Album Reviews: September 2013 Week 4

Belle & Sebastian - "The Third Eye Centre" 2013

Over the last 5 years or so, this band has grown on me and i've become pretty into them. This is a collection of all their B-sides and rarities from the last 10 or so years, and it actually plays out as a better album than most of their other albums. It's funny that this is basically their leftovers and it's still better than 95% of all other indie rock out there. Check out "Your Cover's Blown (Miaoux Miaoux Remix)", "Mr. Richard", "Meat & Potatoes", and "I'm A Cuckoo (Avalanches Remix)".

Noah23 - "Tropical Fruit" 2013

Decent little 5 song EP. Pretty much what you would expect from him if you've heard him before. For those that don't know, he's an underground rapper with an insane amount of talent. This and many of his other releases are on a name your own price status on his bandcamp, so you can easily check all that stuff out the way you want to if you don't like streaming. Here is the link.

Document One - "D Is For Document One EP Part 1" 2012

This some slickly produced, but ultimately semi-boring dubstep. Not bad by any means, but not really what i'm personally looking for either. Check out "Already Lost", "The Feeling", and "Body Pump".

Ministry - "From Beer To Eternity" 2013

I'll start right off by saying that i've been a huge Ministry fan since Psalm69 was new. I was too young and dumb to get in on the first couple waves of popularity for them in the 80's, but that version of them was my introduction to them, and that, along with Nine Inch Nails' "Broken", are what broke me out of the mold I had been in, where I only wanted to listen to hip hop all the time. My favorite album by them is "Filth Pig", and I consider the 90's to be their best era by far, but I still enjoy almost all of it. I admit that my interest in them has waned during the last decade and i've found most of the post-2000 releases to be predictable, which makes them boring in ways. Enter last year's "Relapse". This album wasn't necessarily a return to greatness, but it did seem like Al had wanted to breathe some new life into the band in some way. This new one is honestly my favorite Ministry album since "Dark Side Of The Spoon" and is easily their most versatile piece of work. It's like they took all their styles of their entire career (except the first album) and put it in one big pot and stirred it up. I love it. So if you were ever a fan of them before and you stopped listening, this is the album you should hear. Check out the video for "PermaWar". Also check out "Hail To His Majesty (Peasants)", "Lesson Unlearned", "Fairly Unbalanced", and "Side F/X Include Mikey's Middle Finger (TV4)".

Boardwalk - "I'm To Blame" 2013

This is a 45 that came out on Stones Throw, and i'm assuming a full length is on the way at some point. Some really dreamy sounds, for lack of a better word. Really soothing sounding indie pop rock, like a more upbeat Mazzy Star or something... or maybe something like Au Revoir Simone too... Either way, i'm eagerly anticipating some new stuff from this band. Here is the video for "I'm To Blame" and here's the link to purchase this record or listen to the 2 songs too.

The Weeknd - "Kiss Land" 2013

I wish an album like this was a normal album, quality-wise, for the mainstream, or even just for pop and R&B in general, because there's really nothing special about it in the grand scheme of music, but with pop music the way that it is nowadays, an album like this seems like a breath of fresh air and even progressive. It's neither of those things, but it is a very well crafted LP from all angles and a pretty impressive piece of work. He definitely wears a Michael Jackson influence on his sleeve, but it doesn't come off as annoying to me like it does sometimes with Justin Timberlake and Usher, when they do that. The only major misstep on this album is his Vanilla Ice-esque biting of Portishead's "Machine Gun" (Geoff Barrow denied him the sample, so he added one drum hit, called it his own, and he's damn lucky Geoff is cool enough to not pursue legal action about it), with "Belong To The World" (this link is to the video, in case you're interested). That's the type of thing where when it happens, you just save the song for a free download or keep it unreleased, but this dude goes and makes it his lead single and the video is like a little mini-movie. Kind of a lame decision in my book, but what do I know... Anyways, the rest of the album is pretty solid and an engaging listen if you're in the right mood for it. Check out the videos for "Pretty", "Live For" featuring Drake, and "Kiss Land" (this video is crazy... so is this beat, it's like mid 90's Three 6 Mafia-style dark) Also check out "Love In The Sky", "Wanderlust" , and this collaboration with Kavinsky, "Odd Look".

Zion I - "The Vapors" 2013

This is a cool little 5 song EP of songs with a marijuana based theme. Nothing stellar here, but it's a nice listen. Listen or download here.

The Octopus Project - "Whitby EP" 2012

This is a little single/EP that is a teaser for the new album that just was recently released, and I need to get.  Some awesome sounds here. Check out this really cool video for "Whitby".