Frenchy’s Fracas

General Description

Artist/Band: Beck
Album Title: The Information
Year: 2006

It kinda grows on you..
 
How I Got Into This Music
Ah, read my review of his previous album, will ya? Just a bit more background info can be read here.

Google Search: Reviews of The Information | Review of this album at artistdirect.com | Album review at Answers.com | This artist at Last.fm

Tracks that got my attention:
Elevator Music
Strong links to his breakthrough single Loser, but I don’t mind. The keyboards for some mellowness and the guitars for acoustic and electric relaxation.

Think I’m in Love
Extreme melancholy but still kinda funny. Check out the music: it’s a big tip of the hat to movie mega-babe (now nutty far-right animal extremist) Brigitte Bardot’s Contact (have a YouTube experience, click here)

Cellphone’s Dead
It’s the weird combo of instruments that get to me: the 80’s retro-breaks combined with 70’s background vocals. The spooky synth bells-pattern reminded me of the Gorillaz’ DARE track, but maybe that’s just me..

Strange Apparition
With this track it’s easy: when he starts his vocals, I get a chill down my spine. And that piano gives us a great vibe, a kinda Neil Young thing, especially at the end.

Soldier Jane
Second friendly nod to Bardot’s Contact, but now with even more strong references. I like the lyrics on this one. The way the bass just drops by on this track is ultimate sweetness.

Nausea
Can’t quite put my finger on it - can’t remember what this song’s reminding of. Bass and strum guitars set a great pace, I love how he combines his samples with his instruments.

New Round
Lessons of the day
On a blackboard night
Seem to be erased
And the beacon has no light
Wow! There’s this sadness and warmth coming from this track, it tears your defenses down but also offers a nice warm blanket for protection.

Dark Star
Space age 70s drama, heavy on the string section. It took me some time to get used to it, but the harmonica sample helps a lot..

We Dance Alone
Not so impressive, still, a solid track.

No Complaints
Just love the synth-work on this song - that mellow spacey feeling!

1000BPM
Heavy fun-industrial-electro (new word? new genre?) music, another one that needed some time before I really started liking it.

Motorcade
Weird intro, love the sudden switch and the great low-low breakbeat. Listen to the beat during the chorus, frigging low! Another fantastic collage of sounds and beats (the whistle’s also very funny). And the stuff during the last 90 seconds - man-o-man! Retro feeling, taking you back to the breakdance, body-popping era.

Information
Chorus gets to me, every time.

Movie Theme
Yep, the title really fits the song. It’s taking you back to Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre (and more recently:Air) . Another space odessey track and I love it.

Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton
This track is so fucking (pardon my Frenchy!) weird. Listen to the gazillion different beats and samples happening on the background, foreground, in the middle, just everywhere! It’s collection of songs welded together to make this unbelievable construction. Steel guitar, easy rock guitar, weird breakbeats and samples, everything put together in a beautiful and weird way. With four minutes to go the track’s totally mellowed out and the last two minutes are just plain wacked out; not a lot of people will finish listening this one, but I enjoy it very much!

Conclusion
When I first started listening to this album somewhere in November 2006, I thought it was just like his Guero album: nice, but not really great. But I kept coming back to this album, something about it just clicked for me and if I’ve applied my limited writing talents correctly, the stuff I wrote before should give you an idea of just why it clicked).
The weird and haunting combined with the funny and mellow. The great collages of styles and sounds; my friend, you need to listen to this with headphones.
Believe it or not, this album’s one of my favorite albums of 2006.

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General Description
Artist/Band: Belle And Sebastian
Album Title: The Life Pursuit
Year: 2006

Catchy dance grooves!
 
How I Got Into This Music
Don’t really know, these guys just registered in my brain as something I should listen to.. Don’t know much about these guys, but thanks to the interweb thingy I found some nice articles and info; here’s the wiki-link to Belle And Sebastian. Glaswegian band? Hmm.. Anyways, on to the review!

Album credits at artistdirect.com || Lyrics from their website

Tracks that got my attention:
Act Of The Apostle
Uhm.. Very thin line, sounding sooo frigging much like Radiohead, a mix-up between ‘The Bends’ and some happy sixties vibe. But, it works, extremely enjoyable!

Another Sunny Day
God, I miss Kirsty MacColl.. The backing vocals of this track and the track itself really trigger faint memories of her. Kinda like a tribute, without the tackiness.. Love it!
You missed my eye, I wonder why, I didn’t complain
You missed my eye, I wonder why, please do it again

White Collar Boy
Glammrock’s back, boyz-n-girlz! 70s stuff - just great fun!

The Blues are Still Blue
Another T.Rex, 70s groove, no.. hold on.. this track’s really T. Rex! Just that incredible mix of white soul groove from a time where men weren’t scared to wear make-up or platform shoes. We’re so sensible these days ;o)

Dress Up In You
Still have to do my research on Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, but this track triggers that association.. The piano on the background, the soft horns and flutes.
If I could have a second skin
I’d probably dress up in you
Just love that line!

Sukie In The Graveyard
Fun-fun-fun! Weird lyrics:
She had the grace of an eel, sleek and stark
As the shadows played tricks on the girl in the dark
Contagious beat, nice choppy keyboards, just a great Summer song!

Song For Sunshine
Did I say that the previous track was a Summer song? Oh.. Sorry.. Coz this track’s the Ultimate Summer Song! Man! The great vocals, especially the chorus part.
Funny thing is, you could even kill off this track for being a very cheesy feel-good piece of work. Yep, you could. Who cares? Favorite track of the album!

To Be Myself Completely
Mash-up between The Fine Young Cannibals, They Might Be Giants and REM (before they became boring).

Act Of The Apostle Part 2
It’s the slow boogie that works on this almost musical styled track: a lot of imagery is happening in front of your eyes when you listen to this song. Segueing back to Part 1 is obligatory, but not really mind-blowing. Love the first part of this song better..

For The Price Of A Cup Of Tea
Caught myself humming the chorus.. Damn..

Mornington Crescent
The piano work and the guitar work just keeps reminding me of Neil Young

Conclusion
From the little info I gathered on the net on this band, I get the idea that these guys keep trying new styles and that’s kinda interesting, but I don’t know for sure if I’d like to be disappointed by a previous album that’s totally different from this one. Yeah, I know, narrow-minded, but I’m just glad I “discovered” this album, so sue me later.. Excellent album: can’t remember a collection of tracks sounding so much like other stuff, without insulting my ear or my intelligence (or my bloated ego, heheh..).

Rating: (and I’m being charitable..)

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General Description
Artist/Band: Neil Young
Album Title: Tonight’s The Night
Year: 1975

What a way to remember the passing of a dear friend..
 
How I Got Into This Music
Almost ten years ago I got the CD from a colleague (Thx, Lex!). The guy was a total Neil Young fan and I almost knew squat about the artist. Just that he was in this sixties folk-rock band called Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, so what? If my dad reads this, he’ll be wishing he was here in Holland to smack me on the head for lack of Respect, heheh..
Anyway, I knew of him by way of some weird video that he made with his band, Crazy Horse, that’s it.
So this mate of mine keeps bugging me about me listening to some of Young’s work and after a while he gave up and just gave me the CD. A very distinctive and decided look on face conveyed the message: listen to this or lose a kidney.
Some threats are worth the effort!

Covers at SecondHandSongs.com
|| Album credits at ArtistsDirect.com
|| Lyrics at Seeklyrics.com

Tracks that got my attention:
(well, all of them actually, but still..)

Tonight’s the Night
The little tinkling piano softly starting the track with the incredible vocals gaining volume.. Wow! The opening track explains the motivation of this album: Bruce Berry, a roadie and dear friend of Neil Young, died of a heroin overdose

Speaking Out
I’ve been a searcher, I’ve been a fool,
But I’ve been a long time comin’ to you
I’m hopin’ for your love to carry me through
You’re holdin’ my baby, and I’m holdin’ you
Legend has it that the recording of the album was not only very emotional but also very.. well.. inebriated. And it kinda shows, I guess.. Love it!! The piano solos are beautifully flawed, the whole tempo of the track slows your sorrows.

World on a String
I guess this is what I’d would call a typical Neil Young song, one of the many ‘typical’ songs in his repertoire.

Borrowed Tune
Ooooh.. feels like a fragile heartbreak..

Come on Baby Let’s Go Downtown
This is excellent rock!!

Mellow My Mind
Baby mellow my mind,
Make me feel like a schoolboy on good time
Love that line, something I will have to say to a woman before I die.. It’s the brittleness of the voice and the lyrics that just give me goose bumps

Roll Another Number (For the Road)
If every Country&Western track had this vibe, I’d be the first to join a line dance! (Even if it’s a bit too slow for that particular type of entertainment, but who cares?)
I’m a million miles away from that helicopter day
No, I don’t believe I’ll be goin’ back that way

Albuquerque
Not always a favorite of mine, but sometimes.. Man, just the whole melancholy thing can get to me.

New Mama
Simply beautiful, beautifully simple..

Lookout Joe
And people wonder why he’s called the “Grandfather of Grunge“. Don’t care if you think you’re a great musician, but you’re zilch if you don’t listen to this track and learn from it.

Tired Eyes
Nuff said!

Tonight’s the Night, Pt. 2
Closing track, excellent!

Conclusion
Neil Young is one of the great American Legends, which is funny, since he’s Canadian.. This album is one of the reasons to really get out of bed and live a life with all its joys and sorrows.
It blew my mind to hear the emotion oozing from this album, both musically as lyrically. Obviously, one of my faves.

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