Here’s a pop music truism we’ve all, at some point, fallen prey to: When the band we love ceases to sound like what we’ve perceived as “themselves”, music fans tend to bail, to dismiss out of hand an artist’s efforts. It’s a basic, human reaction: among other things, we’re threatened by change, and emotionally react to shifts in the fundamentals of what we hold dear. Don’t worry, music fan: it’s a perfectly natural reaction. The tenacity of the hardcore fan […]
Spin Cycle
Spin Cycle: Blondie’s “Panic of Girls”
As a culture, we tend to dismiss the aging rocker, and often unfairly: it seems like we dismiss bands that have been around for twenty, even thirty years or more as passe. Somewhere along the line, a few musicians in the twilight of their career started seriously phoning it in, and as a result, once a band reaches its sell-by date, we tune out. Sometimes we’re right – you could argue that the Stones’ last acceptable album dropped in ’97, […]
Spin Cycle: “Fly From Here” by Yes
It’s true, I’m a prog rock fan. I love the sound of a mellotron in the morning and love to hear talk of synthesizer filters and 12 string guitars. I’m bound to listen to anything combining the words rock, jazz, fusion, symphonic, epic, concept or progressive in any combination or order. That being said I know that I’m an odd fan of the genre. Most followers can’t get enough of Yes and Rush. They form the base of everything progressive […]
Spin Cycle: Matt Nathanson’s “Modern Love”
You’ve got to give John Mayer props if for nothing else than re-opening the door for sensitive yet somewhat witty dudes with guitars who play appealing/hooky pop/rock. One guy who’s benefited from the Guitar Dude Renaissance (which has actually been happening for a decade now…geez, time flies) is singer/songwriter Matt Nathanson. Having recorded since the mid Nineties, Nathanson got his break big with the song “Come On Get Higher”, featured on his 2007 album Some Mad Hope. A few key […]
250 Words or Less: Liam Finn’s “FOMO”
I figured I couldn’t properly review the second album by singer/songwriter Liam Finn without knowing what it’s title meant. Turns out, [amazon-product text=”Fomo (buy)” tracking_id=”popblerdcom-20″ type=”text”]B004Z9AKDO[/amazon-product]FOMO stands for “Fear of Missing Out”. After listening to the album, I can say you’re missing out if you don’t pick it up. Finn’s bloodline almost guarantees a pleasant listening experience-after all, his father is Neil Finn of Crowded House/Finn Brothers/Split Enz/solo fame, one of the greatest and perhaps most underrated) songwriters of the […]
Spin Cycle: Taking Back Sunday’s “Taking Back Sunday”
Whatever happened to emo bands? There was always something reasonably endearing about the best of them – whiny, sure, but so earnest and prone to literate ramblings that they seemed the perfect antidote for an indie scene that seemed to value ironic detachment much more than the nerdy kid’s lovelorn poetry, hastily scrawled onto tear-soaked notebook paper. Was it annoying after a while? It sure was, but you gotta admire these kids’ willingness to put aside rock-minded things like pride, […]
Spin Cycle: Random Axe’s “Random Axe” // Curren$y’s “Weekend at Burnie’s”
The old criticism of hip-hop music as pop’s most base, one-note form of expression must be extinct by now, right? Since the advent of the style, it’s slowly crept to mainstream status, virtually defining the mainstream for long stretches of the nineties and the oughts, and even the most hard-nosed “but it’s not real music!” types simply MUST have been exposed to some of the best the genre has to offer. Culturally, we’ve just breezed through a decade characterized by […]
Spin Cycle: The Ark’s “Arkeology: The Complete Singles Collection”
There are a lot of reasons that pop music is delightful, chief among them the ephemeral pleasures of instant gratification; Swedish glam-rock act The Ark peddle this sort of feeling like crack, writing direct, hook-heavy, sugar-rush power pop that sticks in the craw and stays. Splitting up after more or less ruling their homeland for the past decade, The Ark have bestowed upon fans and neophytes alike [amazon-product text=”Arkeology: Complete Singles Collection” tracking_id=”popblerdcom-20″ type=”text”]B004WLUJ6I[/amazon-product], a career-spanning platter of The Ark’s […]
Spin Cycle Plus: Beyonce’s “4”
Beyonce’s 4 has been quite the subject of discussion over at Popblerd HQ. With so many opinions about the pop star’s work and the controversy surrounding the album (after several songs from the album underperformed and the entire set leaked about a month before release, it was rumored that Beyonce’s record company asked her to go back into the studio and retool the album. These rumors have been categorically denied all around), it was only right that we gave you […]
Spin Cycle: Big Sean’s “Finally Famous”
Seven years after The College Dropout, the specter of Kanye West’s opus looms large over the rap landscape. He’s put out better albums in the intervening years – arguably, his stunning sophomore set Late Registration – but Dropout was the game-changer. Never has Kanye’s notorious inward focus been quite as breezy and flippant, nor his boasts as tempered with something like genuine humility; and if Late Registration is a big-budget, melodramatic epic, Dropout was the winning indie comedy from a […]
Anthrax Isn’t Bringing the Noise With This One
In a word: Nope! Anthrax is back after 8 years with the much-delayed Worship Music finally slated to be released this September. Long story short, Anthrax ditched Joey Belladonna’s replacement John Bush shortly after We’ve Come For You All was released/toured for a reunion of the classic line-up. Joey and Dan Spitz left the group again who then recruited unknown Dan Nelson to be the singer for what would become Worship Music. Something happened and a “he said/she said” war […]