Posts Tagged ‘music’

I can’t stop listening to Lady Gaga’s new album. It is excellent.

It is a bit of a departure from her previous albums is that it is almost a rock opera. But that is probably being far too generous as it is nowhere near as polished as say American Idiot. But there is a loose journey that progresses through the album.

It is probably not an album for those that aren’t already Gaga fans. But for those that are, you won’t be disappointed.

The sixteenth book in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series looks at music with rocks in it. It might be just a noise but it’s all the kids are listening to these days.

It has some good characters in it, including Susan (the granddaughter of Death), Dibbler and the Death of Rats. The commentary on the music industry, stardom and the rise of rock and roll was somewhat interesting, though I didn’t find it particularly deep.

DJ Lomax performs an electro swing set at Meg’s house party.

Last week Editors released their new album The Weight of Your Love. It follows a similar sound to their previous works and while none of the songs instantly buried themselves into my memory, it does have the appeal of an album I would want to listen to again and again. It’s too early to say whether I actually will or not, bur definitely well worth a listen.

It came round so fast. Falling on the same night as Wendy House resulted in us having a Eurovision party slash Wendy House night, which meant that we did at least have the same generic music from two different events.

The best entry of the night was clearly that of Finland’s Krista Siegfrids, though it did surprisingly badly in the voting. The important thing is though that it annoyed the whole of Turkey for daring to suggest that gay people should have equal rights – what more could you possibly want from a song?

I needed a new set of in-ear headphones for when I go running. I had recently bought some reasonably priced Sony ones, but they just don’t stay in your ears, so in the end I opted for the Bang & Olufsen A8s as one of the guys in my team has them and says they’re pretty good.

In their defence, they do stay in your ears better than any other pair of headphones I have had. Their piston that moves up and down and swivel loop “thing” means that you can anchor it quite well to you ears.

However, this does mean they’re quite tiresome to put on because every time you do you have to swivel the back out, push them in and then close it again to form a tight fit – useless for in the office when I need to take them off to have a conversation with someone every five or ten minutes.

The sound quality is disappointing too. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just that for how good you would expect them to be at that price – they’re rubbish. They’re not much better than your run of the mill headphones and arguably the Apple ear pods I got with my iPhone produce a better sound. Definitely not worth the money.

As a child, I never had a chance. By the time I was 14, soon to discover what an amazing band The Smashing Pumpkins were, they had already split up. But, in 2006, front man Billy Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin reformed the band with a rotating cast of extras to bring out a new album, Zeitgeist.

Many people weren’t expecting good things, with only two of the original band members together. But this was nieve, as Billy Corgan is so much the heart and soul of the band – indeed, in the early days, Corgan would actually play all of the guitar and bass parts himself, putting Chamberlin’s drums over the top, and ignoring the contribution of the other band members so that the album fitted together the way he wanted.

When Zeitgiest was released in 2007, I wasn’t that impressed though. It was OK, but it didn’t really capture my ears – I’ve listened to it a couple of times since with no strong desire to keep going back to it.

Their new album, Oceania, released last year, is no such disappointment however. Bringing back musical memories of their most successful days, the album is everything you want from a Pumpkins record – dark, soulful, and with a hint of fun.

Ah to be 17 again. Billy Talent were rocking the scene, I was there before they were big, etc, etc.

Now, I’m somewhat older than that, and I would imagine Billy Talent are too because time works like that (on this scale at least). I didn’t expect great things from their fourth studio album, and first not to be self-titled, given their previous albums had been good, but not amazing. But it turns out I was to be pleasantly surprised.

While the screaming of Benjamin Kowalewicz has certainly become greatly toned down as the band have matured, it turns out that they actually have some great music underneath it. My personal favourite so far is Show Me The Way.

Last week, myself and James went to the MEN to see Evanescence. They played a very similar set to the one I saw last year in Leeds, but with a few changes, taking out some of the stuff from their new album in favour of a few classics.

Photos did not turn out well though lol.

I don’t actually use This Is My Jam, but I’ve been listening to some cool albums recently, so I thought I would share them.

Jack’s Mannequin – People And Things
I’m sure, like me, you discovered Jack’s Mannequin while looking for different versions of Panamore’s Misery Business and stumbling on the compilation album It’s A Misery Business, of which contains their song The Mixed Tape.

They (and I’m being generous there, because it all seems to be Andrew McMahon and a bit of backing) have since released a new album, which I think is their best work yet. They’re a bit emo, so I imagine Si listens to them as well, but not so such that you well adjusted people wouldn’t like them either.

Bowling For Soup – Presents One Big Happy
Bowling For Soup have come out with a new album that features not just themselves, but also The Dollyrots, Jaret Reddick and Kelly Ogden & Patent Pending. Turns out, that combination works really well.

Particularly the album’s first song, “Lets go to the pub”. For some reason, that song really speaks to me.