Thursday, May 29, 2008

Music Review: "The Best of the Steve Miller Band 1974-1978"

Alright, picked this little baby up after seeing an empty case for it. I'm a gigantic Steve Miller Band fan, to tell you the truth. I get a lot of it from my dad, who introduced them to me when I was literally a baby. I don't remember much, but apparently I was a huge fan of them when I was a young kid. That hasn't changed in the slightest. Let's get to it:

There is not a single bad song on this entire album. Not one bad song. Granted, it's a "Best Of" and I'm a huge fan, so there may be some bias there, but if that is the case then it's useless to say that my opinion isn't valid, because I'm a fan because I listen to their music and enjoy it. Phew. Anyways! This thing doesn't even need to be compiled in any certain order, because they're all "up" songs; they all work with eachother in any order you put them in. This album is fantastic, I mean it. All of your favorites from some of their best years. These are all the ones they're remembered for and some they aren't, but they're all equally cool (even if the lyrics in "Take the Money and Run" are sort of dumb).

Overall Rating: 9.5/10
"It would be 10 if only I didn't know that there must be something out there that would be better than this, but so far I haven't found much in that department. Better than Steve Miller? Bull."

Music Review: "Franz Ferdinand"

I was recently tipped off about Franz Ferdinand by a friend of mine, and got to hear a little of their debut album, "Franz Ferdinand," and what I heard was good enough to get me to go out and spend $17.99 on a new one for myself. Here's what I found:

The album itself starts off quite strong. Jacqueline, though by far not their best song, shows off their style: Slow sometimes, but the pace picks up. Then they come in with their best all in a row, giving us "Tell Her Tonight," "Take Me Out," and "The Dark of the Matinée" are all fantastic songs. You're able to dance to them or just slowly take them in as you would any other really good, really british, really indie song. The album starts to simmer down a teensy bit and get into a sort of median flow in the middle, but most of them still have catchy beats to them. Towards the end, it starts to pick up the pace again, which can be good or bad, depending on how you're feeling by that point. Personally, I've found that they can really easily get stuck in your head.
They're all very heavily British-sounding songs as well, but it's actually rather important that they have that and that they are British, because honestly, I don't know if an American band would be able to pull something like this off. The British indie rock scene is where these guys belong, and nowhere else. But even if this seems like a restrictive label, don't misconstrue my comments; they have become experienced experts in their genre overnight, it seems.

Overall grade: 8.5/10
"Not the best, but more than listenable"