Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

I listen to a lot of music.

I try to get my hands on every new electronic, rock or hip hop album that seems interesting. And so it is rare for me to find something that is 100% refreshing or unique in its sound. Eric Berglund’s new project ‘CEO’ is just that.
Not being familiar with his original band The Tough Alliance, the only thing that I knew about this album is that it has a very cool front cover. After hearing the single ‘Come With Me’, I was hooked.
The thing is, every track on the album could be a single. Its a perfect blend of sonically crisp slick production and great songwriting.

Ceo - White Magic

With a serious lack of good albums coming out this year, this is is a breath of fresh air. The songs are very positive and upbeat. It reminds me of some other bands but not any one in particular, more like a blend, and that’s what makes it so strong. The tracks are quite different from one another too. My favorite is the 4th piece, sharing the same name with the album, ‘White Magic’. It’s mostly instrumental, with some vocals thrown in for good measure, and a killer guitar line. Illuminata is another catchy tune, that could easily be a hit if people listened to music that is slightly more artistic than just plain pop.
I’m not too crazy about the video for ‘Come With Me’, and so here’s a high quality YouTube audio track for the song.

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Lost: Answers

LOST: Answers

Somewhere in an alternate universe, Lost actually makes sense. I think most of you will agree that while the process of watching through all the seasons was fascinating, in the end the writers copped out! Most mysteries and mythology elements were left unresolved, unexplained, or worse – not even mentioned. So I don’t know if I can truly recommend the show to anyone, now that I know how it ends. Yes, I did have fun watching it, and I’ll say at least that the characters were well developed and most of them did have satisfying story arcs, but it’s the huge 6-seasons buildup that amounted to nothing in the end. Let’s just say that when you have sex with a girl, the experience is terrific, but if you don’t get to the orgasm in the end… You get my drift.

So I’m writing this as a devoted fan of the show, but also as a disappointed viewer. I’m a musician and so I love all the little details, & I don’t forget any plot points. The show to me was like an epic symphony or a progressive metal track. I’m thinking: should I be blaming the writers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof for fucking up? Surely, it’s not easy to solve all the questions, and even harder to write a whole TV show. Surely you hit a few wrong notes if you play a 40-minute symphony, right? Wrong. You can play it perfectly, and I’ll support this argument by saying – the writers could have EASILY resolved most of the mysteries on the show and completed it properly. Why they screwed up so much is beyond me. This seemed like it was supposed to be a science fiction show. Did you see The Fringe? Sure, it’s not as exciting, and the actors are not as good but at least they explain what happens based on actual science studies, philosophy theories and quantum physics. OK, so maybe Lost isn’t a science fiction show. Maybe it’s just a thriller or a mystery show. Well it failed in that department too. I think around season 4 I started realizing that the writers were full of shit, while my friends still believed until the end that stuff will be explained. You could also argue that maybe some things are better left unresolved. Well, open endings are not the same as THE PLOT NOT MAKING SENSE. My friend had a good point about this – ‘did you ever read Sherlock Holmes?’ he asked me. Those books are successful because Sherlock solves the case! And by the way, if you haven’t figured it out from the title, there could be spoilers.  Read more...

It’s a little bit late posting this, but I thought I would anyway. Here’s what I think the best creations of the last 10 years are:

10. Dream Theater – Train Of Thought (2003)

There are 2 Dream Theater albums on this list for a reason. The amount of music that this band puts out every year is ridiculous. They release albums, live albums, DVDs, fan club CDs, cover albums, and endless side and solo projects. But it’s not only how many albums they release; its how much music each album contains. Train of Thought is the fiercest, most intense 70 minutes of music you can possibly cram into an album. While considered by many fans to be Dream Theater’s heaviest release, it was also critically acclaimed by most music critics.
It’s hard to say what the best DT album is, and every fan has a different choice, which is also why I have 2 in this list. But I think this one contains the best guitar work I’ve heard from Petrucci. Portnoy’s drumming is always top notch and so is the keyboard work by Rudess, but listen to the guitar solos in ‘As I Am’ or at the end of ‘In The Name Of God’. Nobody plays scales quite like John. He seems to weave them around in a huge net, changing directions, keys and modes once per second. I imagine this must sound like a mess to some listeners who aren’t musicians, but for the ones who know what he’s doing, it’s breathtaking. This was the first album that got me into DT. I’ve heard their music before, but that stuff was the Awake album, which I still think is their weakest. Train of Thought sat me the fuck down and made me understand the possibilities of what one band can accomplish. The only spot in the album that loses its energy is the short quiet song ‘Vacant’. Sure the album needs a break after constant thumping and the constant heavy riffs, but James LaBrie’s vocals just don’t cut it emotionally. Thankfully, he doesn’t sing that much during the other 68 minutes, and in the heavier parts he uses more of his Metallica-style vocals, or rap-like shouting that Portnoy helps him with. Those parts work much better musically. In this album in particular, the parts without vocals work really well and the instrumental ‘Stream of Consciousness’ is a breath of fresh air.  Read more...