I Came Here to Write Serials and All I Got Was Membership to This Lousy Club

Well, guys, the name speaks for itself. Every week, whoever's in the chatbox suggests an album or two they want everybody else to listen to. After several one-sided debates with LL, we decided to try and broaden people's horizons. This is what came about.

*****

Week 1 suggestions

Tyler's Pick - The Inevitable and I by Harvard. Brilliantly composed, spacey progressive rock in the vein of Circa Survive and The Receiving End of Sirens.

LL's Pick - Absolution by Muse. Alternative / progressive rock with electronic elements, though not to the level of their album Black Holes and Revelations.

Dov's Pick - On The Way to Wonderland by Sunrise Avenue. Finnish alternative/pop-rock.

Rig's Pick - Black Ice by AC/DC. I don't even need to describe this one.

Zar's Pick - The Heart of Everything by Within Temptation. Netherlands symphonic rock/metal with female vocals.

*****

Extra Credit

The Lateness of The Hour by Alex Clare. Solid British indie-pop/soul with dubstep influences. If you've seen the new Internet Explorer commercials, that's his song. It's all I've been listening to for the past few days.

The Razor's Edge by AC/DC

*****

Have at it, gents.

-love and respect.

I'll edit my opinions into this post as I listen to the albums in question. My rating scale: 1-3 is horrid, 4-5 is subpar, 6 is decent, 7-8 is great, 9 is brilliant, and 10 is mindblowing.

The Lateness of the Hour by Alex Clare (7.5/10)
A collection of fun, dubstep-influenced soul / pop, this is a great lighthearted listen. "Up All Night" and "Too Close" are particularly fun; the last pair of songs provide some welcome balladry. The lyrics aren't deep, but the singer's voice adds some extra emotion, and they're sound enough for soul and pop.

The Inevitable and I by Harvard (8/10)
Harvard must have taken an awful lot of pages from Circa Survive's book: the airy guitars, the lead vocals, the prevailant moodiness... it was all in Juturna and On Letting Go, and this album sounds a lot like a combination of those two albums. I would not call this album progressive rock but indie rock / post-hardcore with some experimental influences. The only problem with this album is that every single song tries to be moody and thoughtful in basically the same emotional fashion; as such, my favorite songs in the album are the ones that inject welcome energy into the song lineup -- "On With Disease", "Ghost", "Hands to Hesitate", "What We Had", "Hallucinating the Horse", and "The Creative" -- though title track "Inevitable and I" isn't a half-bad acoustic track.

Black Ice by AC/DC (7/10)
Straightforward rock / classic rock makes for a fun, refreshing listen. I can't decipher the lyrics -- the singer's voice makes the task difficult -- but as far as I can tell, they're your typical rock 'n' roll lyrics about girls and rock 'n' roll and rebellion and not much else. They aren't the highlight, though; the crunching electric guitars are, and they perform well in the limelight.

On the Way to Wonderland by Sunrise Avenue (7/10)
Normally, I would enjoy the cross between pop rock and alternative rock that defines On the Way to Wonderland, but considering the entire album is based around that same radio-ready feel and (in my humble opinion) the lyrics are subpar, the album loses some of its enjoyment value. The songs in this album are best listened to by themselves or in small bunches; that's not to say the album as a whole is bad -- it isn't -- it just could be better if there were more variety. The songs that stood out to me were "Fairytale Gone Bad", "Into the Blue", and "Wonderland".

The Heart of Everything by Within Temptation (8/10)
Musically, this album is fantastic; I'm a sucker for symphonic rock / metal, and Within Temptation is no exception. Lyrically, however, the focus is on failed relationships, which wouldn't be bad if whoever wrote them hadn't insisted on using the most dramatic descriptive words he / she / they could find -- I got the impression of lyrics written to sound as grand-sounding as their music was. That said, this album was worth a listen just for the music, and the vocalist's voice (if not the lyrics she sings) is great. The songs "The Howling", "What Have You Done", "The Truth Beneath the Rose", and "Forgiven" stood out the most to me musically, though that's probably due to their accessibility. I would love to hear an instrumental version of this album.

Listened to Clare. I'm not a particular fan of dubstep or, to be honest, anything even vaguely influenced by it, but it's pretty great, IMO. Liked "Too Close" in particular.

I'm not going to bother with Within Temptation or AC/DC: my opinion on them is pretty solidly good, as most of you know.

Harvard was pretty great. I liked "What We Had" in particular, didn't feel so comfortable with the title song, "The Inevitable and I" because of how slow and, frankly, rather boring it was.

My pick this week: Karma Never Sleeps by I the Mighty. I know I promised Taking Back Sunday, but damned if this EP isn't fantastic.

-Teezy

Imaginaerum by Nightwish. Especially songs like "Last Ride of the Day", "Storytime" and "Turn Loose The Mermaids"

My Week 2 suggestion: Les Friction by Les Friction. Symphonic rock with some electronic overtones and a couple pop rock-esque songs. Good vocalist.

My reviews:

Karma Never Sleeps by I the Mighty (9/10)
When post-hardcore is at its best, it's darn good. Karma Never Sleeps is yet more proof of that fact. Powerful tunes, a good vocalist, near-palpable energy -- they all add up to a fantastic listen. I can't list any standout songs because they all stood out.

Imaginaerum by Nightwish (8.5/10)
Altogether, this album's score is bolstered by songs such as "Storytime", "Song of Myself", and "Imaginaerum" for their fantastic symphonic qualities. Not to say the rest of the album isn't sound symphonic rock / metal with dashes of folk rock here and there, because it is; it just doesn't hold up to the songs that sound like they were pulled directly from a great movie soundtrack. The lyrics aren't the best, but hey, this album sounds like a music soundtrack meets the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Within Temptation; of course I'm going to like it anyway.

It's time to reinvigorate this club.

My Series 3 recommendation: This Desert Life by Counting Crows. Rock / alternative rock with some pop rock cues, bluesy influences, and raw, moody lyrics.

A bonus recommendation: Origin of Symmetry by Muse. Progressive / alternative rock with progressive metal qualities. Muse's heaviest album to date.

WZRD by WZRD. Excellent pop-rock/acid rock from an excellent artist named Kid Cudi.

This isn't a weekly recommendation, but since our suggestion timeline has fallen apart, I doubt it matters anyway.

The Airship by Port Blue. Unlike Adam Young's other, electropop solo project, Owl City, Port Blue is thoughtful instrumental music that could be described as new age / post-rock. Piano is in the forefront for much of the album. It's surprisingly good.

Since week two or whatever never started, and the place is in terrible need of activivty, I guess I'll make my "week two" recommendation formal: The Invisible Line by Temposhark. You can find the full album here.

The funny thing is I listened to Temposhark just a few days ago.

anyway

Amaryllis by Shinedown.