11/14/12 The Blackness Continues

11/14/12  Today's Albums:  The Blackness Continues

Intro:  So the real question of the day is 'how much of this am I going to get through'?  I'm on the second Opeth song and trying my hardest not to hit the 'skip the rest of this album' button.  Garbage didn't fare so well earlier this month, they may get skipped.  Drive by Truckers didn't impress me when I first picked it up from a friend.  This could be my second crappy day of music in a row.   (oh wait, the guy from Opeth is actually singing and not grunting like an angry beaver, this may save this album for another song at least).

The Albums:

• The Black Magic Show - Elefant
• Blackfield - Blackfield
• Blackwater Park - Opeth
• Bleed Like Me - Garbage
• Blender - Collective Soul
• A Blessing and a Curse - Drive-By Truckers
• Bloodletting - Concrete Blonde
• Blow by Blow - Jeff Beck
• Blue Album - Orbital

Summary:

So, it was an interesting day.  For the first time in the blog, a grower was also the winner of the day.  Drive By Truckers really impressed me and this is a good thing, the first time I listened to them, I was less than impressed.  Thanks to my buddy, Evan Verbanic for introducing me to them.

The Black Magic Show by Elefant was a CD that I got from my friend Kristie and it's catchy.  I'd classify them as 2000's darker pop, good focus on songs, good rifs, good hooks.  Blackfield is a project by Steven Wilson (of Porcupine Tree fame) and can be a little meloncholy, this is typically a good thing and it works for this album.

Blackwater Park brings me to Opeth, an enigma at best.  In the prog rock circles, Opeth is one of the more highly regarded bands, many people absolutely love them.  There is a second group that acknowledge that they're pretty damn good musically, but Mikel Akerfield's growling vocals, reminiscent of the worst Cookie Monster analogies that you can come up with make me (and many others no doubt) relive the recurring battle of 'do I delete this or listen to it again later and maybe I'll finally get it'.  After about three songs he stopped growling thus saving the CD from deletion.

Garbage and Collective Soul we both forgettable and I already sang my praises of Drive By Truckers.

Bloodletting is a classic in the gothic / 80's alternative scene with a series of fantastic songs that remain relevant today.  Johnette Napolitano's breathy alto is both soulful and stunning at the same time.  "Joey", "Caroline" and "Tomorrow Wendy" can all give me the proverbial goosebumps under the right circumstances.  The only problem that I have with this album is the mix, I have always bemoaned the relatively quiet mix on this CD, to really hear anything you've got to really crank up your speakers and let's face, not everything I have is a Bose, the Prius sound system is good, but to really hear this CD, you need to sit in a quiet room with no distractions and good headphones.  Having a five year old little girl, this is not only, inconvenient it's just about impossible.

Blow by Blow was good, though I want vocals after a while, the Blue Album was adequate background electronica.

The Final Tally:

• Winner
• A Blessing and a Curse - Drive-By Truckers
• Growers
• A Blessing and a Curse - Drive-By Truckers
• The Black Magic Show - Elefant
• Keepers
• Blackfield - Blackfield
• Bloodletting - Concrete Blonde
• Blow by Blow - Jeff Beck
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• Bleed Like Me - Garbage
• Blender - Collective Soul
• Blue Album - Orbital
• Blackwater Park - Opeth
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh