The Recent Musical Purchases Thread

[MeshGearFox]

I haven't posted in awhile, so here's everything going back to, like, January and working forward.

Porcupine Tree - Stupid Dream: I don't think I have any albums that I like less than this (Other than maybe Deadwing or that Annuals CD I'll get to in a second). 10th graderish lyrics and lots of prog cliches and absolutely nothing approaching originality. Made me want to stop buying music for awhile.

Band of Horses - Everything All the Time - I think I was out of it when I bought this because I can't actually remember buying this at all. Anyway, it sounds a lot like Built to Spill, only the singer's voice is a little more Coynesish and not so whispery. Really strong melodies, although it's sort of just more generic guitar pop/rock. It's been some months. I don't know how I feel about this.

Peter, Bjorn and Paul - Writer's Block. Everyone said this was really good. I like the big single off of it (Young Folks?) and some other song from it, but I can't honestly remember in the least what most of them sound like (save for, uh, two which I didn't really like) and I don't have any particular drive to listen to it.

Ghost - In Stormy Nights - I probably wouldn't have gotten this unless I was such a whore for Ghost because, much like Stupid Dream, Writer's block made me not want to buy music again. But pitchfork and allmusic gave it a favorable review. Dunno what to think about it. The first and last track are great. The cover of Calledonia is awesome. The thirty minue long drone bit is also oddly enjoyable (although the 12 minute drone portion on Hypnotic Underworld was better). And while I like the OTHER too tracks, they feel... too long, with too little variation? I dunno. It's odd, even for Ghost. I need to be more awake when I listen to it.

Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna - I love this thing. The entire thing is very continuous and smooth and Abbey Roadsish. The structuring on the last half is excellent, especially, going from the extremely angry The Past is a Grotesque Animal to a couple glammy, horny romps, to some rather violent/abstract bits, with a lot of keyboard/guitar stuff.

The Knife - Silent Shout: Damn. Also great. After PB&J and Dungen (I like writer's block more than Ta Det Lungt, though. Easily) I was about to give up on Sweden and focus on, say, Norway. I already like a-Ha, so that seemed like a safe bet. Well, I got this on a whim after that Stars of the Lid album I was looking for wasn't at the local CD store. It's really great. It's creepy like Boards of Canada's Geogaddi and a bit like Eraserhead and has this very seen and unseen thing to it, with all sorts of great synthesizers.

The Annuals - Be He Me - Actually, I got this in November last, but I had an ear infection and felt I couldn't really give it a fair shake till I could actually hear it. Then I forgot about it and I'm listening to it right now. Some of the songs have melody (And about half the ones that do sound like outtakes from U2 - War). Other songs sound like someone took protools to the beachboys entire backcatalog and just started glueing stuff together without any clue as to what they were doing.

[Nemmet]

Bought the following on vinyl:

King Crimson - Discipline
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Genesis - Foxtrot
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
Rush - Hemispheres

About to order the following on vinyl:

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Yanqui U.X.O.

[Degolas]

Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Frank Zappa - Joe's Garage Acts I-III
Tom Waits - Blood Money
Tom Waits - Real Gone

[Leo]

Dude, Deg, I recently bought NiN's The Downward Spiral as well, and it's great, and have you heard Year Zero? It's Trent Reznor's latest album; much better than the last album, With Teeth, in my opinion.

What I bought recently:

[*]Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
[*]Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero
[*]Bright Eyes - Cassadaga[/list]

[Degolas]

I'm surprised that I like NIN to be honest! I suppose I was put off by the majority of the fan base. I am quite enjoying the album though, I really like the raw emotional power of it. And it's very, very noisy :P I've heard a few tracks of the new one, and will probably pick it up soon-ish.

[Degolas]

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven

[Degolas]

Frank Zappa - Freak Out!
Frank Zappa - Absolutely Free
Frank Zappa - We're Only in it For the Money

[Esper_Crusader]

Skid Row - Slave to the Grind
Silverchair - Frogstomp

[Sazabirules]

Megadeth - United Abominations

[Esper_Crusader]

^I'm hoping to pick that disc(Megadeth) up on Friday or Saturday. What's the verdict??

[Sazabirules]

^I'm hoping to pick that disc(Megadeth) up on Friday or Saturday. What's the verdict??

I only own one other Megadeth album (Rust in Peace) but this disc is awesome.

[D-Rider]

^I'm hoping to pick that disc(Megadeth) up on Friday or Saturday. What's the verdict??

It sounds like a pretty natural progression from "The System Has Failed".  If you liked that, there's no reason you wouldn't like the new one.  The only real weak link is the revamped version of "A Tout Le Monde".  Obviously Dave's never heard of the saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". :P

[Dincrest]

"A Tout Le Monde" with Christina Scabbia could have been brilliant and haunting, but the arrangement sucked donkey dick.  A better arrangement and it could have been brilliant.  When I first heard that Christina Scabbia would be doing vocals on a redux of "A Tout Le Monde" I thought it would work, but it turned into a trainwreck.  

On the other hand, I thought Korn and Amy Lee dueting on "Freak on a Leash" on Unplugged would be an absolute trainwreck, but it was actually good; it added an extra dimension and made the song more haunting.  That was a HUGE surprise (especially considering I don't think much of Korn or Evanescence.)

[Vanguard]

Degolas, how do you like Frank Zappa - We're Only in it for the Money?

[Degolas]

That's actually the only one of those three I haven't got around to listening to yet! But I hear that it's better than the other too, and seeing as I love those, I imagine I'll like it a lot!