5 reviews a week – cool as a cucumber

Well, I’m back, and cooled down since last week’s rant. I got some new CD’s since last time, and will be coming at you with some sweet reviews of all that has been bouncing in my ears as of late. This week, I think I got a good mix, let me know how it hits you. I love typing into a vacuum as much as the next guy, but we need to get some conversation going, and keep this blog breathing. I’m as guilty as all, just reading and leaving, but it would be cool to get this thing active!

David Yazbek – Evil Monkey Man – *** – I only recently got into David Yazbek, but I have enjoyed everything he has recorded. This album is a great continuation of his unique brand of song styling. There seems to be a lot more genres covered here, methinks from all his writing for the stage.

Relient K – The Bird and the Bee Sides / The Nashville Tennis EP – *** – A B-sides collection from Relient K, packaged with a bunch of new songs from a Nashville session, good stuff, but when you look at the new stuff compared to their older stuff, there seems to be a loss of some of the fun they used to have in their songwriting. I understand a band needs to grow, it just seems they don’t take as many risks anymore.

Brian Wilson – That Lucky Old Sun – ***1/2 – Definitely one of the best of the “new” Brian Wilson albums to come out in a while. It has a purpose, and is wrapped around living in California and just the whole experience of his life. It has some really fun songs, and some really touching songs, and is overall very good.

Mitch Hedberg – Do You Believe in Gosh? – ** – OK, not music, but is still a part of pop culture, the posthumous comedy album from Mitch, is weird to listen to. When he was alive, I loved his CD’s, and I remember laughing so hard. I haven’t listened to those CD’s much since he died, just because it seems so weird. This effect, mixed with the untested comedy on this CD, made it difficult for me to get into. There were some pretty good bits, but I think it would have been better to just let what he brought to the world be, and not try to make an extra buck off the fondness people feel for him.

Mystery Jets – 21 – *** – There is a definite shift in the sound of this band, moving away from some of the pure fun of the first album, to more serious topics, but some of it is still really good.

5 reviews whenever i feel like it…OK?!

OK, this blog is now the 5 reviews whenever I feel like it. You know, I always complained when comic book writers broke from a monthly cycle or something. And that’s because comics take like 10 minutes to read the first time, not realizing all the work that has to go on. I mean I relate to that. Coming up with these reviews amount to the same amount of hard work that goes into drawing and writing a comic book. I mean for one, I have to, like, listen to them, which takes like 45 minutes or something. Then, uh, I have to write the review, and determine a star rating based on over 500 categorical themes. And that takes like 2 minutes, so in all, to get these out weekly would take AT MINIMUM 4 hours – A WEEK! That’s crazy, no way would I possibly be able to do that on a weekly basis. No way.

Teddy Thompson – A Piece Of What You Need – ***1/2 – I can’t seem to get enough of Teddy Thompson. I really love his album Separate Ways, so it’s hard to top that, but this album is definitely more of what makes Teddy so great. His songs convey such an odd outlook on life, which I think I relate to, while still being enjoyable and interesting musically.

Readymade Breakup – Alive On The Vine – *** – Pretty good record, it sounds great, just enough production to make it sound clean and crisp, while still having just great songs that have a good energy and are interesting.

Glen Campbell – Meet Glen Campbell – *** – A covers record of some modern pop songs, bent towards Glen Campbell’s style of country music. It is an interesting project, but I feel like it cannot necessarily step away from being a novelty.

Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping – *** – Quite an eclectic record. That’s not necessarily surprising knowing this band’s previous output. However, their last record seemed a bit more straight-forward, while this one goes all over the place with half-songs and odd editing. But it is still good, and stronger than a lot of their earlier records.

Mondo Primo – 2fn Hot – ***1/2 – A fun breezy record by the band, renamed from Feable Weiner. But it continues in the fun style created on their first record. Quite cool, and the CD version comes with 3D Glasses and 3D artwork, so you can get a headache while listening to the record!