Day 62: Coldplay - Parachutes

The first time I heard the song "Yellow" I absolutely hated it. It wasn't until I fell in  love with Coldplay's 'Rush of Blood to the Head' album that I went back and listened to this album for the first time, and while it is a pretty good album it still isn't my favorite. For those that are Coldplay fans, of which I am one of them, you can really see the progression from this album to following albums in the bands maturity and song writing ability. Don't get me wrong this album definitely does have some really good songs, it's just that Chris Martin's song writing on "Rush" and following albums gets so much better that on those albums every song is great, every song is a potential radio hit. On this album 5 or maybe 6 of the 10 tracks are really strong, the others are kind of filler.

It is still an essential album to have though if you are a fan of the band. 4/5

SotD Hot Hot Heat - Goddess on the Prairie

Been camping for a couple days, but now I'm back. Coldplay review soon.

Day 61: New Order - Technique

If you have read my earlier posts you now know that I love 80's music. 80's music rules all. New Order is one of my favorite bands to come out of the 80's. They have an amazing repertoire of hit songs. Songs like "Blue Monday" are absolutely huge. They have sold millions of copies of their albums and they have been being played for years. They are timeless.
Technique, of all the New Order albums, all of which are amazing, is my favorite. For me it was the album that I really felt like they have matured to the point of perfection as a band. To a point where they could never produce anything as good as this album again. They came close a couple times, but this album is the icing on the cake of their careers. The lyrics show a real sense of emotion and investment by the lead singer Bernard Sumner. The music is classic New Order, synthesizer and drum machines out the wazoo, and amazing bass guitar by Peter Hook. All of the songs are designed to make you want to sing along and enjoy them at a crowded night club.
The version of the album that I listened to today was the remastered version that contains an extra 8 songs, all of which are B-sides or remixes, which is always an added bonus.
If you have never heard New Order before I absolutely recommend you listen to this album first, and then go back and listen to their other albums, some of which I am sure will be popping up on this list in the future. They are just too good not to. 5/5

SotD Stroke 9 - Little Black Backpack

Day 60: Big Brother & The Holding Company - Cheap Thrills

I didn't especially love this album, due to the fact that is a late 60's kinda psychedelic rock album, which I know from past albums I've listened to from this genre it's not really my style. However, the type of music that is was was heavily out weighted by the fact that Janis Joplin was the lead singer for the band for this album. She can really sing. Her voice is so unique, and special that it just drags you deep into the songs. The sound of her voice is why I wanted Haley Reinhart to win Idol this last season, yes I watch Idol. Their voices are so very similar and are completely amazing. The lower, raspy, sultry range is just so captivating. By far Janis is the shining star of this album and I hope that there is more of her stuff I get to listen to along the way, she is so very talented. 5/5

SotD Blake Lewis - Freak

Top Ten All Time Favorite Songs

O.K. all you lurkers out there who have been visiting the blog but haven't registered to follow it or have yet to comment on anything I have posted, it is time to get involved. I want to know what your top 10 most favorite songs of all time are. These are the songs that if you are flipping stations on the car stereo and one of them is on you have to stop and listen to it. The songs that you connect with for what ever reason. The songs that invoke an emotional response in some way. The songs that you would have on your Ipod if you could only have 10 songs to listen to for the rest of time. Any genre, and era, no limits. You can post the list and if you are so inclined the a reason why you pick the song. Ready ........ POST!
Edit: I am going to copy/paste each list to the original post instead of having them attached as comments, after which I am going to delete the comment to keep things neat and tidy :)

Startupman's List:

THIS IS HARD!!!
Fire Woman - The Cult
Thunderstruck - ACDC
Love Shack - B52's
Killing an Arab - The Cure
Hungry Like the Wolf - Duran Duran
The Real Thing - Faith No More
War Pigs (Black Sabbath - or Faith No More versions)
Dragula - Rob Zombie
This Corrosion - Sisters of Mercy
Enter Sandman - Metallica

Good list. I really like a lot of those songs. 7 of the 10 I have on my Ipod. Not sure if I would put any of them on my Top 10 list though. I'll give my list a little later, hopefully after more people have posted theirs.

SotD Cranberries - Zombie

Day 59: White Stripes - Elephant

This album really is one of the greats. Jack White is an amazing musician and in my opinion one of the current top three guitarists in the world, the other two being Tommy Morello and Eddie Van Halen. Jack has the ability to combine hard hitting rock rifts with blues and country. He is also one of the hardest working musicians out there usually having 2 or 3 side projects going on like The Racontours, The Dead Weather or Playing on other peoples albums, like Loretta Lynn's last album, he is also one hell of a slide guitar player. This album has some of my favorite White Stripes songs on it and in my opinion is the most complete album they have made. Subsequent albums have had some good songs on them but have been mostly hit and miss.  Another relatively unknown fact about The White Stripes is that they record their albums are record speeds. Most of the tracks are played straight through and recorded on the 1st take and they usually finish an album in about two weeks. 5/5

Ball and a Biscuit really shows off his guitar talent

SotD Augustana - Hey Now

Turn it up!

Day 58: Depeche Mode - Music for the Masses

To me this album is 80's music. Even though I was already into The Cure, New Order, and The Pet Shop Boys, this album was everything that I loved about the 80's. I had already listened to a couple previous DM albums, I was introduced to them by my friend Darren, but this album was just amazing. Everything about it was perfect. From the opening with "Never Let Me Down Again" you are transported to the world of Depeche Mode. Their music and especially the lyrics, Martin Gore is one of the best song writers ever, just take you on this journey that is so much fun to go on, and even though this album wasn't their most successful, Violator was much more so but a little too commercial in my opinion, and Depeche Mode has made some really great albums over the years, they will never make another album as good as this one. If you have not heard this album before, you need to. It is definitely one of the 10 albums I would have with me if I was stranded on a deserted island.

Sorry, I just couldn't pick only one song to feature, so I did one for each of the singles released from the album. Enjoy.

SotD Bootsauce - Everyone's a Winner

For Bruce as per request. I do remember the concert, it was at the U of C in the Mac Ballroom. I also remember running into the lead singer in the bathroom while the opening band, Huevos Racheros, was performing. Good Times.

SotD Willie Nelson - Always on my Mind

I tried to think of songs that I remember my Dad Listening to when I was growing up. This is the first one that came to mind. Happy Father's Day Dad.

Day 57: Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends

I really enjoyed this album. It's a classic folksy 60's album with two songs that are mega popular classics - Mrs. Robinson and Hazy Shade of Winter. I think both of those songs have been covered numerous times over the years, by various different bands. What I liked about this album was that it was original sounding. Both the music and the lyrics suck you in to the whole album. They also could rock pretty well for a couple of folk singers. 5/5

SotD Dan Le Sac v.s Scroobius Pip - The Beat That My Heart Skipped

Day 56: The Afghan Whigs - Gentleman

I don't have a lot to say about this album really. Nothing on it really stood out or made it unique in anyway. It sounds like dozens of other albums out there by dozens of other bands. Their sound is a little grunge, the lyric writing was just average and the lead singer wasn't really anything better than average. It's starting to sound like I'm a hater of this band, which I'm not. I had heard the band name but never listened to any of their albums, so maybe their other albums are better than this one, I'm not sure. I do know that after this one I felt like the songs had just gone in one ear and out the other, which is a pretty good sign that I hadn't connected with it. 1/5
The one song I do remember

SotD INXS - The Stairs

Day 55: Portishead - Dummy

A couple times now, since I started this blog, I have been surprised when I have listened to an album I haven't heard before, basically thinking "wow, where did this band and album come from and why haven't I heard it before, it is really amazing". This is one of those albums. I had heard of the band before but never listened to anything by them., but wow this album is really good. The sound kind of reminds me a little of Incubus, bass driven loops, sampling from other songs and some record scratching thrown in. The Singer has almost a ethereal type voice which she uses to really accentuate the songs, she reminds me of the Cardigans singer a little bit. There was song on the album that I had heard before, the second song "Sour Times", but didn't obviously know who the band was. It has a really cool sound to it, almost like it could be a song from a James Bond movie. I really liked the 4th song "It Could be Sweet" it had a really smooth jazzy type sound.
I really liked this album and would recommend it if you are looking for something new to listen to. 5/5

New Music Tuesday: Def Leppard - Mirrorball: Live & More

If you read my post for Hysteria, you know that Def Leppard is one of the bands that I really like. I have all of their albums and find them to be just a good ol' rock n' roll band. So I was pretty excited a few months ago when I heard that they had a new album coming out. Their last album prior to this one, released in 2008, was "Songs From the Sparkle Lounge" and it was pretty sub-par for them in my opinion, so I really had high hopes for this one. Finally released this past Tuesday I was a little disappointed to find that it is essentially a live album, which is great, I don't have any live Def Leppard on my Ipod, but I wanted a whole album of new songs. It does have 3 new studio tracks tacked on to the end of the album, that's the " & More" part of the CD.
The Live stuff is actually really good. It covers their whole career and is all their hit songs, 21 in all. The 3 new songs are really, really good. The radio single "Undefeated" is a classic hard rocking Def Leppard tune just made for playing loud. The second song "Kings of the World" is a slower ballad right up there with "Love Bites" and "Two Steps Behind". I especially like how the song starts out. The third new song "It's All About Believin" is another rocker, but not as good as "Undefeated". Overall if you aren't a fan of live albums, but are a fan of Def Leppard, I would say just buy the three new songs off Itunes. If you like live albums, I do, then it is worth getting the whole thing, you won't be disappointed. 5/5

SotD Nine Inch Nails - Discipline

Day 54: Super Furry Animals - Rings Around The World

When I come across a band on the list that I have never heard of before I listen to the album and try and see what I can get out of it. Then after I am finished I use wikipedia to try and find out more about the band. Listening to Super Furry Animals I got the impression that they were probably a late 90s band from England that makes pop/alternative music and that there influences are maybe 70s psychedelic music like the Pink Floyd or something like that, but not quite as heavy. It sounds like to me that there is in fact 2 different singers for the band, and listening to it actually reminded me of The Flight of the Concords, if they made serious music instead of comedy albums. So lets see what Wiki has to say.
Formed in 1993 - off by a couple years
From - Wales. Got that one right
Lean towards "psychedelic rock and electronic experimentation" - Check
Two singers - Check
Influences - Blur, Elvis Costello, Collective Soul, and Wynton Marsalis - Nope Missed that one
Not too bad. As for the album itself, it was middle of the road for me. It had some good songs on it, but didn't really do much for me on the whole. At times I was a little bored but other songs I was into, namely "Alternate Route to Vulcan Street", "(Drawing) Rings Around the World", and "Juxtapozed With U". 3/5

SotD OMD - Bloc Bloc Bloc

Day 53: The Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole

When the Chemical brothers came out with their 1st album in 1994, this is their second album released in 1997, they were probably way ahead of everyone else in the techno/house genre, so I can see why this album would be so critically acclaimed. Now a days though, there are dozens of bands that produce this same music, mostly instrumental songs driven by heavy bass designed for dance clubs. For that environment playing this album straight through would be awesome. It is energetic and would keep the party going. To listen to it, by yourself, in the car was a tiny bit painful. It was good enough it just got a bit monotonous. To make matters worse when one song is ending they fade it into the beginning of the next song, so the album starts to sound like one long song. Again, awesome if you are throwing a rave, not so interesting for casual listening.
My last complaint about this type of music is that in my mind, people that use computers and keyboards/electronics to make music, without adding lyrics, are a little less of musicians than others. To take programmed sounds and loop them to repeat so they make a song doesn't take as much talent as a musician that writes lyrics and adds music to make a song or vise versa.4/5.

SotD Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm

Day 52: Randy Newman - Good Old Boys

Randy Newman has probably become best know for the man behind soundtracks for Disney films. He has done the scores for 6 different films including all three Toy Story movies, A Bug's Life, Cars, and Monsters Inc. He has also done the musical scores for 8 other movies. His songs have got him 20 Oscar nominations and he has actually won twice. So listening to this album wasn't really all that different sounding than the songs in the movies. Mostly piano based, kind of jazzy, at times bluesy it was a pretty good album. The "theme" of the album seemed to be about the south and different aspects relating to the south. It starts with the song "rednecks" which I got a kick out of. I got the overall impression that Randy Newman is all about using humor and lighthearted fun to get his message across, which gave some pretty catchy songs. 5/5

SotD Muse - Feeling Good

Day 51: The Cars - The Cars

I forgot, until I listened to this album. how much I really like The Cars. It has probably been years since I listened to them other than the occasional song on the radio here and there. In the mid-80s I owned the album Heartbeat  city, and I played the crap out of it. This album was the bands debut album and it is amazing how strong of an album it is for a debut. Each and every song on the album is a strong rock classic. From "Good Times Roll" to "My Best Friend's Girl" to "Just What I Needed" to "You're All I Got Tonight".  From the opening note to the last verse it has you tapping your feet, humming and singing along, just having a good time. The songs are catchy and they just make you want to party. Definitely, if you haven't listened to this album for awhile or have never listened to it, put it on and crank it up! 5/5

SotD The Mormon Tabernacle Choir - God Be With YouTill We Meet Again

This morning the former Bishop of our ward, Brother Kirk Walker, died from a heart attack, he was only in his mid-40s and leaves behind 4 sons and a loving wife. He was a great man and a good friend to many and will be missed by all who knew him. This song is for him and his family, may he rest in peace and may his family be comforted in their time of grief and need. R.I.P Brother Walker, thanks for being a friend.

Day 50: Dion - Born to Be With You

You know you are good when you can go by one name and get away with it. This album was pretty good actually. I wasn't looking forward to listening to it after yesterdays pretty bad hippy music, but Dion is a much better singer and the songs were more upbeat and better written. Ultimately it was still a hippy style 70s album. 3/5

SotD: Blue October - The Feel Again (Stay)

First video from the new album, Any Man in America, due out Aug 16th.

SotD Barenaked Ladies - Tonight is the night I fell asleep at the wheel

Day 48: MIssy Elliott - Under Construction

I'm not a huge rap fan. In fact I only have 5 rap artists on my Ipod, that I can think of off the top of my head, Eminem, Beastie Boys, Dan le Sac vs Scrobious Pip, Run DMC, and Missy Elliott. I don't have any full albums of Missy, but I do have 5 or 6 songs off a greatest hits album. I guess that point I'm trying to make is that for a rap artist to be on my Ipod it's a big deal, well to me anyways.

I have Liked Missy Elliott's style of rap ever since I heard it quite a few years ago. It is more "old school" than today's rappers like Keane, Lil Wayne etc. She samples from older songs and she can actually sing really well, which is rare for a rapper, since most of them seem to be tone deaf. The other thing I like about her as compared to today's rappers is she will drop the odd swear here and there, but it doesn't over run the song. I seems like, especially with Eminem, that the majority of the song is swear and the drop the odd non-swear. Overall I liked this album quite a bit. Two of the songs from it happened to be songs that I have from the greatest hits, Gossip Folk and Work It, and after hearing the whole album it is one that I would consider buying. 5/5

I LOVE this video

New Music Tuesday: Depeche Mode - Remixes 2: 84 - 11

One of THE best things about growing up in the 80s is that, whenever a 80s band would release a new single from their album, they would also release a CD single for the single. This would contain the original version of the single, various remixes of the single and one or two b-sides. I ate this up. I would go to The Attic (R.I.P), the best record store in Calgary, weekly to see what new singles had come out. The ability to "collect" different remixes of songs and the rarer b-sides is what I lived for. It was seriously my favorite part of music. Sure I loved when a whole new album from an artist that I loved came out, but it was all the extras that I wanted. Unfortunately, this practice of releasing CD singles has pretty much disappeared.
Depeche Mode is one of the few bands that still sees the value in this. In fact the few bands that still do it are bands that were huge in the 80s. Yesterday DM released a second collection of remixes of their hits. A 3 CD set, it contains 36 remixes in total. A couple of them previously available on CD singles, but the majority are brand new remixes. After one complete listen I was pretty impressed. All of the remixes are very well done and it covers the whole range of their career, including a couple songs that I have never heard remixed. The only thing that was missing was the inclusion of a new song to keep fans satisfied till the next new album comes out. 5/5

Behind the wheel (Vince Clarke Remix) - some of you may not know but Vince was a member of Depeche Mode on their very 1st album. He left after and formed the band Yaz, with Allison Moyet, and  eventually became the keyboardist for Erasure.

SotD Parlotones - Should we fight back

Sorry for the delays

Things have been a bit busy lately with my work, home life and school, so I haven't been sticking to the 1 album a day schedule as closely as I would like to be. I am trying to find a happy middle that will afford me the time to listen to each album and write the review and be able to accomplish all the other things I have to do each day. In the mean time thanks for being patient between posts.

Bonus New Music Tuesday Album

For obvious reasons, I like to listen to, and promote, albums by Canadians. Of course Canada has it's fair share of artists that don't produce albums that are anywhere near good. However, Canada also has it's fair share of musicians and bands that are excellent, world class artists, that produce albums as good, if not better than any other albums out there. The sad reality is, because they come from Canada, a relatively small music market, it is exceptionally hard for them to break out and gain world popularity. Their exposure to the listening public outside Canada is minimal.
One of these musicians is Matthew Good. He has been putting out excellent music since 1995, first as Matthew Good Band and then as a solo artist. This past Tuesday he released a new album "Lights of Endangered Species", but because I live in the USA, it was hard for me to get my hands on it. I eventually had to get it from Itunes. So now that I have it, and have had a chance to listen to it, I can say it is simply amazing. Matthew Good has  an ability to take really heartfelt lyrics and put them to music that accentuates the feeling of the song, whatever it may be. As a composer he has created some of the best music I personally have ever heard, "Zero Orchestra" and "Non Populus" being two examples from this album. He can also rock out too, and on this album he lets loose on "How it Goes" "What if I Can't See the Stars, Mildred?" and the albums first single "In a Place of lesser men". He is also very politically minded and incorporates a lot of political messages and ideas in his songs, not so much on this album but definitely on his last album "Vancouver" where a lot of songs are about the difficulties that the less fortunate people of Vancouver face daily. On the album prior, "Hospital", the songs were about different themes revolving around his time spent dealing with his mental illness.
I guess I am a little bit biased towards his music because he is Canadian, but at the same time every album he releases is really, really good, and he has yet to let me down. 5/5

Day 47: Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

Back on day 7 I listened to Pink Floyd The Wall. It was the first Pink Floyd album I had ever listened to and it was really good. Dark Side of the Moon was a bit of a let down in comparison. It is definitely more of a concept type album, but it just seemed a little messy to me. The flow of the album seemed a bit off and some of the songs seemed like filler. This album is more of what I expected in a Pink Floyd album. There were a couple really good songs on the album however, "Money" and "Time" being the main hits. Overall it didn't quite live up to what I was hoping it would be 3/5

SotD Coldplay - Every Teardrop is a Waterfall

SotD Modest Mouse - Dashboard

Day 46: Nitin Sawhney - Beyond Skin

Nitin Sawhney is a East Indian musician and composer. On this album he creates modern songs with a very East Indian flavour to them. It was really interesting to listen to actually. Many of the songs have a very cool R & B sound to them with Indian instruments added in. Some he has female singers and one or two others he has rap artists. The combination of all these different instruments and elements makes for a very cool different album. It is one that you could play at a party or in the background while having some people over for dinner. Some of the songs are more upbeat while others are soothing and relaxing. I'd say that this one is definitely worth the a listen on http://www.radio3net.ro/dbalbums/albume1001/ 5/5

SotD 54-40 - One Gun

Day 45: Suede - Dog Man Star

Suede is a, now defunct, British 90's alternative band. I had never heard of them before listening to this album, but now I am interested in checking out some of their other albums. The album itself is really kind of alternative with a little bit of a throwback to the psychedelic 70's. You can tell that there was some heavy drug use going on while the band was writing and recording this one. The lyrics are kinda out there at times, but overall the songs are very well written and the music is really great. I would definitely give this one a listen if you like British alternative bands like The Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses or The Soup Dragons. 5/5