this track, which come forth like those in a Teddy Pendergrass track, soon gives way to Thicke’s vocal stylings, which pose themselves as drawing from a rich musical tradition that plays a little bit on Stevie Wonder, more on Lionel Richie, and some Justin Timberlake to bring some younger…

Posted on: June 8, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Rev Theory – Light It Up (CD)

Rev Theory – Light It Up / 2008 Interscope / 10 Tracks / http://www.myspace.com/revtheory / Rev Theory has been around since 1997, and their rise to the top has been absolutely stratospheric in the last year or so. This is largely due the band’s break out single, “Hell Yeah”, which was featured as Wrestlemania 24’s theme song. “Favorite Disease” has the unenviable position of being stuck between the two singles…

Posted on: June 6, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Nick Motil – Everything’s Alright

Nick Motil – Everything’s Alright / 2008 Self / 5 Tracks / http://www.nickmotil.com / Nick Motil is rapidly becoming a household name. After selling over 5,000 copies of his previous releases and playing shows with acts as varied as Jason Mraz and Duncan Shiek, it just seems to only be a matter of time before Motil is topping whatever chart a major label is positioning him. “Everything’s Alright” is Motil’s…

Posted on: June 6, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Richard Frankz – The Traveler

Richard Frankz – The Traveler / 2008 Self / 14 Tracks / http://www.richardfrankz.com / “Just Being Me” is the first track on “The Traveler”, and the song is the perfect introduction to a singer that blends a contemporary sound with a late eighties / early nineties type of country music. Frankz goes into a slower, more sorrowful sound for the disc’s second (and title) track. The narrative style of Frankz…

Posted on: June 6, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Trueheart – The Road

Trueheart – The Road / 2007 Self / 12 Tracks / http://www.trueheartexas.com / “The Road” starts out with “Still Time”, an adult contemporary track that plays on pop, rock, hair rock, and eighties music to make something that pretty much everyone can find something that they can appreciate and love. What is perhaps the strongest element to this first track is the ability of Trueheart to change musical directions at…

Posted on: June 6, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Brandie Frampton – What U See

Brandie Frampton – What U See / 2007 D&LF Records / 9 Tracks / http://www.brandieframpton.com / “Ain’t That Life” is the first track on “What U See” by Brandie Frampton, and one can immediately hear a modern, compelling brand of country music present in the track. “I Want You 2” shows the fury and intensity of Frampton’s vocals. In much the same way as a Carrie Underwood, the sizzling fury…

Posted on: June 6, 2008 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 1

Janelia – I’m An African

Janelia – I’m An African / 2008 JaneliaSoul / http://www.janeliasoul.com / http://www.myspace.com/janeliasoul / We rarely get African or African-centric albums for review at NeuFutur, so it really is an honor to receive Janelia’s “I’m An African”. Set to be released on July 3rd, 2008, “I’m An African” is sang in both English and Yoruba, representing the two sides to Janelia. This split identity speaks to the fact that Janelia was…