Posts Tagged: albums

Music / Photography / Reviews — Comments Off
11
Sep 10

Nine Inch Nails: Ghosts & Photographic Artwork

The art aesthetic of Nine Inch Nails has always been incredibly appealing to me; the fact that I also love the music is a total win-win situation. As I’ve grown through the years from a moody and brooding teenager into an urbane sophisticate of an adult (okay, lol at that), I’ve been lucky enough that NIN’s music has seemed to morph and evolve along with me. I haven’t “outgrown” it like so many other bands, but I’ve been able to go along on the ride and with each new album I just love it more and more–I hope it never ends!

I recently purchased Ghosts I-IV, which isn’t exactly “new” anymore (it came out back in 2008), but for some ridiculous reason I had skipped over it or forgotten about it until this year. But I am so glad I picked it up, even if I was a little late! I love the instrumentals of Nine Inch Nails, and a whole two-disc album’s worth?! Fantastic! Then I posted about it on Facebook, only to realize that I was not alone in my procrastination: two of my NIN-head friends who I thought would be chastising me for not listening sooner were asking me to get them copies! Naturally, I referred them to the website where you can download the whole album for five bucks. But anyway, on to my original impetus for this blog entry, which is the breathtaking artwork accompanying this album.

There have always been extremely talented artists working to create the visual “feel” for every Nine Inch Nails album. For Ghosts, it was photographers Phillip Graybill and Rob Sheridan, whose landscape and macro photography fit so well with the music. You can download a free 40-page PDF of the Ghosts photographic images, and here are some examples:

Music / Reviews — Comments Off
9
Jul 10

How to Destroy Angels EP

The recent collaboration of Trent Reznor and his wife Mariqueen Maandig, titled How to Destroy Angels, has produced a 6-song EP available for FREE to download from the website howtodestroyangels.com

How to Destroy Angels

First impression: absolutely LOVE the album cover art. It makes me think of pulpy science fiction novels–very cool. I want a giant-sized poster of it to hang on my wall.

As far as the music, I may not exactly be the most unbiased listener. But that’s why I downloaded it in the first place, right? I like techno-industrial as a genre, and I like most of the stuff Trent Reznor makes. I also really like Mariqueen Maandig’s voice. I’ve listened to the songs about six times through now, and as a whole I have enjoyed them.

I definitely like the first song, “The Space in Between” (the video is also awesome). When I first listened to “BBB” (which apparently stands for “Big Black Boots”) it was a bit of an eye-roller; it seemed contrived and cliche. But wouldn’t you know it, that’s the song that’s been stuck in my head all day! So I’ve really come-around on that one. The final song, “A Drowning”, is quite excellent. I like this EP enough that I am looking forward to hearing more, and plan to purchase whatever full length album they release next year.

Music / Reviews — Comments Off
19
Mar 10

Vitamin String Quartet Tribute to Alice in Chains

Okay, so, how super-psyched was I, when approached by Vitamin Records to review one of their newer releases, Vitamin String Quartet Tribute to Alice in Chains?! Well, I already own Chamber Made: The Baroque Tribute to Tool, which I thoroughly enjoy, so I was excited to hear their interpretations of songs from another of my favorite bands!

Vitamin String Quartet Tribute to Alice in Chains

As with the baroque Tool album, the cover art for the AIC tribute is eye-catching and referential to the artist. The album is 12 tracks spanning the five major releases from the “original” Alice in Chains: Facelift, Sap, Dirt, Jar of Flies, and the self-titled Alice in Chains. The songs were thoughtfully chosen for the string-quartet medium and the sequence of tracks on the disc may-or-may-not be random but flows nicely. I would have liked to have heard “Hate to Feel” or “Frogs” on this album, but you can only fit so many tracks on one disc!

I’ve listened to this album several times over the last few weeks on different types of sound systems: through my laptop speakers, in my car, on a boombox in the kitchen, and over the P.A. in the basement. This album seems to work best as more of background/ambiance music, so it didn’t work too well broadcasted super-loud over the P.A. It turned out to be very good working-in-the-kitchen music while played during general cleaning and chores, and I had no problem with distortion or “farting” when played loudly on the boombox. It also transmits well through my laptop speakers and I’ve added this album to my “classical” playlist. It’s not a good “city driving” album for me (too many stops and starts), but I will certainly keep it in mind the next time I take a lengthy road trip, especially if there’s scenic countryside involved.

Overall there was not a track that I did not like. At first it was a bit off-putting not hearing the vocals, but that feeling soon faded after a few songs the first time through. It was refreshing to hear these songs covered in an unintended, non-rock way (Alice in Chains without multiple overlaid guitar tracks?! who’da thunk). I found myself enjoying songs that I thought I’d grown tired of hearing after years and years of repeat airplay on commercial radio, e.g. “Man in the Box” and “Heaven Beside You”. When presented in this new way (performed by string instruments), they are familiar but seem new at the same time. If I were to assign a grade, as a whole, I would give this album a B+

Purchase this album online at the Vitamin Records Shop
or Download the MP3 album from the Apple iTunes store

I wrote this review on behalf of Vitamin Records and received a hard copy of the album to facilitate my candid review.

Internet / Music — Comments Off
20
Feb 09

Make Your Own Album Cover

A fantastically fun activity from the Best Week Ever blog!

  1. Click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
    The subject is your band name.
  2. Click here: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
    The last 4 or 5 words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your album.
  3. Click here: http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
    The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
  4. Use image editing/creation software to put it all together.
  5. Post it in the comments! (Using Imageshack or any photo host service)

Here are the ones I’ve made:

WVNW - Those We Don't Care For St. John's School - Employment for Economists Ichthyosis Lammellaris - That's Your Own Self Affi - Says Nothing

Massower See - That Should be Secondary