Alternative Rock music reviews

I tried so hard to go on without purchasing this special edition, but just couldn't! I am so glad I was able to get this brilliant album/DVD. Not only do you get Sing the Sorrow, AFI's best album to date, but a totally sweet short film done in 2 different soundtracks *Jade's and Hunter's* You also get 5 songs done in 5.1 surround. But, the best part is the 60+ page hardcover book. It's so lovely. If you have the cash, I suggest you buy it the second you can. It is without a doubt rad. <3

I had no qualms paying fifty bucks for my copy of this, but then, I am a complete and utter devotee of all things AFI. Granted, I am a relatively new fan, but still no less devoted than the ones who have been around since their inception. Since I've already written a review of STS from a musical standpoint for the CD, I will go by the DVD. Clandestine is a companion piece to the album, meant to guide you in your path of discovering its meaning. It's rife with clues and hints that tie in directly with songs. AFI in no way spells it out for you, you have to figure it out on your own. But I tell you, once it hits you, it's mind-blowing. But this edition is really only going to appeal to the die-hards. The casual fan just doesn't care about the underlying theme of this album, and therefore will just be wasting their money. Otherwise, it is WELL worth the money and time spent on this. OH, and let's not forget the 5.1 remixes of some of the songs, and the fact that you get Reiver's Music, which is only otherwise available on the 336 vinyl (also out of print and hard to find). Anyways, if you love AFI as much as I do, get this as soon as you can get your hands on a copy.

I wasn't exactly sure what i was getting myself into with a "limited edition w/ Bonus DVD" thing. but, i haven't regreted it one bit! this package gives you Sing the Sorrow, a beautifully illustrated book, and a DVD which contains a short film (done by AFI, acted by AFI) and great sound enhanced versions of some of the songs off the album and one not on the album, riever's song. yea, it's definately worth the extra money. because now, you have a copy for in your car and in your house...i do not joke, it's actually quite smart. If you are skeptical about the short film, well, let me put it this way, it's very college-film-school-esque, but it's the best i've ever seen. It is a silent film, but dear lord, stop being dumb, and get it, it's amazing.

What a great learning experience to those who are just discovering Jimmie Rodgers. This is a good way to bring the blues-country knowledge to younger listeners who are just learning to enjoy this genre of music. With the latest artists givnig their spin on the traditional music, this is a "don't miss" collection.

Like the Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly Tribute this album has well selected artists who do an excellent job of performing Jimmie Rodgers' tunes.

I grew up listening to Jimmie Rodgers and these all are great intrepretations of his music. Not a bad cut among the CD, I listen beginning to end often and never tire of the tunes.

i was working at tower records when this came out, and it was in the rotation in the store for a while...and songs started to grab me. mostly bono...but john mellencamp as well. bono's version of "dreaming with tears in my eyes" is one of the saddest, most beautiful songs i've ever heard; i looked on amazon for it because my old copy is long lost and my heart has been broken again, and when i'm sad i think of this song, because it is as sad as a broken heart but as beautiful as true love. i don't know who wouldn't love this song and this album.
ps-i'm available

First off let me explain, I am not knockin the boys from OK when I say garage band, since most of the bands I love sound like kick butt garage bands and they are no exception with the likes of skynyrd, hatchett, outlaws and blackfoot.

I have been keen on these guys for about three years and let me tell you this ain't country it is serious rock ( southern rock ). Cody and the band really get it right with soul gravy from the opening Number to the end Stranglehold, which I did not even know was on the CD but in a stoned state of mind after Too Far Gone was over while reading Jimmy Buffett a pirate looks at 50 I had no other CD on the player and was drifting thinking about my up and coming trip to Jamaica when holly S*#t I thought I had Terrible Ted on the player. If you like rock and I mean damn good rock and if you happen to be over the age of 40 or even pushin the under belly of 50 like some of us then this is a must have for your collection. Its what rock albums are supposed to be.

This is about the only CD that I can listen to over and over and it will never get old. I have seen them in concert and it was the best concert that i have ever been to. Just keep it going!

absolutly great CD!! one of the best yet!! i like this CD a lot better that "purple" even. buy it you won't regret it, that goes for seasoned and virgin fans alike!

Being a fan of similar groups such as Joydrop and Evanescence, I have been looking for groups such as The Superjesus to listen to. This is a very good debut album, sometimes very raw and unhibited. I especially enjoyed Down Again, Saturation, I'm Stained and the final closing track which sounds oddly half-finished.

At times them music veers towards Grunge, but never quite getting there. It's a sort of melodic rock with a 'garagey' feel, almost like it was literally recorded in a garage.

Sarah Mcleod's vocal delivery is very good, occasionally rasping. Her vocals arent quite as diverse as say Tara Sloan or Amy from Evanescence but are still very good. Her vocals for example would fit nicely on albums by Love Spirals Downwards - another great group to check out.

On the strength of this album I bought the second album by The Superjesus which im looking forward to.

As mentioned earlier in the review if you like this kind of music there are many bands I could reccomend.

Obvious comparisons could be made with Nirvana, The Foo Fighters, The Cranberries, Veruca Salt, Mazzy Star, Hooverphonic, Joydrop and Evanescence.

If you havent heard of many of these bands there is a wealth of interesting music to be found there.

Another guitar pop/rock act from Australia. By the the time this album was released (97-98), the scene was already very crowded with most acts failing to distiguish themselves from the other. What set them apart from the herd was Sarah's clear, delicate vocal delivery and Guitarist Chris Tennants solid and catchy songwriting. Musicaly they stick to a very basic formula of catchy post grunge-like melodic guitar riffing. There are quick and heavy tracks and also some mellower material which Sarah handles pretty well. I will go to say that I still enjoy this disc today and it is well worth purchasing for those into guitar pop-rock with good female vocals.

Yes, "Sumo" is a truely GREAT hard rock album, even though the last 2 songs on it are so bad/unfinished, I can't even listen to them (the other 8 songs are SO good, though).

why is Sun Going Down not on this best of disc????????????? it is clearly one of the very best even though what is best is still subjective and open to debate, it would be like taking save you. i don't get it!

Well, i just wanted to thank everybody who gave their reviews on this particular CD,,,Let me tell you this, I am so glad i bought it....I LOVE IT! I cannot believe that i have never heard of this before i fell into this by reading your reviews and listening to the sample music....thanks everyone! The voice in this is amazing, i can't stop listening to it! I must say it is one of the best Cd's i now own and i can honestly say that nobody would be disappointed if they bought it, I AM NOT! I was looking for different music to listen to and this is perfect...it is OUTSTANDING! You have to buy this CD! You will be thanking everybody here like i am.....

This is an EXCELLENT compilation, GREAT choice of songs. Nothing more to be said.

David Rehak
author of "Poems From My Bleeding Heart"

The envelope of progressive metal has been breached. There is no genre that this band or this album can safely be put in. Despite the fact that I am an extraordinarily picky listener, I have found in this recording an extraordinary depth and variety that satisfies me far beyond the typical recording I listen to. While many "experimental" bands are adept at adding a lot of fluff to a disc, there is not a single throwaway track on this disc. The best thing about this album is that it manages to be boldly innovative without being weird simply for the sake of being weird. This group was clearly too experimental to gain wide commercial acceptance but also too polished to be embraced by dogmatic metalheads. Although this is certainly not the first band to perform or record with two percussionists, this is the first band with two percussionists I've heard of that really makes memorable rhythms. The percussive rhythyms on this album have a narcotic quality. The Magreb/Near Eastern elements are very effective here, yet it doesn't take any illegal substance to appreciate them. How should I describe the vocals? Vaughn Stevenson doesn't sound like anyone I've heard before. His voice sounds midrange/nasal in spots but not to the extent that it sounds annoying. There is enough intentional warble in his voice to offend the typical metalhead, but the heavy-handed guitar playing would probably scare away most of the fans of British alternative music. Despite the hypnotic pulse beats you hear on some of the tunes on this CD, there's no mistaking this disc for techno! The beats are made by flesh-and-blood percussionists with drumsticks and with digitally altered timbres for optimal effect. There seems to be plenty of musical space in this recording so that every instrument can be heard (although the drumming of both percussionists sounds blended). For the fans of the heaviest rockbands: If you enjoy the kind of rigid ensemble playing where the whole band is playing using a jackhammer for a metronome, then you will not be able to appreciate many of the sumptuous subtleties this disc offers. For more open-minded listeners: If you do not find a way to get your hands on this album, you are depriving yourself of one of the most amazing recordings produced in the nineties.

This album takes a couple of listens to really get into (like a Tool or Matthew Good album, for exemple), but when you do get into, you'll want to stay there. This is not thoughtless-sing-alond-and-don't-think music, this is an exercice of style and a good one. A mix of metal, industrial, rock and even pop, but always a good mix.

The only thing to hold against Course of Empire on this album is that they sometimes take too long to finish a track. While New Maps (or Neli Maps if you prefer) and Information are great metal-industrial songs of perfect lenght, songs like Persian Song and Respect take too long to finish. That said, it's really a minor detail.

The best songs on this album (without taking anything from the others) are definitely in the last segment of the album, starting with 59 Minutes and ending with Respect. I often quote the lyrics from 59 Minutes : "Nothing will save you from human behavior, Nothing will save you, you built your own savior." Then there's Freaks that you can listen when you're mad (it helps!). Captain Control is the pop song on the album, and it's a catchy one. Then comes Respect, which is the song you'll want to listen to loud. Well, the first half of it anyway (I said earlier it should have been shorter).

So, from the great intro (I could just listen to Radio Teheran and the first seconds of New Maps over and over) to the hidden track, this is a wonderful achievement. If I would to compare this band to any other, it would be Stabbing Westward. Both bands are worth checking out. So do it. Now. Come on now! Carry on.

Simply put, Course of Empire is one of the best bands to ever get together. The only reason they aren't as famous as Pearl Jam is because the record company totally [messed] up on their marketing plan. Don't miss this last recording of a band that should have been selling millions of records!

Check Out www.becrecordings.com. Click on "Artists" menu. Then click on the picture of the four guys (Smalltown Poets). You will find a picture of the NEW Album Cover and a complete list of the 10 NEW Songs from the album due to be released 10/19/04. The new Smalltown Poets recording is complete! The album titled "It's Later Than It's Ever Been" is scheduled to be in stores October 19, 2004! Exactly 2 Weeks From Now!

I'm just a huge SP fan! This is a well thought out disc. I wish they would make another! I have all their stuff and I never been let down.

These guys are just great. I have been listening to them for quite some time. Honestly I bought this CD because I am the third. I love the lyrics and the tunes are melodic. Out of 300+ Christian CD's I now own this are certianly in the top ten.

This has been one of my favorite, and I think one of the all time best Alternative rock albums of the 80's or 90's, since I stumbled on to a copy of it in a store in Berkley, California in 1990. It is still to this day one of my most often played CD's that almost no one has ever heard of. I recommend getting all of the bands older stuff if you enjoy this album - Especially the albums "Impurity" and "The ghost of Cain". These guys are amazing storytellers and song writers. There music seems to always stay relevent in an enlightened (but darker) way, without ever seeming preachy. A masterpiece!

This is a perfect album (or as close as you're gonna get anywhere). Perhaps "Nothing Touches" can get a wee bit boring, but from the opening fade of "I Love the World" to the closing ENOUGHS of "White Coats" this album is one of the most underrated and unjustly unheard rock n roll masterpieces of the late 20th Century. I met Justin Sullivan in 2003 after hearing his voice nearly every day since 1993. I was able to express what his songs and this album have meant to me. The yearning and defiance. The injustice and the sadness.

Sorry to be melodramatic, but it's a great and timeless recording. Full of energy and passion.

I got New Model Army's "Thunder and Consolation" at the start of finals week. That was a mistake. I definitely spent far more time memorizing the album's lyrics, singing along with the songs, or just staring out into space while "Thunder and Consolation" played on infinite repeat than I actually did studying and writing papers.

I have no regrets.

To put it briefly, "Thunder and Consolation" is an incredible album, with a mix of styles and hardly a sour note. This CD edition includes three songs (The Charge, Chinese Whispers and White Coats) from New Model Army's 1987 "White Coats" EP, as well as Nothing Touches, a song from some other source.

I was first captivated by The Charge, White Coats and I Love the World, all of them intense songs featuring heavy drums, electric guitars and aggressive lyrics. Then I fell in love with Ballad of Bodmin Pill and Vagabonds, the latter featuring brilliant electric violin work from Ed Alleyne-Johnson that meshes perfectly with crunching electric guitars. After that it was the slow, acoustic, heartfelt Green and Grey and Nothing Touches that stole my attention.

225, 125 mph and Family are also excellent - all quicker, more upbeat songs. Family Life and Archway Towers are slower, haunting, and wonderful. The only song I actually don't like is Chinese Whispers, which combines obnoxious lyrics with annoying music that reminds me of Toni Basil's Hey Mickey (not a good thing). I'm also not crazy about Inheritance, which is half-spoken, half-sung over solo drums.

I'm a newcomer to New Model Army, but "Thunder and Consolation" and their more recent album "Eight" have me hooked. Even though their politics seem a little luddite for my tastes (I'm on my way to becoming one of the "people in the white coats" challenged in the last track), that doesn't detract from my enjoyment of "Thunder and Consolation". This album is pretty much as close to perfection as you can get. I urge you to check it out as soon as you can.

This CD will bring you to tears...all the artists that paid tribute to Kate Wolf did so with all their hearts...every song is done with tender loving care and honor the memory of this beautiful song writer...

"Treasures Left Behind" is meant to be a tribute to the late folk-singer Kate Wolf. It's full of her beautiful music, sung by other artists who were either moved by Kate Wolf the person, or by her music.

One of the things I love about this collection is that it includes an insert with a lot of great stories about Kate Wolf, as well as the words to each song.

I found all of the songs on this CD to be both awesome and thought provoking. So, I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys folk-type music - these songs have "real" meaning...

Look at all the musicians here and who they are and what they mean. Go on any page for any Kate Wolf recording and see how many people feel moved to write about Kate and what she meant to them. You are smart if you read all those comments, smarter if you get as much Kate Wolf and her friends as you can, and are lucky, blessed to have found Kate even though she is no longer with us on Earth, she is here with her music, with the spirit that she has inspired.

Kate's "Red Tailed Hawk" will always be inscribed on my brain its beauty its realness, its aptness, and the reality of the golden rolling hills of California. So perfect and beautiful even though I never had a tape or LP or a CD of it until 12 years after it came out, until after we lost Kate. Still its power comes to me as it did on an old radio sitting in an Oakland apartment, the signal fighting its way all the way up from KFAT ("because we need the bucks) down in Gilroy.

The vision of California that Kate weaves on all her records is preciseless, unique real, and a treasure even if much of it is sweeten myth.

I feel so bad that I lived in San Fransisco and Oakland and travelled up and down California and the West Coast in the late 1970s and early 1980s when Kate was doing her best work and only saw her sing once. There was something to her voice that gets through to me, something pure. Part of Kate's magic is the superb arrangements and backup that got from the musical genius Nina Gerber her main accompaniest. Nina is now out there solo alot. If you like guitar and this kind music check out Nina too.
Oh Kate, why didn't we realize how much of a golden treasure you were when you were among us. In her memory think of a performer you might miss like we all miss Kate--well that isnt fair because thats a big ideal to measure up to--how about someone you would miss half or a quarter as much as I miss Kate, and make sure you go see them while you can, and maybe bring a friend, bring two. How about going to see everyone on this record who is touring and ask them to do a Kate Wolf song, or better, ask them to do whatever song Kate liked them to play for her.

If a group of peyote-addled Meso-American demigods were to try to record a tribute to Can, it would probably end up sounding somewhat similar to Super Ae. Where Boredoms' previous Chocolate Synthesizer was an aural stimulant, restlessly hopping from one genre to another in barely controlled bursts of noise, this album is more like a hallucinogen, gradually enveloping the listener in its hazy, trippy layers of sound. This is avant-garde rock that doesn't hold back on the rock, combining its fearsome heaviness with bizarre song structures in a way that practically makes Mr. Bungle sound commercial. True, most of the songs have a classic guitar and drum backing, but it's what the band members do with those instruments, as well as their penchant for spacey electronic effects and harsh use of tape loops, that elevates Super AE above mundane genre classifications.

First of all, for fans of Boredoms' more immediate earlier material, it should be noted that the tracks on Super AE are loooonnnnnnnggggg. There may only be seven pieces here, but most of them were clearly written for maximum expansiveness, clocking in an an average of about nine minutes apiece. These are some true epics, filled with minimalist grooves and fuzzed-out stoner-metal riffing that wouldn't sound too out of place on a Kyuss album, capped off by a mix of quasi-spirtual tribal chants, demented shrieking, and indecipherable grunts from the one and only Yamatsuka Eye. And while it can get a little playful at times (Super Are You briefly showcases the thrashy approach that made Boredoms notorious during their art-punk days), Super Ae is generally deadly serious when it comes to freaking out listeners. The songs on Super Ae don't really go anywhere, and there's certainly nothing resembling a traditional release or resolution to them, but with Boredoms listening really is a journey rather than a destination. Only the shimmering closer Super Good could be described as anything resembling easy listening, but from a band that's all about screwing with minds that feels just about right.

it is strange how one song can be outstanding during one listen, yet horrible the next listen.

this is how i feel about this album. i feel it works well as background music while you are doing something else, or if you sit back and take it all in while doing nothing else. this is when i've enjoyed this album the most. i have also listened to this album through headphones while doing something else, and that is even better. but when doing something like driving, it seemed difficult to get through. for example: during a long roadtrip, i put this CD in and i kept thinking to myself, when will this song end!?

but when i am doing something else (housework, writing a paper, etc) it comes across as very relaxing...even with the pace changes and screams. in these instances, i almost cannot believe the CD is almost over...and i want to replay it. it is somewhat innovative and interesting. i just would not listen to it right after listening to "traditional" music (rock, pop, whatever). The Boredoms have a style and mood completely unique to them and to have this CD mixed into to others just disrupts the flow of not only the other CDs (b/c there are very few sounds like Super AE) but also the flow of this album itself.

this is a CD that is certainly not very everyone. in fact, i have not recommended it to anyone i know personally because i know that they do not have the patience to deal with this album. and patience is definitely needed. it is likely that most people cannot get through the spontaneous (yet somehow rhythmatic) tape speed changes in Track One, much less through the other moments of "oh-my-gosh-my-head-is-going-to-explode...oh-wait-it-calmed-down" in the remaining tracks.

the samples provided through this website really do no justice to The Boredoms or this album. so, if you have patience andare open to "new" (i.e. radical) types of music, then i would definitely buy this album. otherwise, steer clear of this because all it will be to you is "noise."

Pretty good, but not as good as some of their earlier albums, in my opinion.