In Continuum.

Well, I think enough has been said about this album in the last entry when I briefly reviewed it. That was the first day when I heard the album, and repeated listening has really made this love relationship even stronger. This album has been on repeat ever since I first got my hands on it, and there is a very good reason why. I guess I am just very comfortable with where the band is now musically, and it is a good album to slap all the critics in the faces. People always say that it is uncool to like a mainstream rock band like Coldplay, they think that it is cooler to like some obscure underground bands that make music in the garage or something. The thing about this band, I feel, is that they are willing to take a step back and say "well, I guess we are bigger than we deserve to be. Let's see what we can do to catch up". To be humble is so difficult to find in a band that has already sold more than 30 million albums around the world. The part of the band that never gives up on improving on themselves seems to shine through in this album, with the entire album being a cycle of some sorts. You can't pick out a song individually here, it'd seem rather odd. This album is just one big song with different verses and choruses, but really just one theme altogether. It is either you wallow in self-pity with death and all of his friends, or celebrate life - viva la vida! I choose, the latter; and to celebrate this album's brilliance at the same time. 

Albums by the band:

1. Parachutes (2000)

2. A Rush Of Blood to the Head (2002)

3. X & Y (2005)

4. Viva la Vida or Death And All His Friends (2008)

Now this is one of those bands that I found via YouTube, somewhat like how Miracle Fortress was presented to me on the front page one day. It featured the band members holding a birthday party for the band leader's cats, and Laura Peek's quirky 50s hairstyle was just so strange and alluring all at the same time. The fact that she is a redhead is a bonus, but that is not the point. The point is that this band can produce great music with just a keyboard, a bass and a set of drums. This album, and band, is by no means jaw-dropping good. But they are fun, and they are enjoyable to listen to because they seem to have this innocence in the way that they approach their music. You hear this sense of uncertainty in their music somehow, as if they don't really know what to do or where to go. It may sound like a bad thing at times, but then it sort of reminds you of where most bands these days come from - that place when you just cut an album and see where the band goes from there. Besides, Stand Right There probably got stuck in my head for the longest time, and it has an interest bass line that really sets your head into a continuous nodding mode. The rest of the album follows a relatively similar path, but it is a path that is both soothing and casual. It's like sunning your mattress in the summer sun, and the smell you get when you put your face into it at night - yeah, something like that. It feels good, it really does. 

Albums by the band:

1. From The Photographs (2008)

The icelandic powerhouses are back, this time with yet another title that I cannot pronounce, and an equally challenging set of song names that I cannot read. Nonetheless, when it comes to a Sigur Ros album, you have to stand in awe at just how much emotion they can bring forth without the need of lyrics at all. After all, this is the same band that created their own language for an entire album at one point, what else can they not accomplish? In the last album, we saw the band connect with their more optimistic side of things. I mean, the album ( ) was really a vision of a desolated landscape to me, and the album Takk felt like a beautiful dawn somehow. This album is sort of like the album you would listen to while you camp out in the middle of the icelandic landscape just before sunset. It's a great album, and you get to hear some of the more upbeat tracks from the band that I personally haven't heard before. Some die hard fans have already been complaining ever since their first single was released on the internet for free, not to mention just how pointless they thought the video was, the one that featured a bunch of naked people running around in the forest and frolicked about in the lake. I personally never looked at naked people with such a lack of lust, especially the women. Seriously, it was just a very pleasant video coupled with a very pleasant song that oozed of hope and happiness. Some people just can't take a happy Sigur Ros I suppose, I personally love the change in things. Now, all I have to do is to get over the long title and the fact that it has three male buttocks plastered on the cover. 

Albums by the band:

1. Von (1997)

2. Ágætis byrjun (1999)

3. ( ) (2002)

4. Takk... (2005)

5. Hvarf/Heim [Compilation] (2007)

6. Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust (2008)

Sometimes, you lock a band inside a recording studio for three months straight, and they are not going to produce anything worthy of your time at all. This American electronic band, however, has the ability to create the best sounds while being in three different places. They never record together, they aren't exactly very well known, and you can't even find them on Wikipedia. When you are in love with a band like that, it becomes rather difficult to find out more. Nonetheless, what I hear from their music is a good enough gauge that these people know what they are doing with their sounds. I mean, electronica is one thing, Kiln is another altogether. This is the kind of electronica people would like, although the term itself is rather general and vague at the same time. I don't suppose you can play a song from that genre and aspect people to like it, not normally anyway. But Kiln's music has a very soothing, down tempo feel but with an electronica twist to it. It is nice to know that good electronica music are not all coming from Europe and Canada, and Americans are also capable of beautiful music like that every once in a while. I know so little about this band, but I am intrigued to know more. In the mean time, however, this album is officially the music I listen to when I study. It works perfectly in the back and foreground, it just takes you in so easily and gets you in the mood for, well, whatever that you intend to do. Even the album cover looks like a comfortable pillow somehow, everything about this band is just so...smooth. 

Albums by the band:

1. Sunbox (2004)

2. Dusker (2007)

3. Holo [re/lux] (2007)

4. Thermals: Sonic-carousels, Tonesheets, Loopstrata, and Slo-wave (2008)

A relatively old album from a relatively old band. Dummy is Portishead's debut album in 1994, and I guess it took some time for the music of the band to catch up with me. Nevertheless, Portishead's electronic music from the mid-90s is so timeless that it still stands out as one of the best even today. Listening to the album and Beth Gibbons' haunting vocals, you sort of know where all the latter day electronic albums get their inspirations from. You know, bands like Zero 7 and Thievery Corporation probably all listened to Portishead before they got famous. This album is definitive of the band, and Glory Box has got to be one of the sexist songs ever created. It's one of those songs that you go "Ah yes, I have heard of this song before!", and you've probably heard it in multiple sex scenes or something along the lines of lust. This song makes you want to have sex, and the same can definitely be said about the rest of the album. I think the strongest point of Portishead is definitely Beth Gibbons' vocal powers and the melody of the songs, and they make it so timeless and unchanging. I am new to Portishead, and I am unfamiliar with them. But I like what I hear so far, and this is a must-have for all the fans out there of down tempo materials. This is where all the down tempo and all the sex began. 

Albums by the band:

1. Dummy (1994)

2. Portishead (1997)

3. Roseland NYC Live (1998)

4. Third (2008)