Weezer- Weezer (Red album) 2008

Cd reviews:
All Music Guide
Weezer is comfortable as a band in a way they never quite have been before. Given that feeling, it makes perfect sense that the Red Album is another self-titled record, as it plays like an opening to a new chapter instead of merely more of the same. read

Uncut
The concluding 'The Angel and One' works its way to outright grandeur and both trade irony for a ton of sentiment – Rivers Cuomo’s psychotherapy must be working. It’s just like him to slap on a smiley face while the world is going to hell. read

Livedaily
They may look a bit older than on the cover of "Blue," but take a closer look. Devil may care. read

BlogCritics
It is hard to know what to make of this album. It could be a step in a good direction for Weezer or the nail in the coffin that kills the band. This is not essential Weezer. Fans will want to download the first four songs. But only hardcore fans would have any reason to buy the whole album. Casual fans may want to skip it entirely, or just download the "Pork and Beans" single. read

Spinner
Yippie kye-aye! Weezer is back and seeing 'Red' with their third self-titled album, which features production by Rick Rubin, Jacknife Lee and the band themselves. Rivers Cuomo and his sweet 'stache hit shelves on June 24. Keep reading for the full tracklisting. read

Coming music hits
Rihanna - Disturbia Lyrics
Marsha Ambrosius - When You Want Lyrics
Tank - My Block Lyrics
Snoop Dogg - Watch This Lyrics
Lloyd - I Need Love Lyrics
Yung Berg - Fishbowl Lyrics

Blondie - Collection

Blondie was the most commercially successful band to emerge from the much-vaunted punk/new wave movement of the late '70s.

Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks

Knowing that there's no such thing as bad publicity, manager-Svengali Malcolm McLaren molded the Pistols into the most confrontational, nihilistic band rock & roll had ever seen. Propelled by Johnny Rotten's maniacal vocals, Steve Jones's buzz-saw guitar, and (most importantly) bass player Glen Matlock's hook-filled compositional skills, the Pistols' early singles "Anarchy in the U.K." and "God Save the Queen" defined the raging style of British punk. By the time they recorded their lone 1977 album, Matlock had been bounced, replaced by the image-correct but utterly untalented (and ultimately group-dooming) Sid Vicious. Not a 10th as good as the singles, the album nontheless remains a bile-filled emblem of the times.

The Clash - London Calling

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' music explodes in a sea of overt sexuality and frenzied emotion, hinting at hooks and sometimes even getting totally enveloped in them, as on the disarmingly charming "Maps." On the other end of the spectrum lies the raw MC 5 full-on punk-blues of tracks such as "Man" and "Tick." On FEVER TO TELL, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs prove their ability to stand out in a crowd, offering perhaps the most original recording to be hailed in the '00s garage-rock revival.

Nada Surf - Let Go

A funny thing happened to Nada Surf on the way to sure-fire late-'90s alt-rock stardom. Despite obtaining a decent amount of MTV exposure, their sardonic first single, "Popular," ultimately arrived just moments too late to capitalize on the era's short-lived mainstream fancy with geek rock. And with no quality second hit in sight, neither 1996's moderately successful High/Low nor its forgettable 1998 follow-up, The Proximity Effect, gained much traction outside the indie rock underground -- seemingly consigning the trio to the dreaded one-hit-wonder bin. Subsequently dropped by Elektra, Nada Surf settled into a prolonged state of hibernation (only drummer Ira Elliot was heard from, thanks to his regular session work), so that even committed fans would have to be forgiven for washing their hands of the group during this four-year silence. That is, until the belated and understated 2002 arrival of their revealing third opus, Let Go, on which Nada Surf showed that they refused to quietly fade away into gimmick-enforced exile by putting their faith into their own pop songwriting instincts. The resulting record takes its title quite literally, as layer after layer of preconceived notions and excess noise are stripped away to unveil both soft-spoken charm and intense newfound confidence. Upbeat, electrified fare like "Hi-Speed Soul" and the Foo Fighters-lite of "The Way You Wear Your Head" is now the exception to the rule established by predominantly acoustic numbers like "Blizzard of '77," "Fruit Fly," and "Neither Heaven nor Space," all of which strike a heartaching chord with their bewitching melancholy. The French-sung "La Pour Ca" offers a mesmerizing, Pink Floyd-styled laziness, while additional mellow highlights such as "Inside of Love," "Blonde on Blonde," and "Paper Boats" somehow manage to sound sadly introspective and positively sunny at the same time, welcoming the listener to doze in their arms. Not exactly a reinvention as much as a reaffirmation of their original purpose, Let Go seems to mark a new beginning for Nada Surf.

The Clash - The Singles

Amidst all the punk history and revolutionary rhetoric, it's easy to forget that the Clash was one hell of a singles band, capable of releasing one propulsively catchy song after another. This collection, which moves chronologically from the band's early days at the heart of the UK punk movement to the funk experimentation of its latter career, serves as both stunning career resume and perfect introduction for the neophyte. The raging, righteous anger and blazing guitars of punk anthems "White Riot" and "Complete Control" rub shoulders with the reggae rhythms of "White Man in Hammersmith Palais."

Rap and funk rear their heads (in a distinctly British way) on "The Magnificent Seven" and "Radio Clash." Manic, post-punk rockabilly accompanies Joe Strummer's state-of-the-union address on "Know Your Rights," and the Mick Jones-sung "Should I Stay or Should I Go" makes a case for itself as a garage-rock classic on the order of "Louie Louie." For all the political smarts the group consistently displayed in its lyrics, The Singles shows that the band's music was never less than enthralling. No matter how stern the Marxist theories to which the band members subscribed in their early days, they could never resist an old-fashioned rock & roll hook.

Art Brut - It's A Bit Complicated

Art Brut's 2005 debut Bang Bang Rock & Roll introduced the South London outfit's brand of bratty, conceptual art-punk. Ironic and arch, while also managing to rock with sincerity, Art Brut sounded like naive, irreverent school kids who were actually smarter than their teachers. It's not a shock that It's A Bit Complicated, the 2007 follow-up, doesn't branch far into new territory: to "mature" and "develop" would be against the band's M.O.

Instead, the album delivers more clever, brainy fare suitable for both pogoing and chin-stroking. Singer Eddie Argos applies his wry, biting humor to such topics as break-ups, adolescence, and pop music itself in his Fall-ish half-sung, half-spoken drawl. Meanwhile, the band slams and shuffles behind him with amps cranked, offsetting Argos's ironic stance with a raucous glee and pop smarts. Listeners not charmed by Art Brut's overall concept the first time out (and they are, after all, a concept band) are unlikely to be converted, but fans of Bang Bang Rock & Roll should give It's A Bit Complicated a well-considered spin.

Ash - 1977

On its 1996 debut, the Irish trio Ash offers up an immediately engaging set of energetic punk-pop. Given Green Day's rise to fame in the preceding years, Ash often received comparisons to that American band, but the young group, led by charismatic frontman Tim Wheeler, was more directly influenced by common older sources (as the album title would imply) such as the Buzzcocks and the Ramones.

Largely due to the presence of producer Owen Morris (the Verve, Oasis), Ash also benefited from a Britpop connection, a trait magnified by its playful demeanor (see the fun, martial arts-themed "Kung Fu"), which echoed precursors such as Blur and Supergrass. While the hard-charging, highly melodic single "Girl from Mars" garnered attention on both sides of the pond, it would prove to be Ash's peak of popularity in the U.S., though the U.K. would go on to embrace the ensemble's later, more adventurous sound, which reached full fruition on FREE ALL ANGELS.

Dead Kennedys - Frankenchrist

Frankenchrist is the Dead Kennedys album that garnered them the most public attention, albeit for reasons the band would ultimately regret. California prosecutors, clearly no fans of politically charged punk rock, declared an H.R. Giger poster the Kennedys included with the album's original pressing obscene. The result was a protracted two-year legal fight. The band ultimately won it, but the effort exhausted them and led to their ultimate breakup.

Nevertheless, the music remains. It's still primo punk, and as relevant as ever, thanks to lead singer Jello Biafra's stinging lyrical swipes at the powers that be, and the gloriously metallic clang of East Bay Ray's guitar. Classic stuff.

Patti Smith - Horses

With the exception of Bob Dylan, few rock n' rollers explored poetry within the rock format as thoroughly as Patti Smith. By the mid-70's, Smith had been a regular poetry-reader in New York City clubs for years, and with a deep admiration for The Rolling Stones, it was only natural to set these poems to music. With an exciting rock band to back her up (including renowned music critic Lenny Kaye on guitar), Smith built up a following on the strength of the band's thrilling and trance-inducing live shows. Produced by ex-Velvet Underground bassist John Cale, HORSES was considered 'punk rock' when it was first released, but there was much more to it. Smith had a gift for being able to paint vivid pictures with her prose, as evidenced by a pair of 10-minute long epics, "Birdland" and "Land". (Gloria, Gloria, Gloria!)

Gogol Bordello - Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike

You can hear it on "60 Revolutions," and even more magnificently on the stomping "ThinkLocally Fuck Globally," whose rhythms subtly quicken into a furious flamingo fire, before sweeping into a tribal tattoo, finally flinging itself out in a gypsy swirl. "Not a Crime" careens into Arabesque, "Immigrant Punk" skanks straight into reggae, while "Underdog World Strike" heads underground, interweaving hip-hop, punk, and reggae to gypsy's own roots. Frontman/lyricist Eugene Hütz explains how his own history drives him on the autobiographical "Undestructable," accompanied by a cheery punky reggae backing that defies one not to sing along. And it's not the only one for much of the set is spectacularly anthemic, from the fist-in-the-air fervor of the Oi!-esque "Not a Crime," the fashion-fling command chorus of "Start Wearing Purple," to the life-affirming "Undestructable." One may even start phonetically parroting the lyrics of "Santa Marinella." That latter song is not sung in English, and there's foreign lyrics sprinkled about the set, but the emotional meaning is always clear. A truly universal album that encompasses America's eternal immigrant story, urban living, and a love of life and music that translates into every language on earth. It's the fire in not just the gypsy soul, but the soul of everyone, and Bordello ignite it into a blaze as bright as life itself. (Start wearing purple wearing purple NA na na na!)

Television - Marquee Moon

Originally released on Elektra (1098). Includes liner notes by Alan Licht. New York's 1970s punk was markedly different to that of Britain. Rather than reject the past, American groups deconstructed its forms and rebuilt them with recourse to the music's strengths. Television's leader, Tom Verlaine, professed admiration for Moby Grape and the folk rock of early Fairport Convention. Elements of the latter appear on this album's title track, which offers a thrilling instrumental break, built upon a modal scale. Verlaine's shimmering guitar style provides the set's focus, but his angular compositions are always enthralling. A sense of brooding mystery envelops the proceedings, and Marquee Moon retains its standing as one of the era's pivotal releases. (Venus)

Blondie - Parallel Lines

Recorded at The Record Plant, New York, New York in June & July, 1978. Originally released on Chrysalis (1192). Includes liner notes by Mike Chapman. All tracks have been digitally remastered using 24-bit technology. Madonna and Michael Jackson aside, this is supreme pop music and as good as the genre can ever get. Everybody loved Blondie; fans, children, critics, other musicians and senior citizens - and not just because Debbie Harry was its frontperson. This is an unintentional greatest hits record that doesn't let up until the last note of 'Just Go Away' has died. If one wanted to carp, you could have asked for 'Denis' and 'Call Me' to have been included, but that would be just plain greedy. One of the greatest 'up' records of all time.(MF)