Rate The Last Album You Heard

[vagrant]

haven't posted here in a while, wall of text to make up for that!
[img]http://www.myguitarsolo.com/500Albums/Pics500/258Grateful%20Dead%20-%20American%20Beauty.jpg[/img]
Grateful Dead - American Beauty
totally unexpected, this isn't the sorta Dead album with endless jams, but just short folk rock songs, and a wonderful atmosphere of spring time and americana. not a terrific amount of highlights but there's some wonderful melodies, harmonising and intricate guitar work.
6/10
[img]http://www.mp3crank.com/cover-album/I-Hate-Myself-Ten-Songs-300x300.jpg[/img]
I Hate Myself - Ten Songs
awesome screamo (someone called it emo-violence though, what the fuck is that?). looks depressing and stupid but it's actually really fun. at least the opener, "This isn't the Tenka Ichi Budokai" is absolutely amazing, very intense and powerful and ridiculous. screamo that just keeps on crushing and churning and well being awesome.
6/10
[img]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mjasvPJ8EM8/TevL1bwXdjI/AAAAAAAAARs/qPfM3YaQndg/s1600/everybody++knows.jpg[/img]
Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
Neil's discography is pretty disconcerting, with like 40 albums the sift through, but at least you know that and album he did with Crazy Horse (at least from the 70s, dunno about after that) is gonna be completely solid. as long as you like the country rock proto-grunge side of what he does. this is his most diverse album from that era, with not one but two long country rock guitar epics, some absolutely beautiful melodic songs and some in between stuff, yet it also manages to be one of his most consistent. and as opposed to Harvest and After the Gold Rush the production and backing band is constantly great.
8/10
[img]http://assets.rollingstone.com/assets/images/album_review/937ebae319abda0a21b0395b5420c7eb910d18f1.jpg[/img]
David Bowie - Low
such a classic I won't bother explaining that much. Bowie, Eno and Iggy went to Berlin and made a bunch of awesome, somewhat collaborative albums and this is the most famous. the pop side is some great bleak post punk with tons of texture and drugged out moodiness, the last few songs are Eno at his best. listening to this is a pretty strange and awesome experience.
7.5/10
[img]http://www.vinylsurrender.com/Graphics/AlbumCovers2/Brian%20Eno%20-%20Before%20And%20After%20Science.jpg[/img]
better than another green world! sorta follows the "pop first, then ambient" structure of Low, although not as night and day. beautifully sad, "julie with" and "by this river" are probably my favourite Eno songs.
8/10

[Caarle..]

Boris - Variations
[img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5793726/variations.jpg[/img]

It's almost like a "best of"-album. It has a few remakes, namely "Korosu", "Rainbow", "a bao a qu", "Naki Kyoku" and "1970".
Anyways its pretty damn good, love the Naki Kyoku remake, it's one of my favorite Boris songs.
Check it out if you want some idea what Boris is like or if you want to hear the remakes of the songs.

[AK'z]

[QUOTE=AK'z;35049729][img]http://www.theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/mast_image_square/mastimages/BRUCE_WRECKING_BALL_5x5_20120118_150631.jpg[/img]

Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball - 2012

[B]A-[/B]

[img]http://www.lucasforums.com/images/smilies/user122324_pic1820_1221454527.gif[/img][/QUOTE]

fairly sure this will be in my top 10/20 for this year. such a hard hitting good album.

[Insulator]

[img]http://www.herfection.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/The-Temper-Trap-Conditions.jpeg[/img]

Been stuck on this album for a few weeks now. The vocals are amazing.

[killerteacup]

[url]http://lifeisnoise.com/category/1000-word-reviews/[/url]

on the topic of reviews and ratings here is a pictorial review of Shearwater's Animal Joy which I am currently listening to

[img]http://lifeisnoise.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Shearwater-Animal-Joy1.jpg[/img]

but really it's pretty relaxing, definitely shades of talk talk in there but also some kinda rockish, driving stuff in it too. Maaaaybe not as good as Rook though

[ThisGuy0]

[h2]A Silver Mt. Zion
Horses in the Sky[/h2]
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/90/Horses_in_the_Sky_album_cover.jpg[/img]
[h2]A+[/h2]
This album pretty much sounds like GY!BE going through an emotional breakdown. It's harsher and more
discordant than anything Godspeed produced but it retains that melancholic atmosphere that I love.
The focus on vocals make this album stand out, and while Efrim's vocals are definitely an accquired taste,
and they're likely to kill this album for a lot of people, I think they work great here.

Best track: God Bless Our Dead Marines.
Weakest Track: Teddy Roosevelt's Guns.

[Take_Opal]

I really liked the first two tracks from their first release. But the rest were pretty boring so I haven't been interested in digging deeper into ASMZ

[vagrant]

[img]http://www.shopradiocast.com/product_images/g/904/joyce__96623_zoom.jpg[/img]
Joyce Manor - s/t
7/10
really fun, energetic punk, makes me excited about spring time starting

[Insulator]

[img]http://www.faunts.com/media/imagic/FTLO-cover.jpg[/img]

Discovered this album through the god-awful Mass Effect 3 ending.

Very different sound, varies from post-rock at times to indie electronica. Every song has a different flavor, and it's amazing for night driving.

The vocals are the only somewhat downside. His voice is chill and goes great with the melodies, but I wish it was more intelligible at times.

8/10

Probably my favorite song in the album

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhZnwmGpPME[/media]

[Gar~]

I think I reviewed this one before:
Terrorhark by Bear Vs Shark
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/37/Bvs-terrorhawk.jpg/220px-Bvs-terrorhawk.jpg[/img]

Fucking awesome punk band. Recommend to any Fugazi fan, kinda like a mix of Fugazi with a tint of the Fall of Troy. Awesome stuff

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niPC4XqZ4-g[/media]

[The Worm]

[B]Songs[/B] by [I]Regina Spektor[/I]

Most of these songs are little more than playing arround with the piano and some lyrics, and are more of a first-draft style, however a few of the songs on the album have that finalized feel to them.

My favorites:
Oedipus
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSfSR4Pj1EE[/media]

Samson
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAiHve2JZvU[/media]

Ne Me Quitte Pas
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HbQFb9GR5E[/media]

Daniel Cowman
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhk_S0HyQp4[/media]

[Shitbird]

[IMG]http://i42.tinypic.com/vpyb8m.jpg[/IMG]

[b]Pixies - Bossanova[/b]

Genre: indie rock

The Pixies just might be the most brilliant band of the late 80s/early 90s.
Masters of melding pop melody with the abrasiveness and fury of punk, with a side order of surf rock and surrealism on the side.

[b]9/10[/b]

[video=youtube;jYUm5T8uQIY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYUm5T8uQIY[/video]

[IMG]http://i44.tinypic.com/54hztc.jpg[/IMG]

[b]Pixies - Trompe Le Monde[/b]

Genre: indie rock

Is it the Pixies' weakest record? Possibly.
Is it still a fantastic record? Absolutely.

[b]8/10[/b]

[video=youtube;piSCHBor_ow]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piSCHBor_ow[/video]

[En-Guage V2]

I rate the 20 something albums I downloaded that I all listened to in one blurry substance mashup that was last weekend

i think it was mostly dark ambient and noise music

i give it 7 out of 10 blurry schizophrenic frogs

[NanoSquid]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFlRaZaeM9c&hd=1[/media]

[B]Zammuto - Self Titled[/B]

This album just came out today. I give it a 9.55 out of 10, holy shit. It's catchy, quirky, weird, unique, and tons of fun. Can't recommend it enough.

[Verbal]

Lotus Plaza - Spooky Action At A Distance

Wonderfully tuneful, dreamy guitar pop.

[video=youtube;qydBW0esJ2U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qydBW0esJ2U[/video]

[Take_Opal]

[img]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_blslqz_M3wU/SwRJ6XlgjuI/AAAAAAAABT4/piD1RbNtQSM/s1600/cover.jpg[/img]
[b]Boris - Absolutego+ [/b] (1997)
Genre: Drone

I decided to listen to all of Boris' discography from start to finish. This isn't my first Boris album,
I first heard Akuma No Uta and fell in love with it and then decided to do this.

Absolutego was something else to me. I'm not someone who listens to a lot of metal or anything, but
I'm probably most familiar with Drone from it's various incorporation or spins in other music I like. Listening
to Absolutego wasn't terrifying or anything like that; it was peaceful. It gave me a similar kind of concentration
I would get if I were to take Adderall. For three quarters of the album it had surprising variation and was easily
listenable. Over an hour in length, Absolutego is quite the journey, and it's one I'd suggest, especially when studying!

Favorite tracks: Absolutego

[highlight]Rating[/highlight]: 4.5/5

[Take_Opal]

[release][img]http://www.brooklynvegan.com/img/metal/various/deafheaven3.jpg[/img]
[b]Deafheaven - Roads to Judah[/b] (2011)
Genre: Post-Rock, Metal, Shoegaze

I discovered this pretty late, but I'm so glad I did. The best way I can think to
describe this is by calling it the Deathconsciousness of Metal. It's melancholy,
it's heavy and it's beautiful. The vocals are screaming, but they're used effectively
to weave this amazing wall of sound that paints a painful image of great sadness.
The lyrics on this are also amazing. Very poetic and very impacting. If you're at all
into albums with great emotion, or albums that paint amazing imagery, a fan of
Have A Nice Life or just someone looking for something different and unique, listen to this.

Rating: [highlight]5/5[/highlight]

Favorite track:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOH_ORa0po4[/media]

[/release]

[Shitbird]

[IMG]http://i42.tinypic.com/241sgud.jpg[/IMG]

[b]Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights[/b]

Genre: post-punk

This is the sort of album which makes me think genre revivalism is a blight upon rock music and a haven for the creatively dead.
It's obscene how unoriginal and derivative this record is, how determined these guys are not to form a musical identity of their own.
Pure disposable pastiche, Joy Division/Wire/Echo and the Bunnymen/The Cure lite.

[b]5/10[/b]
[video=youtube;Ejoxw_xrTJc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejoxw_xrTJc[/video]

[IMG]http://i41.tinypic.com/2573k0k.png[/IMG]

[b]The Horrors - Primary Colours[/b]

Genre: post-punk

This is the sort of album which makes me think genre revivalism might not be a complete lost cause.
These guys are smart enough to understand that a little bit of originality, mood and character goes a long way, to understand that there's a difference between taking influence from something and simply swiping that something for all it's worth.
Primary Colours is what I wanted Turn on the Bright Lights to be, an upgrade of a sound, not merely a carbon copy of it.

[b]8/10[/b]
[video=youtube;0EOPIi4Q3lM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EOPIi4Q3lM[/video]

[vagrant]

huh. always thought horrors were boring as fuck (and not that original either?) and interpol were decent.
anyways
[img]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XKzw9zXIL._SL500_AA300_.jpg[/img]
Eric Dolphy - At the Five Spot vol 2
pure awesome. two very different looong tracks, one is dolphy going crazy on his bass clarinet and the other he picks up flute. wildly passionate.
8/10

[Gar~]

[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dd/Altar_of_Plagues_-_White_Tomb_%282009%29.jpg[/img]
Altar of Plagues - White Tomb

I got this ages ago and it's been sitting on my computer and I never gave it a proper listen til now and I really like what I hear. Coming from a guy with a pet hate for black metal, this album is awesome. It's what I'd call along the lines of "Post Black Metal".

7/10

[Goobert]

[img]http://www.ziemianiczyja.pl/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Gonjasufi-2010-A-Sufi-And-A-Killer.jpg[/img]

Gonjasufi - A Sufi and a Killer (2010)

4?/5

An experimental hip hop psychedelic rock album as sung by a yoga teacher? SURE WHY NOT.

There's a lot to take in here so this is going to take some more listening for me to fully understand/appreciate it.
But from what I've heard from the first listen sounds amazing, so I can't wait to give it another go.

[Abufikatoo]

[img]http://www.mediaboom.org/uploads/posts/1187713188_10529_216.jpg[/img]

"Human = Garbage" by Dystopia

Damn. This was a pretty intense listen. The songs are heavy enough sonically (really good instrumentals I might add, those riffs are great and Dino's a really sick drummer), and I didn't have the lyrics sheet handy while I was listening through it, but what I could make out was very emotionally heavy, "wow" stuff. Was impressed by just about every track.

5/5.

[En-Guage V2]

[QUOTE=Take_Opal;35459641][img]http://www.brooklynvegan.com/img/metal/various/deafheaven3.jpg[/img]
Deafheaven - Roads to Judah (2011)
Genre: Post-Rock, [b]Metal[/b], Shoegaze

Rating: [highlight]5/5[/highlight]
[/QUOTE]

2/3 isn't bad
5/5 isn't bad either
if you could tell me where to find it I'd listen to that

[UberWarri0r]

[QUOTE=En-Guage V2;35592890]2/3 isn't bad
5/5 isn't bad either
if you could tell me where to find it I'd listen to that[/QUOTE]

Just google it or something. I'm sure there are bunch of Post-Black Metal blogs with it.

[ThisGuy0]

[h2]Peter Sotos
Buyer's Market[/h2]

[img]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gKo9nQHmSUI/TxST5O40HCI/AAAAAAAAAVs/bdFJ2d3m6AI/s1600/Buyer%27s%20Market.png[/img]

God knows what I'd rate this. If you've ever thought to yourself 'I'd like to listen to an hour of snippets of interview with rape victims
and their families and the families of murder victims' then hey this is the album for you. It's a memorable and disturbing listen, but it's
entirely spoken word so it'll probably bore a lot of people.

[Donkey_Kong]

4 weeks ago is quite some ago time but I present content to revive this thread. I didn't want to make a thread just for myself and this had an appropriate name, so yeah.

The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle
[IMG]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PuDr5BumgO0/RfrcJ7-_C-I/AAAAAAAAASc/Z2C6jdmBKgE/s320/Odessey_and_Oracle.jpgp[/IMG]
This album grabbed me from the start, and I'm not sure where to start. The sounds is very laid back, I'm used to more modern, loud, aggressive sounding music so this was a nice peaceful break from that stuff. The psychedelic sound really appeals to me, not referring to psychedelic drugs rather, but a sound that for me resembles peace, love and harmony, it's overall just a great chill out album and can really help out a guy who's had a bad day. There's nothing spectacular, but the light poppy rock sound and Colin Blunstone's beautiful vocals had me listening this til the very end with ease.
7/10

Television - Marquee Moon
[IMG]http://bitemefanboy.files.wordpress.com/2006/08/marqueemoon.jpg[/IMG]
This album was a phenomenal listen. I've listened to a couple post-punk bands so it was pretty cool to hear its roots. There's just this indescribable mood about the album that's put up by some ear-catching guitar work. It's the great ever changing, developing guitar licks in albums like these that really carry these albums and grasp my attention which is important when listening to an album. Enough said, this album is great and if you haven't listened to it, you are missing out.
9/10

Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
[IMG]http://www.esquire.com/cm/esquire/images/marvin-gaye-whats-going-on-2009-lg-31964782.jpg[/IMG]
What's Going On from what I've heard is the best Marv has to offer, and after finally listening to it I can see what the deal is with it. It's this real chilled out album with Marvin's soothing voice acts as nearly a journal, dishing out some lyrics I can really relate too. This album isn't for someone who gets thrills out of music necessarily but like The Zombies's debut is a great album if you just want something to keep you company and occupy your ears on any day, bad or not. This album is the epitome of Soul, and if you've ever wanted to venture the genre, this is the place to start. Marvin Gaye is a name we all know and his voice is amazing
8/10

The Doors - The Doors
[IMG]http://dkpresents.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/the_doors.jpg[/IMG]
The Doors are another name I've heard of since I've been young and I've never got a chance to listen to, after knowing The Doors were such a big deal I had high hopes for this album, and to no surprise I was not disappointed. I could spend hours on writing on how great this album is but it's pretty simple, it's what rock is all about, from the driving drums to the overdriven chords and elaborately projected vocals giving a kick-ass sound. It has to be one of the best Rock albums I've ever heard
9/10

Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
[IMG]http://www.academyannex.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/product_images/highway%2061.jpg[/IMG]
Yet ANOTHER person I've heard of all of my life and finally dug in to. Unfortunately my views on this album aren't entirely positive. While the lyrics are great and the music is moody, Bob Dylan's voice doesn't really appeal to me and the music can get monotonous at times (particularly in the case of Tombstone Blues), but I'm not going to give an honest rating just because I don't like it, I suppose it's not my cup of tea. I suppose it was anti-climactic aswell because I was expecting so much from it and I got not much, so for me it was a disappointing listen. Album in my opinion was boring. Sorry if this annoys anyone, but I refuse to rate it because it will be a bias rating.

Nas - Illmatic
[IMG]http://dreysay.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/nas_illmatic_pv.jpg[/IMG]
I'm going to be dead set honest and say that the first time I ever heard about Nas was from his single "Hip Hop is Dead", so I had no clue what to expect from this album being so many years before that, and I didn't want to judge the guy off of one song (not that I didn't like it). But I was very surprised. The beats were awesome and Nas's lyrics and flow are fucking great. I'm not the biggest rap fan but I was still impressed by this album. It's full of catchy hooks and even simple repetitive beats that make you want to skip back to a certain point to listen to one for longer and savour the sound of it. Certainly listen to this if you ever want to get into rap music.
8/10

Camel - Mirage
[IMG]http://www.oknation.net/blog/home/blog_data/141/12141/images/Camel_Mirage.jpg[/IMG]
I never really thought I'd ever turn in to a huge prog fan but this album followed up on the prog I'd already listened to and has convinced me to dive deeper into the genre. I'm a huge fan of the layered sound of the typical rock setup in addition to organs and other foreign instruments to the rock genre such as woodwinds, bizarre synths, etc. Funky clav's and organ stabs, awesome guitar work all carried by a super groovy rhythm section create a great single soundscape of simply strange parts that seem to fit together like a beautiful puzzle. Vocals are great aswell but after the musicianship it's pretty much just icing on the cake. I may be have some positive bias to this because it is prog, but in my opinion it is an awesome album.
9/10

Pink Floyd - Animals
[IMG]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3xmPuvCQvHU/S_brjC1Dy3I/AAAAAAAADI4/t0NfunFZpmA/s320/Pink+Floyd+-+Animals.jpg[/IMG]
I've only listened to Floyd's more known albums, but I had a pretty general idea on what to expect from them to start with. I'm not going to compare it to any of their other albums. It starts off with some love song(?) with some simple guitar chords over some of Water's vocals, but only shortly before it goes back into their typical sound. It's annoying for me to write this review after doing that short one on Camel's album because their styles are similar enough, but the sound is different to an extent. The album has this kind of "hopeless" feel to it as if it's narrating it's views on the worlds flaws from a deceived politicians point of view. The music also helps the voice out with that sound idea I have. Anyways music wise, it's great. It mixes some crunchy guitars with some clean/acoustic guitars with a great rhythm section which is smooth enough to barely notice most of the time but really help out the sound, and the organs and synths come in and out at just the right time. I can say the same for the vocals. Simply put, it's what you'd expect from Pink Floyd, but the album has it's own mood to it. Certain listen for a prog fan but not the first place I'd go to get into Floyd.
8/10

[Hakita]

[QUOTE=Donkey_Kong;36003897]-loadsa reviews-[/QUOTE]
What about your review of King Crimson's Red?

[Donkey_Kong]

Oops, forgot about that one.

[AK'z]

Not the first to hate Dylan's vocals don't worry. :)

It's something that either "ticks" with you or it doesn't.

[Take_Opal]

[IMG]http://filesmelt.com/dl/TenStoriesCover.jpg[/IMG]
[b]mewithoutYou[/b] - [b]Ten Stories[/b] (2012)
Genre: Post-Hardcore and Folk-Rock

I've had this since Monday and I have yet to stop listening to it. I came in expecting a
folky version of La Dispute just from a description I had heard. What I found were amazing l
yrics akin to the stories you'd find in a book, really emotional and catchy post-hardcore
songs fused with folk-rock and some very thought provoking sentiments. This reminds me a
hell of a lot like In the Aeroplane Over the Sea in theme, aesthetic and message. This is
absolutely one of my albums of the year if not my album of the year (at least, so far.) and I'd
recommend it to anyone who is a fan of creative lyricism, turn of the century themes, existentialism
as well as folk and post-hardcore.

Rating: [highlight]5/5[/highlight]

Favorite Tracks:

Cardiff Giant
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oI-__gWe3I[/media]

Fox's Dream of the Log Flume
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S046KlS1rmE[/media]

[editline]18th May 2012[/editline]

and if you're genuinely interested, PM me. I have a few DL codes for an mp3 version of it.