Alternative Rock music reviews

Feathermerchants' latest album is one of those pleasant indie albums that you won't really remember too vividly afterwards. With nice vocals, passable songs and a backdrop of indie-folk-pop, "Unarmed Against the Dark" is an enjoyable but unexceptional listen.

Starting off with the soft "All The Way Home," the Feathermerchants blend together downtempo folky songs (the pensive "9th Ward," the downbeat "Dan" and "Reptile Mind") with vaguely poppy tunes (catchy "Daffodils"). From time to time they break out of the folk-pop mold with the vaguely gothic ballads (prayerlike "Ursuline") and a few dashes of country.

"Unarmed Against the Dark" is a nice album. Not a great album, but a nice one. It mixes a few genres and tosses in some poetry, sung with sweet vocals and with some decent background accompaniment. Except for the lead singer, there isn't anything that really stands out about Feathermerchants -- it's all okay, but not great.

The biggest musical weakness of "Unarmed" is that most of the songs sound more or less the same. The tunes are somewhat different, but they're almost all downtempo arrangements of guitar and percussion, with a dash of bass and bouzouki. For that matter, the guitar and drums aren't that original-sounding; they're capable, but not really noticeable for anything too good.

Shannon Kennedy's voice is the strongest part of Feathermerchants: assured, melodious and capable of holding up through every song. Those songs themselves tend to be quite evocative and poetic. At times the poetry stumbles in a big way ("I've come to talk before your nails get too long..."), and becomes too repetitive (the pointless "Temporary like a..." lines). But the lyrical sweetness of "Dan" and "Heartbreak Beat" make up for those.

Feathermerchants' "Unarmed Against the Dark" isn't terribly varied or unusual, but is worth a listen if pop-folk is your thing. It lacks in texture, but is still a pretty listen.

I LOVE THE FEATHERMERCHANTS. AM A BIG FAN OF SHANNON. MOVE OVER NORA JONES.....

LOVE THE SEXINESS OF THE MUSIC.

IF YOU ARE MELLOW, THIS IS FOR YOU!

I got the chance to see Feathermerchants live a few years ago and I've been a fan ever since. Their music is refreshing, and their live show is awesome.
The new CD is no disappointment, I was amazed from the first listen. Be sure to give it a listen, it's like nothing else you've heard, and their sound is unique compared to what is out there currently. Two thumbs up!

Recorded by Steve Albini, and featuring Jason Lowenstein. This album came out during the height of indie rock, when the indie labels could do no wrong. This album still holds up to this day, and is just phenomenal. In my opinion it keeps getting better with time. The sound, is soft, but jagged and often hurtful. The voice is deep, and resonates much like Neil Young. I'd highly recommend this album to anyone with any interest in the music of Will Oldham.

i'm a relative newcomer to Will Oldham. i was blown away by Johnny Cash's cover of 'I See A Darkness', and had to hear the original.

well, here i am now, just having picked up my sixth oldham album; and let me say, Viva Last Blues is rocking my world. compared to every other oldham album i've heard, this one really rocks. its as strange and disturbing as the rest, but the quality and intensity of the music sets it apart. i would highly recommend this, along with I See A Darkness, as excellent introductory albums to the music of Will Oldham.

OK, now, you must remember that Neil Young is Canadian to accept the claim made in my review title. But if you ever wondered what Exile on Main Street would've sounded like if the Rolling Stones were from Kentucky, and made almost no money, then this may be the album. It has more truly moving songs than VU/Nico w/o the filler. If this album doesn't make you think that to care is to be human, then you're probably already dead.

Simply stated: This is a great album. From start to finish, no weak songs, lots of thoughtful lyrics about pain and hearbreak (not to mention drinking), and so toe-tappers to boot. A shift in sound from their anglo-sounding (and they are Scottish, afterall) self-titled debut, this is the beginning of a slew of terrific acoustic-based pop albums (pop in the good sense; like the Beatles but not anything in today's top 10). Buy it, listen to it, and you will be up all night too. Waking Hours indeed.

Waking Hours will start for you an obsession with this band. The first run will leave you with pleasant thoughts for some catchy songs you may not have heard before ie. Kiss This Thing Goodbye and Hatful of Rain. The other songs may at first slip by your conscious thoughts but, they will remain, and GROW. The riffs to Kiss This Thing Goodbye will jangle in your head until you HAVE to play it again to find out if it really was as good as your fresh memory seems to think. The plunking piano and killer fun banjo (!) will soon have you wondering why this song isn't played on regular radio, constantly. Then you will listen to Hatful of Rain again and somehow feel the sheer musical joy you get when hearing John Cougar Mellencamp's "Cherry Bomb". Then Opposite View will begin to be noticed for it's lyrical energy perfectly describing the feelings of those warm college nights while When I Want You begins to have you humming "Yes I Will" in your head over and over with more kick each time. Then you will find yourself looking for your accoustic guitar even if you never owned one as you listen to This Side of the Morning yet AGAIN! You will marvel at how cool the lyrics "I wanted to be loved but just got laughed at instead so, if this taxi is for hire, I'll get in the back just to feel the friction of the tarmac and the tires" sounds. Then you will think of the lyric "Whole generations thinking of themselves as infidels and pop stars" and you will have to get out the booklet and read the full lyrics to Stone Cold Sober. And just who is it playing the guitars in that song??? Brooding over how much you can relate to Nothing Ever Happens will get you thinking about who exactly was Jimmy Blue? Then, it happens. You realize that you are hooked. You read the WHOLE lyric book and find yourself thinking it reads like a kind of musical poetry, and you're normally indifferent about contemporary poetry! You will log on for reviews on other Del Amitri albums and wonder if those could be as fun as Waking Hours has grown to be. Then you will realize that Waking Hours has 13 B-sides out there on various singles! Another review will rave about how great Spit In the Rain is and someone will comment on the ecstatic joy of the fans at a live playing of The Return of Maggie Brown. You then find that Amazon still has a best of the Del Amitri B-sides called "Lousy With Love" matched with The Best of Del Amitri - Hatful of Rain available. Oh! Those are the guys who did "Roll to Me" and "Always the Last to Know"!!! The hooks go deeper. Then you are referred to the website http://duk.public.se/del-amitri/ and your eyes bug out of your head at how much Dels material there is out there! Then, a critical stage is reached on the one-way road to Del Amitri Obsession, you log on to EBay, type in "Del Amitri CD single" and find there are 14 hits! Holy cow! A vinyl copy of the single to Move Away Jimmy Blue is going off shortly and you grab it cheap to hear the B-side This Side Of The Morning (live in a car park at 2 a.m). You get it and love it but, can't get over how good Another Letter Home is! Now you find you must have it on CD! Face it, you have now crossed the Rubicon into Del Amitri obsession, AND YOU LOVE IT!!! So, Welcome to Charlie's Bar! We fellow fanatics have been waiting for you with glasses raised! Drink your fill to the gills! There will be no Whiskey Remorse, you have found your way to the happy home of Del Amitri junkies!

The thing I particularly like about Del Amitri is that they always strive for timelessness. While other groups ride waves and trends and finally get washed up somewhere along the shore, Del Amitri go about their musicial craft with quiet dedication and a confidence born of survival. These songs will never age.

Waking Hours from 1989 is one of their best albums. Already the songwriting is mature, the muscianship accomplished. For those who haven't heard them, they play basic Pop Rock with touches of Blues, Soul, and Country, but they're not just covering the bases. All these influences work to their best, creating the right atmosphere for the burden of each song, helping to change the mood from ironic cheerfulness (Kiss This Thing Goodbye) to sombre nihilism (Empty) back to defiant optimism (Hatful of Rain).

The lyrics are good enough to read on their own. They write songs about relationships failing, love becoming meaningless, and people repeating the same mistakes again, underlying these themes with a kind of cynical idealism that is faithful to experience while at the same time rejecting it in favour of an irrational inner optimism. It is this which sends us out to fight or to love again and again.

I am a new fan to Alex Lloyd but found a remarkable amount of people on Amazon liking him to classic ballad rock legend Neil Finn....

I just want to make a point to let people know that no way is Neil Finn an Australian and Alex Lloyd only shares a somewhat similar acoustic/melodic sound as the former.

Neil Finn like his musical brother Tim are New Zealander's and their music is essentially so. Crowded House was a partnership between Neil and two Australian musician's but that is about as Australian as Finn got...

Let's hope this corrects some Finn and Lloyd fans out there - Alex has a good sound and Amazing is one of my most poignant of tracks..

Marc ;)
NZ proud

The sound of Alex Lloyd (or Alex Wasiliev as he's actually known - his real name) is by far the most advanced sounding production I have heard on any CD and beats even my favourite artists. This album is hi-tech. While not as instantly gratifying as Black The Sun, it is lyrically more intricate and poetic in meaning. So while this album is not as fancy as his first one, the songs are still there and both albums so far compliment each other well. Watching Angles Mend has the substance and better lyrics while Black The Sun is better produced and more diverse and complex in texture. Either way both these albums are stunning, catchy, state of the art gems. If you like David Gray and Neil Finn, Alex Lloyd is right up there with them. Though Finn and Gray may be more respected and have classical timeless back catologues, Lloyd is not far behind, if not, dare I say it, has a better engineering and production sound.

I was lucky enough to see a review of this album ...and gave it a quick listen before deciding to pick it up...man am I glad I did that!!! This is a fantastic CD...every song is unique...the music and lyrics on every track are super. This is probably the best CD I have bought in the last several years.

Based on reviews alone, I bought Wrestling Over Tiny Matters without having heard any music from Sister Seven before. Initially this album didn't do much for me, and I buried it in my CD collection. Months later I pulled it out again, and I have been thoroughly enjoying these tunes ever since.

Wrestling Over Tiny Matters is loaded with chord-heavy guitars (electric and some acoustic) and the powerful, dynamic vocals of Patrice Pike. To me the music on this album sounds strikingly similar to stuff you'd hear from Melissa Etheridge. Besides the guitar-driven rock, Pike's pipes resemble Etheridge's hearty voice, except Pike sounds cleaner, without the rasp for which Etheridge is known. I find Pike's vocal performance to be the strongest element of this album, although there's also some great songwriting.

I was surprised to hear that Sister Seven split up shortly after the release of this album. Suffice it to say that this initial exposure to Patrice Pike has encouraged me to investigate the subsequent album she created with her new band, the Blackbox Rebellion. While this album doesn't cover any new ground musically, Wrestling Over Tiny Matters is nonetheless a fine display of talent by Sister Seven's very promising lead singer.

Unless you're a fan, I bet you've heard Sister Seven in the supermarket and not even known it. That's ok, because "The Only Thing That's Real", also found on the soundtrack to Bounce, is one of the least notable songs on this album. Once you hear the rough "Fallen Angel", it will be impossible to forget the voice of Patrice Pike. The lyrics are wise, the music just flows..."Under the Radar" and "Polishing the Looking Glass" are sweet and addictive, and the mood just jumps in "My Three Wishes". "Loaded" and "Elijah" are strikingly socially aware...and you can't help but listen to them over and over. The only unfortunate thing about Sister Seven's studio work is that it fails to show you how much they ROCK onstage. To top it all off, they are a down-to-earth band who make it obvious that they truly appreciate their fans. Don't hesitate in buying this album.

I have been listening to this group since they were Little Sister still in Austin. They blew me away then and they are even better. You have the hard rockin songs, the love songs, and everything between that you can relate to. Open up to something new that ISN'T on the radio that SHOULD be on the radio.

I just want to say, that anyone who likes Belle and Sebastian should certainly add this to their collection. Really, you should buy this in the Lazy Line Painter box set. Le Pastie De La Bourgeoisie is my all time fav B&S song (although my fianc� won't listen to it because he thinks the word "bourgeoisie" is pretentious). I consider it my personal theme song; you can take that for what it's worth. The rest of the songs are pretty good too.

If you haven't listened to Belle & Sebastian before, well you should. A good idea would be to buy a used (or new, it's about the same price I suppose) copy of this EP. '3..6..9 Seconds of Light.' In under twenty minutes, it's easy to grasp how nice the band sounds together. It takes a lot longer to hear how every part, every instrument, fits in together, creating these four beautiful songs. For a quick listen, grab this cd. It's worth it.

"3...6...9..." is a brilliant display of B&S's pop essence: raw piano, soft strings, twangy electric guitars, horns and vocal melodic lines complemented by clever lyrics to make you swoon. Seldom are recordings that sound so genuine and polished, which mostly comes from musicianship as opposed to in-studio tweaking. I bought it as part of the three-EP boxed set which is indubitably essential to anyone's B&S collection. Although I may be biased in reviewing this album (being a B&S devotee), but this EP includes some of Stuart Murdoch's best tunes.

This is the second You Am I album i got and it is a fantastic album. Tim Rodgers is really a fantastic songwriter. You Am I CAN rock, and show this on tracks such as "Rumble", "Junk" amd "Billy". Also, Tim & the band can slow things right down, and this is reflected on such songs as "Heavy Heart", "Top of the Morn" and "Guys, Girls & Guitars". Guitar is very good, using feedback, tremolo & medolic guitar solos very effectively. My personal favorite track is "Top of the Morn & Slip of Day", it just has this fantastic vibe which you look for in a song. I highly recommend the purchase of this and other You Am I albums.

You Am I are a band that is very popular down here in Australia. Tim Rogers, who is the backbone of the band is an undeniably talented songwriter, with the ability to combine classic rock 'n roll elements and melodic ballads seemlessly. #4 Record is my favourite album by You Am I...it contains many favourites that have almost reached folk status in Australia such as "Heavy Heart" and "Rumble" just to name a few. I highly recommend this album.

You Am I are without doubt one of the best rock 'n roll outfits today! Their songs are catchy, but contain all of the elements that have nurtured my love for music all of these years. If you can get your hands on any of their other records, including Tim's solo record, do so! You might just find a new favorite band!

First heard this on Radio 1 in 1991 - John Peel seemed to play this over and over and over again that autumn - my untrained ear heard another booooorrrring Sonic Youth nod at first, but the 54th time or so, it rubbed off and I was hooked.

First, I'd like to say this is the best work Pavement has done, hands down. But you'd be way better off just buying the Slanted and Enchanted reissue which includes all songs on this EP along with other live cuts for less than 15 bucks. That's all I have to say.

pavement is a band that relies on pop genius together with a certain melodic and emotional evasiveness, which combines to inspire a unique sort of hushed fascination.

Given the general obliquity of the band, it really fits all too well that some of their best material is stuck on a four-song ep that's over just as you start to fall in love with it. It's the old pavement trick: give you the sugar-pop goods, take them away, give them back, take them away again. You'll never quite figure it out, and that's why it'll always be special.

Watery, domestic is maybe the best thing pavement's ever released. As with all pavement, it's perfection not just because of what you hear, but also because of what you don't hear.

I'm sorry but I just find this artist bland, boring, unimaginative and samish. There is not one of her songs I find cannot be mistaken for another and her voice could drive you to drink just to blot out it's irritating tone. This album is as equally souless as her last with another batch of dull, self indulgent and uninteresting songs.

For the life of me I can't quite put my finger on exactly what it is that makes this artist so appealing. Her lyrics are sophisticated enough, especially on White Flag with an extended metaphor that tugs at your thoughts. Yet, it's the music and her voice that create the real mystery- and magic. The apparent simplicity of the sound, what others have described as "dull" and "boring," I find enchanting. Dido's fetching habit of biting her lyrics off in short spurts is uncommmon in today's hip-hop-influenced world of unending and prolonged phrasing, but it is refreshingly clean and sensual. There's a clarity to this uncluttered styling. Indeed, it is her innocent manner, unfettered by needless repetition or superfluous overproduction, that seems to provide the understandable musical statement. Underneath it all, however, is an indefinable pulse that is both inviting and intriguing.

The song is beautiful and simple. Just the way it should be. Its about her breaking up and not fighting the dissappointment. She caused enough damage while she was with the guy and is going to move on. There is nothing she can do about her feelings and the results of her actions. So she will 'Go Down with this Ship' and will always be in love because that is part of what she cannot change.

I'm up all buzzed and stuff and I just want to say that calling disturbed and staind fake metal is one of the mose righteous things I've seen in this Amazon review zone. right on man, right on.

This is the first album that I have ever owned from Coalesce and the rythms and melodies are simple in their own complexities. This may seem somewhat of an oxymoron but their style of metal is almost indescribable. They have taken metal down to the roots of the art and given the music this feeling of being held together by iron beams.

I would almost like to call this music plain old rock, but I'll respect it for what it is.

If you find this album dissapointing, you may need to wait awhile until your taste in metal matures. This album is easy to come back to.

If you think Limp Bizkit is the heaviest stuff you have heard, you have not freed yourself from the MTV world and you need a doctor to check you out. When you shop around for that new Limp Bizkit CD at a record store, you might want to think twice and pick this kick ass record up. This will turn your life around. The best song on this masterpiece is "What Happens On The Road Always Comes Home". It sounds a lot like Crowbar mixed with Botch. You need to get this and quit pretending you're cool with those Limp Bizkit CD's.