so i kinda had a listening party last night:
and these are the results:
so i got a download of this coldplay, and i personally thought it was horrible sound quality as i was listening to the intro, however, its just the way that the song was made and after listening to it 2 more times, i really dug the feel of ‘Life in Technicolor’. and to be honest, that’s the only bone i have to pick with the album. On a 4th album, it’s usually hard to really make anything groundbreaking or standout, unless you’re Radiohead and you’re doing Kid A. However, I really feel that Coldplay finally progressed. Each album seemed like the logical next step for them, but this one seems to take the elements of all their best songs from their albums and combine them to really make an overall impressive effort. my personal favorite moments are: the bridge that leads into this nasty main groove in the song ‘42’, the whole songs within songs idea is absolutely brilliant, especially when the songs are as good as, the acoustic feel and seeming simple thowback to ‘Green Eyes’ that ’Reign of Love’ is and ‘Chinese Sleep Chant’, which really gives way to how much electronica and computerized music really have influenced Coldplay this time around. However, this idea would not work at at all if the songs before it either were not as good or better than the hidden ones. The album is pretty short however, but fulfilling, because any other song in the same nature would have probably made the cd feel like it was dragging. It’s a perfect length of about 43 mintues. I truly believe that this is a band not taking the logical next step like they usually do, but actually seeing what boundries they can press without seeming too much like that other British rock band that everyone already knows and loves. (don’t act like you don’t know who i’m talking about). ‘Violet Hill’ seems out of place on this album, but it is too good of a song to pass up, so i understand with them putting it on. I really do like the ending of this cd, as i am always fulfilled with each ending, ranging from ‘Everything’s Not Lost’ to ‘Amsterdam’ and even the hiccup known as ‘Twisted Logic’ but ‘Death and All His Friends’ is moving, and even though most of it is an instrumental, Coldplay have mastered the art of actually making you listen, besides just waiting for Chris Martin’s voice to come around. I personally overall think that this album is pretty damn good. Will it live up to expectations? Maybe, probably. But will it be something you look back on a couple years from now and go, ‘Hey, this album was really good, why didn’t I listen to it more often?’ yeah, most likely.
okay, so let’s get this baby started. i’m going to keep it pretty simple. Yes: it lives up to all the hype and expectations. It also made me a strong believer in Kayne’s producing ability again that i really haven’t felt since The Blueprint came out. Kayne’s really overshadowed his own skill with an album like Graduation, because we forget how much of a master he was a creating nasty R&B grooves. But Wayne once again steps up to the mic and really gets it going. I mean, on the 2nd track, ‘Mr. Carter’ he does have a Jay-Z verse, and I have to admit, much like ‘Hello Brooklyn 2.0’, Wayne does amazing at keeping up and making sure that him and Jay do have the same quality of verses, even though Wayne has 2 but Jay only has 1. Songs like ‘Phone Home’, ‘Dr. Carter’, and ‘Playing With Fire’ all see Wayne trying to create weird and original storylines ranging from aliens to hospitals, ala Lupe or The Roots pre-Phrenology-era, but some miss having their desired effects. Nevertheless, Wayne proves that he has skill. I really don’t know his writing process, but I get a feeling that on most of his songs, much like his mixtapes, he’s just straight freestyling over a beat, which isn’t a bad thing, but has its flaws, like in the first song ‘3 Peat’, no matter how sick nasty the actual lyrics are, you can sometimes tell he’s trying to figure out what’s coming 2 or 3 bars from what he’s currently saying. i guess it shows his mind and how underrated he might be, but maybe the sense of Wayne overload has made us too used to his delivery and verses that we kinda expect some things on this album. Not to say that it isnt marketable though, because we all know what ‘Lollipop’ did, but still songs like ‘Got Money’ with T-Pain, and i think a remix with Pitbull could definitely be a huge summer song, let’s say if its released the first week of August or something, ‘Mrs. Officer’ is a great track too, but we’ve already mentioned that. ‘Tie My Hands’ with Robin Thicke will be on the radio, hands down, but probably alot later than expected. So i guess the question is: does it live up to all the hype and expectation? I’m going to go out on a limb and say yes it does. Wayne hasn’t created anymore important of a hip hop album than let’s say American Gangster or even The Cool, but he has shown that he makes a legitimate arguement for being the best rapper alive right now. He’s not as good as Jay, smooth as Lupe, commerical as Kayne, hood as Clipse, or even close to touching Biggie or Tupac, but Wayne is exactly what he is: Weezy F. Baby, and I think that’s how he would like to be known, and he proves it on this album.
now, this album severely caught me off guard last night, because we already know that everything The Neptunes touch is absolute gold, so i felt like one listen, great album, over and done with. But no. It’s more than just a great album, it’s brilliant. I personally think The Neptunes did it on purpose. They were like ‘Yeah, let’s let Timbaland have the limelight for a little, we’ll do some songs here and there, okay yeah, let’s let Danja step up or whatever, we’ll just do 1 song on the Britney cd’ and then the Madonna album hit, and let’s face it, Pharrell’s songs are way more fucking legit than Timbaland/Timberlake’s songs. And that I believe was just the introduction to Pharrell’s year in music. The album starts with this weird, kinda sci-fi spoken words thing, but goes right not 3 BANGERS, with ‘Time For Some Action’, my personal favorite song right now in ‘Everybody Nose’ and ‘Windows’. They then go ala weird woman voice sample with ‘Anti Matter’ but it works, and Pharrell shows how hard he can spit a verse on ‘Spaz’ and ‘Yeah You’. They then slow it down a bit for ‘Sooner or Later’ but then going right back to action for the rest of the CD, going a little bit violent/British/Grimey ala Dizzee Rascal for songs like ‘You Know What’ and ‘Laugh About It’ to close the album. I really believe that they’ve created something that could be a definite contender for album of the year, and simply put, no one knows about it. I really, really, really enjoyed this album just for the simple fact that I didn’t know what to expect next, what to hear out of their mouths next, or how ridiculous each song was going to be. It really shows that The Neptunes are the best producers in the game right now, have been for the last 7 or 8 years, and plan on staying on top for a very, very long time.
so yeah, that was my night last night, i listened to each album 3 times, and came up with these thoughts on them. this weekend looks halfway eventful, but there’s alot of stuff going on family wise, so we’ll see what’s up.