Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

My friends and I have a mutual understand concerning music: they don’t recommend music to me and I don’t force my music on them. Against my better judgment, I took the advice of a friend who suggested I listen to Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots.
I wouldn’t say I was altogether impressed by what I heard, but I certainly wasn’t disappointed.
Pink Robots is the tenth album produced by The Flaming Lips. You can hear the electric-psychedelic influences in every song. The album is a weird step toward alternative music while simultaneously being held up in a past full of peace, love, and just the right amount of LSD. The effect is really quite satisfying and I’m sure anyone with a head full of acid could find this album to be a revelation.
However, not being an LSD user myself, I can’t get by some of the weaker points of the album. The vocals on most of the songs are less than satisfying and after a few listens the bass lines and drum parts seem to become eerily similar.
Not knowing what to expect from The Flaming Lips, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they are still musicians and not completely dependent on synths. While a large portion of their songs are synthed, the Lips, I’m sure, could hold their own with out them. But as with the bass and drum parts, much of the guitar from song to song becomes similar.
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots has an incredibly unique sound. It’s not everyday that you hear albums with as much going on as this. It really takes more than one listen to hear all that’s going on in this album. There are a plethora of odd sounds and irregular beats that fill the empty spaces of the album. It would seem that a lot of time went into creating these effects for the album to round out the sound.
Acoustic guitar fills most songs with synth bass lines and offbeat drums. Once again, the effect is satisfying to the point of being confusing. While it usually takes a masterful solo to get my attention, I was content with the sounds produced on this album.
Being a theme loving guy, I did enjoy that the album wasn’t a hodgepodge of songs but rather followed a storyline, albeit a strange one.
But as I said, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robot is certainly not a disappointment and for alternative or psychedelic rock fans, it is time well spent.

Graduation

I’d like to take a break from what I pretend is a tradition and review a hip-hop album today.
Kanye West’s Graduation, his third album, was released last September. The 30 year-old rapper, producer, and six time Grammy Award winner opened his first two days with 437,000 copies sold.
Unlike previous Kanye albums, Graduation has only 13 tracks. Late Registration (2005) and The College Dropout had a combined 41 tracks. Graduation also differs from previous albums in that he has begun to use synthesizers to great effect.
The album is hard to like on the first listen. I found myself unhappy with some of the beats and the lyrics landed less than softly on my ears. But after another go, I found that the album was really well broken down. A second glance (or rather listen) allows the consumer to look past the dominant sounds that they heard the first time and focus more what really makes the songs worth listening to.
Graduation features a number of guest performers including Coldplay’s Chris Martin, rappers Lil’ Wayne and Mos Def, and R&B singer T-pain. They come together to create a good depth of vocal sounds that make the songs diverse, something hard to find on modern rap/hip-hop albums.
Easily the albums strongest song is “Stronger”. The song’s excellent use of synthesizers makes it a unique find in traditional hip-hop.
I apologize that there will be no accompanying tab for this song. I’m not nearly good enough with music to create a tab based on the synthesized.
Overall the album is worth a good listen. And I really mean a good listen. It’s easy to miss a lot of what this album brings if you have it playing while trying to focus on a million other things. Sit. And listen. You’ll find that this album has much more to offer than traditional hip-hop. That isn’t to say that I think it is the only hip-hop album out there with universal appeal. It’s just one of the most recent that I have come by.
I chose to review this album because I thought it had a unique sound to it. These day’s its hard to find popular music with a unique sound; it seems like the same beats pound out of every car radio with slightly altered lyrics about bitches, booze, and nice cars. Graduation, to me, is different. It takes a different approach to modern music and Kanye does a wonderful job of putting his own mark on his music and indeed the entire music culture of modern day America.

Abbey Road

The Beatles began their legendary take over of popular music with their first album, Please Please Me. They ended it with Let It Be. In between were some of pop rocks most notable albums. One of these masterpieces was Abbey Road.
Abbey Road was the 11th studio album released by the quartet. Its recording was one of the last times all four Beatles were in a studio together.
Over three quarters of an hours worth of music fills this album. Some songs are well known and rightly so, some missed out on the spotlight when they deserve it, and one song was written by Ringo and that’s all there is to it.
It’s hard to make generalizations about Beatles albums as there is usually a large amount of diversity present among the songs. But if songs could be associated not my musical similarity but by popularity, you could say that Come Together, Something, Oh! Darling, and Here Comes the Sun are the most similar songs on the album. They were all immediately picked up by audiences around the world and these songs are perhaps most closely associated with the album.
However, there are still a great number of songs on the album that should be counted among the best in terms of musicality.
One style that I like to see in albums is the blending together of two tracks. What I mean is where one song ends and it leads into the next it creates a sense of unity throughout that part of the album. Abbey Road includes many of these song blends; in fact, the majority of the second side (of the vinyl) is blended together in this way.
Many of my favorite songs are in this song flow including She Came In Through the Bathroom Window and The End.
Among the many strong songs of this album, however, there are, in my opinion, some weaker ones. Certainly the worst of these is Ringo Star’s Octopus’s Garden. Not much can be said about this odd number other than its short and early in the album so as not to ruin the later portions.
Abbey Road is one of my favorite Beatles albums; I grew up with long car rides full of nothing but the melodies and harmonies of four of the most talented musicians ever. Let It Be was a sad end to the career of these artists, but their legacy is an incredible one, and Abbey Road is part of that. We should just be glad that they came here at all.

Led Zeppelin IV (Led Zeppelin, Four Symbols, ZOSO)

Whatever title you give this album, you cannot deny that there is a mystic power that it exudes.
Of the many albums produced by Led Zeppelin over their long carrier, the Fourth Album is likely one of their greatest achievements, not only in world wide sales, but also in musical creation and invention.
The track line-up for this album includes some of their most epic and groundbreaking material. Best known of these is Stairway to Heaven. Not only is this ballad one of the albums most poetic and powerful songs but it is perhaps one of the best Led Zeppelin ever created. I know from my own fascination with this song that it is the wish of many guitar plays, new and experienced, to be able to play the entire Stairway melody.
The album begins with Black Dog. Paige’s powerful riffs are felt in full force while Plant’s one-of-a-kind bawl oozes out of the stereo, setting the stage for the vocal majesty that is associated with Led Zeppelin IV.
Black Dog is followed by one of the weaker songs on the album; Rock and Roll which I have always thought lacked some of the power behind many other Zeppelin songs.
However the quartet made up for the lack of Zeppelin-ness with the next two tracks: The Battle of Evermore and Stairway to heaven. The first of the two is a vocal masterpiece that utilizes Plant’s unique voice and guest vocalist Sandy Denny. Together they created a piece reminiscent of old English and Scottish folk music. A mandolin was used for the main melody, played by Paige, while a guitar provided subtle rhythm, played by Bonham.
Stairway to Heaven is far and wide the best known Zeppelin song. Haunting lyrics and melodies followed by an awe-inspiring solo from Paige make it an undeniable force in the world of music. The song has always held a great power over its listeners. Once again, listeners find that Plant’s voice completes the musical ingenuity of this piece.
The album finishes strong with Misty Mountain Hop, Four Sticks, Going to California and When the Levee Breaks. These four songs are indicative of Zeppelins diverse song writing abilities. Misty Mountain Hop and Four Sticks are somewhat up tempo songs while Going to California is a slow guitar/mandolin duet that could be associated with early western folk music. When the Levee Breaks is a blues song, representative of the blues roots of the band, and utilizes a harmonica to add the woeful feeling.
Call it what you like, this album is powerfully organized and executed. Even the weakest songs are still worth listening to.

Dark Side of the Moon

Arguably Floyd’s most epic and famous album, Dark Side of the Moon was released in 1973; 5 years after front-man Roger ‘Syd’ Barrett left the group.The concept for the album was conceived by bassist Roger Waters. From the beginning, the band set out to create an album that musically spoke of the many pressures and troubles people face in day to day life.The album flows from song to song creating a sense of unity and connection between the songs. I personally prefer the flow of a concept album as it lets me settle into the rhythm of the entire creation rather than skipping around to different tracks that have no association or similarities other than being on the same album (something I often find in music of today; its not about an album or an idea but that one hit single among the many songs).Dark Side of the Moon begins with the slow distorted delay of Breathe. Even though it is one of the shortest songs on the album, it is undoubtedly one of my favorites. It sets the tone for the rest of the album, encompassing the dominance of Waters’ bass as well as the hypnotic bluesy sound of Gilmour’s guitar found throughout the album.Although Money is perhaps the albums best known song (particularly in the United States) I find my favorite on the album to be the ambitious creation of Time. I vividly remember my first experience listening to the album when I was 13, laying awake at 2 in the morning. Even in my sleep-deprived state of delirium I found significance in both the lyrics of the piece and in the masterful solo. I enjoyed then, and always have, its reprise of Breathe as it concludes the first portion of the album.From Gilmour’s solo in Time, the album moves on to the truly awe-inspiring vocals of Clare Torry coupled with Wright’s piano create a powerful song worthy of the representation of the significance of religion among the human race in Great Gig in the Sky.Money follows the The Great Gig in the Sky and is in turn followed by Richard Wright’s master piece Us and Them. This song segues into Any Colour You Like, sometimes known as Breath (2nd Reprise), a synth and univibe guitar creation.Dark Side of the Moon concludes with Brain Damage and Eclipse, both of which were composed by Waters. Brain Damage is said to be a reference to former front man Syd Barrett’s decline due to almost constant use of psychedelic drugs while Eclipse is the climax of the album.In all, the original release contained 10 tracks, all of which were powerful and well thought out pieces of music. Many people say 1973 was one of the best years in rock and Dark Side of the Moon is proof of that.

Hello and Welcome

Welcome. If you’re reading this you’ve successfully found my blog. Good work? I hope to bring to you reviews of different current and classic rock albums that have come under my nose. In addition I’ll do my best to ‘tab’ a song or part of a song from each album for the guitar players that are interested in learning new music. If you have suggestions of albums for me to review or songs for me to tab leave me a comment or send me an email and I’ll see what I come up with.