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The Academy Is.....

on July 05, 2008

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.....typical radio emo punk. I didn't bother for long.

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Beck - The Information

2006 3 keepers keeper avg .200 Beck introduces "Elevator Music"**** "one two you know what to do". Minimal instrumentation except for Beck's (or one of his backing guys') wobbly bass riff leaves plenty of room for percussion with a lot of spacial variation for Beck to hip hop over, reminding me of Gang Of Four or Hot Chip, and on "Cellphone's Dead" (one by one I'll knock you out) Nigel Godrich adds atmospheric piano and vocal ahh's to Beck's hip hop delivery. The album's hip hop tracks draw from approaches Beck has used in the past, including the atmospheric "Dark Star", the more computer-driven "We Dance Alone" and "1000" BPM", and "Nausea", "No Complaints", "Motorcade", and the title song return to the hip hop folkie approach of "Loser." Other tracks are more melody-driven, including the modest "Devils Haircut"-like single "Think I&#

Fastball - All The Pain Money Can Buy

1998 keepers 2 keeper avg .154 Not exactly one-hit wonders, as both "The Way"**** and "Fire Escape"**** received significant airplay, and both just happen to be outstanding pop songs. Except for "Which Way To The Top", "Slow Drag", and especially late-disc tracks "Out Of My Head" and "Nowhere Road" where the band sounds exactly like Squeeze, the band is consistently peppy and extremely polished, like the 90's answer to Huey Lewis and the News. But given the pop professionalism of the two singles it's surprising how hokey some of the lyrics are. Maybe it was a scramble to put together songs, as some choruses like "Better Than It Was" and "Damaged Goods" seem forced, but is it necessary to lift the entire concept of REM's "Can't Get There From Here" in the terrible "Nowhere Road"? In "Slow Drag" Fire-Escape-guy (cuz who cares about their names) sneers: "

Local H - Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles?

2004 3 keepers keeper avg .214 Other than being the second album with "replacement" drummer Brian St. Clair (and maybe being thinner on material), I can't point to any way this album is substantially different from the albums of their commercial peak (As Good as Dead, 1996 and Pack Up the Cats, 1998). Along the way there are a few stylistic departures, such as the Blur / Brit Pop "Dick Jones", 70's soul via "Sunny" (Bobby Hebb, 1966) "P.J. Soles", and the 2-chord metallic-folk "Hey, Rita." But the album begins aggressively, introduced with the brief, syncopated noise-rock jingle "Where Are They Now?" and the snarky Offspring-clone "Everyone Alive" before unleashing the classic "California Songs"*****, a punky middle finger to coastal arrogance ("and f--- New York too"). Speaking of middle fingers, Lucas gets the last word in ("If you wanna leave, I can help you out with that") wi

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WELCOME

Everyone has opinions - these are mine. If you have a suggestion of something I might enjoy, or if you would like to describe a cognitive difficulty I'm experiencing, any comment is welcome.

FORMAT:
I star all songs 1(*) to 5(*****)

Keepers are either **** or *****

Any information presented is the result of my foggy recollections or skimming Wikipedia. Feel free to fact-check.

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