The Dandy Warhols The Dandy Warhols
I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you... When I'm down or in a bad mood, I put on a Dandy Warhols CD and I can smile again. For some reason, this music makes me happy, it has an uplifting effect on me. And not only the more upbeat singles (Boys Better, Every Day Should Be a Holiday), but also the other, more subdued songs. I think it's the sum of the beautiful voice of Courtney Taylor, the sometimes psychedelic and hypnotic music, the repetitive wall of sound, that has a soothing effect on me. Every now and then the songs tend to drone a bit too much, especially towards the end of the album, where the monotony kicks in. Pete International Airport and The Creep Out mar an album that has a lot of potential, but catchy songs like Cool as Kim Deal, Minnesoter, Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth, and the aforementioned Boys Better and Every Day Should Be a Holiday make up for a lot. Some songs dangle in-between those two extremes (Be-In, Hard On for Jesus), but in its entirety the balance is steady.
Bohemian Like You was my first conscious acquaintance with the Dandy Warhols (later on I realized that I knew earlier songs), and yes, before the Vodafone commercial! I got this from a friend to see whether I liked it, and oh yes, I liked it! Bohemian Like You is a super catchy and uplifting single, and the crazy Horse Pills and Get Off are equally catchy and uplifting. Godless and Nietzsche are more in the line of the material on The Dandy Warhols Come Down, a tad droning and monotone and hypnotic, but never to the point of being boring. The Dandy's have become more pop-oriented since their previous album, the sound of Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia is more open, the wall of sound has been replaced a range of songs in different styles, from pure pop over stonerrock to country, with the odd pastiche in between (Courtney Taylor does Iggy Pop in Shakin'). But despite all the different genres, Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia particularly sounds like the Dandy Warhols, who have found their own style. That is very obvious in the magnificent ballads Sleep and The Gospel, but also in Godless, in which the Dandy's blend dreaminess and sharpness into beautiful songs. Together with the insanity of Horse Pills and Get Off, that results into a varied and excellent album.
The Danse Society It's clear that this band had matured a lot between this mini-LP and Heaven Is Waiting, they had refined their sound and songrwiting a lot. But this mini-LP has already shows the fundamentals.
Bought this after I heard the haunting cover of the Rolling Stones song 2,000 Light Years from Home. A moody and dark album, Come Inside and Wake Up standing out. I saw them live afterwards in 't Paard, The Hague, they were brilliant. An immensely underrated band.
Dead Man Ray De La Soul I wasn't really much into rap or hip-hop, but songs like Me, Myself and I, Can U Keep a Secret and Eye Know were too good to resist. And it's a great album indeed, never gets boring. The daisy age rules.
The Del Fuegos Fell for I Still Want You, a gorgeous, sad, melancholic song. A rocking album, with Dan Zanes' raw voice. Mitchell Froom lays the foundations of his later production work with Crowded House and others (already shows some of his dictatorial behaviour too).
dEUS The album starts out with the weird Intro. Hotellounge is a powerful, fantastic song, as well as the other singles Via and sUDS & sODA (had a great, heart-warming video clip with Barman and Carlens holding hands). The voices of Barman and Carlens complement each other in an extra-ordinary way. Some songs are too experimental and avant-garde (think Morticiachair), but the album as a whole is very good.
This album has never been able to get through to me. The songs were meant as B-sides, but were upgraded to an album. Not the usual dEUS-quality.
Theme from Turnpike was a strange choice for a first single, a repetitive and heavy song. Little Arithmetics was completely different, a soft and tender song with a wild finale. And those two extremes indicate the nature of this album (and the nature of dEUS really). Another weird intro like on W.C.S., I Don't Mind Whatever Happens. Fell off the Floor, Man is one of my favourites, I love all the funny stuff, the instrumentation and the rhythm changes. Roses is another slow and gorgeous song, and Gimme the Heat is equally as good. And let's not forget Serpentine. Supermarket and Memory of a Festival are not their best songs, but they are compensated by Nine Threads, with the immmortal lyrics "Under the sea, is where I'll be, no talk about the rain no more".
Got this from Justin from San Diego, who came to Europe for 3 Beck concerts and gave us this CD as a token of appreciation for accompanying him in a dark, cloudy and rainy Brussels. He's a *very* kind guy. Zea is a wonderful song, and the version of sUDS & sODA with die Anarchistische Abendunderhaltung is truly hilarious. More experimental stuff (Texan Coffee, It. Furniture in the Far West), but also beautiful songs like Violins and Happy Endings and a few live songs (Jigsaw You with a funny French introduction).
First album without Stef Kamil Carlens. It took me a while before I got it, but I didn't regret it. Also because it only later came with the bonus CD with 3 great videos and a Soulwax remix of Everybody's Weird. I love the live footage. Favourite song is Instant Street, I don't really like the beginning but the end of the song is wild and crazy and beautiful. The album sounds quite different from the previous ones, much more consistent and at times a bit eerie, and sad. One advice, space.
My computer refuses to play the videos on this CD-rom, but the songs are great. You Can't Deny What You Liked as a Child, and live versions of Magdalena and Gimme the Heat.
Died Pretty Life to Go (Landsakes) was the song that attracted my attention to this band. Love this singer's voice, very powerful but a bit out of tune at the same time (as I love to make comparisons: think Afghan Whigs). Just Skin is a song of the same calibre. The album doesn't succeed in maintaining the tension of those two songs, but it surely is interesting enough to deserve a 4-CD-rating.
The Dinky ToysI have an excuse... won this at a music quiz. It was this or other crap. Shows how high we ended up in the ranking of the quiz...
Dinosaur Jr. Bought this for that delicious cover of Peter Frampton's Show Me the Way: loud guitars, out of tune vocals, quality of the vinyl not too good... we included this in our last music quiz, it was a joy to see the shocked, terrified and astounded faces in the room!
Their last record on that lovely SST-label. Freak Scene is one hell of a song. Pond Song is somewhat more (surprise!) folky. I love Mascis' whine.
Dire Straits Got this early in my "record buying career". I used to like this record back then, loved the atmosphere of Private Investigations, but now I think it's plain boring. Too much guitar-virtuosity, not enough emotions.
The Doors I soon found out that I didn't really by the best Doors album around, but oh well, I liked it. I was sooooooooo fond of the song Wishful Sinful, that I wanted to buy this album. Touch Me is another favourite.
Very good compilation, with hits like Riders on the Storm and Light My Fire, other well-known songs like Waiting for the Sun and Hello I Love You and lots of others. One I miss though, The End. But a good compilation.
Nick Drake As nearly all the reviews of Beck's Sea Change I read mentioned Nick Drake as an important influence, I decided to fill this gaping void in my knowledge of popular music, and bought Five Leaves Left for a nice price. And it suited me so fine, that during my next stop at the local record store a few days later, I bought Bryter Layter and Pink Moon immediately. It's about two months later now when I write this review, and the album hasn't left my CD-player since I bought it. And yes, I can clearly hear where Beck has been around, but I can also hear clear echo's of some Tim Buckley songs I heard a while ago. And before I go on, I'll kick in some open doors so that's over and done with: yes, it's a crying shame that Nick Drake's life came to such an untimely end (he was only 26), and yes, it's a crying shame that he didn't get the success he deserved during his life. The cult-status he has now is not out of proportion, given the excellent albeit limited body of work he left behind. Back to Five Leaves Left, by the time I had listened to the two first songs, I was sold. This debut album is incredibly strong, it's so beautiful that it makes your jaw drop in awe and your eyes grow moist with emotion. It doesn't need the usual rock set-up to reach this effect, most songs are soberly arranged with vocals and an acoustic guitar (which is plucked exquisitely), with the addition of some strings or wind, and congas here and there. The only regular rock attribute is the bass of Danny Thompson. And that Danny Thompson is a well-known name in the British folk-pop scene, as well as Joe Boyd and Richard Thompaon (no family) of Fairport Convention who respectively produced and played guitar on Five Leaves Left. And despite the wistful, sometimes almost mournful lyrics of the songs, the album isn't a completely depressing affair, thanks to the uplifting and beautiful melodies, and Drake's bright and clear voice. The songs with gorgeous and sober string arrangements appeal to me most (River Man, Way to Blue, Cello Song), but every song here has its strength. The beautiful combination of the acoustic guitar and congas in Cello Song, the gorgeous melody and dark lyrics of Day Is Done (When the bird has flown, Got no-one to call your own, Got no place to call your home, When the bird has flown, it's absolutely heart-breaking when you listen attentively, but oddly enough when you have the album in the background, the song sounds uplifting and happy), the beautiful vocals in Three Doors, the warm sound of Saturday Sun... The Thoughts of Mary Jane sounds unusually sunny for Nick Drake, and Man in a Shed even is somwwhat funny, but that only goes to show that Nick Drake isn't all about dreariness... Quite on the contrary, Five Leaves Left is the most beautiful sadness I've heard in a long time, and it's one of the best albums I bought in 2002.
Duran Duran In the middle of my teenage years, yes. I fell completely for the New Romantics, including Spandau Ballet. And oh, go ahead, shoot me, I still like Save a Prayer.
After this album I had gotten out of this bad habit... If Rio is no good, well this one is far worse. The sound effects on The Reflex, god. That video, GOD! Hm. Let's forget about this one please.
Bob Dylan )Jan bought this, can't remember why. I'm not that much of a Dylan fan. But it's nice to hear those songs again that I heard when I was a child, my sisters were both Dylan fans. And after having heard a few cover versions of Mr. Tambourine Man, it's good to hear the original.
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