January 22, 2005

• Recently I went out and bought two albums that I figured I would not buy, The Killers – “Hot Fuss” and Maroon 5 – “Songs About Jane.” 
  I’m glad I did buy them though, because they’re definitely not bad at
  all.  It’s been a whole week that I’ve been listening to these two
  albums, so I thought I’d write my .05 cents on the matter.

  

  I got the Killer’s debut (“Hot Fuss”)
  on the strength of their singles (“somebody told me” and
  “mr.brightside”), which made me nostalgic to the sound of the
  ’80s.  Guitar punk mixed with synthesizers for a new wave
  sound.  For the most part, the album isn’t bad at all, but about
  half of the songs don’t stand out as much as they probably
  should.  For modern new wave synth rock album, I believe Duran Duran – Astronaut,
  did a better job. There’s still some good material with “Hot Fuss”
  though and it’s not difficult to enjoy the album as a whole.  It
  just easily ends up becoming “background music” fodder, which coincidentally IS like a lot of the new wave ’80s albums.
  My current choices right now would be…
  02 – Mr.Brightside
  03 – Smile Like You Mean It
  04 – Somebody Told Me
  08 – Change Your Mind
  10 – Midnight Show

  

  As for Maroon 5′s debut album (Songs About Jane), I’m surprised I took this long to purchase it.  I first noticed this band when I got hooked by their very first single “Harder to Breate”
  back in the fall of 2002 (yeah it’s been that long ago).  I didn’t
  buy the album then, because I feared the rest of the album wouldn’t be
  any good at all.  A year later they release a second single “This Love” and it was catchy as hell, but it still didn’t do it for me.  By Spring 2004, they released their super popular “She Will Be Loved”
  which actually turned me off.  Wait, that’s a little misleading
  because I actually like the song, but I HATE the music video for
  it.  The video was too melodramatic, pretentious, and evil,
  because how could he go for the mom when her daughter is definitely
  hotter, plus he looks like some evil bastard playing with the two women
  (rant mode off).  By the fourth easy listening yet groovy single “Sunday Morning”
  I decided that I will get their album one of these days. About three
  months later, here I am writing this.  It’s a GOOD album, fueled
  with an R&B, Funk, Rock, and Pop mentality.  It’s one of those
  albums that is very easy to listen to over and over again (and I’ve
  done that too). The singles aren’t the only good songs to listen to, as
  the rest of the albums have strong tracks as well. 
  Besides the singles, my choice songs right now are…
  05 – Tangled
  06 – The Sun
  07 – Must Get Out
  10 – Through With You
  12 – Sweetest Goodbye

  Franz Ferdinand and Modest Mouse are two other bands that are still in my “should I buy or not” list.  Who can tell if I will or not.

  • 6:50 am
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