I moved into the new apartment up at school today. After spending last year in a suite with seven other people with whom I had very little in common, I'm excited for the change in scenery. This time around its 3 people, all of whom I know fairly/extremely well, and we're all hella excited. For bonus points, we got a kitchen, so no more endless dining hall food.
In my musical universe not all that much is going on, making this post rather uninteresting. However within the last hour something broke that will lead to at least one future post sometime this week. Earlier today The Glass Passenger, the much-anticipated sophomore effort from Jack's Mannequin, leaked to the internet in some form. As the story appears to be going on PunkDisasters, promo copies were sent out, but since then the track listing has changed. Nonetheless, an album featuring new JM material is out in the open, 5 weeks before the slated September 30 release date.
I have no idea how close to the actual, final release the one I have is. I will keep checking and will post a review of the copy I have regardless later this week. Anyone with the actual leak (allegedly the REAL album leaked today) or more info should drop me a line.
==TJ==
Showing posts with label leaks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leaks. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Friday, June 6, 2008
¡Viva La Mainstream! Likes Viva La Vida. What A Shock.
(For the record, Blogger effed up the old template so it looked a little ugly, hence the new one. Hoping they fix it/something better comes up soon. Sorry for the otherwise subpar look for the time being)
A couple of people at EMI must really have dreaded coming into work these last couple days. Coldplay's rabidly anticipated fourth album Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends leaked last night, 13 days before its official June 17th release date. I have a lot to say in this review, but if you don't have time to read the whole thing, know that this album (despite being only 10 tracks) was the meatiest, most interesting album I've listened to all year.
The album opens with "Life in Technicolor", an instrumental track that more or less serves as an overture to the rest of the album, which brings me to my first piece of praise; the instrumentals on this LP are a cut above anything I've heard Coldplay do. I don't know if credit for that goes to Chris Martin, producer Brian Eno, or the band as a whole, but credit is due nonetheless. If EMI wanted to try to double-dip on this album, I think releasing an entirely instrumental version of the album would go over nicely. Coldplay run a musical gamut on Viva La Vida..., from the Justin Timberlake influenced "Lost!" to the Phish-meets-an-ice-cream-truck* "Strawberry Swing", while still making sure fans know that this is still the same band (more or less) with piano nods in "42" and campfire-y acoustic guitars in the closing "Death and All His Friends", which had me singing along only 30 seconds in.
*Yes, I actually wrote that in my notes.
Going back to the instrumentation on the album, I felt like every song would work well on a soundtrack to some movie somewhere. "Lovers In Japan/Reign of Love", one of three 6-minute-plus opuses on the album, between the incredible strings and Chris Martin's subdued vocals could provide background music to any one of a thousand movies and do nothing but enhance the scene.
Now onto the lyrics. Here too there's layer upon layer of meat and subtext to be found, not the least of which in "Viva La Vida". The steady run of Biblical and religious allusions are as interesting to read and look at as they are to hear Chris Martin sing. And across the board the album wonderfully balances themes of life and death, as the album title would suggest (more on that later). I can't even really give an accurate analysis of it, since doing so from memory wouldn't really do it justice. It's that good. Just like his comrades, Chris Martin made a huge leap on this album with both his singing (check out the lower register on "Yes") and his songwriting (the hook and chorus-free "Cemeteries in London").
When Coldplay announced that they were experimenting with their sound on Viva La Vida, the first thing I thought was "Coldplay's going Radiohead". Based on this review, that's not entirely accurate. The sound is distinctly different from Radiohead. But make no mistake; Viva La Vida is to Coldplay what OK Computer was to Radiohead. In making this album, the whole game changes for Coldplay. The Coldplay that made millions off "Clocks" and "Speed of Sound" isn't really here on this album. On Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends Coldplay finally fill the huge sound they've hinted at on their first three albums. And now that they've filled those shoes, the next logical step is for them to break the hell out of them. When that happens, I'll have some cash set aside so I can be there to hear it.
One more thing; a lot has been made about the album's title. Tons of people think it's absurd. I liked the notion of Viva La Vida from the getgo (maybe because of how close it sounds to the name of this blog), and was willing to accept the extended title, but after hearing the album, I can do one better; the album title makes sense. Depending on how you look at it, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends is either a joyful celebration of life and existence or an upbeat transcendental meditation on death and the afterlife (think Black Parade without the suicide controversy). Thus, the album is either Viva La Vida, or the album is Death and All His Friends. Coldplay leaves it up to you. And they said they weren't pulling a Radiohead. Needless to say, EMI shouldn't worry too much about a leak hurting record sales. Coldplay's making sure their label lives to see another album...or at the very least another few weeks out of bankruptcy.
Final Score: 9.5/10
Coldplay - Viva La Vida [iTunes]
Coldplay - Lost! [iTunes]
Pre-order Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends on iTunes
==TJ==
PS: Check out the new guy on the block at Polar Bear Stole My Coat
A couple of people at EMI must really have dreaded coming into work these last couple days. Coldplay's rabidly anticipated fourth album Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends leaked last night, 13 days before its official June 17th release date. I have a lot to say in this review, but if you don't have time to read the whole thing, know that this album (despite being only 10 tracks) was the meatiest, most interesting album I've listened to all year.
The album opens with "Life in Technicolor", an instrumental track that more or less serves as an overture to the rest of the album, which brings me to my first piece of praise; the instrumentals on this LP are a cut above anything I've heard Coldplay do. I don't know if credit for that goes to Chris Martin, producer Brian Eno, or the band as a whole, but credit is due nonetheless. If EMI wanted to try to double-dip on this album, I think releasing an entirely instrumental version of the album would go over nicely. Coldplay run a musical gamut on Viva La Vida..., from the Justin Timberlake influenced "Lost!" to the Phish-meets-an-ice-cream-truck* "Strawberry Swing", while still making sure fans know that this is still the same band (more or less) with piano nods in "42" and campfire-y acoustic guitars in the closing "Death and All His Friends", which had me singing along only 30 seconds in.
*Yes, I actually wrote that in my notes.
Going back to the instrumentation on the album, I felt like every song would work well on a soundtrack to some movie somewhere. "Lovers In Japan/Reign of Love", one of three 6-minute-plus opuses on the album, between the incredible strings and Chris Martin's subdued vocals could provide background music to any one of a thousand movies and do nothing but enhance the scene.
Now onto the lyrics. Here too there's layer upon layer of meat and subtext to be found, not the least of which in "Viva La Vida". The steady run of Biblical and religious allusions are as interesting to read and look at as they are to hear Chris Martin sing. And across the board the album wonderfully balances themes of life and death, as the album title would suggest (more on that later). I can't even really give an accurate analysis of it, since doing so from memory wouldn't really do it justice. It's that good. Just like his comrades, Chris Martin made a huge leap on this album with both his singing (check out the lower register on "Yes") and his songwriting (the hook and chorus-free "Cemeteries in London").
When Coldplay announced that they were experimenting with their sound on Viva La Vida, the first thing I thought was "Coldplay's going Radiohead". Based on this review, that's not entirely accurate. The sound is distinctly different from Radiohead. But make no mistake; Viva La Vida is to Coldplay what OK Computer was to Radiohead. In making this album, the whole game changes for Coldplay. The Coldplay that made millions off "Clocks" and "Speed of Sound" isn't really here on this album. On Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends Coldplay finally fill the huge sound they've hinted at on their first three albums. And now that they've filled those shoes, the next logical step is for them to break the hell out of them. When that happens, I'll have some cash set aside so I can be there to hear it.
One more thing; a lot has been made about the album's title. Tons of people think it's absurd. I liked the notion of Viva La Vida from the getgo (maybe because of how close it sounds to the name of this blog), and was willing to accept the extended title, but after hearing the album, I can do one better; the album title makes sense. Depending on how you look at it, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends is either a joyful celebration of life and existence or an upbeat transcendental meditation on death and the afterlife (think Black Parade without the suicide controversy). Thus, the album is either Viva La Vida, or the album is Death and All His Friends. Coldplay leaves it up to you. And they said they weren't pulling a Radiohead. Needless to say, EMI shouldn't worry too much about a leak hurting record sales. Coldplay's making sure their label lives to see another album...or at the very least another few weeks out of bankruptcy.
Final Score: 9.5/10
Coldplay - Viva La Vida [iTunes]
Coldplay - Lost! [iTunes]
Pre-order Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends on iTunes
==TJ==
PS: Check out the new guy on the block at Polar Bear Stole My Coat
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Coldplay album leaks; review ASAP
The title of the entry pretty much says it all. Obtaining it now, will have a review of it in the coming days. Just posted this as a means of encouraging all ye who would do such a thing to check your torrents and music forums to see if they've gone up.
And no this will NOT affect the project in the previous entry.
==TJ==
And no this will NOT affect the project in the previous entry.
==TJ==
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Kelly Clarkson Demos Leak; Chaos Ensues
Last week Luis at PMA got his hands on what were allegedly some demo tracks from the in-progress Kelly Clarkson album (not being written by Clarkson, sadly; looks like Clive Davis won out). 4 tracks, the origin of which is anywhere from being in Clarkson's personal collection to semi-official releases, found their way into Luis's hands and subsequently onto PMA, starting a full-blown comment war between the blog, the hardcore "crazy Clarkson" fans, and everyone else who felt like typing something out. The site ultimately took them down, but not before a militant commenter uploaded them himself and passed out the link.
I'm rather torn on this story. My respect for record labels is in a constant decline, so if these belong to the record label and got leaked, tough shit on them. The conspiracy theorist in me tends to believe that record labels intentionally leak some of this stuff because they know that the bloggers are right about it generating (usually) positive hype. So that explains why I generally don't have much issue picking up on leaks, especially if i know I'll be buying the music upon its release.
But many sites (including PMA and Billboard) are reporting that these demos were snagged from Clarkson herself, the work of some hacker. That's a whole new ballgame. Now we ARE looking at a story where someone stole directly from an artist; not from a multimillion dollar label that claims to be looking out for said artist. That's not much different from someone taking a saved blog post from my hard drive and claiming it as their own. For that reason, I'm NOT posting the Clarkson demos. I will admit to having them on my hard drive, mostly out of sheer curiosity. I also plan to delete them upon hearing them. Turns out that Aben Eubanks, a friend and colleague of Clarkson has asked for their removal, but the label itself has said nothing. Given the war that went on over My December, I can't say I'm surprised.
I may or may not post my opinions of the demos after I hear them. That's to come later this week. Just thought this was a story that needed to be posted.
4 New Kelly Clarkson Demos [PMA]
To Do List: Talk About Kelly Clarkson... [PMA]
Clarkson Hopes Fans 'Like' Leaked Demos [Billboard]
==TJ==
I'm rather torn on this story. My respect for record labels is in a constant decline, so if these belong to the record label and got leaked, tough shit on them. The conspiracy theorist in me tends to believe that record labels intentionally leak some of this stuff because they know that the bloggers are right about it generating (usually) positive hype. So that explains why I generally don't have much issue picking up on leaks, especially if i know I'll be buying the music upon its release.
But many sites (including PMA and Billboard) are reporting that these demos were snagged from Clarkson herself, the work of some hacker. That's a whole new ballgame. Now we ARE looking at a story where someone stole directly from an artist; not from a multimillion dollar label that claims to be looking out for said artist. That's not much different from someone taking a saved blog post from my hard drive and claiming it as their own. For that reason, I'm NOT posting the Clarkson demos. I will admit to having them on my hard drive, mostly out of sheer curiosity. I also plan to delete them upon hearing them. Turns out that Aben Eubanks, a friend and colleague of Clarkson has asked for their removal, but the label itself has said nothing. Given the war that went on over My December, I can't say I'm surprised.
I may or may not post my opinions of the demos after I hear them. That's to come later this week. Just thought this was a story that needed to be posted.
4 New Kelly Clarkson Demos [PMA]
To Do List: Talk About Kelly Clarkson... [PMA]
Clarkson Hopes Fans 'Like' Leaked Demos [Billboard]
==TJ==
Thursday, September 13, 2007
VLM Just Cancelled All Its Appointments for the Rest of the Day
Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace, the new album from the Foo Fighters, just leaked to the internet.
So much for any real work getting done tonight. Review coming ASAP. NO I will not post the link to the download (violates terms of use for the group from whence I got it, and its just a bit wrong...even I have some standards)
==TJ==
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Linkin Park Single Leaks...Well, sort of...
Clearly some people just couldn't stand to wait the last few hours before Linkin Park released "What I've Done", the first single from Minutes to Midnight. With only 60 more minutes to midnight on April 2nd, the song has found it's way onto the internet. I don't have an mp3 of it available yet as I'm on a foreign laptop that doesn't have the proper recording software, but I can offer you this youtube link of the song. The video I found has lyrics (misspelled, but there nonetheless) and some random pictures that may or may not be officialI've been listening to it every few minutes, and I honestly think its lived up to all the hype that the band has built up for it. Much more poetic than anything they've done before, and the lack of Mike Shinoda's rapping is noticed, but not felt. It's official; my hopes for Minutes to Midnight are up in the stratosphere now. May 15th can't come soon enough.
I'll be back tomorrow with an mp3 of this. Yes, I know I still owe you tracks from Cassadaga and a few other goodies, and I promise them all when I'm on my own computer tomorrow. Till then enjoy.
==TJ==
Update: Kevipod and Idolator saved me the trouble of ripping my own copy of the track, so all I have to do is sendspace it and everyone's happy. Idolator had a jolly old time bashing this track to shreds, but then again most music blogs are at the point where if a song doesn't feature Bright Eyes, Timbaland, or Arcade Fire, it's relegated to the crap bin. Viva la Mainstream!!
I'll be back tomorrow with an mp3 of this. Yes, I know I still owe you tracks from Cassadaga and a few other goodies, and I promise them all when I'm on my own computer tomorrow. Till then enjoy.
==TJ==
Update: Kevipod and Idolator saved me the trouble of ripping my own copy of the track, so all I have to do is sendspace it and everyone's happy. Idolator had a jolly old time bashing this track to shreds, but then again most music blogs are at the point where if a song doesn't feature Bright Eyes, Timbaland, or Arcade Fire, it's relegated to the crap bin. Viva la Mainstream!!
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Bright Eyes Sprung A Leak
OK, I can't give you tracks just yet, and I won't tell you where and how I got it, but Bright Eyes' new album Cassadaga leaked this morning and I have it. I've only heard maybe three songs so far and in large part I like what I hear. I'm gonna be playing the full album on my radio show this afternoon from 4-6PM, so if you wanna hear it before you buy it/download it, now's the time to do it.
==TJ==
==TJ==
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