Album name: Fever Ray Artist name: Fever Ray Genre: Electronica Released: March 24 2009 Label: Mute ZME Rating: 7/10 Website: feverray.com I’ll admit that I was probably not the obvious choice to review this album. Not only is the world of electronic music a distant, confusing galaxy to my feeble, earth-bound, two-guitars-and-the-truth brain, but I’m also overcome by an unhealthy amount of uncontrollable hate when confronted by the vast array of commericial “chillout” electronica, all…
Album name: Scream Artist name: Chris Cornell Genre: Rock/R’n’B Released: March 10 2009 Label: Interscope ZME Rating: 2/10 Website: chriscornell.com Let’s not beat around the bush here. What we have in Chris Cornell’s Scream is possibly the most misguided, counterintuitive, magnificently awful record Cornell, and producer Timbaland, will ever make. It’s suffers from both hideously outdated production – it sounds like what Cornell, in 1996, might have imagined r’n’b would sound like in 2009 -…
This just came in, so I’m as surprised as everybody else about it. Seems like Bob Dylan is yet again widening his extensive discography with a new full length album, the follow-up to his previous, very well received 2006 “Modern Times.” Since then a somewhat revivalist cult movement has sprung out around him, with Bob Dylan being in the center of the modern music scene…again. As so, we’ve been granted to see a Bob Dylan…
Röyksopp’s new video for its latest single “Happy Up Here” is quite the coolest thing to drop off the internets in the last couple of… minutes. Hey, the internet is a very cool place, so don’t be fooled – this is definitely an awesome visual experience. Imagine this, high end graphics + space invaders + a city in distres = Röyksopp madness! Check out the video bellow. “Happy Up Here” is out as a single…
I know. 99% of the time, music journalism isn’t very helpful. It’s, at best, pretentious attempts to appear to be gripping the zeitgeist, and at worst, thinly-veiled marketing schemes disguised as a semi-cogent thought process. But I feel that here at ZME, we can be something more. An agent of virtue – a voice that’s willing to champion the good and stamp on the bad. A veritable He-Man amongst Cringers. At the very least, we…
“The Crying Light”, the latest LP signed Anthony and The Johnsons, is a beautiful 10 track set, that lifts you up and transcends the mind to distant, carefree lands. It’s truly a magical experience. Aeon is quite possibly the most impressive song off The Crying Light, a song that Anthony and co. performed recently at the Late Show with David Letterman, now available bellow. The live tune doesn’t affect its flavor one bit, although the…
The Black Key’s vocalist and axe man, Dan Auerbach, returned on national TV with a live rendition of his latest solo single, “My Last Mistake,” on the Late Night Show with Conan O’Brien. It’s really interesting to see Dan outside his usual, bluesy persona and find out there’s more to his musical repertoir than meets the eye. A lot more raw, a lot more rock. Off his latest solo LP, “Keep It Hid.” Note, the…
One bus, one road and a bulk of totally varied individuals. All bummed up for a trip across life and time. This is how, in a few words, Marissa Nadler’s latest video for “River of Dirt” could be briefly summarized. That would totally be an understatement, though, since when Marissa Nadler’s dream folk voice collides with director’s, Joana Linda, vision, nothing evades complication. Off Marissa Nadler’s upcoming March 3rd album, “Little Hells”. “Take me back…
OK, the video for Animal Collective’s latest single is far from new (almost a month old), but I just barely got around seeing it. Give me a slack. Anyway, I really love the vibe of the video, even though there’s nothing, at first glance, that makes the connection between the cartoony, acid trip animations and the song itself. Beats me. As long as I’m having fun with it, I don’t mind. Off the recently released…
I know I’m a few days late with this, but I barely now remembered to post about it. I saw Fleet Foxes’ live performance, when they played this past weekend at the Saturday Night Live show, and was pleasantly surprised how well they behaved themselves. Nice to see again bands that can play live just as good or even better than in the studio. Check out the two songs from this SNL, “Mykonos” & “Blue…
Al Byrne
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