Noble Beast Decide Now

This is my first Andrew Bird album and it took a while to sink in. The songs are a bit complex, with unexpected left turns and unusual structures.
So the first thing that caught me was the whistle. Suddenly I found myself whistling these songs and then the rest just followed and I understood how clever and sophisticated Bird's songwriting is.
Well, not everything works here. Some of the songs fail to grab my attention even after repeated listening. Other songs are too oddly structured. For instance Not a Robot, But a Ghost starts off really nice but half the way through it changes completely, and then again, and again, never to return to its original form - I find it a bit hard to chew.
But at least half of the album is close to sublime and quite unique. And most importantly, it makes me want to check out his previous albums. Get more detail about Noble Beast.

I Told You So (Featuring Randy Travis) Right now

Hi,
I saw the duet done on American Idol. I downloaded it as soon as I could. I thought it was very good. I had always loved this song from when Randy recorded it but they blended their voices well, of course being a fan of Randy's I wish he would have sang a little bit more of it. He wrote this song back in the 80's. He has written or co-written some really great songs. Check out these songs that he wrote or co-wrote: Heros and Friends, Better Class Of Losers, for uptempo songs, for ballads, Forever Together, I'd Surrender All, The Box, The Reasons I Cheat, Good Intentions, I'm Your Man, I Wish It Would Rain and I think one of the most beautiful love songs ever written (right up there with He Stopped Loving Her Today)is called I Can See It In Your Eyes. If you really love great love songs like I Told You So, PLEASE check out the last 3 songs of Randy's by using the clips here. If you do, you won't be disappointed.Get more detail about I Told You So (Featuring Randy Travis).

Lowest Price These Days [Live At The Olympia]

R.E.M has released several of the songs from this upcoming 'live' cd individually. Several tunes from RECKONING were released in an EP called "Reckoning Live at the Olympia". So far, so good. Stipe is a little long-winded and talks in circles prior to the song (what else is new?). Lots of energy in this song and, as always, the band is tight. I won't give it 5 stars because I wish the band would 'remix' or otherwise change some of these tunes. When you cut out the 1:30 of applause and Stipe's monologue, you get a song that is (almost) exactly 3:25 - the same length as when they played it on their Life's Rich Pageant CD. I'm not sure what the point is of releasing songs that are almost exactly the same as they were on the CD released over 20 years ago. We know they can still play.

Thanks for providing this one free of charge. Get more detail about These Days [Live At The Olympia].

Low Price Full Circle

I was a HUGE Creed fanatic ever since I was in High School. My Own Prison was the best album that they made, and turned me into a complete Creed fan. Mark Tremonti was my guitar hero, and wanted to learn every song from them on the guitar. As albums passed, I liked the new music, and the direction wasn't far from their musical talent. Then the inevitable happened, and the looming break-up was ever haunting. The gang finally parted ways a number of years ago, and all of the members of the original My Own Prison circa ended up creating the Alter Bridge group. This group is fantastic. It was MUCH better than the previous Creed group, as Myles Kennedy has an incredible rock voice.

With my recent searching on the net about new music groups (and new albums from former groups), I came across the statements that Creed was getting back together with Scott Stapp. I was excited, to say the least, and decided to listen to every sound clip I could get my hands on, pre-release. Pre-release, I had my concerns, as Overcome sounded a little different than their previous endeavors. It sounded good, so I didn't think anything else about it. Rain, the second single, came out, and it was good, but very talent starved and unlike their previous ballads.

I understand that the band has come back together, with some emotional problems with Scott Stapp, and I wish him the best of luck and hope in the future. Sure, you want to sing about what is in your heart, but don't make every single song have lyrics that sound similar to the theme of "I'm different now, I've changed." That's fine in a few songs, but not most of the songs on this album.

I pull this album out for:
Overcome - Good guitar parts, OK lyrics, drums and bass sound good
Bread of Shame - Unoriginal, but still decent. Decent lyrics, and like the progression
Thousand Faces - Fairly decent lyrics, good musical direction
Rain - Completely unoriginal and probably WAY over produced, but decent musical direction

I want my money back for:
Suddenly - "So suddenly, so suddenly"... reverberate that line some more, please!
On My Sleeve - "My heart is tatooed on my sleeve"... Wow. Horrible lyrical direction.
This song actually makes me cringe whenever it comes on. Makes me want to barf.
Time - Again, lyrical direction is horrible. Shame. Song would've been good if it
weren't for the horrible lyrics.


Well, not everyone will be happy with my review, but I hate this album except for a select few songs.Get more detail about Full Circle.

Save One Cell In The Sea

I read some of the other reviews and I'm happy that some people were able to get something out of this album but somehow, I never could. I listened and listened to the songs thinking, "This has got to be for me because she's recommended based on other female singer-songwriters that I love." However, instead of loving this album, I was bored and frankly, a little irritated by the boredom that insued from listening. Lyrics were dull, music was all the same and I would say to people looking for a good female singer-songwriter try: Brandi Carlile, Regina Spektor, Tori Amos' older stuff, Missy Higgins, and/or the first My Brightest Diamond album. But don't bother with this one, you can do so much better!

I really wanted to like this but I really didn't.Get more detail about One Cell In The Sea.

Discount Cupid Shuffle

I heard this song for the first time at a volunteer camp for the american cancer society.

It is a great song that gets kids and adults out on the dance floor.

The steps are easy to do and the song still makes me dance in my chair when I hear it on my iPod.Get more detail about Cupid Shuffle.

Cheapest The Resistance

I kind of hesitated to give this even three stars, but I do think two stars is wholly unfair. I have been a fan of Muse since Origin of Symmetry, which in my opinion is their strongest (most cohesive) album yet. I loved the bombastic hits of Absolution and Black Holes, too--I really thought those albums were high quality.
This album, though, seems to be more like fan service than any sort of musical growth, to me. I could sense Muse's (particularly Bellamy's) need to stake out a political agenda in Black Holes and while it's really strong in The Resistance (notably the first track, Uprising), I didn't think it was too genuine. Most of the tracks seemed to veer off the political path and move more onto the romantic track. At plenty of the lyrics, I found myself cringing.
To be fair, I am biased as I really enjoy the more grit-rock of Origin and Absolution and am somewhat hesitant to listen to more technically-enhanced music (although I wasn't opposed to Radiohead's experimentation am a fan of Bjork, and I hear no complaints of the Beatle's technology friendly progression), so this album ended up disappointing me on a very base level. Whereas with Origin, Absolution, and eventually Black Holes, I did not find myself looking forward to listening on as the album progressed.
There is a big pro for this album, however. I was really excited to hear more of Bellamy's beautiful piano solos. A con? Where is his equally beautiful falsetto?
I think the best way to sum this up is to say that the best track of the album is the first, Uprising, and it goes downhill from there.
My recommendation for those new to Muse is to go purchase Origin of Symmetry immediately if you haven't already! It's one of those rare albums that's best listened to from beginning to end. Get more detail about The Resistance.