First Spin Impressions

[Geoff]

Okay, may the novel begin. Been very busy ;

 

Terra Nova - Come Alive ; very nice, typically Terra Nova. Not sure how I missed this one last year as I always thought these guys were a bit of harmless fun. Who knows how long that CD was sitting in my pile to listen, though. Yeah, good album. About the 3rd or 4th, maybe even 2nd song was really catchy and great.

 

The Donnas - Spend The Night ; jeez this one was good. Just good, raw, catchy rock n'roll. Great hooks. Reminded me of a Bret Easton Ellis novel on CD. Cool lyrics, great vibe and half the girls in the band look damn sexy in the artwork too. Very good pick up.

 

The Donnas - Gold Medal ; very disappointing follow-up to a surprisingly great debut. This did nothing for me.

 

The Press - Words: Hot Off The Press ; Great AOR album. I enjoyed it a lot.

 

Thick Richard - Back On Track ; pretty bad to be honest. Average rock, bad vocals. A song or two that were okay (the ballad, I think) but overall not one of the best from Retrospect.

 

Thick Richard - Fire It Up ; this one is much better than the other disc from these guys, but their downfall was really their vocalist. Bad voice, but there's some good hard rock songs on this one. Worth checking out.

 

Thunder - Back Street symphony ; let's not beat around the bush. These guys suck. They just do. Not sure why I thought they didn't and I should give them another go after buying and HATING 'Laughing on judgement day' a few years ago. I think I heard these MP3s and thought the album was okay. Wrong. It's shit.

 

Thunder - Behind Closed Doors ; and if the debut wasn't bad enough, this is even worse. F*ck this is a boring, bland band.

 

Tokyo Blade - Night of the Blade ; YUM! I got a re-issue with 9 album tracks, which were mostly wonderful, and then a heap of bonus tracks which are all EP or demo tracks. They're generally pretty throwaway things, but the album itself is impressive.

 

Tokyo Blade - Ain't Misbehavin' ; and this is even better. I know it's not considered a Tokyo Blade disc, but it's still a good solid melodic hard rock disc. I don't know how I pretty much avoided a complete massive discography from a band that's so in tune with what I dig. Very nice disc.

 

Tokyo Blade - Burning Down Paradise ; probably the weakest one I've heard from these guys so far, but it still has it's moments. 'Friend in need' was pretty cool. There are a few fillers happening here, but it's not too bad at all. A worthy listen.

 

Tokyo Blade - Mr. Ice ; how good is 'Women and love?' And a heap of other tracks on this CD. Another very impressive disc. I really just like the vibe / style of this band... even if it only ever appears to be the original guitarist and a new cast of musicians from disc to disc.

 

Tokyo Blade - Pumphouse ; and another good one. Not quite as good as some of the earlier ones, but still a good vibe, good tunes. A nice disc. Very consistent band.

 

In Flames: "A Sense of Purpose" ; not too bad, I guess. Albums like this need more than one spin to sink in, because I know there were hook beneath it all. It actually sounded like a pretty good album underneath all the screaming and carry on.

 

Jonah33: "The Heart of War" ; what on earth happened to these guys? Only ever a pretty average modern rock band, but their first 2 CDs are good solid slabs of modern rock. Not sure about this one at all. They toughened up a bit, and released an album full of naughty and angry war songs, but it just doesn't suit them at all. They actually really just sound like they're trying to be something they're not. It's not a terrible album, and usually I like it when bands beefen up... but not these guys. Stick to the lighter side of modern hard rock, chaps.

 

Rob Rock: "Garden of Chaos" ; just terrible. I think I did hear the MP3s of this before and I knew in my mind he had released one awful solo albums in between a bunch of average but pretty good ones. This one's the stinker.

 

Soilwork: "Stabbing the Drama" ; in it's defence, around track 7 or 8, like a ray of sunshine after a year of rain, there was a bit of melody on this. And then the next few songs all bad a little bit. These guys remind me of the dreadful Sevendust... a nice melody in a chorus or two can't save a full album of absolute garbage.

 

Soilwork: "Sworn to a Great Divide" ; more of the same on this one. Maybe a bit more melodic than the other one... or have I got them the wrong way round? I dunno. The later one was more melodic and actually quite a bit better than the earlier disc... but it's still a bland, annoying band. Numetal deserves to die in silent misery.

 

Stereo Skyline - Stuck on repeat ; wow, did not expect this. If haters think these pop punk bands' target audience is 13 year old girla, I think these naughty little boys took it one step further and made a CD for 3 year old girls. The guys voice... *shudder* Oh well, the first song was actually a bit of fun, very catchy. But the rest... not good. It's bands like this that give this genre of music a bad name.

 

Ten Second Epic - Count Yourself In ; jeez this was a good one too. And totally not expected. The 'Hometown' album I got a year or two a go still has a few songs I spin regularly... a couple of real gems. That's traditional kind of pop punk stuff and I expected the same from this rare peice. Well, not to be. I'd have to compare personell, but I'd say there's been a change in the ranks between discs. This was much more modern hard rock than the 'Hometown' CD. A bit more aggressive... and it works. I heard this last week and can't think of the comparisons, but it was comparable to more harder edged groups like Story of the Year or something. Good album.

 

Terminal - How the Lonely Keep Shipped ; not bad. Solid but unspectacular modern hard rock disc.

 

The Cab - Whisper War ; another solid but unspectacular CD. Good one.

 

The Graduate - Only Every Time ; I really like these guys. Great individual and almost "atmospheric" sound - melodic too. Good, catchy modern rock. One of my recent modern rock favourites.

 

The Rasmus - Hide from the Sun ; creepy Finnish shit. In all honesty the album wasn't that bad song-wise, but there's just something so bland and unpleasant about these guys. I might even keep it due to the strength of a few decent songs... but it'll be close as to whether it stays or goes.

 

The Showdown - Back breaker ; bland modern heavy metal. Yeah, good background noise but that's about it.

 

The Status - So this is progress ; one of the better modern rock discs I've heard recently. I should put this one in my recommendations for modern rock thread. Good modern pop rock with some great catchy songs.

 

Transmit Now - Downtown Merry-Go-Round ; another good one, recommended to me by Shamus a million moons ago. I did buy it the moment it was recommended, but it's been a long time getting around to it. This was another well above average modern rock disc... I really liked it.

[Nightrain]

Andreas Novak - Novakation (2011)

 

hm, mixed feeling for me, good music but very predictable melodic rock, i'll say it's average, but actually it's not really bad, actually there are at least 3-4 great songs, the rest aren't too shabby, well i think a 7 will do for this one and probably will be lumped behind at the end of the year.

[glam_junkie]

geoff, do you have a warehouse of all the discs you get but don't like?

[KarpetRydOFunk]

geoff, do you have a warehouse of all the discs you get but don't like?

 

I know, right?!

[Geoff]

geoff, do you have a warehouse of all the discs you get but don't like?

 

I know, right?!

No warehouse, but if I ever get around to doing a new trade list, rest assured there will be about 80,000 new additions. Big if, though. It's taken me long enough to listen to them once. Now I need to hear them a 2nd time, rate them, and either put them on the trade list or not. And I still have U-Z to listen to for the first time. I actually really hate buying this many CDs. Must. Stop.

[glam_junkie]

 

No warehouse, but if I ever get around to doing a new trade list, rest assured there will be about 80,000 new additions. Big if, though. It's taken me long enough to listen to them once. Now I need to hear them a 2nd time, rate them, and either put them on the trade list or not. And I still have U-Z to listen to for the first time. I actually really hate buying this many CDs. Must. Stop.

 

 

don't you get to the point where you think that's it's better to buy 2 cds for $15 each that you know are keepers as opposed to 10 cds for $3 each and then end up not liking half of them...?

 

comes down to quantity over quality.

personally i'd rather had 2 good cds than 5 shit and 5 ok cds...

 

i sometimes pick up these sorts of bargains if i stumble across them, but otherwise i try to only pick up those i know are keepers, rather than seeking out unknown bargains and end up taking way too many gambles.

 

there's too many good discs out there to waste too much money and time on.

[Glen]

 

No warehouse, but if I ever get around to doing a new trade list, rest assured there will be about 80,000 new additions. Big if, though. It's taken me long enough to listen to them once. Now I need to hear them a 2nd time, rate them, and either put them on the trade list or not. And I still have U-Z to listen to for the first time. I actually really hate buying this many CDs. Must. Stop.

 

 

don't you get to the point where you think that's it's better to buy 2 cds for $15 each that you know are keepers as opposed to 10 cds for $3 each and then end up not liking half of them...?

 

comes down to quantity over quality.

personally i'd rather had 2 good cds than 5 shit and 5 ok cds...

 

i sometimes pick up these sorts of bargains if i stumble across them, but otherwise i try to only pick up those i know are keepers, rather than seeking out unknown bargains and end up taking way too many gambles.

 

there's too many good discs out there to waste too much money and time on.

 

Yeah backed....maybe its the problem of feeling you have to 'hear' everything ??

 

I got over that years ago.....now I go on recommendation of people whos musical taste I trust, plus pre-listening - either you tube / spotify etc. I reckon I end up buying around 25-30 albums a year and theyre all keepers.

[Geoff]

 

No warehouse, but if I ever get around to doing a new trade list, rest assured there will be about 80,000 new additions. Big if, though. It's taken me long enough to listen to them once. Now I need to hear them a 2nd time, rate them, and either put them on the trade list or not. And I still have U-Z to listen to for the first time. I actually really hate buying this many CDs. Must. Stop.

 

 

don't you get to the point where you think that's it's better to buy 2 cds for $15 each that you know are keepers as opposed to 10 cds for $3 each and then end up not liking half of them...?

 

comes down to quantity over quality.

personally i'd rather had 2 good cds than 5 shit and 5 ok cds...

 

i sometimes pick up these sorts of bargains if i stumble across them, but otherwise i try to only pick up those i know are keepers, rather than seeking out unknown bargains and end up taking way too many gambles.

 

there's too many good discs out there to waste too much money and time on.

 

Yeah backed....maybe its the problem of feeling you have to 'hear' everything ??

 

I got over that years ago.....now I go on recommendation of people whos musical taste I trust, plus pre-listening - either you tube / spotify etc. I reckon I end up buying around 25-30 albums a year and theyre all keepers.

Let's not get wild, doods. There was a thread about the quality over quantity issue a while back and I was the main combatant for quality over quantity, and the last thing I want is a CD collection of 10,000 discs. I think a collection of truly essential CDs can easily be maintained around the 2-3,000 mark.

 

I should make it clear, that yes, I buy a LOT of CDs for crazy low prices. But every single time I buy one of those CDs I always think, if it doesn't work out I'll get rid of it no worries. And I may be slow, but one day all these discs I don't like will be on my trade list, and then ebay. It will take a while, but it will happen. I don't, and never have purposely held onto CDs I don't like. It's just that I've got a backlog at the moment which is about 100 times bigger than I have ever had.

 

I just had a quick look at that list. Of about 30 CDs I will get rid of 10. Now if that's the way I roll, that 2 in every 3 CDs I take a chance on is a keeper... well, I'm more than willing to keep taking chances. It may not always seem it, but every chance I take is an educated chance. Except maybe those freebies Mark throws away... they're just why not's.

 

But if I didn't take a chance every now and then I'd miss bands like The Donnas, Ten Second Epic, The Graduate and The Status... all of which were blind purchases. Yeah, I get a dud along the way but it's all part of a plan... long term as it may be.

 

don't you get to the point where you think that's it's better to buy 2 cds for $15 each that you know are keepers as opposed to 10 cds for $3 each and then end up not liking half of them...?

And just to address this one too. Keep in mind this is the first spins thread, so I only talk about the CDs I am hearing for the first time. For every CD I mention here I have forked out a few more dollars for the CDs I know I like. It's not like I'm buying the chances instead of the known keepers.

 

For some perspective, here's the other CDs I hadn't got around to listening to yet since I bought the hard copies - the known keepers I also purchased around the same time - that I spun in the same timeframe:

 

Tango Down - Damage Control ; one of the best pure melodic hard rock CDs I've heard in years

The Brave - Battle Cries ; brilliant disc, one of my most expensive buys ever around usd$25

The Darkness - One Way Ticket To Hell... And Back ; a $2 wonder and despite the vocals there is a decent song or 2 on this... kind of.

The Poodles - Performacy ; excellence

Transit - Dirty Pleasures ; sheer excellence - a classic to me

Transit - Heartcore ; every bit as good as the above. Brilliant.

Trixie - Shelter ; very good, solid hard rock disc

The Almost - Monster Monster ; surprisingly good modern rock, with some outright winners

The Audition - Great Danger ; not as good as the debut, but a damn fine disc

The Audition - s/t ; not good at all, but I guess I'm a completist till it comes time to make a new trade list? Kill me, it was cheap.

The Classic Crime - Silver cord ; excellent modern rock disc

The Classic Crime - Vagabonds ; very solid modern rock disc, some great choruses

The Latency - s/t ; one of the best CDs I have heard in the last few years, recommended by our very own Glen. Really one of my faves.

The Receiving End of Sirens - Between the Heart and the Synapse ; solid modern rock which deserved a pick-up for cheap

Times Of Grace - The Hymn of A Broken Man ; almost as good as the last Killswitch Engage disc... either way a keeper for sure.

 

So yeah, just remember what the title of the thread is and the scale of what these releases actually mean to me and my collection.

 

Peace out, nude campers

[glam_junkie]

Ha, that response sounded so rehearsed Geoff.

Are you sure you haven't had to deliver that explanation before.... like, to your wife?

 

[Geoff]

Ha, that response sounded so rehearsed Geoff.

Are you sure you haven't had to deliver that explanation before.... like, to your wife?

 

No, the only time I've delivered this speech before was to my disciples.

 

To my wife, all my CDs are worthless pieces of shit... there's no separation or favouritism there.

[Nightrain]

Ha, that response sounded so rehearsed Geoff.

Are you sure you haven't had to deliver that explanation before.... like, to your wife?

 

No, the only time I've delivered this speech before was to my disciples.

 

To my wife, all my CDs are worthless pieces of shit... there's no separation or favouritism there.

 

and i think your wife and my wife will be the best of friend out there lol

[Nightrain]

INFINITY - s/t (2011)

 

a very interesting release from Andrew's MR Record. This is basically an old songs/demos compiled from Infinity era which is the former band of David Rosenthal (before he formed Red Dawn with Larry Baud later on), and also on the bills are singer Mitch Malloy and Reb Beach (which only around 23-24 years old back then). 4 songs from 'Never Say Surrender' here, if i'm not mistaken, are She's On Fire, Infinity, Liar, and Over You (which later became I Can't Get Over You).

 

Rosenthal's exceptional keyboard solo is also another big thing to listen here, some wonderful songs I can recall are 'I'm On The Edge', 'Let It Go', and 'Promise'. Too bad it's only 9 tracks and 4 are already in Red Dawn, but nevertheless a solid 8 or 8.5 from me and will wait until Andrew had that $10 sale for a purchase

[KarpetRydOFunk]

Let's not get wild, doods. There was a thread about the quality over quantity issue a while back and I was the main combatant for quality over quantity, and the last thing I want is a CD collection of 10,000 discs. I think a collection of truly essential CDs can easily be maintained around the 2-3,000 mark.

 

I should make it clear, that yes, I buy a LOT of CDs for crazy low prices. But every single time I buy one of those CDs I always think, if it doesn't work out I'll get rid of it no worries. And I may be slow, but one day all these discs I don't like will be on my trade list, and then ebay. It will take a while, but it will happen. I don't, and never have purposely held onto CDs I don't like. It's just that I've got a backlog at the moment which is about 100 times bigger than I have ever had.

 

I just had a quick look at that list. Of about 30 CDs I will get rid of 10. Now if that's the way I roll, that 2 in every 3 CDs I take a chance on is a keeper... well, I'm more than willing to keep taking chances. It may not always seem it, but every chance I take is an educated chance. Except maybe those freebies Mark throws away... they're just why not's.

 

But if I didn't take a chance every now and then I'd miss bands like The Donnas, Ten Second Epic, The Graduate and The Status... all of which were blind purchases. Yeah, I get a dud along the way but it's all part of a plan... long term as it may be.

 

Dammit, Geoff, you sure like to talk. Don't you?

 

 

...now I go on recommendation of people whos musical taste I trust...

 

Uh, yeah... See, this is where I agree with both of you. Most of my purchases are based off recommendations, so I actually appreciate all the work Geoff does. Believe it, or not--Geoff probably won't--I do trust Geoff's musical taste, for the most part. So, keep on spending your money, Geoff-baby.

[Glen]

 

No warehouse, but if I ever get around to doing a new trade list, rest assured there will be about 80,000 new additions. Big if, though. It's taken me long enough to listen to them once. Now I need to hear them a 2nd time, rate them, and either put them on the trade list or not. And I still have U-Z to listen to for the first time. I actually really hate buying this many CDs. Must. Stop.

 

 

don't you get to the point where you think that's it's better to buy 2 cds for $15 each that you know are keepers as opposed to 10 cds for $3 each and then end up not liking half of them...?

 

comes down to quantity over quality.

personally i'd rather had 2 good cds than 5 shit and 5 ok cds...

 

i sometimes pick up these sorts of bargains if i stumble across them, but otherwise i try to only pick up those i know are keepers, rather than seeking out unknown bargains and end up taking way too many gambles.

 

there's too many good discs out there to waste too much money and time on.

 

Yeah backed....maybe its the problem of feeling you have to 'hear' everything ??

 

I got over that years ago.....now I go on recommendation of people whos musical taste I trust, plus pre-listening - either you tube / spotify etc. I reckon I end up buying around 25-30 albums a year and theyre all keepers.

Let's not get wild, doods. There was a thread about the quality over quantity issue a while back and I was the main combatant for quality over quantity, and the last thing I want is a CD collection of 10,000 discs. I think a collection of truly essential CDs can easily be maintained around the 2-3,000 mark.

 

I should make it clear, that yes, I buy a LOT of CDs for crazy low prices. But every single time I buy one of those CDs I always think, if it doesn't work out I'll get rid of it no worries. And I may be slow, but one day all these discs I don't like will be on my trade list, and then ebay. It will take a while, but it will happen. I don't, and never have purposely held onto CDs I don't like. It's just that I've got a backlog at the moment which is about 100 times bigger than I have ever had.

 

I just had a quick look at that list. Of about 30 CDs I will get rid of 10. Now if that's the way I roll, that 2 in every 3 CDs I take a chance on is a keeper... well, I'm more than willing to keep taking chances. It may not always seem it, but every chance I take is an educated chance. Except maybe those freebies Mark throws away... they're just why not's.

 

But if I didn't take a chance every now and then I'd miss bands like The Donnas, Ten Second Epic, The Graduate and The Status... all of which were blind purchases. Yeah, I get a dud along the way but it's all part of a plan... long term as it may be.

 

don't you get to the point where you think that's it's better to buy 2 cds for $15 each that you know are keepers as opposed to 10 cds for $3 each and then end up not liking half of them...?

And just to address this one too. Keep in mind this is the first spins thread, so I only talk about the CDs I am hearing for the first time. For every CD I mention here I have forked out a few more dollars for the CDs I know I like. It's not like I'm buying the chances instead of the known keepers.

 

For some perspective, here's the other CDs I hadn't got around to listening to yet since I bought the hard copies - the known keepers I also purchased around the same time - that I spun in the same timeframe:

 

Tango Down - Damage Control ; one of the best pure melodic hard rock CDs I've heard in years

The Brave - Battle Cries ; brilliant disc, one of my most expensive buys ever around usd$25

The Darkness - One Way Ticket To Hell... And Back ; a $2 wonder and despite the vocals there is a decent song or 2 on this... kind of.

The Poodles - Performacy ; excellence

Transit - Dirty Pleasures ; sheer excellence - a classic to me

Transit - Heartcore ; every bit as good as the above. Brilliant.

Trixie - Shelter ; very good, solid hard rock disc

The Almost - Monster Monster ; surprisingly good modern rock, with some outright winners

The Audition - Great Danger ; not as good as the debut, but a damn fine disc

The Audition - s/t ; not good at all, but I guess I'm a completist till it comes time to make a new trade list? Kill me, it was cheap.

The Classic Crime - Silver cord ; excellent modern rock disc

The Classic Crime - Vagabonds ; very solid modern rock disc, some great choruses

The Latency - s/t ; one of the best CDs I have heard in the last few years, recommended by our very own Glen. Really one of my faves.

The Receiving End of Sirens - Between the Heart and the Synapse ; solid modern rock which deserved a pick-up for cheap

Times Of Grace - The Hymn of A Broken Man ; almost as good as the last Killswitch Engage disc... either way a keeper for sure.

 

So yeah, just remember what the title of the thread is and the scale of what these releases actually mean to me and my collection.

 

Peace out, nude campers

 

Yeah backed - I love those Transit discs........

 

Not heard some of those other titles so some to check out for sure - cheers.

[Geoff]

Thanks doods... I think.

 

Anyway, no rest for the sexy... or is that wicked? No rest for the wikkied sexy:

 

Vagh - 'Into the future zone' ; funny this CD should begin it's sexual relationship with my ears after the above posts. Complete 100% blind buy from CD Baby... and this one ain't bad at all. The cover would put one and all off, as it looks like a black / heavy metal disc, but certainly is not. It's nice, solid melodic hard rock. A couple of songs have female vocals, the rest it's a dude. I'm not saying go out and buy it, but if you're playing around in the CD Baby $5 CD sales and you're one CD short, throw this in your inbasket. Not bad for $5 at all.

 

Tokyo Blade - 'No remorse' ; well this one is the sore thumb in the Tokyo Blade collection. Like all of their CDs, it's a whole new cast aside from Boulton, but on the others there is a similar style and sound. This one is totally different. Don't get me wrong, it's not so much in a bad way. Not at all. The vocalist is very different to before and has an odd voice, but this is still a good, solid melodic hard rock disc. For the trivialists, I notice that it features 2 members of Ultranite (bass and drums), and songs written by the lead singer of Ultranite (Prestel).

 

Tokyo Blade - 'Black hearts and jaded spades' ; this is the one I think I heard in the past, or at least parts of. The one that was on my trade list. Awesome melodic hard rock disc. Not much more to say about it.

 

Ultranite - 'I want my own planet' ; some really good moments on this, and the Tokyo Blade link surprised me. I really liked the first 3 or 4 songs, then it went a bit wild in the middle - a couple of real clunkers, and ended up good too... before the instrumental. There's a song called 'Hello' or something on here which was really good. Good CD, glad I got to check it out.

 

Trivium - 'Shogun' ; solid heavy metal. Designed more as background noise than a real show stopper, but it's still good. I could actually get into these guys to some degree, I believe.

 

Trivium - 'Ascendency' ; not as good as 'Shogun,' but decent solid heavy metal. They have a cool vibe.

 

Eilleen Shania Twain - 'Beginnings' ; wow, really not bad at all. Took a leap after a few comments here, and glad I did. It's a good melodic rock / AOR disc.

 

Two Fires - 'Burning bright' ; not sure if I heard these MP3s before I got this, but this is pretty decent too. A few very nice tracks, namely 'Shattered without you' which reminded me of Shadows Fade. Overall it's not superb by any means, but it's nice safe AOR.

 

Unwritten Law - 'Here's to the mourning' ; pretty good modern rock. These guys used to be awful punk, but they don't sound so bad these days. Worth a cheeky listen.

[Fat Freddy]

Marillion - CRASH COURSE

 

Marillion is giving away this free ten-track sampler disc over at their website and since I love free stuff I figured I'd give it a shot. I haven't heard much Marillion since my college years, when I had a roommate who obsessively listened to MISPLACED CHILDHOOD day in and day out for the entire school year. So anyway, I believe this is the first time I've heard Marillion with Steve Hogarth on vox (even tho he's been in the band for 20 some-odd years now) and to be honest it's been so long since I even heard any "old" Marillion that I had no real expectations of what this disc was gonna sound like.

 

In a nutshell, this is pretty decent, dreamy, occasionally trippy "chill out" music. From what little I remember of the "old" Marillion I heard way back when, they sounded a lot like Gabriel-era Genesis, but I don't hear much (if any) of that sound on these tracks, instead I hear quite a bit of U2, some Coldplay, hell, maybe even a little Maroon 5. I don't know yet if this sampler will inspire me to dig any further into Marillion's catalog but in and of itself, this is not a bad listen for when you need to mellow out.

 

As an added bonus, this CD is irritating the hell out of the twenty-something chippy doodle who sits at the next desk over from me (and who is always complaining about the music I listen to) - during one particularly lengthy track she asked me "Is this song EVER going to END?" Haha.

 

If you wanna check this one out for yourself, just go to https://www.marillion.com/account/registerCC.php and give'em your address, they'll ship one out to you gratis. Can't beat that with a stick.

[KarpetRydOFunk]

Marillion - CRASH COURSE

As an added bonus, this CD is irritating the hell out of the twenty-something chippy doodle who sits at the next desk over from me (and who is always complaining about the music I listen to) - during one particularly lengthy track she asked me "Is this song EVER going to END?" Haha.

 

Apart from getting people hooked on the music I love, I love pissing people off with the music I love! I'm such a bastard, but I'm okay with it.

[Fat Freddy]

 

Eilleen Shania Twain - 'Beginnings' ; wow, really not bad at all. Took a leap after a few comments here, and glad I did. It's a good melodic rock / AOR disc.

 

My father in law (big time country music fan) picked up this CD at a flea market a couple of years ago during one of our family camp-out trips. He was all excited cuz he thought "Wow, Shania's got a new album out?" ...then he took it back to the campground and listened to it. He actually sez to me "What's with this hard rock sh*t? Sounds like the crap you listen to!"

 

I suggested that he give it to me if he didn't like it, but he sez he was gonna keep it cuz the CD booklet folded out into a very attractive poster of Shania. With that in mind, I couldn't blame him.

[Dead Planet]

 

Vagh - 'Into the future zone' ; funny this CD should begin it's sexual relationship with my ears after the above posts. Complete 100% blind buy from CD Baby... and this one ain't bad at all. The cover would put one and all off, as it looks like a black / heavy metal disc, but certainly is not. It's nice, solid melodic hard rock. A couple of songs have female vocals, the rest it's a dude. I'm not saying go out and buy it, but if you're playing around in the CD Baby $5 CD sales and you're one CD short, throw this in your inbasket. Not bad for $5 at all.

 

 

I like both Vagh releases...while they both have some filler there are some pretty good songs on both IMO

[Geoff]

 

Vagh - 'Into the future zone' ; funny this CD should begin it's sexual relationship with my ears after the above posts. Complete 100% blind buy from CD Baby... and this one ain't bad at all. The cover would put one and all off, as it looks like a black / heavy metal disc, but certainly is not. It's nice, solid melodic hard rock. A couple of songs have female vocals, the rest it's a dude. I'm not saying go out and buy it, but if you're playing around in the CD Baby $5 CD sales and you're one CD short, throw this in your inbasket. Not bad for $5 at all.

 

 

I like both Vagh releases...while they both have some filler there are some pretty good songs on both IMO

There's another one? Nice. I will try to check that out in time.

 

Yeah Keef, I didn't get a poster - just a simple booklet, but if it's like this one I can understand wanting to keep it for oneself. It's not outwardly sexual or revealing or anything... just damn sexy. The curves on this creature, particularly her buttocks in this particular shot. One could imagine devouring her whole.

 

 

Anyway, finally getting to the Van Halen CDs. To explain, my good mate in high school was a HUGE Van Halen fan and I heard most of, if not all their albums through him. But this is the first time I've taken the time to actually sit down and listen to them myself. And here's the results:

 

Van Halen - '1984' ; utter garbage of the highest order. When the best 2 songs you can offer are the sickly 'Jump' and the pretty cool 'Panama,' you know you're dealing with bad news. Like anyone in the world, I always thought 'Jump' was cheesy, corny nonsense. But I also can't deny that everytime it comes on the radio, or I hear it... well, slap my balls... I just enjoy it. That, and 'Panama' I can take as enjoyable tracks. The rest, including the other single 'Hot for teacher?' Just nonsense. 100 in 100 bands could release this crap and anyone in the world would call this shit blatant fillers. Put the Van Halen name on it and it's a classic? Doesn't work that way with the G-Scallop, I'm afraid. I'd admit 'I'll wait' was mildly tolerable, but the other tracks on this CD I would not piss on if a fire was permanently deleting them from history.

 

Van Halen - '5150' ; I always heard the term "singles band" in the past, but always thought it was rubbish. Most bands I love that did get a few singles out there, have much better songs than their singles on the actual CDs. Van Valen, however, may just be the band that gave that "singles band" tag some validation. I admit it, I LOVE 'Why can't this be love,' 'Dreams' and 'Love walks in.' I will also give them due credit for 'Best of both worlds,' which was actually a pretty cool rocker. But the other 5 tracks? Utter garbage, again. Fillers in anyone's language, except the VH diehard.

 

For the record, I am currently listening to 'Cabo wabo' from the next album, 'OU812' - how the F*CK did they get away with recording this shit on a major label and then selling millions of copies of it? Why are people's ears so broken when it comes to Van Halen when any single other band in the world could release this shit and be crucified? Oh, what a confusing world. And now 'Feels so good' is playing. Wowser... just wowser. I can't believe how bad this really is.

[KarpetRydOFunk]

Anyway, finally getting to the Van Halen CDs. To explain, my good mate in high school was a HUGE Van Halen fan and I heard most of, if not all their albums through him. But this is the first time I've taken the time to actually sit down and listen to them myself. And here's the results:

 

Van Halen - '1984' ; utter garbage of the highest order. When the best 2 songs you can offer are the sickly 'Jump' and the pretty cool 'Panama,' you know you're dealing with bad news. Like anyone in the world, I always thought 'Jump' was cheesy, corny nonsense. But I also can't deny that everytime it comes on the radio, or I hear it... well, slap my balls... I just enjoy it. That, and 'Panama' I can take as enjoyable tracks. The rest, including the other single 'Hot for teacher?' Just nonsense. 100 in 100 bands could release this crap and anyone in the world would call this shit blatant fillers. Put the Van Halen name on it and it's a classic? Doesn't work that way with the G-Scallop, I'm afraid. I'd admit 'I'll wait' was mildly tolerable, but the other tracks on this CD I would not piss on if a fire was permanently deleting them from history.

 

Van Halen - '5150' ; I always heard the term "singles band" in the past, but always thought it was rubbish. Most bands I love that did get a few singles out there, have much better songs than their singles on the actual CDs. Van Valen, however, may just be the band that gave that "singles band" tag some validation. I admit it, I LOVE 'Why can't this be love,' 'Dreams' and 'Love walks in.' I will also give them due credit for 'Best of both worlds,' which was actually a pretty cool rocker. But the other 5 tracks? Utter garbage, again. Fillers in anyone's language, except the VH diehard.

 

For the record, I am currently listening to 'Cabo wabo' from the next album, 'OU812' - how the F*CK did they get away with recording this shit on a major label and then selling millions of copies of it? Why are people's ears so broken when it comes to Van Halen when any single other band in the world could release this shit and be crucified? Oh, what a confusing world. And now 'Feels so good' is playing. Wowser... just wowser. I can't believe how bad this really is.

 

Wow, so refreshing. I've heard every album, and never loved any of them. Sure, there are a few killer tracks, but far too much filler. I've always kept to myself about the matter, but it's nice to know someone else shares my view. Even if that 'someone' is Geoff.

[Geoff]

Anyway, finally getting to the Van Halen CDs. To explain, my good mate in high school was a HUGE Van Halen fan and I heard most of, if not all their albums through him. But this is the first time I've taken the time to actually sit down and listen to them myself. And here's the results:

 

Van Halen - '1984' ; utter garbage of the highest order. When the best 2 songs you can offer are the sickly 'Jump' and the pretty cool 'Panama,' you know you're dealing with bad news. Like anyone in the world, I always thought 'Jump' was cheesy, corny nonsense. But I also can't deny that everytime it comes on the radio, or I hear it... well, slap my balls... I just enjoy it. That, and 'Panama' I can take as enjoyable tracks. The rest, including the other single 'Hot for teacher?' Just nonsense. 100 in 100 bands could release this crap and anyone in the world would call this shit blatant fillers. Put the Van Halen name on it and it's a classic? Doesn't work that way with the G-Scallop, I'm afraid. I'd admit 'I'll wait' was mildly tolerable, but the other tracks on this CD I would not piss on if a fire was permanently deleting them from history.

 

Van Halen - '5150' ; I always heard the term "singles band" in the past, but always thought it was rubbish. Most bands I love that did get a few singles out there, have much better songs than their singles on the actual CDs. Van Valen, however, may just be the band that gave that "singles band" tag some validation. I admit it, I LOVE 'Why can't this be love,' 'Dreams' and 'Love walks in.' I will also give them due credit for 'Best of both worlds,' which was actually a pretty cool rocker. But the other 5 tracks? Utter garbage, again. Fillers in anyone's language, except the VH diehard.

 

For the record, I am currently listening to 'Cabo wabo' from the next album, 'OU812' - how the F*CK did they get away with recording this shit on a major label and then selling millions of copies of it? Why are people's ears so broken when it comes to Van Halen when any single other band in the world could release this shit and be crucified? Oh, what a confusing world. And now 'Feels so good' is playing. Wowser... just wowser. I can't believe how bad this really is.

 

Wow, so refreshing. I've heard every album, and never loved any of them. Sure, there are a few killer tracks, but far too much filler. I've always kept to myself about the matter, but it's nice to know someone else shares my view. Even if that 'someone' is Geoff.

Haha. Mate, check any over-rated thread or bands that suck thread on this forum, and you can bet your ass that if I made a post in said thread I will have mentioned Van Halen. Having an excellent guitarist should be no excuse for such terrible songs. Like you, I admit that they did have a tiny minority of great songs, which is why I bothered, but as a whole they were/are an awful excuse for a band.

[Geoff]

Van Halen - 'OU812' ; okay, so I don't know the history behind this disc, but there has to be some story, right? Did the band purposely attempt to release the worst CD ever recorded in order to see how many poor lemmings would fork out hard earned cash for it? Or how many reviewers would look past everything that is so amazingly awful about it and still rate it high, just 'cause it's Van Halen? Seriously, this is far and away one of the worst CDs I've ever heard in my life. Even the main single from this, 'When it's love' is only average at best. It's still the best thing on here, but it's hardly something to marvel at. Second in line would be 'Sucker in a 3 piece' which was half decent. Of the rest, there is nothing even remotely redeemable about one of those pieces of shit they tried to pass off as songs.

[Geoff]

Van Halen - 'For unlawful carnal knowledge' ; this one seems to be far and away their best effort. 'The dream is over' is my all time favourite Van Halen song and always stuck in my mind from back in the day. That and 'Top of the world' are great. It's Van Halen, so there's still plenty of fillers, but there are a few pretty decent tracks here, especially around the start of the disc (except 'Spanked'). I think the major thing about this CD is that it actually sounds like they're trying. Sure, they're still well below average as song writers, but at least it sounds like they're trying, whereas past albums have just been offensively bad. Yeah, this one's not bad.

 

Van Halen - 'Balance' ; I haven't actually ever heard this one before, I don't think. It actually starts out pretty good, with 'Can't stop lovin' you' and 'Don't tell me' being 2 significant highlights. Again, there's plenty of fillers here but this time around they're not that bad. Again, like the last disc, it sounds like they tried again on this one. They're major problem is that despite the extremely high quality of musicianship, the actual quality of song writing is amazingly low... far below the quality of even a lot of unsigned indie bands you hear around the traps. Sure they can deliver one knock out or two, but they really never had what it takes to produce a complete CD. Another decent effort, though, and 90's were clearly the best era for Van Halen.

[Nightrain]

i must admit Van Halen did a lot of fillers throughout their career, but probably Eddie's playing is so exceptional that people don't really care about the songs and just to his guitar lol and Hagar's era is far better than DLR, though Van Halen's debut to me is an epic classic, which I think i like almost all the songs in it