Alternative Rock music reviews

This cd is the best cd i own, by far! The lyrics and music are soooo great. The band's sound is absolutely amazing. It is a great cd for any taste in music! Congrats to Jarrod, Mark, John, and Brad on their record deal with Mojo Records!!! We can't wait for the next cd! (Admiral Twin ROCKS!)

Admiral Twin totally rock! The CD, Unlucky is awesome! Everyone must buy this CD. The music is very original and well composed. Not to mention, that the band members, Brad, Mark, Jarrod, and John write it all themselves. Trust me, this CD rocks! Buy it. Also check out Jenny Labow's CD, Flourish. She appears on a song on Unlucky. Beautiful voice!

i saw admiral twin in concert and since then i can't get them off my mind they are so cool and so hip their cd is the best one yet!!

Kent is an unbelievable band, if you don't have Isola and Hagnesta Hill (english versions) then RUN and buy them now. Vapen & Ammunition is unfortunately in Swedish and I seriously doubt we will ever get another english Kent CD, since the rest of the world ignores them. But this takes up where Isola left off, and while Hagnesta is a great album it was a tad too synthy to equal Isola, and even though this is in Swedish i have a feeling this would have equaled Isola. I know this sounds crazy, but thats what happens when us anglos get addicted to Kent! So in summary - a worthy buy for the Kent fan, even if you don't speak the language. Hey, just think, when that Swedish exchange student comes over to your bachelor pad, you will have the perfect CD to make out to! That's what I'm counting on, anyways.

I discovered Kent very recently but have managed to acquire all of their albums in a short time. This is by far the best album Kent has released - and I love them all, whether they are being sung in Swedish or English (as in the case of Isola and Hagnesta Hill)! The sound is mellow, Jocke's voice is penetratingly beautiful and the lyrics, for us who know Swedish, are so poetic it almost hurts. I will most definately buy this album when it is released in English.

If you don't check out this CD you are basically denying yourself one of the best albums ever. It's even better than Hagnesta Hill, which was somehow even better than Isola..and so one back to Kent's debut CD. If you're into pop/rock/alternative at all, of just curious even, check this one out.

Simply a great CD debut by a band that was done in by the 80s gloss.

Sadly, Joseph Marques Rodriguez, lead singer of Winter Hours, passed away on June 28th, 2003.

That said, you can now get "These Familiar Places" a 2-CD compliation of all the WH EPs and albums (many available on CD for the first time), with three previously unreleased tracks, is now available....

Back in the 80's, I was a huge fan of early REM. Apparently, REM were fans of this band. Sadly & despite a steady following, The Hours dissolved before they acheived the national recognition they deserved. I only know of 2 albums by them: TILL THE MORNING COMES & their eponymously titled 2nd release. Both are out of print, but bootleg or used copies can be tracked down.

Though one could superficially compare them to REM, musically & lyrically they surpass. But any such comparisons really sell The Hours short. I'd say they drew on such diverse influences as the Byrds, Television, Big Star, Richard Thompson & Gram Parsons.

Subtlety was the name of their game & like Nick Drake, these songs take their time to shyly reveal themselves. In other words, you have to go to them, they're not going to go to you. Once that happens, the rewards are endless. Mike Carlucci's guitar playing is formidable & late vocalist, Joseph Marques' baritone is unaffected, low key & haunting.

An ever growing cult follwing is forming around these guys & for good reason. Lyrically & musically they seemed to stumble upon something out of time & thus never dated. One of the best bands you never heard of.

Be a step ahead of the curve & acquaint yourself with one of the finest, yet least known bands of the 80's. I won't be long before you're humming tunes like "Hyacinth Girl" to yourself.

Most good modern rock and roll music. I've been an acolyte of this band since I first heard them on NYC-area college radio around 1984, on once-fine stations like WNYU FM and WRHU Hosftra
and WBAU FM Adelphi University (now defunct!) where later I even sat in and did some radio and training for same as a volunteer and student. Hearing that lead singer Joseph Marques passed on last summer was yet another awful disaster in a year
(so far, half a decade maybe) of too much of such bad news. When this band broke up I was sad enough, but hearing that Joe died was far worse. And with him died perhaps
(I really hope I'm wrong) really good, bracing, adventurous,
well-written and intelligent post-punk rock music. I was a huge R.E.M. and 10,000 Maniacs fan in the 80s and I still value Winter Hours' music WAY ABOVE both of those bands' earlier output. That's the esteem that I still hold this band in, it was a magic time when I first heard the opening chords of "Hyacinth Girl" on the radio in 1984 and was stopped literally in my tracks by the sound this band made...it still sounds magic to me now. I don't hear magic like this very often these days, though I always hope for some like this band released regularly for about seven years. Most of today's bands wouldn't even have the faintest clue how to write a song half as good as anything on this CD, and that's not a positive reflection on where they're mainly at at all. You could say some of this sounds dated, the production isn't always great (early stuff was done on a budget like many indie records) but the music holds up for the most part. And in 50 years' time it will be holding up a LOT better than most of the sheer worthless, soulless trash on the radio and in the stores now. With the decline of bands like Winter Hours, college radio declined apace, it became overly commercial and formatted. But this CD will serve to remind us of a time when turning to left of the dial was never more exciting and mind-expanding and just plain rockin'. I know Michael Carlucci of the band and he's
still very proud of what they did, and well he should be.
Winter Hours's music will stand the test of time, it already has and it's been what, twenty years? Buy this if you have any taste in indie rock whatsoever, you won't regret it. This CD
will stay in rotation for a very long time. p.s. Winter Hours' Bob Perry has a fabulous recent solo album out now Light Fuse, Get Away which is available here on Amazon, get that too, it's really a great uplifting, folk-alt. country rock album.

Coming out of an already diverse music collection I haven't been able to stop playing this disc. I've been listening to it everyday since I got it and continue to love it even more. All in all it's happy music. I don't think there is a single bad song on this disc. I have yet to hear any of their other stuff but I can't wait to hear some more of it because it's just that kind of music that makes you feel happy. It's just great, check it out.

This band music is a must to listen to. Been a life time dead head, I injoy phish also. But no band has moved me the way STRANGEFOLK has. As writers of music ;everyone of their songs are moving.I never heard a bad song from them.Their music will make you dance (don't dance "maby"but you will find your self moving)If you have chance to see STRANGEFOLK do so you will have no regreats.If you read this review buy all their CD'S. You will not regreat it.Enjoy People.

This album, as opposed to their previous semi-independant efforts, has a higher quality of production while retaining the earthy feel of their off the cuff style of music. Expansive vocals and lyrics accompany the incredible guitar playing with songs that also have more of a groove than their previous, but none the less inspiring, efforts. An excellent presentation.

dEUS aren't exactly art rock, but they're not really rock, either: spacey and weird enough to get ignored by the casual listener, yet too "hooky" and commercial to really be appreciated by the thick glasses-snob set. dEUS fill a pretty perfect niche for those of us who like our weird music to still be fun and hummable. The opener rings out like an early 90's anthem, yet tunes like "Hotellounge" seem like they could be written by Bernie Taupin and Elton John. If you haven't heard this album, you're really missing out. I couldn't get into the 2nd release quite as much, but this album demands to be heard.

"It all began in 1994. A small but vibrant Antwerp (Belgium, Europe) music scene meant that most alternative bands were incestuous, liquid beings; with each musician being as likely to be in five bands as one, but a mutual love of all things alternative and underground, melded five talented musicians and performers into dEUS. A band that spent the next six years producing a body of work that, chameleon-like, was able to array it's colour shifts of musical style and tone in dazzling kaleidoscope but, in shape, was eternally, indisputably and unmistakably dEUS.

Debut album 'Worst Case Scenario' with the gonzoid punk chant of first single 'Suds & Soda' to the off kilter pop sensibilities of 'Via' and onwards to the gentle introspective elegance of 'Hotellounge (Be The Death Of Me)', emanated from the streets of Belgium across mainland Europe and stone skipped its way across the Channel to knock on the door of the musical psyche of a continent. Backed up by powerhouse live performances through Europe, dEUS had successfully launched themselves into the burgeoningly healthy indie scene of the mid-90s and achieved it with a hybrid of intelligence and experimentation that perhaps was lacking in some of the more back-to-basics, past-reverential sounds of their contemporaries."

The above is some background, taken from the dEUS-website. I still remember my schoolfriends being exited about "that band with the violin" that they had seen live (I was living in Germany at the time, so I hadn't seen them). When this album came out, some of my friends practically forced me to listen to it... And I was blown away. Back when Mtv was still a station where you could discover new things, they used to play the Suds & Soda video a lot (with the "Friday friday friday" chanting). A belgian rock journalist recently commented that this song has become our national anthem, and in a way, it has. So you should definitely buy this album...

I know they are relatively unknown in the States (even though they are touring there as I'm writing this), but in Europe (and Israel), most of their recent concerts (over 100) were sold out very quickly. They have recently released their 4th album, Pocket Revolution (if you don't count the ep).

I also want to correct one of the other reviewers: It was their bass player, not their singer, who went on to form the band that was first called Moondog Jr. and is now called Zita Swoon. Check them out as well!

www.deus.be and www.zitaswoon.be

If you are the kind of person who loves music that has no boundaries , no frontiers , and seamlessly traverses genre of music , and effortlessly captures the essence of them by transfusing them as sound and roll them into music , then DO NOT read further ..just grab a copy of this album. These guys will blow your mind with their talent and compositions, and a fabulous arrangement. Some rare instruments are used on this album , and voices are also used as instruments. Preferably listen to it using a headphone and a good one at that. If you are janxed then there is nothing like it. Take this trip today :).

The best, in my opinion out of her 4 CDs.
I was initially going to rate it a 4 out of 5 stars, but who am I kidding, I have been listening to this CD continuously for years. I drop it and pick it up again!
Julieta is a one-of-a-kind gem from Mexico, but trandescends languages.

I enjoyed this album very much.I have all three of her albums.I like this one the best.

Aqu� is a great record. Julieta Venegas is a hard hitting pop rocker along the lines of POE or early Alanis. The neat thing about Julieta is that she goes from lilting jazzy rhythms to straight ahead rock with a totally un-affected voice. So many Latin pop stars sound trained and polished. Julieta Venegas has a great voice and just sings. Her other two albums are also quite good. S� is somewhat more refined while Bueninvento is much rawer.

By far the best UK guitar group in that period between The Smiths and the Stone Roses. Guy Chadwick has one of the most soothing voices in rock, which when combined with Terry Bicker's spine-tingling guitar produces some moments of pure pop beauty.As well as their most famous songs like Christine and Destroy The Heart, this CD also contains some of their lesser known tracks, like the unbelievably gorgeous Girl With The Loneliest Eyes. My only quibble with this compilation is the selection of some of the later tracks chosen over far better earlier stuff, but as an introduction to one of the most underrated bands ever, this CD does the job just fine.

This kind of band is definetively why its worth paying for a CD instead of downloading. HOL brought to the world of music songs with charisma, passion, melody and energy. On top of that, their lyrics have something to say about life. Drown the soul/and through the eyes/You'll see a future/so cold and lonely/Hunt the tiger/and kill the jungle/how money cooks/inside us all/ (You don't Understand): That's something few bands make as equal exciting in poetry. As others have said, they're an underrated band, but that made them sort of underground, which is why HOL is a real treasure planet Earth has yet to discover.

This review is not about this album, but about the band. Without HOL, there would be no Radiohead, no Blur, no Coldplay, etc.... Simply one of the most underrated bands of all time. Moody, introspective, poetic lyrics. Simple yet stunning musicianship. Almost impossible to compile a "Best Of," from this band. I would highly, highly recommend the Peel Sessions (if you can find it) and Spy in the House Of Love. A late-80's collection of singles and b-sides. All defy accurate description.

I have loved Tracy since she debuted Fast Car back in high school and I love her more and more as the years go by. She never stops making excellent music that inspires and touches the soul....this CD in particular is a real winner. I actually consider it a blessing that she is not on the radio where her music would become mundane and ordinary. Instead it's only by hearing about her through others that people have the privilege of listening to her wonderful music where you just can't get enough and it just makes you feel good. She's the best and there's no one else out there like her. That's a good thing!

oh Tracy, you bless my soul. I have all of her CDs and love them all. this one is an early one, and she gets even better, but, if you are a fan, you must have them ALL. buy it, love it, you will like her music, if not, something wrong with you! (kidding) it's good though, ok.

I am totally a new devotee to Tracy... Other than 'Fast Car' and 'Give me one good Reason', I had never heard any other music of hers. I have to agree with the last review and say that it is a darn shame that some of her other work has not been as noticed. Oh well....the ones of us who are willing to give good music a chance have some of the best music around to listen to with her. Crossroads is an awesome buy ~~Highly Recommended~~

Much hype surrounding the release of UTBUTS when it came out in the mid-90's. But I have to say it's overrated. Most of the songs won't last long. Of course, there are still some great songs on here but the change to a recording studio has also meant a decline in material, though they fortunately picked that up on later albums

how do you follow up the twin lo-fi greatness of bee thousand and alien lanes? you don't. to his credit, robert pollard knew this. this is the record that comfortably straddles the band's basement past and its slick future. the resulting effort is stellar. gone is the laser-like focus of the aforementioned jewels, replaced by a dark universe where there is no joy and fear seems to be the only common thread. this is the domain of the cut-out witch. her spell is cast largely on this entire songscape. the entire record revolves around that one brilliant song. and she CAN change your life.

Considering how much music I've listened to and reviewed by these guys, it's surprising to recognize how little I know about them. Although I've listened to (the equivalent of) perhaps a dozen albums worth of music, I still cannot say I understand Guided By Voices, and I like that. They are a band that keeps me guessing, that forces me to listen with my wits as much as my ears, and I like that, too. With lyrics that are as opaque as a kaleidoscope, there just isn't much that is tangible enough to provide a foothold.
The most obvious trait of GBV is their tendency to take a song just past the point of creativity, and then record it, unadorned. For music fans who listen creatively, this is great fun, because it forces the listener to hear the song from an angle that is obliquely opposed to most pop music. It isn't ear candy, and without the production values that are now considered `normal' or essential for the pop marketplace, we either hear the song through the gauze of `low-fi' or we ignore it entirely. I hate to admit this, but the average Joe on the street likes his music to be provided for him; let radio rotate a few prefabricated variations on familiar themes, and Joe Public is fine with it. He would hate Guided By Voices, and the reasons are simple. The primary reason is that this band avoids the polish and sheen of production values the way that cats avoid swimming pools. I might not know much about the band themselves, but their work methods seem to be fairly obvious. After a song is written, the recording commences soon afterward. Once the song is set down, it is left in that state as if it were preserved in aspic. It's a strange methodology because it relies on the infinite possibilities of initial creation, but forces the process to end at that point.
On Under the Bushes Under the Stars, Guided By Voices allow themselves a bit more leeway with production (just a bit), and the album benefits greatly from it. After all, why can't production (or post-production, for that matter) be used as a creative tool? The five tracks that kick off the album make this point abundantly clear, with an attention to detail that is nowhere near anal, but at least shows some consideration for the intelligent songs they decorate. "Rhine Jive Click", "Burning Flag Birthday Suit" and "The Official Ironman Rally Song" sound exactly like Guided By Voices, but they also sound good enough for commercial airplay. One song, "Don't Stop Now" is a re-recording of an earlier song, and true to what I had said earlier, its arrangement remains absolutely true to the low-fi version it updates, except with a production that suits it better and makes it more appealing. These guys still might not get airplay, but after this album, I can no longer say that it is simply because the band chooses it to be that way. Who knows? If radio stations started playing "Lord of Overstock", maybe Joe Public would hum along. A Tom Ryan

Amazing. Gets better with repeated listenings. I recommend this CD to anyone who appreciates good songwriting, great melodies and a unique voice. I saw David Gray in concert a couple of years ago. The same quality you find on his recordings you find it live. Great perfomer.

Anyone who's heard 'White Ladder' or 'A New Day At Midnight' knows that David Gray is a GREAT singer/songwriter with heartfelt lyrics and not an ounce of pretense. He sings, writes and plays and we know that he's a smart, insightful, humble person. However, not as many people have heard 'A Century Ends' which is a shame because it's definitely Gray's best album. It's truly heartfelt. There isn't a bad track on the album -- it's really a strong, strong debut. It's one of my favorite albums of all time and no adult alternative/folk/acoustic fan can go on listening to music without picking this album up first. If you don't believe me, listen -- the album speaks for itself!

If you (like me) were attracted to David Gray through "White Ladder," you most likely became interested in finding some of his other music. Luckily, "A Century Ends" doesn't disappoint, and even rivals the electronica-folk-pop sound of "Ladder." Gray's style is similar to Van Morrison and 60's/70's Dylan--he uses acoustic and electric guitars, along with piano and organ to rock out with a folky edge. The album's opener, "Shine" is a gorgeous breakup ballad in open tuning. Throughout, the album provides solid rockers with VERY poetic, beautiful, and meaningful lyrics. The title track rocks, and contains some great societal commentary, as does "Let the Truth Sting." Throughout, Gray sings with a youthfull passion sometimes less evident on his later works. "Gathering Dust" and "Birds Without Wings" are sublime ballads with very smart lyrics and excellent imagery. Gray's arrangements are all of similar style, but the album's overall cohesion is very strong and even. This record is recommended for a deep, emotional ride that will appeal to fans of Springsteen, Dylan and Van Morrison, and hopefully expand the horizons of fans of "White Ladder." Check it out!