December 2008 - Muzikal Mafia

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Muzikal Mafia - December 2008

Kanye West - 808's & Heartbreak Album Review

December 30th 2008 03:14

Release date: November 24, 2008

Genre: Pop, R&B, synthpop, eletronica, hip hop

Length: 52:01

Label: Roc-A-Fella, Island Def Jam

The great producer/rapper Kanye West has dropped another album titled 808's & Heartbreak, but this time, he explores a totally different point of view. After his mother's death, Mr. West only thought of the sadness of life which takes the album in a different road for him. Known mostly for his crazy beats and lyricism, Kanye West only sings in this album while using the auto-tune.

The album starts with the song Say You Will. The kicks are toms and there's a constant computer beep which sounds like the classic videogame Pong.

Welcome To The Heartbreak featuring Kid Cudi follows. The beat starts with a violin, then the drums and snare kick in. The verses are rather weak on this one as each verse only has four bars and Kanye stops between each bar. It makes me wonder what is happening to hip hop, real rap?

Heartless is the second single of the album. It starts with Kanye singing with the bass kicks. Then, he really starts to spit with a nice beat in the background. The only thing that messes up this song is the auto-tune because he spits like he usually does.

Click For Heartless Music Video

Amazing features Young Jeezy. The beat starts with some claps, then the chorus opens. I hate the fact that they put the auto-tune on Jeezy's background “ooh” and “yeah.” At least they didn't put it on his verse, but his voice didn't match the beat.

Love Lockdown is the first single. The beat starts with some bass kicks.The song is a slow one except for the chorus where the beat intensifies. I found this track really boring. There's nothing crazy about it.
Street Lights is another boring song. There's nothing to sat about it really.

Love Lockdown Music Video

Paranoid features Mr. Hudson. Like a techno song, the beat starts slow then gets bigger and bigger. It takes awhile for it to go big, but when it does, it sounds like the kind of song you would do your aerobics exercises on.

On Robocop, the beat has mutltiple drums and a snare with a bomb exploding at the same time. It's an average song, the only quality about it are the robot effects on the chorus. Other than that, Robocop is like any other song.

Bad News has an extremely loud bass but then the snare messes it up. Kanye also put too much auto-tune on that one. I just didn't like it.

See You In My Nightmares features Lil' Wayne and is a mix of hip hop and electro. Weezy starts with the auto-tune, and it wasn't pretty. The beat isn't that crazy. Simply put, this song is like any other on the album.

Last but not least is Coldest Winter. The song is pretty simple, a slow track, but it wasn't that much different from the rest either.

I give this album a 5/10. I'm sorry, but it just doesn't cut it for me. As a hip hop fan, I thought Kanye was one of the real MCs' in the rap industry still doing real hip hop, but this album is total trash. First, he's not even rapping, he's singing. Second, why the auto-tune? Wayne started it, now everybody want a piece of it, but the only person that can use it well is T-Pain. So please other rappers, just stop. Third, almost every song on this album sounded the same. This record is a sad failure in Kanye West's career (not his money-making career, but his hip hop career). Remember, talent isn't based on how much you sell.

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Posted By: Alain - Category: Rap / Hip Hop

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Coldplay - Prospekt's March EP Review

December 25th 2008 15:19

Release date: November 21, 2008

Length: 26:04

Label: Parlophone

Released a bit over a month ago, Prospekt's March by Coldplay is an EP containing several tracks left off of their album Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends which was released in June. An eight-track CD, it's also included in the Deluxe Edition of Viva La Vida.

Prospekt's March begins with Life In Technicolor II, a full four-minute song that uses the same melody as "Life In Technicolor," the instrumental introduction to Viva La Vida. It's a nice song and could have very well followed Viva La Vida's intro seamlessly to become the album's second track.

Postcards From Far Away is a beautiful piece of piano that's less than one minute. It breaks the high-tempo from the previous track.

Glass Of Water is what Coldplay would have sounded like if they had stayed on the same course after X&Y. There's a nice guitar, keyboard in the chorus, and Chris Martin's signature voice. A line like “He heard you could see your future inside a glass of water with ripples and the rhymes” is something you'd be hard-pressed to find on a Nickelback CD.

Rainy Day starts with a nice piano then turns into a guitar-driven song. It reminded of one of the tracks on the Italian Job Soundtrack. It also use the strings of “Viva La Vida” (the song) towards the end.

Like Glass Of Water, Prospekt's March/Poppyfields is classic Coldplay. It's a guitar-driven ballad similar to “A Message” and “A Rush Of Blood To The Head.”

Lost is a remix of their similarly titled track (minus the ) and features Jay-Z. The song doesn't change much. Jay-Z raps over the solo part while the rest of the song is basically the same as the original. It feels like it's been dubbed over and is not impressive at all. Still, Jay-Z's lyrics fit the song's theme so I guess that's a plus.

Lovers In Japan (Osaka Sun Mix) follows Lost . I couldn't really tell the difference between this version and the original except for the fact that the original also contains "Reign Of Love" in the same track. All I know is that the video actually uses this version, so enjoy below...

The CD concludes with Now My Feet Won't Touch The Ground, a beautiful acoustic guitar-driven song. Its calmness reminded me of the bonus tracks on X&Y titled "'Til Kingdom Come." As a matter of fact, after listening to "'Til Kingdom Come," I realize that Now My Feet Won't Touch The Ground sounds a lot like it only instead of being accompanied by a keyboard, the guitar on this track is accompanied by horns. To my mind, it's the best song of the EP.

Now, this record is only an EP and, as such, it shouldn't be evaluated like a full-scale album. Still, I would feel a bit disappointed if I had to buy that one separately from Viva La Vida. Except for three original tracks (Glass Of Water, Prospekt's March/Poppyfields, Now My Feet Won't Touch The Ground), most of these songs are reworked and/or cut material that could easily have been issued as B-Sides for the singles. As for the three songs I mentioned, there's no reason why they couldn't have been heard as bonus tracks on Viva La Vida the regular edition. After all, Coldplay have been through the bonus track path before, they could have done it again. With that in mind, I give Prospekt's March a 4 out of 5 – good, even great songs, but could have a bit more new material.

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Posted By: Ann 2 - Category: Rock

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Nickelback - Dark Horse Album Review

December 21st 2008 06:17

Release date: 18 November 2008

Genre: Hard rock, alternative rock, post-grunge

Length: 43:38

Label: Roadrunner

Three years after their multi-platinum album All The Right Reasons, Canadian band Nickelback are back on the mainstream rock scene with their sixth album, Dark Horse. An eleven-track record, the album peaked at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200, and has already sold more than one million copies less than one month after its release.

Dark Horse starts with its second single called Something In Your Mouth. The opening guitar riff is reminiscent of Nirvana but the lyrics are just mainstream/bubblegum crap. Here are the actual opening lines: “Got to meet the hottie with the million dollar body / They say it's over budget but you'd pay her just to touch her, come on.” In that sense, Nickelback reminds me of bands like Good Charlotte, Simple Plan, Fall Out Boy who are basically the new boybands out there. The only difference is that Nickelback is catered towards an older, but still casual, crowd.

The second track, Burn It To The Ground, has the same problem as the first. There's a nice guitar riff, but the lyrics... meh...

The first single of the album, Gotta Be Somebody, is probably the best song out of the three already mentioned. It's a medium-tempo song, and this is where Nickelback truly shines – love songs that can be used in the background of any chick flick. They seem to have mastered that art. Gotta Be Somebody is just another example. I'd Come For You follows in the same vein, another love song for the ladies.

Next Go Round brings the album back to the high-tempo initiated by Something In Your Mouth. It's a song about sex that's slightly better than Something In Your Mouth, and also sounds a bit more hard rock/metal than the other songs.

Just To Get High is another high-tempo track. A song about someone addicted to drugs, it has better lyrics than Next Go Round but isn't as good melody-wise.

On Never Gonna Be Alone, Chad Kroeger seems to force his voice too much. It's a slow song, so the almost-screaming voice doesn't really fit here. The track following it, Shakin' Hands, is just as average.

On S.E.X., we go back to high-tempo again. This song was tailor-made for radio airplay. I don't really quite know how to explain, but as soon as you'll listen to it, you'll know what I mean.

If Today Was Your Last Day's title is pretty self-explanatory title. It's lyrically the best song on this album, but I don't think it would fare this well against stronger competition. Finally, the album concludes with This Afternoon, a pretty straightforward song about hanging out.

The problem with Nickelback is that they are a decent band, nothing more, nothing less. To be considered a great band, they have to move out of their comfort zone which is the commercial, made-for-radio schtick they have been doing since they burst onto the scene. Their songs are getting better but it's still the same stuff. Fans of Nickelback will love this album, the rest of us will be happy to hear one or two songs on the radio and go on with our lives. There really isn't any song on here that would make me run out and buy this album, so this gets a 2.75, maybe 3 out of 5. Some of the instrumentals are pretty good but the lyrics just aren't up to par.

Note: I know that we have been slow on posting reviews recently. With the holidays upon us, there should be more reviews posted in the next couple of days. Next up for me is Coldplay's latest EP, and Guns 'N' Roses' Chinese Democracy while Alain is working on Kanye West and other rappers.

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Posted By: Ann 2 - Category: Rock

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