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I think Batman has been sending me subliminal messages from Album Reviews that is making me want to post an album for selection! :googly:

Alright, here's one for you:

Morning View - Incubus

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I love this album, from start to finish, I have listened to it over and over on repeat.

Incubus are a breakthrough band who went from hard hitting mosh rock, got a conscience and mellowed out from their first albums to this gem.

A fan of them all, this one is their most mature album to date, as well as being their most "chilled" out one.

Brandon's voice and lyrics are perfectly complimented by Mike and Dirk's fantastic guitar skills, Jose on the drums and DJ Kilmore's subtle mixing.

There are hard-ish and soft songs on this album. Jazzy, funky beats here and there, frogsong, heavy riffs, oriental overtones and catchy choruses. This album will not leave you disappointed and delivers to fans and non-fans alike.

Tracklisting:

1. Nice To Know You

2. Circles

3. Wish You Were Here

4. Just A Phase

5. 11am

6. Blood On The Ground

7. Mexico

8. Warning

9. Echo

10. Have You Ever

11. Are You In?

12. Under My Umbrella

13. Aqueous Transmission

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Sheer Heart Attack

Queen

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I am relatively new this album but I very much like what I hear. The big track off this album is 'Killer Queen' which was a break through in the US for the band.

I really like 'Stone Cold Crazy' (which Metallica covered and won an Grammy for), 'Brighton Rock' and 'Flick Of The Wrist', but the entire album is great and hard rockin' which is just what I like :D

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Air "talkie walkie"

Air are a french duo that make electronic/chill-out music. I have been told that "talkie walkie" is written as a soundtrack to an imaginary film, alrhough i'm not sure how true this is. Anyway, "talkie walkie" is a beautiful album, filled with dreamy music and vocals/lyrics in a sexy (lol) french accent. We start off in "venus", meet the "cherry blossom girl" and the "universal traveller", "surfing on a rocket"... These are just some of the beautiful songs one can listen to in this album. So sit back, relax, and daydream with this lovely soundtrack

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I'd say to go with...

It's Alive --the Ramones

probably the best live album I've ever heard. The Ramones zoom through 28 songs in 53 minutes with amazing ferocity and just enough time between tracks for Dee Dee to yell "1-2-3-4!". Straight off their best studio album, (Rocket to Russia), the Ramones are definatly on top of their game at the point they recorded this in front of their very enthusiastic English crowd. No matter if they're playing one of their more popular songs, (Sheena is a Punk Rocker, Blitzkrieg Bop, Teenage Lobotomy, Rockaway Beach) or some bizzare mindless 3-chord 3-line punk-fest (Cretin Hop, Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue, Surfin' Bird, Beat on the Brat, I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You) It's Alive never ceases to pack a punch. Most of all, this album is amazingly fun to listen to and is perfect while driving or working out. After all, you're heart will by racing by the end of the first track. 1-2-3-4!...

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gimme a minute...!

okay, here goes:

Jeff Buckley

(Sketches For) My Sweetheart The Drunk

[Columbia]

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Released in May 1998, only a year after Jeff's tragic drowning in the Wolf River, Memphis. (Sketches For) My Sweetheart, The Drunk was a posthumous album which should never have been released. Jeff had famously spoken of burning the master tapes on which he had recorded these beginnings, fragments, mere sketches of the songs they would have become if he had not been so suddenly taken. But nonetheless this collection of half-songs was brought together by those who had loved Jeff most dearly in life and compiled into a double album which showed the fans what Jeff had been working on prior to his death.

The album opens with 'The Sky is a Landfill', an anthemic caustic comment on society with passionate vocals. This is followed closely by 'Everybody Here Wants You', a beautiful lovesong with sparse arrangement which perfectly complements the heartfelt lyrics. 'Opened Once' is a soft gentle song with a trembling guitar part which is followed by the contrasting dark opening riff of 'Nightmares By The Sea', which speaks of the hidden darkness in every man's soul. Strangely prophetically, Jeff asks you to "Stay with me under these waves tonight". 'Yard of Blonde Girls' is a gritty sexy cover of a song by The Nymphs. 'Witches' Rave' is a frantic rhythmic song which speaks of one's need to look outside their relationship for reassurance ("I can't help from looking outside for a guarantee"). 'New Year's Prayer' is a perfect example of the strong influence of qawwali on Jeff's vocals. This song seems to have been sung in an almost trance-like state, with layers of vocals. 'Morning Theft' is a beautiful song, regretful of friendship lost, while 'Vancouver' is more upbeat. CD I closes with 'You & I', an eerie song, sung a capella with just some atmospheric sound effects. This song clearly demonstrates Jeff's incredible range, from deep throaty whispers to soaring falsetto.

CD II is far less accessible than the first disc, and involves a lot more experimentation with samples and different vocal stylings. However, it serves to show how wide ranging Jeff's interests in music lay and how versatile his talent was. Deeply poignant is the mournful 'I Know We Could Be So Happy Baby (If We Wanted To Be)' speaks of love scorned and loneliness. The album closes with Jeff's bluesy cover of Porter Wagoner's 'Satisfied Mind', a rough and ready take, complete with throat clearing, which demonstrates Jeff's talent at taking a song and making it his own. This song was fittingly played at Jeff's memorial service:

"When life is over and my time has run out

My friends and my loved ones, I will leave them no doubt

But one things for certain, when it comes my time

I'll leave this old world with a satisfied mind"

Pitchfork Review

Rating: 8.4

Four and a half years passed between the releases of Jeff Buckley's critically- acclaimed debut full- length Grace and this album, which would become his swan song. In that time, Buckley assembled demos and a series of unpolished tracks for a record he'd hoped to call My Sweetheart The Drunk, but his tragic drowning in the Summer of 1997 brought those plans to an abrupt halt.

Or so we thought. Buckley's family and Columbia Records took a brave step forward by allowing these unmastered recordings to be released almost one year after Buckley's death. Thankfully, the tracks on Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk are not overdubbed. Buckley's family insisted that the recordings reflect the unfinished state in which Buckley left them. Even outtakes and unreleased tracks from Grace and Buckley's EP Live at Sin-é were not included in this collection. This two- disc set is intended to be the listeners' glimpse into the mind of the musician.

Buckley's sharp technical musicianship and his soft, tenor vocals (which are at times both heavily pleading and refreshingly mocking), are solidly present on this record. And while these songs remain unfinished, they stand firmly on their own. "Back In NYC" is a perfect example of a piece that's as captivating as some of the best tracks on Grace, and "Nightmares By The Sea" features a haunting introduction which sets the stage for one of the most soulful and tense love songs on this collection.

Without the elements of heavy production, these works appear stark and naked, drawing more attention to Buckley's captivating creativity. But the main element is that voice-- there's nothing like it in the world. Buckley's lilting and weaving vocals possessed the ability to weep and laugh simultaneously and they could transform the simplest phrase into a deeply emotional episode.

Sketches main objective, though, is to recall the image of the musician as an artiste. Buckley's ability to sustain such a high level of intensity and passion is unparalleled in modern music, and current songwriters could clearly learn a lesson from Buckley in this regard. Granted, two discs worth of such a deeply emotional artist can be a bit overwhelming at times, but songs like "The Sky Is A Landfill" and "Morning Theft" remind the world why Buckley will be remembered as one of the most talented songwriters the 1990s has to offer.

-Aparna Mohan

All Music Guide Review

sketches for my sweetheart the drunk - album reviews

Jeff Buckley was a mess of contradictions: a perfectionist who believed in spontaneity, a man who was at once humble and vain, a musician who shunned his father's tumultuous legacy while creating one of his own. These are some of the reasons why he took his time writing and recording the material for his second album, laboring over many songs for months at a time. Given such painstaking methods, it shouldn't have been a surprise that recording was an equally fastidious process. Buckley recorded enough material for an album with producer Tom Verlaine, but deciding that the results weren't quite right, he scrapped them and moved to Memphis to record the album again. He reworked a few songs as home demos as he prepared to cut the album, but it was never made -- Buckley died in a tragic drowning accident before entering the studio. As a way to enlarge his legacy, his mother and record label rounded up the majority of the existing unreleased recordings, releasing them as the double-disc set Sketches (For My Sweetheart the Drunk). Excepting a few awkward moments and middle-eights, it's hard to see why Buckley rejected the Verlaine productions that make up disc one. The material isn't necessarily a progression from Grace; it's more like a stripped-down, edgier take on the sweeping, jazz-tinged goth folk-rock that made the first album so distinctive. Neither the nearly finished first disc nor the homemade demos and re-recordings on the second disc offer any revelations, but that's not necessarily a disappointment. Sketches adds several wonderful songs to his catalog, offering further proof of his immense talent. And that, of course, is what makes the album as sad as it is exciting.

~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Track listing

CD I

1 Sky Is a Landfill

2 Everybody Here Wants You

3 Opened Once

4 Nightmares by the Sea

5 Yard of Blonde Girls

6 Witches' Rave

7 New Year's Prayer

8 Morning Theft

9 Vancouver

10 You and I

CD II

1 Nightmares by the Sea

2 New Year's Prayer

3 Haven't You Heard

4 I Know We Could Be So Happy Baby (If We Wanted to Be)

5 Murder Suicide Meteor Slave

6 Back in N.Y.C.

7 Demon John

8 Your Flesh Is So Nice

9 Jewel Box

10 Satisfied Mind

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This is far more important than a dissertation.

I think that "Sketches" would be much stronger without the second disc. Put "Satisfied Mind" on the first disc, and lose the rest. Though I am grateful for all the Jeff Buckley I can get, there are things that were never meant to be heard. If they were up to his standards he would've finished the album long ago. I think the first disc is a great follow-up to "Grace", and it shows a lot of maturation.

It's kind of like the album with Gary Lucas that was released a few years ago. What was the motivation for it?

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What was the motivation for it?

money honey! ain't it always?

i agree with you to a certain extent. if i was truly selfless and respectful of jeff's interest and wishes (or what i imagine they would have been) i wouldn't buy those posthumous cds. i know that there are recordings of me around, audio and video, that i would never want to be released!! but at the end of the day there are people out there who are looking to make money on jeff's name. i agree that cd I alone with the addition of 'satified mind' would have been a better album and i rarely listen to cd II myself, except for 'i know we could be so happy baby (if we wanted to be)'. but like you, i will take any jeff i can get.

p.s. just read over my review again and there are a few glaring grammatical errors as well as a number of bad sentence constructions. i wrote it in too much of a hurry to get to bed - apologies all, for not doing jeff justice!

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