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A Few Good Songs But Nothing All That Special | Posted October-16-2012
Hyland's sophomore album Finding Our Way doesn't live up to their debut and is a victim of the dreaded sophomore slump. The music sounds generic and safe. I was hoping for some sort of change in their style or more of the same upbeat rock music but here it's more stripped down and has only a few upbeat songs. This stripped down sound can work, look at Run Kid Run's album Patterns from last year. It had a stripped down sound but still retained what makes RKR so good. While their are a few good songs here, I just feel like this is a generic rock album and if that's your thing then by all means if you think the album is good, go ahead and get it. It's just not my thing.
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Best Since Cities | Posted October-16-2012
Rejoice Anberlin fans, the band you knew and loved back when they were still with Tooth & Nail returns in their new album Vital. It manages to blend the old youthful fast energy hooks that the band was known for and the new more modernistic alt rock that was present on the previous 2 albums and even throws in some new electronica elements to boot. And it all sounds amazing. After going with 2 well known rock producers for their previous 2 albums, the band reteams with thier old producer Aaron Sprinkle and you can tell that they have learned a lot and have applied some new concepts that are welcome.
Stephen Christian's voice sounds amazing as always and he really pushes the boundries of vocal work on a few tracks here and the lyrics he and his bandmates have crafted have real weight to them. This album has many themes from youthful thinking to tough topics like dealing with divorce.
If you are looking for something that would rival Cities as the best Anberlin album, here is that competition. It blends new and old styles together and even throws in some really new styles to keep things fresh. The music conveys the themes the lyrics are talking about and the production sounds very professional. This is one of the best albums of the year. Get it now!
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A Great Start | Posted October-13-2012
Ted Dekker's next big project, The Books of Mortals, begins with Forbidden. It's a fantastic departure from the run of standard serial killer novels he's been putting out for the past couple of years. Even though some might find the overall story a bit cliche, I still enjoyed the world that Ted and co-writer Tosca Lee created and enjoyed many of the concepts. If the remaining two books in the trilogy live up to expectations, this could become the next Circle Series.
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The Type of Cancer That You Do Want to Have | Posted September-25-2012
Showbread is a unique band in that they never stick with one particular style throughout their career, they have gone thorough at least 5 different styles over the course of their 15 year history. Cancer feels like an amalgam of these styles and what Showbread is. The album itself is unique in that it's a concept album that tells a story of a band's journey through a near-dystopian 2015 America. Josh Dies' lyrics are amazingly well-written and his political and ideological views are clearly expressed and might be the cause of some controversy. (Something that isen't new for the band.) The music itself is also amazing in that it incorporates almost all of Showbread's previous sounds. The slower acoustic and clean vocal sounds of their last album Who Can Know It?, the synth sound from their previous concept albums Anorexia/Nervosa, and their trademark fast paced, screaming sound of No Sir, it's all on here and fits in so well with the album concept. While the first half of the album is mainly consisted of fast-paced battle cries the latter half of the album contains some of the band's most beautiful work. I must give particular praise to the track "You Will Die In A Prison" as it's the most worshipful and impactful song on the album and of the band's discography.
Cancer is a unique album. The concept, story, and ideas presented are all excellent and the world that the band creates is rich and intriguing. They run the gamut with different sounding songs and it pays off beautifully. And the number of tracks is misleading because even though it might look like a short album with only 9 songs, it manages to come out with a 50 minute running time. This is probably Showbread's best album yet and is probably one of the best albums of the year by far. And it's free of charge so everyone can experience the world of Cancer.
(More of the story of Cancer will be shown in the movie that the band shot for this album. It should be released sometime next year.)
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A Tribute To The Works of C.S. Lewis | Posted September-19-2012
It hasn't been more than 6 months since Heath McNease last put something out but he's at it again, this time putting out another singer/songwriter album. This one is inspired by the works of C.S. Lewis and each song is named after one of his books (with the exception of Edmund) and the theme of each song also comes from each book. While the album starts off creatively enough, the latter half is very acoustic guitar driven and a bit slow. But the lyrics are solid through and through.
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I Thought I Knew What To Expect From A Chariot Album, Apparently I Thought Wrong | Posted August-28-2012
You would think that after four chaotic albums that The Chariot would give us a predictably chaotic fifth album to satisfy our cravings. Well, you thought wrong. Yes the album does continue their trademark brand of chaotic music but they offer so much more experimental oddness and creativity that I have no idea what to expect next. Here they incorporate so many odd and out of nowhere things like one track is a piano ballad sung beautifuly by a woman named Angela Plake, another track suddenly turns into something out of an old western movie, and another track is just a piano playing some haunting chords while lead Josh Scogin is screaming the lyrics. The album also does an amazing job of getting you ready for the weird things by structuring its 10 tracks into a gradual descent. This is done by how they chose to name the tracks. The track listing is made up of two sentencs, forget not your first love and speak in tongues and cheek. The first half contains some standard Chariot songs with a bit of the oddness thrown in to get you ready for the second half, which goes all out in its weirdness. The final track, "Cheek" contains the entire speech that Charlie Chaplain delivers in the film The Great Dictator. It's beautifully integrated with the song and may be the best song the band has written yet. Heck, this album is probably their best album yet.
Nothing can prepare you for what is contained on One Wing. Its oddness and unpredictability makes it not only the best Chariot album yet but one of the best albums of the year.
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An Eye On Playing It Safe | Posted August-28-2012
Eye On It serves up 12 more tracks of hip-hop goodness that only Toby knows how to provide. Here, Toby plays it a bit safe and genreally sticks to the top 40 sound that was present on his previous album Tonight. It's a bit disappointing that he didn't branch out on this album but I generally didn't care as most of the tracks are fun listens that feel like they could stand their own on any top 40 radio station. The only out of place track is the traditional TruDog track. He's older now and the cuteness is basically gone. All I could think about is that he really needs to get signed and make his own albums. (By the way, his song is all about how he desperatly wants a Mac laptop and will do anything to get the money to afford one.)
Eye On It provides 45 minutes of fun pop songs that are perfect for blasting through speakers. My only complaint is that Toby didn't experiment and try new things instead choosing to play it a bit safe. But I still enjoyed the album and reccommend it to anyone looking for some positive top 40 sounding songs.
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An Impressive Label Debut | Posted August-28-2012
You might not know this but Abandoned Pools has been around for about a decade or so. Tommy Walter, the sole member, has been a part of the indie music scene for much longer. In this, his third AP album, Walter does a great job at introducing us to his style and lyrical prowess. The style is a mix of indie rock and dreamlike electro pop and it really works. It's actually been about 7 years since the last AP album so you can tell that Walter has taken his time to perfect everything about this album and it does show.
Sublime Currency is a wonderful distraction from the summer norm. It does a great job in introducing new fans to his style and keeping any old fans excited. It manages to rock out hard on some songs and be very dreamlike in others. It's worth a listen just to see if this sort of music is your thing or not.
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The Most Coherent Chaotic Album Yet | Posted August-28-2012
The Chariot has always stood out from the other metal bands out there by embracing chaos. This chaos comes across in both their music and live shows. Long Live manages to be the best album by the band yet as they manage to bring in some cohesion to the chaos. It also shows a band that is not afraid to experiment with many things like using clips from older songs in their songs. And unlike other Chariot albums, the 10 songs on here flow naturally and don't overstay their welcome.
Long Live shows us a band that is not afraid to experiment and bring in some sort of cohesion amongst the chaotic sounds they are known for.
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Great But Not Amazing | Posted August-27-2012
It's almost a fact that the album that comes after a mega hit one is not that good. dc Talk probably knew this and just decided to make the best album they could. The result is kind of what I expected in that it's nowhere near as good as Jesus Freak but it does have enough standout material to differentiate it from their other albums. Supernatural is, at its core, a full-on pop album. There are almost no traces of their rap roots to be found. That was a bit dissapointing to me as I wanted to hear Toby bust out some more rhymes but, alas, no such luck.
Supernatural is a fine follow-up to an album that changed everything about Christian music. MIchael, Kevin, and Toby set out to make a great album and they, by and large, succeed at doing that. The album showcases a maturity that we have noticed all throughout their discography. It's a fond goodbye to a legendary group.
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