[2001] Vince DiCola, "Artistic Transformations"

In the early 2000s I was only just discovering the joy that is Vince DiCola, from the music in the original Transformers Movie.

I was overjoyed to discover he had a web presence, and that he was embracing his Transformers music, including releasing a CD of the full score, a CD of related demos, and an album of solo piano interpretations of music from the score, "Artistic Transformations". I jumped at the chance to buy the discs, with "Artistic Transformations" becoming one of my favourite albums ever.

I'm horribly biased, as I love the original 80s melodies, but I strongly feel even those unfamiliar with the original songs would enjoy this album. The melodies, and percussive playing, are so infectious.

But why listen to me, when you can purchase Artistic Transformations on Bandcamp, as well as the demo collection The Protoform Sessions. The exact score CD that was released at the time isn't available, however the amazing Intrada Records has recently released a very similar album (that of course I purchased), remastered.

My only complaint about the album is that perhaps it gets a little old toward the end, blowing all the amazing music at the beginning, but I happily leave it on repeat for hours regardless.

8/10

[2015] Faith No More, "Sol Invictus"

Faith No More's first post-reunion album...

Bias notes:

• I am a huge Faith No More fan and have been since 1995.
• Sometime a few years ago I lost my "everything Patton touches is gold" bias and found I wasn't enjoying his output as much, for various reasons. So I'm capable of disliking what he does.
• I've been terrified of this album, fearing it would be awful, or at best, a bit good. I was absolutely expecting the worst.
• If I were to rate the albums in favourite-to-least-favourite order:
• King For A Day / Introduce Yourself
• Angel Dust
• Album Of The Year
• The Real Thing
• We Care A Lot

The pre-KFAD albums came into my consciousness slowly, hearing songs at parties or on the radio, until finally with KFAD I decided I loved the band. 

Thus, it is only really with Album Of The Year that I can say I had the experience of desiring, waiting for, and finally listening with excitement, a new Faith No More album.

My memory of the first listen to Album Of The Year is less positive than Sol Invictus. I thought "Collision" a bit rough, trying to be heavy when it wasn't. The last three songs were just bizarre. I hated "She Loves Me Not". But I loved a lot of it... and with recent listens I've decided I really like the album. For a while I rated it below The Real Thing but now I rate it above.

On my first listen of Sol Invictus I was genuinely shocked from the first track: struck by how much it didn't sound like Faith No More. There are a few songs on the album, ("Matador" especially) that could be argued sound a little like a mix of King For A Day and Album Of The Year (or perhaps "KFAD with Roddy involved and Jon on guitar"), but mostly to my ears it sounds brand new. And I love that. In hindsight it's a trick I think they've pulled off on every album since Introduce Yourself... sounding completely different, but still sounding like themselves.

After multiple listens these are clearly Faith No More songs. They've added, changed, their sound.

To my ears Sol Invictus sounds very much like the album was written from the strong base of piano, bass and drums, with vocals and guitars add after. Songs are structured around piano or bass/drum riffs, and rarely around guitar riffs.

I've read that the band feels the album is inspired by, or harking back to, their earliest work... I don't really hear it musically, except perhaps that many of the songs don't adhere to the typical "verse/chorus/verse" structure, and could perhaps have come out of studio jams, like the extended riff jams that started the band. That's most obvious in "Separation Anxiety" and "From The Dead".

Musically, ignoring the vocals, I can't fault the album. Being hyper critical I might complain about a few strange drum hits that I can't decide are deliberate or not, or perhaps about the mix, which sounds like an excellent demo rather than a super polished studio album, but I won't, because I love all of that. I love the punchy in-the-rehearsal mix. Other than the shock of style, I don't think anyone expected these professional musicians to be anything other than stellar.

Clearly what sticks out though is Patton. Not just because he's the elephant in the room, the god to so many. His vocal mix sounds a little... indulgent? Very strong in the mix, right up front, rarely in the background, with lots of harmonising and effects. It's vintage Patton. And I say vintage because he's been doing it in all of his post-Faith No More projects since 1999. The album really gains from some of this post-FNM range, but a lot of that early range is missing too.

One obvious change from previous albums is that Patton is often singing in a very low range, or growled and shouted. Perhaps his vocal range has dropped with age and he's working around that? It would explain his recent output and style choices. The lower range, almost growled vocals gives some songs a clear Nick Cave or Leonard Cohen vibe, coupled with the band's choice of acoustics, piano and slide guitars.

I'm irritated that "Sunny Side Up" is one of the most catchy songs, getting constantly stuck in my head, as it is the song I'm most conflicted by. I think some of the lyrics are just weird and don't flow well ("more than one way to fry an egg") but others I love ("rainbows will bend for me, curvy. Honey bees will sting for me, stingy, stingy!")

I hate the way he sings the "fry an egg" line. For me, the vocal style there is really rough, and sounds discordant. He repeats similar vocal theatrics-that-don't-work in "From The Dead", floating around notes like a diva, and in parts of other songs. Why? I think a producer might have pulled him up on that. Maybe not.

Perhaps it'll grow on me.

Generally though, the album is amazing. I'd struggle to pick a favourite, but "Black Friday", "Matador" and "Cone of Shame" are all up there. "Sol Invictus" is an excellent album opener, especially with "Superhero" after it. When I first heard "Superhero" and "Motherfucker" live I thought they were too long, unfinished... but with the album production and the ending guitar solos I think they're fantastic in context. Their performance has improved live too, perhaps easier to pull off with a studio version to refer to. I genuinely love "Motherfucker" now.

I don't know if the album will appeal to new fans. I cannot tell if the music is "pop" or "accessible". I like it, but my music tastes are very eclectic. Reviews have mostly been very positive, with a few negative, mostly from those hoping for Angel Dust 2, which was clearly not going to happen. Album Of The Year 2 maybe... but Sol Invictus isn't really that either.

Ranking the albums again:

• King For A Day / Introduce Yourself
• Angel Dust
• Sol Invictus / Album Of The Year
• The Real Thing
• We Care A Lot

Being consistent with my previous reviews, that'd give Sol Invictus a 7/10.

Other Faith No More reviews:

• Album Of The Year (7/10)
• Angel Dust (8/10)
• Another Body Murdered (7/10)

[2004] Fear Factory, "Archetype"

Everyone knows Demanufacture. That's honestly all I can think about when I think of Fear Factory. And it's a great demonstration of their music, as most of their songs sound like that. I don't think that's unfair.

My favourite track on this album is the title track. I love how it builds to the surprise "open your eyes" part toward the end.

The rest of the album is the same though, but of lower quality. Clicky-drums, fast monotonous guitars, shouted and clean vocals. The first track is down-right embarrassing in places. St. Anger embarrassing. The "pour this gas on me" rap/line makes me cringe every single time.

The album ends with a cover of Nirvana's School. It's a nice reminder of how metal early Nirvana were. Hugely influential. The cover is ok, but with none of the dirt of the original. I much prefer Machine Head's Negative Creep cover. Paw also do a far better cover of School (although slightly too straight). I first heard them do it on a Triple J Live At The Wireless back in 1995.

Archetype (the song) makes up the majority of this score.

4/10

[2005] Apocalyptica, "Apocalyptica"

I love Apocalyptica, even though they've moved in a pop direction I generally hate. I love their music, it's just a pity the vocalists they tend to choose are so cheesy.

This self-titled album is mostly instrumental, but the drums do tend to distract from the greatness. Looking into it, the drummer is also listed as "programmer" so I suspect the fast songs are using electronic drums, which probably explains why I think they sound so bad.

The third track Distraction is a good example of the awful drums, as is Fatal Error. The slower songs with either a lot more tom drums, or no drums at all, are much much better (Quutamo, Misconstruction, Farewell, Ruska).

Dave Lombardo plays drums on "Betrayal/Forgiveness" and he shows how drums should be done. I've previously complained about the looseness of Dave's drumming, but next to the fake and boring sounding perfectness of the other tracks on this album, they're a huge improvement.

The vocal tracks (Life Burns! and Bittersweet) are OK. Bittersweet is definitely my favourite, with Ville Valo (of HIM) and Lauri Ylönen (of The Rasmus) doing a great VAST impression. Life Burns! is a little too pop for my liking.

I avoided this album after it came out as I was really disappointed at the drumming. I think I've found more to like this time around, but they have far far better albums.

5/10

[1996] Marilyn Manson, "Antichrist Superstar"

My wife's album, although MM has intrigued me since this album was popular. I ignored him at the Big Day Out in 1999, so my chance to see him was lost. I've got a chance to see him at Soundwave this year (if I can friggin' get there, no train? WTF?), maybe I will, although I'm likely to be watching Godsmack.

I was genuinely surprised by this album. It's very long, at 17 tracks (a lot more actually, but most are empty "hidden track filler" tracks before the final "hidden" untitled song), but stays interesting. MM's singing is dreadful, but he hides it well in these tracks. The style suits the music. I'm a big fan of The Beautiful People of course, but I also really like The Reflecting God. The rest of the album is nicely shouty with a good mix of electronic/heavy music styles and production.

It's hardly genius, but I enjoy it. I think I'll give it a few more goes in the future.

On a side note, the way he pronounces Tourniquet bugged me so I looked it up, and it's apparently normal. I'm the weird one.

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6/10

[2006] Between The Buried And Me, "The Anatomy Of"

I can't remember how I came to first hear this album. It was likely while searching for cover-versions of either Metallica or Faith No More. I know I downloaded it first, then later bought it on CD in 2008.

What impressed me the most about this covers album is not only the artists they've chosen to cover, which reads almost like a list of everything I liked in the 90s, but the songs by those bands they've attempted.

Geek USA by the Smashing Pumpkins, Territory by Sepultura, Malpractice by Faith No More, Us And Them by Pink Floyd, The Day I Tried To Live by Soundgarden, Blackened by Metallica, Cemetery Gates by Pantera, Three Of A Perfect Pair by King Crimson, Bicycle Race by Queen. As obvious as many of these bands may be, the choice of songs is not. It's very brave to tackle Cemetary Gates or Bicycle Race by Queen, when there are so many far easier songs to play or sing.

The vocalist from Between The Buried And Me as a very strong voice, capable of the high and low notes required on many of these tracks. The players are all technically brilliant. They "metal up" a lot of the songs a tad unnecessarily, although what is the point of a perfectly straight cover?

I don't think though, that any of the covers add anything to the originals. They're fun to listen to, but I'd rather hear the originals. That's true of most cover albums, and the curse of the cover band. You have to either change the song completely, making it your own, or play it so well, that the cover seems pointless.

I discovered a few bands in the listening of this (King Crimson being the main one), so it was a worthy trip, but I'd probably never listen to this again.

4/10

[2011] Steak Number Eight, "All Is Chaos"

I received this for free on the front of Metal Hammer magazine.

This album is incredible sludgy post-metal ruined only by terrible lyrics. They have an excellent understanding of a great build up, killer riffs, rising choruses. I'm always smiling listening to it. I really do adore the music. It must be so fun to play.

It really is a pity about the lyrics.


7/10

[1996] Mazzy Star, "Among My Swan"

My wife's CD. She also has 1993's "So Tonight That I Might See" which includes my favourite Fade Into You.

I listened to this album twice through, and both times I missed most of it. It's awfully... low key. It's as if the band set up in one corner of an enormous echoy studio, looked down at their instruments, instructed each other to slow everything down by half, then set up the microphone in the other corner and hit record.

I don't know if I'd enjoy it better if someone covered the songs with some less-jammy guitar and actually enunciated. Probably not.

3/10

[1994] Pearl Jam, "Animal"

Bought at the time for numerous reasons. I was a big fan of singles, live recordings, and Pearl Jam (in that order).

Animal isn't exactly the best song on "Vs" (I much prefer Go and Rearviewmirror) and I'm a bit surprised it was a single, but I suppose it's short, with a fun chorus.

The live tracks (Jeremy, Daughter, Animal) are all sourced from 3 April 1994 at Fox Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia, a much bootlegged show, owing to it having been broadcast on the radio. The next single, Dissident, would come in multiple parts and include across all of the singles nearly the whole show. So in a way, I screwed up... I should have got Dissident. But I wasn't a big enough fan really to care.

Listening now I'm reminded at how good (solid) Pearl Jam are/were live. Flawless performances, but with life that makes them fun to listen to. Their habit of plugging a cover into the end of Daughter included Another Brick In The Wall this time around. It's hard to believe that a recent "cover" of Let It Go from Frozen at the end of Daughter was deemed newsworthy enough to be covered by the TV media in Australia. I hope everyone is embarrassed by that.

Fun little listen, but the single itself it's worth getting.

4/10

[1977] Pink Floyd, "Animals"

Again, during a big music sale, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase some Pink Floyd. I bought Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and Animals, as I figured I should list to what all the fuss is about these pre-The-Wall albums.

I'd heard Animals exactly once (or a few times actually, in a row) at a party (or laze-about) at a friend's place. Said friends were talking about Pink Floyd like maybe they'd made the world, and were jamming along to the album on the stereo on an acoustic. I remember listening to it, but I don't remember how it sounded, or if I liked it. I didn't even really connect it with its famous cover until just now.

In the few listens I've given it since, I find it interesting... I like the stark acoustic/keyboard music more than the almost ambient twiddle on Wish You Were Here. I'm not bored by it, despite the songs being far too long. I like hearing instrumentation and sound effects that I know from later music, like the War Of The Worlds, or Transformers, or The Tea Party.

I don't enjoy the singing, although I suppose it's supposed to sound pained and angry. It's nicely hidden in Sheep where a dodgy held note turns into keyboards, but mostly it's monotone whine irritates me, and it's nothing on performances on The Wall, or even Dark Side Of The Moon.

I love the keyboard work, the vocoder, the angrily played jagged riffs on the electric guitar, the way the tracks build and fall, so much like War Of The Worlds. In a way, I think seeing Animals played in full live would be more fun than The Wall... at least maybe in a dingy pub in a basement somewhere.

My mind rallies against this album, but I'm not irritated enough to stop listening every time I play it, so it can't be that bad.

[By the way, I listened to the 2011 remaster. I am completely unqualified to compare it with the original, but it sounded pretty nice to me.]

5/10

[1973] Art Garfunkel, "Angel Clare"

About half-way through last year, I got weirdly obsessed with Simon & Garfunkel during one of the seemingly permanent 20% off sales at JB HiFi. I noticed one of those 5-album packs of Art Garfunkel's output so grabbed it. This is his debut solo album.

Paul Simon was the main songwriter in S&G. For his solo debut, Art has tackled various cover songs with all of the production and money having been in a hugely popular band can allow. He's working with long time S&G producer Roy Halee and uses a long list of session musos.

The songs are... mostly flat. Art's voice is as angelic as ever, but none of the spunk of S&G is present. None of the randomly funky bass or excellent guitar riffage. Nothing is horrible, but rarely do I find any of it interesting. It's all the kind of music I'd expect over the credits of a 70s TV show or movie.

The first track Travelling Boy descends into a pretty cool guitar solo, but the unfortunate love of the 70s, the casio keyboard, ruins the outro, as it does on the final song, Another Lullaby. I Shall Sing, with its latin beat, could almost be an outtake from Paul Simon's Graceland, while I'm surprised to hear Simon singing backing on Down In The Willow Garden, one of the least interesting tracks in a pile of uninteresting.

I like the excessive over-dub sounding backing instrumentation on Mary Was An Only Child, it's almost avant-garde at times, but not quite Cecilia.

And obviously most missing are the effortless harmonies that made S&G so great. It's unfair to compare I suppose, but it's all I can do. The album, and indeed Garfunkel's entire solo career, serves fans who adore his voice, the Bridge Over Troubled Water fans, who want to hear his take on all-the-things, but for me, it's an emotionless experience.

3/10

[1979] Aviary, "Aviary"

When I saw the review for this album in Classic Rock magazine I believe it described them as the best band no one has heard of. It compared them to Queen and The Darkness. I didn't need much more than that. I bought this at the same time as Ruts DC, "Animal Now" and I believe it's re-release is by the same people (Rock Candy).

The band have unwittingly doomed themselves to obscurity by having a common-word name, a self titled album, and only one album at that. In the world of Google it is near impossible to find any information on the band, or album, at all. Thankfully YouTube comes to the rescue again...




The album starts with "Soaring", and really, you could leave it there. It's every 70's prog excess overproduction mashed into one catchy song, all falsetto vocals, piano and soaring guitar solos *music pun intended I assume*.

They really are like Queen, The Darkness, Supertramp, YES and a thousand other bands of the era (or inspired by). The production is incredible. Why on this band, a band that apparently went nowhere? Maybe they were huge and we just don't know?

The fact they are unknown is part of the fun, and probably colours my opinion a bit. You feel excited to discover this great unknown band, and sad they're gone.

In a way they're almost too perfectly cliche. Like Spinal Tap. Maybe it's an elaborate joke?

The album is probably hobbled a little by how good "Soaring" is. The other songs are good, but they're nothing on the first track. The rest of the album sneaks a bit into Scissor Sisters and MIKA territory, and no, that isn't great, but by themselves they're fine.

I admit to avoiding this album after the first few listens. It was just a bit too cheesy. I enjoyed this re-listen though, while doing the dishes. I think you could safely get "Soaring" and avoid the rest, but it's an interesting album worth listening through at least once.

6/10

[2007] Various Artists, "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters Colon the Soundtrack"

It's a bit of a disaster that this CD doesn't have "In The Air Tonight" on it, as that's one of the many great gags in the film. Maybe it's part of the joke that the "best song in the world" is missing. Clearly money is a more likely reason.

ATHF isn't everyone cup of tea. I have a friend who wants to kill things when she hears Meatwad speak, and fair enough. Even if you're not a fan, but are a fan of the absurd, the movie is worth a watch.

The soundtrack collects my favourite two songs: the fake "junk food in the lobby" advert "Groovy Time for a Movie Time" followed by Mastodon singing "Cut You Up With a Linoleum Knife", a fantastic metal rant against people in cinemas who do everyone except watch the movie.


I'm also a huge fan of the of the show's theme, and that's presented here in full.

The other songs, often introduced by characters from the show, are usually hard-rock. What I'd call American pub-rock. Good times, get drunk, shout, glass a mate in the face songs.

I really like "More to Me Than Meat and Eyes" by Early Man, and not just for the punny title. It's a slighly less obnoxious, more Black Sabbathy version of Motorhead. Unearth's song is forgettable shout-metal, but demonstrates the face-glassing theme fairly well.

Andrew W.K.'s ridiculous "Party Party Party" and "I Like Your Booty (But I'm Not Gay)" are the audio equivalent of the film, and perhaps the film context is needed to enjoy them as music, but they still make me giggle.

Killer Mike's "Blam Blam" deserves a special mention as it's some seriously catchy hip-hop.

And I kind of wish I was still in a band so we could cover "Nude Love".

5/10

[1979] The B-52's, "The B-52's"

I bought this cheap a long while ago, probably in a two-for-$10 deal or something.

I, like everyone should be, am a fan of "Rock Lobster", and this, their first album, has that single on it. I would have bought it to hear the song in context, and, to see if anything else on the album is gold.

It's fair to say B-52's had at the time a very solid style and they stuck to it. A lot of the songs have very similar (if not the same) guitar parts to "Rock Lobster". The yelling vocal style persists throughout too.

I have no idea, it isn't my era, but I feel The B-52's are a live band. A party band. They'd have been a heap of fun to watch, and the simple music fun to dance and yell along to.

On an album though... it's missing something. I don't hate it, I just think the songs are a bit long, and shouty, and simple.

"Rock Lobster" is still awesome though.

4/10

[1998] Box, "The Apathy Sessions"

I discovered Box around the same time as Pre-Shrunk, having had them introduced to me by a record-store owning mate. I was able to see them live just once, out the front of Rare Records in Hughesdale. They broke up far too early, with the drummer going on to help form The Grand Silent System.

Box were a rock three piece, with a singing drummer. The bass was prominent and often played like a guitar, chunky and distorted, with occasional slapping.

"The Apathy Sessions" contains five great rock tracks, a silly track (The Thinker) and three "sound experiment" tracks that can be safely skipped. Not that "Great Men" isn't silly, with it's fun to shout chorus "Great men, having great sex... with great men!" but The Thinker is barely more than a riff...

They're a lot of fun and I still enjoy listening to the familiar songs. It's hardly world crushing greatness and I wonder if I'm only enjoying it due to nostalgia?

I can certainly complain that the vocal style is very unique at first, but carries over to every song in the same way. Not much variation, and it is grating after a while, perhaps even whiny. I have the same problem with The Grant Silent System, but they're a far more musically interesting band and that usually covers it.

5/10

[2007] Akercocke, "Antichrist"

Another borrowed album from a work-friend, one of the first I really enjoyed and wandered off to buy at JB HiFi.

Akercocke are described as "blackened death metal", which means they use elements of both black and death metal, but to pin Akercocke down to a single style is to deny them what makes them great.

In a single Akercocke song you might hear acoustic finger picking with clean vocals, death metal growls or 80s goth balladry, always played fast.

The best examples of their range can be heard in the songs "Axiom" and "The Dark Inside".

In re-listening, something I haven't done for a while, I found the songs which stuck to a single style the least interesting. I also found the clean vocals a little rough, especially when they're the focus of the song. Reports are that the clean vocals are generally terrible live, although the rest of the music is played very well.

This album, along with others by Nachtmystium and Keep Of Kalessin restored my faith in black and death metal, showing it can be melodic, and interesting. I'd put this very high on a list of albums to play to someone who was ready...

It's a pity this was Akercocke's final album, although the members have gone on to form other bands that I'm told are worth checking out.

7/10

[1996] Cartoon, "The Annexe"

I never really got into Primus, or any of the bass theatrics bands or their slappy friends. Perhaps I'm merely biased because Cartoon are the first band I enjoyed with decent bass mixed with rock/metal guitars and crazy lyrics... but I'd go as far as to say Cartoon's "The Annexe" is one of the best CDs to come out of the Australian 90s music scene.

Cartoon are silly. They're heavy, they're funky, they're all over the place. Their songs are combinations of awesome riffs, often seemingly random combinations. Their album "Ovine/Bovine", which I enjoy, but no-where near as much as this EP, includes songs called "Sheep" and "Cow" and "Bendy Wendy The Man".

The EP starts with the perfect "Plagued By Vague" and ends with the epic "Leon The Lemming" and everything in between is funky and heavy and silly and joyous. They understand the value of a decent stretch and release, with awesome jumpy choruses, extended jams, crescendo.

I wish I'd seen them live at the time. They recorded a Triple J Live At The Wireless apparently. I'd settle for hearing that if I could ever track it down.

7/10

[2007] Tomahawk, "Anonymous"

I'm a huge fan of Tomahawk, even though I find the quality of their albums (and tours) highly variable. They don't mind experimenting with rock, and deliberately irritating crowds, and I love that. I always felt they filled a bit of the rock/pop hole that Patton must have been missing after Faith No More and Mr. Bungle.

"Anonymous" is their third album, but it's a bit of a surprise. Duane Denison (main composer, guitarist) researched Native American music while on tour and while he found the melodies interesting, he was disappointed in the lack of powerful recordings of the anonymous songs. His ideal of the music was that it should be powerful, primal, so he recorded an album of the songs with a rock band.

Given most of the source material is minor key, with chopped/prog-like rhythms, how could this not possibly be awesome?

The result is strange. The melodies and rhythms are interesting, but arguably each song is a little monotonous. Usually consisting of one riff, played over and over, with varying levels of power. Much of the album sounds like a band jamming on ideas, and I suspect it is mostly just that: here is a melody, let's rock it out until we get bored.

It's unclear if the songs with lyrics had the words sourced from the same places as the melodies, but given the words are in English that seems unlikely. I'm not sure, given how faithful they are with the melodies, what North America's first people's would think of the liberties taken with the songs. The instrumental songs include Patton simply singing "hey-ho" to the guitar's melody, and I can only assume these are more traditional.

I have to admit I was a bit disappointed the first few listens, and I don't play this album much, but this recent listen was great... as background. I know when listened on headphones, my attention quickly wanders.

Perhaps a few more liberties should have been taken with the songs? Mixing various melodies together into more interesting songs? Added some interesting counter melodies? But that doesn't fit the concept, and on this album the concept is clearly the point.

It's an interesting experiment to record the songs this way, and from that perspective it's a huge success, but as a rock record it fails.

5/10

[1993] Counting Crows, "August And Everything After"

The soundtrack to so much mid to late 90s sadness.

I've had this album on tape since before memories. I think I might have borrowed it from a friend in high-school. It's certainly one of the first CDs I bought.

I'm fairly sure next to "melancholic" in the dictionary is a picture of this album. It certainly is a great album to put on when you're sad. I'll admit, in moments of intense sadness, I've cried on the train listening to it.

If I'd started this blog twenty years ago, this album would be 10/10. Not today. It could be because I'm a far happier person than I was as a teenager. I can hear the album's problems now, where before they were washed under the waves of hormones and tears.

I still love the strange timing of the vocals over the verses of "Round Here" and the changing chorus stream of consciousness nature of "Mr Jones". "Anna Begins" can still make me sad. The lovely use of strumming electric guitars instead of acoustics, mandolins, accordions. All the sort of thing to pique the interest of a music fan just getting in The Tea Party and The Whitlams.

Weirdly this album is wound up in a world where I discovered so much music, the mid-90s. I associate it with Regurgitator, Powerderfinger, The Whitlams, The Tea Party, +Live+, Pearl Jam... even Faith No More and Metallica. In a list of "grew-up-listening-to" albums... this.

I played this album in the car once on a long car trip. My parents both hated it, almost totally because of the vocals, which are, I can now clearly hear, horribly whiny, particularly in "Time And Time Again" where Adam Duritz sounds like he's just waking up from a huge bender and can barely talk.

It's strange to like this album at all, as I can't help but think Counting Crows are the "folk rock" heroes of the 90s, exactly the kind of music that really gets up my nose these days. Bands like Birds Of Tokyo and that friggin' Lantern song...

History.

I still really enjoy listening to AaEA, and maybe if I'm sad in the future I'll pull it out give it a spin. I'll certainly keep referring to it for tips in mixing clean tone guitars. The production is lovely.

7/10

[2006] Keep Of Kalessin, "Armada"

Why?: One of many CDs I borrowed from a friend at work and loved. Purchased via Amazon.

Tell me more!:
Norwegian Black Metal. Exactly the kind of metal I used to hate. Just keep kickin' those kick drums and screaming fellas.

But Keep Of Kalessin aren't like that. For starters, they're "Melodic" Black Metal. The vocals are screamed, but in a way in which the lyrics are easily decipherable. The drums are played faster than can be believed, but with many an interesting fill. The guitars are incredible, with every song filled with incredible collections of riffs, acoustic jams, epic solos.

"Crown Of The Kings" is fantastic, and probably best describes my love for this album. I need to steal a quote from RevengeISeek666's review on Encyclopaedia Metallum as I think it says it best, "The melodic pace of this song is absolutely phenomenal. It never lets out, nor weakens. It breaks everything into millions of pieces and takes your breath away..."

The rest of album isn't any different. I absolutely adore the melodic screamed choruses, the vocal range in general, the chaotic riffing, the incredible musicianship.

This album is close to perfect, and drew me down a very long road of inferior black-metal on a search for something better.

9/10

[2003] Underworld, "Back To Mine"

Why?: I was on a bit of an Underworld kick in the early 2000s. I was particularly interested in DJ mixing, beat matching and all that jazz that you can do with your iPhone these days. I bought this CD hoping for a cool DJ set with the tracks all mixed together. That isn't really what this is...

Tell me more!:
I think before this list I'd listened to this CD maybe twice at the most. I dismissed it because I thought it wasn't a big DJ set with tracks all mixed together.

That's unfair, because it is, it just gives each track a lot of time, and the mixing between each track is so subtle you could be forgiven for thinking there wasn't any.

I'm grateful to hear this again because I discovered the incredible intro track, Gil Scott Heron's "B-Movie" which is 12+ minutes of 1981 political rant and funk. It's brilliant. B-Movie is followed by TLC's "Creep" which I can't make myself like, despite TLC frequently coming up in 90s must-listen lists, but the next track, Doctor Octagon's "Bear Witness" is great. It's these first tracks, and the way they're presented, that probably initially put me in a bad mood with this album, as they're not really DJ set material.

But after these intro tracks the set really kicks in with Rave Signal, "Horse Power" and Remy & Sven, "Piano Power", both tracks closer to the Underworld style that I expected for most of the complication. They're followed by the great reggae of Toots & The Maytals, "'54-46" which in the best DJ mixing effort on the album, flows beautifully into LTJ Bukem's "Music", followed by a drum&bass remix of Depeche Mode, "Barrel Of A Gun" which sounds so much like an Underworld song I didn't pick it for what it was, into Aphex Twin's "Didgeridoo" and finally seamlessly into Dead Prez, "Hip Hop".

Just to show off they follow the set with a couple of tracks from Mali artists: Ali Farka Toure, "Machengoidi" and a small sample of Tartit, "Buloululba", which sounds like it might have inflenced the introduction to "King Of Snake".

The CD ends with R&B D'Angelo, "Brown Sugar" and a dub track, Gregory Isaacs, "Public Eyes". I Googled Gregory Isaacs and he's described as the "the most exquisite vocalist in reggae" so it's a pity this is a vocal-less dub mix.

I enjoyed this listen, but R&B isn't my thing at all, and the dance tracks are interesting in showing Underworld's influence, but I'd prefer to listen to Underworld. I'm really happy to have been exposed to Gil Scott Heron though. That's worth the price of admission.

[A bit of Googling has found GSH was homophobic. That's spoilt the fun a bit...]

5/10

[2003] Alchemist, "Austral Alien"

Why?: I can't remember why I got into Alchemist. I know their CD "Lunasphere" had been on a tape in my collection from very early on, which makes me think I might have taped from a neighbour. It was the song "Garden of Eroticism" that first grabbed me.

Tell me more!:
I remember buying this and dismissing it very quickly. I didn't enjoy the last album ("Organasm") and felt this was more of the same. The melody wasn't there and the epic long guitar jams were missing.

On this listen though I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the slower pace, it gives the guitars a bit of extra oomph, and lets that trademark Alchemist clear-guitar-solo-over-distorted-chords sound shine.

It helps that over the last decade I've learnt to enjoy a much larger range of metal. I now like the shorter songs, the more pop elements. The mix with industrial and progressive reminds me at times of Akercocke, Max Cavalera's projects, Fear Factory or Ministry.

I'm still really not a fan of Alchemist's clean vocal sound, which is used heavily on this album. I much prefer the shout/screams, although clean vocals help the lyrics shine a little more. The album's central theme is Australia's environment and how it has been damaged.

It's not an album I can see myself choosing to listen to very often, but I think I'll continue to enjoy it when I do. I'm interested to have a listen to their previous albums again now. I never bought their last album because of my original dislike of this, but I might track it down now.

6/10