treble charger - NC17

I can't believe that treble charger released this album more than fifteen years ago. Wow. Hearing the song Red, clearly the centre piece of the album, still takes me back to that time. There is something about that song that still really impresses me, resonates with me... it was (and still is) a great song that was released at the right time. Even all these years later, I can still remember the music video for it... and I probably haven't seen that clip in over ten years.

Generally speaking, the album is a lo-fi, garage rock effort by a band starting out. The production is fuzzy and the lyrics are often unintelligible, all with the exception of one track: Red. When this song starts -- track seven; another fact which I, for whatever reason, still remembered all these years later -- you can tell that they spent 80% of the album's budget getting this one song right. And, they did. From the opening notes, all the way through five minutes and ten seconds of heartbreak, they nailed it.

I've spent almost this entire review talking about one song, and that's because it's certainly the focus of this whole disc; there are other good songs, and some that might be considered filler, but this song makes the album. It was redone for the band's third studio album, with (I believe) a new intro and a slightly different guitar solo, but this will always be the definitive version of the song for me. The album as a whole is probably a two-and-a-half; the inclusion of this song single-handedly bumps it up to three stars.

Recommended track(s):	10th Grade Love; Trinity Bellwoods; Red
Worth another listen?	Yes!
Overall rating:	Three Stars

Snow Patrol - Final Straw

This was the first album I heard/bought from the Irish band Snow Patrol. Of course, the follow-up album included the international smash hit Chasing Cars, but it was the singles from this album that first caught my ear.

However, the singles seem to be the only good part of this album on this re-listen. The first four tracks on the disc were bland, comprised of pop-rock cliches and I really couldn't tell where one ended or the next began.  Then, the a trio of tracks that caught my ear arrived (see "Recommended track(s)" below).  And then the rest of the album felt tired and unimaginative again, to the point where I kept looking at my iPod to see how many tracks were left in the album.

The singles were okay, but nothing spectacular. Any comparisons to Coldplay or other UK/Irish bands don't jump out at me on this re-listen. It was very much a stereotypical pop-rock album which sounded a touch over-produced and lacked any sort of energy, as if this was the one hundredth time they'd played these tracks in the studio.  I don't know what I heard to make me think I should give this album another listen, but this might have been it's last listen from me; I'll have to see sometime if their follow-up was any better.

Recommended track(s):	Spitting Games; Chocolate; Run
Worth another listen?	~Maybe
Overall rating:	Two-and-a-Half Stars

Girl Talk - Feed the Animals

I was finally able to track down a copy of All Day late last night (the day of it's free release), but in honour of Gregg Gillis' new album, I thought it was only fitting to review Girl Talk's previous album today.

Less of an album, meaning a collection of songs put together one heading, as it is a 53 minute experience; an on-going mash-up of song snippets that have been masterfully put together into something new. Similar in style to The Avalanches' album, Since I Left You, but somehow different... and no, I can't put my finger on how or why (although I don't believe that either artist got the rights to all of the samples used on their albums). Looking at the Wikipedia entry for Feed the Animals, you can see that we're not talking about 'a few samples' that have been mashed together. We're talking about hundreds, from all eras and genres.

I have no idea how someone would go about putting something like this together, or how it would ever occur to someone that having Busta Rhymes rap over top of the groove from Phil Collins' In The Air Tonight would be great. But it is, and Gillis was the one with the vision to make this happen. It could be that, on the first few listens, it was just the idea of putting something together like this that kept me coming back, but I've heard this album countless times now and it still gets me going. There aren't any choruses, verses, bridges, etc., here, it's just a single stream of music that has been cut into 'tracks' for ease of access more than anything else.

Sure, some of it is a little crass lyrically in places, but I don't normally listen to a lot of the rap artists that are sampled here, so maybe that's my bias. Otherwise, the fun of identifying songs or artists is still there for me, the energy is still super-high on this album, and it's just a great album to drive to or have on in the background.

Recommended track(s):	Shut the Club Down; What It's All About; Hands in the Air
Worth another listen?	Yes!
Overall rating:	Four Stars

Sheryl Crow - Tuesday Night Music Club

To use a word that we were throwing around at the dinner table last night, re-listening to Sheryl Crow's debut CD left me feeling underwhelmed. I remembered this album as being upbeat and really strong from front to back, but that's not how it sounded on this spin.

The album opens with a really, really slow track that is nearly five minutes long.  The song (Run, Baby, Run) is a good song, but such an odd choice for a starting track. Over all, I found the track order to be a bit of a jumble and the album as a whole seems much slower and less guitar-y than I remembered it.  Crow's vocals are strong throughout the album, as is the instrumentation.

Tuesday Night Music Club still ranks as one of my favourite album titles of all time, but listening to the album now, after not having heard it for so long, makes me realize just how much of a 'songs some friends recorded over a bunch of Tuesday nights' -kinda album this is. The Na-Na Song sticks out like a sore thumb and most of the songs are over four (or even five) minutes long; over all, the album as a whole just feels like it could perhaps have used some editing... I'm never a fan of filler material on albums.

But, the good songs are very good. Strong Enough and All I Wanna Do were both well received radio singles for a reason; the closer, I Shall Believe, is as strong and emotional a track as I remember it being. Crow has gone on to release six more (studio) albums since this one, has worked with a number of other artists and even dabbled in acting; she's certainly a artist worth taking notice of, but unfortunately her debut album doesn't seem to have stood up for me.

Recommended track(s):	Strong Enough; All I Wanna Do; I Shall Believe
Worth another listen?	~Maybe
Overall rating:	Three Stars