Lady Gaga - "The Fame Monster"

Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster (Deluxe)

2009, Interscope

Disc One: The Fame Monster

1. Bad Romance

2. Alejandro

3. Monster

4. Speechless

5. Dance in the Dark

6. Telephone

7. So Happy I Could Die

8. Teeth

Disc Two: The Fame

1. Just Dance

2. Lovegame

3. Paparazzi

4. Pokerface

5. Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)

6. Beautiful, Dirty, Rich

7. The Fame

8. Money Honey

9. Starstruck

10. Boys, Boys, Boys

11. Paper Gangsta

12. Brown Eyes

13. I Like It Rough

14. Summerboy

Yep. I like Lady Gaga. I like Lady Gaga enough to get this two disc set of The Fame and The Fame Monster. I've always liked pop music. I'm not one of those people that have to change the station when Britney or whoever the flavor-of-the-month (I think it's Rhianna right now) is comes on. Despite my love for metal and bands like Daniel Amos I'm not a musical snob. I like what I like -and I love me a good pop song. Lady Gaga knows how to write good pop songs. Though a good pop song is not enough for me to drop money on an album, so the question remains: why this? Well, I personally think there's a lot more to Lady Gaga than meets the eye. Where most pop divas are influenced by Madonna, Britney, and the like, I think the Lady Gaga is influenced more by the likes of David Bowie, Elton John, and Queen. Think I'm wrong? Watch any live performance she's done - with her crazy outfits and theatrical stage antics (i.e. I remember one on Saturday Night Live where she was wearing a silver jumpsuit with a giant gyroscope around her or something - made it hard for her to play the piano!). Admittedly there's some Madonna in there too, I'll not deny it. And while musically she pretty much stays in the club/dance genre there are a couple tracks like "Speechless" and "Brown Eyes" where you really pick up on that 70's influence too. Then she's got tracks like "Summerboy" which almost sounds like something The Ting Tings or The Cardigans might do. She also gets some more respect from me because unlike Rhianna, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, etc., Lady Gaga can sing - and does. She's never lip-synced any live performance I've seen of hers and she still sounds good. So there. Mock me if you must but I'll stand by my tastes!

Useless Fact: Lady Gaga went to Catholic school... which explains a lot, actually.

Taylor, Steve - "Now the Truth Can Be Told"

Taylor, Steve - Now the Truth Can Be Told

1994, Sparrow

Disc One:

1. I Want To Be a Clone

2. Whatcha Gonna Do When Your Number's Up?

3. What Ever Happened To Sin?

4. Bad Rap (Who You Tryin' To Kid, Kid?)

5. Meltdown (At Madame Tussuad's)

6. Sin For a Season

7. Guilty By Association

8. Hero

9. Am I In Sync?

10. Baby Doe

11. This Disco (Used to be a Cute Cathedral)

12. To Forgive

13. Drive, He Said

14. I Just Wanna Know

15. On the Fritz

16. Lifeboat

Disc Two:

1. We Don't Need No Color Code (Live)

2. You Don't Owe Me Nothing (Live)

3. Under the Blood

4. Bouquet

5. I Blew Up the Clinic Real Good

6. Jim Morrison's Grave

7. Innocence Lost

8. What Is the Measure of Your Success?

9. Since I Gave Up Hope I Feel a Lot Better

10. Svengali

11. A Principled Man

12. Harder to Believe Than Not To

13. Murder in the Big House

14. Escher's World

15. Violent Blue

16. Winter Wonderland

17. Dream in Black and White

18. Shark Sandwich

I don't ever listen to this as I don't really need to anymore. I've finally been able to get ahold of the full albums so I don't really need to spin this. I still wanted to put it on here though because it was this collection that really helped educate me about Steve Taylor. Previously I'd only heard Squint. So until this came out I'd never really known how much stuff he'd done previously. Whoever sold this collection to FYE... thank you! Also, to the clerk who priced this collection at a measly $4... thank you too! The collection itself is a good retrospective of Steve's career and has tracks spanning all of his albums (except Squint) including a few Chagall Guevara tracks. The set also comes with a massive book with liner notes written by Steve himself for the songs. It even includes an unreleased track called "Dream in Black and White." My opinion of this song is probably the same as Steve's - it's not that great. He even fudged the recording so that we'll never hear the third verse because he's embarrassed of it. The fact that he doesn't think he's God's gift to music make me like him even more. In short this set is pretty dang cool... and the liner notes are a fun read. Regular followers of this blog might notice that on some of the other reviews I've picked out some tracks I don't like. The fact that those tracks never made it on to this collection is purely coincidental... I swear!

Useless Fact: There is a Now The Truth Can Be Told video out there that I once had and foolishly gave it to a friend while I was in my "non music" phase.

Precious Death - "Precious Death"

Precious Death - Precious Death

1996, Metro One

1. All We Have is Now

2. I Was Free

3. (What's the Name of) This Song

4. Another Form of Slavery

5. The Ocean

6. Did You Know

7. New Music For a Quiet Revolution

8. When the Rain Comes

9. One and One and One

10. Psalm

This is another one of those albums that I actually own but you'll probably never find it on my Ipod. At this point in the band's lifespan most of the original members were gone. If I didn't know any better I'd say that this album was only made because the band needed to fulfill a three album contract. It doesn't sound anything like the unique metal/funk fusion of the past two albums. It's a shame too because that stuff was really awesome and this stuff is just mediocre alternative that sounds almost exactly like Chris Scott's other band Blackball. Why they didn't just change their name I'll never know.

Useless Fact: The band released one more album, a "Greatest Hits" comp. I don't think it had any new songs on it. Thus a great band faded into the night...

Coheed and Cambria - "Year of the Black Rainbow"

Coheed and Cambria - Year of the Black Rainbow

2010, Sony

1. One

2. The Broken

3. Guns of Summer

4. Here We Are Juggernaut

5. Far

6. This Shattered Symphony

7. World of Lines

8. Made Out of Nothing (All That I Am)

9. Pearl of the Stars

10. In the Flame of Error

11. When Skeletons Live

12. The Black Rainbow

I feel like I'm writing this a little prematurely. I like to really explore a new disc and make sure that before I review it that I've soaked in it enough. Mainly that's because sometimes my opinion changes between the first listen and the fifth. I've listened to Year three times so far and, thankfully, more will be on the way. My first impression was that the hooks are a little more buried here. Whereas No World For Tomorrow had a bit tighter focus and more obvious hooks you'll have to work a little to get the hooks here. Though that's not really much of a stretch as Coheed CDs almost always tend to be growers. The other thing I've noticed is that while there's lots of cool riffs and progressive elements there's not much in the way of bouncy radio hits like "A Favor House Atlantic" or "The Suffering." "Far" comes the closest but you won't pick up on it the first few listens. "Here We Are Juggernaut," one of my favorite tracks is a monster tune with a great hook and lots of emotion. My ears also perked up during "Pearl of the Stars" because it's really different from anything the band has done before but still retains the Coheed sound. I've also noticed that vocalist Claudio Sanchez seems to be singing in a lower register - I don't think that's really bad, just an observation. I can't say I like this more than the Good Apollo discs but it's still a worthy addition to the Coheed discography.

Useless Fact: This disc is actually a prequal to the story contained within the first four albums. Still don't know what the heck it's about. There is also a deluxe edition of this album that includes a 300-some-odd page book written by Claudio Sanchez and comic/weird Star Trek book writer Peter David.

Weezer - "Raditude"

Weezer - Raditude

2009, Interscope

1. (If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To

2. I'm Your Daddy

3. The Girl Got Hot

4. Can't Stop Partying

5. Put Me Back Together

6. Trippin' Down the Freeway

7. Love is the Answer

8. Let It All Hang Out

9. In the Mall

10. I Don't Want To Let You Go

Weezer returns with another radio friendly album in the vein of Make Believe. Thankfully I think this disc is more enjoyable than that one. A lot less hit and miss that's for sure. The theme here is parties, girls, and hanging out. It's not so bad but I think Rivers Cuomo (who's married and in his 40's I think) needs to grow up a little. "Can't Stop Partying" features rap troll Lil' Wayne. I think I can do without any of that crap in my Weezer, but at least he doesn't completely ruin the song. And as always with newer Weezer there's some throw away tracks like "Put Me Back Together" and "Love is the Answer." The latter is a sitar-infused pseudo hippy track complete with an eastern singer (I'm not sure who she is or what language she's singing in). It also contains the hilarious lyric, "You've just got to trust in the world." What? Are you CRAZY? If there is one thing in which I am absolutely NOT putting my trust it's "the world." Despite all that Raditude is a fun listen though I'm not sure how much staying power these simple and shallow songs will really have.

Useless Fact: There's a video of Weezer and Sara Bareilles singing "(If You're Wondering...)" and Haley from Paramore shows up in the video for "I'm Your Daddy."

Armageddon - "The Money Mask"

Armageddon - The Money Mask

1989/2007, Retroactive

Disc One:

1. The Money Mask

2. Mercenaries of Unjustice

3. More Than Conquerors

4. Looking Out For You

5. The Ship of Changes

6. (Liberation From) Blazing Wasteland

7. Nightlight

8. Giving It To You

9. The Judge

10. We're Outta Here

11. (Liberation From) Blazing Wasteland (East Coast Metal Version)

Disc Two:

1. Lookin' Out For You (rough mix)

2. We're Outta Here (rough mix)

3. More Than Conquerors (rough mix)

4. Nightlight (rough mix)

5. The Money Mask (rough mix)

6. Ship of Changes (rough mix)

7. More Than Conquerors (rehersal)

8. We're Outta Here (rehersal)

9. The Money Mask (demo)

10. Nightlight (demo)

11. Get in Line (demo)

12. In Your Face (previously unreleased)

13. Blazing Wasteland (demo)

Armageddon's first and only album is a little forgotten gem originally released on Talkingtown Records. You know... Talkingtown Records whose releases include... well... Armageddon's The Money Mask. Thankfully Retroactive has reissued this piping hot slab of 80's metal with an additional bonus disc of demos and stuff. Usually those demo discs don't really interest me and that's the case here too. I usually just care about the original music which has been remastered and reproduced perfectly. I had forgotten how good this album actually is! The guitar parts now remind me a little bit of older Ozzy songs with Randy Rhodes on guitar. Mike Vance's vocals are stay in a gruff mid-range and perfectly fit the songs. There are some tunes on here that almost border on speed metal like "(Liberation From) Blazing Wasteland" and "We're Outta Here." Those are mixed in with some more mid-paced tunes like "Nightlight" and "The Judge." Also I'd like to point how good the ballad, "Ship of Changes" is. When I had this originally on tape I never listened to it because at that time in my young life I skipped over ALL ballads. However, it's now one of my favorite tracks on the album!

An oddity: the original name for track two was definitely "Mercenaries of Unjustice." For the rerelease they've changed it to "Mercenaries of Injustice." He says "unjustice" in the song so I don't know why it was changed.

...and just because I haven't done it in forever - here's a weird association for ya. I remember listening to this while waiting for my ride to come and take me to youth group on Wednesday nights. Right beforehand I watched that old show on Nickelodeon called Hey Dude! Anyone remember that show? About a bunch of kids working on a ranch during the summer? Starred Ben Stiller's wife Christine Taylor? "It's a little wild and a little strange! When you make your home out on the range!" So yeah... this disc makes me think of that show sometimes.

Wow... I got way off track didn't I? Well let's wrap this up...

Useless Fact: The band was originally called Second Chance right up until the time they got signed. Talkingtown made them change their name. Have to say... I like Armageddon better.