Dusty Likes Music

Saturday, November 17, 2012

The Gaslight Anthem - Unwritten

I'm still hopelessly addicted to this album. I find myself listening to it multiple times a week, usually while I'm driving. It's been pretty cold here in Kentucky recently, but I still roll the windows down and crank this album. There's not a bad song on it. My least favorite song ("Too Much Blood") is still awesome.
It's Springsteen by way of Foo Fighters. I love it.
At the moment, you can download this album from Amazon for $3.99. That's an absolute steal.

Rating: 5/5
Favorite track: "Handwritten". Although "Mae" is creeping towards that top spot.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

The Killers - Battle Born

With each album, their songs seem to get a little bigger. More grandiose. They're not trying to make a statement: they just want to make good, big, rock and roll. And I can't help but love them.

Rating: 4/5
Favorite track: "Runaways"

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Muse - The 2nd Law

I will start off by saying that I loved Absolution.
However, that was the last Muse album I enjoyed.
I get it. They make huge, catchy rock anthems, with a theatrical bent. There's nothing wrong with that. Lord knows I listen to enough music that can fit into that description.
But not this. Oh no...not this at all.
It's like they went into this saying, "How can we sound like a futuristic version of Queen?" The answer is lots of synths, lots of falsetto, and more than a hint of dubstep scattered throughout. I listened to this earlier today, and it was all I could do to get to the end.

At this point, I know what Muse is. And I guess I'm just not on board.

Rating: 1/5

Friday, October 05, 2012

My New Album

This is not a review. This is shameless self-promotion at its best (worst?).
A friend and I have been working on this EP for a while. It started out as an attempt to marry 8-bit beats with Robert Johnson-esque blues. It didn't quite work out that way, but we're very happy with where it ended up.

It's available on Bandcamp right now. You can download it for free, or you can opt to give us a little money. Either way. But, if you get a chance, head over and check it out. You can find it here.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Mumford & Sons - Babel

I loved Sigh No More. It took me a few listens to get into, but once I did, I was hooked. Babel takes that album and steps it up a notch. It's a little bigger. A little darker. A little better. It sets a mood at the beginning, and it keeps that mood throughout the entire album. It's sinister, yet still inviting. I'm 4 listens in, and I'm in love.

One added note. I had this album on while Carpenter's Halloween was on the TV, and it worked really well. Something about the dark, driving rhythms on this album fit really well with that movie.

Rating: 5/5
Favorite track: "Below My Feet"

In the past, I've made promises about keeping up with this blog on a more regular basis. I'm going to attempt to make that promise again. I have found myself a bit over-my-head with blogs lately (in addition to this one, I also write about horror movies and sports), and this is the one that has suffered the most. I'm going to try to be better about that. And if that means a series of short reviews like this one, then so be it. I have discovered that I'm not the greatest music writer, so shorter is probably better.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Music to Work To

Smashing Pumpkins – Oceania

Combines the feel of Mellon Collie Pumpkins with a nod to Zwan-era Corgan. The guitar riffs are still
there, but the album overall seems to have a bit of a pop lean to it. It’s a completely different feel than
Zeitgeist, but that’s okay.
Also, I swear he uses the theme of Suspiria in “Oceania”, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Favorite track: "The Chimera"
Rating: 4/5

Twin Shadow – Confess

A heavy dose of 80s-era synth-pop. I would assume that he was mocking the genre if he didn’t seem so
earnest about it. There are a handful of really good songs on here, but there are also a lot of moments
where the songs start to run together. I’m sure more songs will begin to distinguish themselves upon
repeated listening (which I will most certainly be doing).

Favorite track: "Five Seconds"
Rating: 3/5

Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo, Magellan

I don’t get it. I’m not sure if that means I’m old. It seems like they know how to write a good pop song
(the title track is proof of that), but it seems like they’re more concerned with being “weird” instead. It
doesn’t even seem arty to me. It just seems like they’re trying to be weird for the sake of being weird (I
believe that’s what they call “po-mo”. Isn’t that right, Mr. Szyslak?).

Favorite track: "Swing Lo Magellan"
Rating: 1/5

Chains of Love – Strange Grey Days

50s/60s era pop. It’s a short album, but it’s solid. Not a bad song here. Seems like it will be a good
album for the rest of the summer. (It should be mentioned that there seem to be a lot of bands that fit
this description that have come out in the past few years, and I seem to love most of them. Keep ‘em
coming!)

Favorite track: "He's Leaving (With Me)"
Rating: 4/5

The Gaslight Anthem – Handwritten

Good, driving rock n’ roll. I read a review that mentioned this album as being a bit “too Springsteen”.
As long as you’re drawing your influences from Born to Run Springsteen and not Working on a Dream
Springsteen, I really don’t see what the problem is. I’m not sure how well this will hold up with repeated
listens, but, after one listen, I really like it. Sometimes you just need a good rock album.

Favorite track: "Too Much Blood"
Rating: 4/5

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Driving Music: Old and New

A few months ago, I got into a wreck. Thankfully, I was okay. Unfortunately, the car was not. One of the things I loved about that car was the radio. A few years ago, we got a new radio installed with an iPod connection. So I would listen to stuff from my iPod on my way to and from work every day. I usually listened to newer music and podcasts.
But my new car only has a CD player. So I've been listening to CDs every day on my commute. There's something about picking out a CD that is different from choosing music on an iPod. When I see a CD on the shelf, I'm taken back to the time when I bought it. I remember my life where it was at that time. So I have found myself listening to a lot of older albums. It's been fun. So, while I will one day replace this radio with a newer one, I have been enjoying this time of going back and listening to some albums that I haven't listened to for a while.

So I present to you a list of albums I have listened to in the past month or so. As you will see, there are some newer albums on this list, but there are a lot of older ones, too. There is a lot of nostalgia here.