| 4.5 superb |
| A Secret Death A Secret Death |
| Alexisonfire Watch Out! |
| Ampere All Our Tomorrows End Today |
| Anathallo Floating World |
| Armchairpolitician Seven Segment Decoder |
Armchairpolitician manage to find innovative ways to stick out above the rest of the emerging european melodic hardcore bands.
Seven segment decoder' is built around prog rock-esque structures and a charming sense of artistic overindulgence, the album as a whole is a very moody piece of art, quite sombre and almost foreboding (imagine the apocalypse on a overcast day) i would not be surprised if i learn that it is in fact a concept album.
On the surface its a fairly easy listen, your ears can quite easily follow along with the mostly soft vocal melodies and with 9/13 of the tracks clocking in over 4 and a half minutes there are alot of ambient musical interlude type sections where you can easily get drawn into place of complete satisfaction.
But at the same time, the guitars continually add a very complex and/or unique layer to the songs that upon further listening can draw you in for a interesting ride. The entire album is drenched with a feeling of experimentation the band showcases their attention to detail by mixing in a wide palette of sounds tones and effects into the overall sound scape leaving you with a very well produced album |
| As Cities Burn Come Now Sleep |
| Brand New The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me |
| Bright Eyes Fevers & Mirrors |
| City and Colour Sometimes |
| City of Caterpillar City of Caterpillar |
| Coheed and Cambria In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 |
| Coheed and Cambria From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness |
| Copeland Beneath Medicine Tree |
| Daitro Laisser Vivre Les Squelettes |
| Dance Gavin Dance Whatever I Say Is Royal Ocean |
| Dashboard Confessional The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most |
| Death Cab for Cutie Transatlanticism |
| Deerhunter Cryptograms |
| Eleventh He Reaches London The Good Fight For Harmony |
| Emery The Weak's End |
| Firekites The Bowery |
| Flying Lotus Cosmogramma |
| Foals Total Life Forever |
| Four Tet There is Love in You |
| Further Seems Forever The Moon Is Down |
| Hopesfall Magnetic North |
| James Dean James Dean |
| Joan of Arc Eventually, All at Once |
| Life in Your Way Waking Giants |
| Love Like... Electrocution Love Like... Electrocution |
| Mae The Everglow |
| Maps and Atlases Tree, Swallows, Houses |
What do you get when you cross the smoothness and sweetness of Dave knudson's unique approach to two handed tapping (listen to any minus the bear song and youll know what i mean) with the spastic moments that make bands like the fall of troy or the mars volta sound unique and then wrap them nicely with the catchyness of any good pop song? maps & atlases are pretty much exactly what you get.
The polyrhythmic nature of the two handed tapping technique they employ as well as the matching but somewhat counter rhythms provided by the drums and bass provide a complex foundation upon which their unique brand of 'indie-pop' songs are grounded.
This complex foundation is composed of tightly executed angular guitar riffs mixed with asymmetric but almost dancey rhythms and voice that could sit between conor oberst and geoff rickley. The heavy use of clean guitar and frantic but rhythmic nature of the music in general make room for melody, the unique vocal approach, while not presenting the most complex of melodies does do the job perfectly it doesn't overpower the songs and allows the music to shine as a whole. |
| Maps and Atlases You and Me and the Mountain |
| Mew And the Glass Handed Kites |
| Mew No More Stories |
| mewithoutYou Brother, Sister |
| Minus the Bear Highly Refined Pirates |
| Minus the Bear Menos El Oso |
| Minus the Bear They Make Beer Commercials Like This |
| Moving Mountains Pneuma |
| My Disco Paradise |
| Ohana Dead Beat |
| Park Building a Better ________. |
| Sarah Blasko What the Sea Wants, the Sea Will Have |
| Saves the Day Stay What You Are |
| Starflyer 59 Talking Voice vs. Singing Voice |
| Taking Back Sunday Where You Want To Be |
| The Antlers Hospice |
| The Blood Brothers ...Burn, Piano Island, Burn |
| The Mars Volta De-Loused in the Comatorium |
| The Spill Canvas Sunsets and Car Crashes |
| These Arms Are Snakes Oxeneers or the Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home |
| Thrice The Artist in the Ambulance |
| Thursday Full Collapse |
| 4.0 excellent |
| Adebisi Shank This is the Album |
| Adebisi Shank This is the EP |
| Alexisonfire Crisis |
| American Football American Football |
The moment the soft, sweet sounds of the opening track 'Never Meant' on their self titled album hits your ears till the final moments of 'The one with the Wurlitzer', you will find yourself immersed in a happy place and it will most likely end with you in tears....well maybe not but either way this music is truly emotional stuff. Every note rings clearly with all our favourite human emotions love, heartache and regret.
The songs are full of space, i don't mean that the songs feel empty but that the band tends to lean towards a minimalist approach in the presentation of the songs, this space allows the vocal melodies to weave their magic in your head. All the while the guitars drum and bass each provide their own supporting or counter-melody with the occasional mixing of odd time signatures and rhythms, leaving the listener in a diverse landscape of aural pleasure.
That being said they're not as lofty as bands like explosions in the sky as the songs have just enough weight in them to keep them grounded, not just floating up around your head. This band is for anyone mildly interested in ambient chillout indie and jazz type stuff |
| American Football American Football EP |
| Anathallo Canopy Glow |
| Anberlin Never Take Friendship Personal |
| Aphex Twin ...I Care Because You Do |
| Armor For Sleep What To Do When You Are Dead |
| Arrows Modern Art & Politics |
| As Tall As Lions As Tall As Lions |
| At the Drive-In Relationship of Command |
| Aussitot Mort Montuenga |
| Autechre Untilted |
| Autechre Gantz Graf |
| Autechre Move Of Ten |
| Beloved Failure On |
| Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago |
| Botch We Are the Romans |
| Bowerbirds Hymns for a Dark Horse |
| Brand New Deja Entendu |
| Bright Eyes I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning |
| Circa Survive Juturna |
| Circle Takes the Square As the Roots Undo |
| Closure in Moscow The Penance and the Patience |
| Closure in Moscow First Temple |
| Coheed and Cambria The Second Stage Turbine Blade |
| Cold War Kids Loyalty to Loyalty |
| Converge Jane Doe |
| Converge No Heroes |
| Copeland Eat, Sleep, Repeat |
| Copeland You Are My Sunshine |
| Curl Up and Die Unfortunately We're Not Robots |
| Cursive The Ugly Organ |
| Cursive Burst and Bloom |
| Daitro/Sed Non Satiata Split |
| Damiera M(US)IC |
| Dance Gavin Dance Downtown Battle Mountain |
| Dashboard Confessional A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar |
| Dashboard Confessional The Swiss Army Romance |
| Daughters Hell Songs |
| Days Away Mapping An Invisible World |
| Death Cab for Cutie The Photo Album |
| Death Cab for Cutie Plans |
| Death Cab for Cutie Narrow Stairs |
| Deerhunter Microcastle |
| Deftones White Pony |
| dredg Catch Without Arms |
| Emery ...In Shallow Seas We Sail |
| Every Time I Die The Big Dirty |
| Explosions in the Sky The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place |
| Explosions in the Sky All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone |
| Facing New York Facing New York |
| Fear Before Odd How People Shake |
| Fear Before Fear Before |
| Funeral Diner Difference Of Potential |
| Further Seems Forever How to Start a Fire |
| Gatsby's American Dream Ribbons and Sugar |
| Gatsby's American Dream In The Land of Lost Monsters |
| HEALTH Get Color |
| Hiromi Time Control |
| Hopesfall The Satellite Years |
| Hopesfall A Types |
| Hot Cross A New Set of Lungs |
| Interpol Antics |
| Interpol Our Love to Admire |
| ISIS In the Absence of Truth |
| Jimmy Eat World Bleed American |
| Joan of Arc How Memory Works |
| Joshua Fit For Battle To Bring Our Own End |
| Kaddisfly Do You Know People Can Fly? |
| La Quiete La fine non è la fine |
| Loma Prieta Last City |
| Loma Prieta Dark Mountain |
| Look Mexico The Crucial Collection |
| Lydia Illuminate |
| Maps and Atlases Perch Patchwork |
| Mew Frengers |
| mewithoutYou Catch For Us the Foxes |
| mewithoutYou It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All A Dream! It's Alright! |
| Minus the Bear Planet of Ice |
| Misery Signals Of Malice and the Magnum Heart |
| Misery Signals Mirrors |
| Moving Mountains Foreword |
| My Disco Collapse of an Erratic Lung |
| Norma Jean O' God, the Aftermath |
| Oh, Sleeper When I Am God |
| Onelinedrawing The Volunteers |
| Park It Won't Snow Where You're Going |
| Pedro the Lion Achilles Heel |
| Pedro the Lion Control |
| Poison the Well You Come Before You |
| Poison the Well Tear From the Red |
| Portugal. The Man Waiter: ''You Vultures!'' |
| Protest the Hero Kezia |
| Refused The Shape Of Punk To Come |
| robotosaurus Sayra Bahk Volume 2: Trifornais |
| Russian Circles Enter |
| Russian Circles Geneva |
| Saetia A Retrospective |
| Safe Hands Against The Wrecking Ball |
| Saosin Translating the Name |
| Sarah Blasko The Overture & The Underscore |
| Sarah Blasko As Day Follows Night |
| Saves the Day In Reverie |
| Sed Non Satiata Le Ciel De Notre Enfance |
| Sparta Wiretap Scars |
| Spitalfield Stop Doing Bad Things |
| Spitalfield Remember Right Now |
| Starflyer 59 My Island |
| Starflyer 59 Dial M |
| Straylight Run Straylight Run |
| Taking Back Sunday Tell All Your Friends |
| Taking Back Sunday Louder Now |
| The Appleseed Cast Low Level Owl, Vol. 2 |
| The Appleseed Cast Mare Vitalis |
| The Bled Pass the Flask |
| The Bled Silent Treatment |
| The Blood Brothers Crimes |
| The Chariot Everything Is Alive, Everything Is... |
| The Dear Hunter Act I: The Lake South, the River North |
| The Early November The Room's Too Cold |
| The Fall of Troy Doppelganger |
| The Fall of Troy Manipulator |
| The Future Sound of London Lifeforms |
| The Good Life Album of the Year |
| The Kinison What Are You Listening To? |
| The Mars Volta Frances the Mute |
| The Middle East The Recordings of the Middle East |
| The Police Synchronicity |
| The Police Greatest Hits |
| The Promise Ring Very Emergency |
| The Receiving End of Sirens The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi |
| The Reign of Kindo Rhythm, Chord & Melody |
| The Reign of Kindo This Is What Happens |
| The Rivalry No Face for the Mentor |
| The Spill Canvas One Fell Swoop |
| These Arms Are Snakes Tail Swallower and Dove |
| This Will Destroy You Young Mountain |
| This Will Destroy You This Will Destroy You |
| Thrice The Illusion of Safety |
| Thrice Vheissu |
| Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II |
| Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV |
| Thursday A City By the Light Divided |
| Trophy Scars Alphabet Alphabets |
| TTNG This Town Needs Guns |
| TTNG Animals |
| Underminded Hail Unamerican! |
| Underoath They're Only Chasing Safety |
| Underoath Define the Great Line |
| Waking Ashland Composure |
| Waking Ashland I Am For You |
| Waking Ashland Telescopes |
| 2.5 average |
| Alkaline Trio From Here to Infirmary |
| Angels and Airwaves We Don't Need to Whisper |
| Armor For Sleep Smile For Them |
| August Burns Red Messengers |
| Bear vs. Shark Terrorhawk |
| Between the Buried and Me The Silent Circus |
| Between the Buried and Me Colors |
| Bleed The Dream Built By Blood |
| Boards of Canada The Campfire Headphase |
| Cap'n Jazz Analphabetapolothology |
| Cartel Cartel |
| Chasing Victory I Call This Abandonment |
| Chevelle Wonder What's Next |
| Coma Lies NC The Great Western Basin |
| Cursive Such Blinding Stars for Starving Eyes |
| Damiera Quiet Mouth Loud Hands |
| Ellington More Like a Movie, Less Like Real Life |
| Emmure Goodbye To The Gallows |
| Emmure The Respect Issue |
| Every Time I Die Hot Damn! |
| Facing New York Get Hot |
| Fall Out Boy From Under the Cork Tree |
| Fall Out Boy My Heart Will Always Be the B-Side to My Tongue |
| From Autumn to Ashes Too Bad You're Beautiful |
| Fugazi 13 Songs |
| God Is an Astronaut The End of the Beginning |
| Hawthorne Heights The Silence in Black and White |
| Incubus (USA-CA) A Crow Left of the Murder... |
| Kings of Leon Only By The Night |
| Kisschasy United Paper People |
| Life in Your Way The Sun Rises and the Sun Sets... |
| Mae Destination: B-Sides |
| Mae Singularity |
| Muse Absolution |
| Norma Jean Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child |
| Norma Jean The Anti Mother |
| Over It Timing is everything |
| Papa Roach lovehatetragedy |
| Parkway Drive Killing with a Smile |
| Phantom Planet Phantom Planet |
| Pink Can't Take Me Home |
| Protest the Hero Fortress |
| Queens of the Stone Age Songs for the Deaf |
| Queens of the Stone Age Lullabies to Paralyze |
| Radiohead Amnesiac |
| Saosin Saosin |
| Saves the Day Through Being Cool |
| Saves the Day Can't Slow Down |
| Saves the Day Ups & Downs Early Recordings and B-Sides |
| Secret And Whisper Great White Whale |
| Silverstein When Broken Is Easily Fixed |
| Something Corporate Leaving Through The Window |
| The Amity Affliction High Hopes |
| The Chariot Unsung |
| The Classic Crime Albatross |
| The Decemberists The Crane Wife |
| The Devil Wears Prada Dear Love: A Beautiful Discord |
| The Getaway Plan Other Voices, Other Rooms |
The getaway plan release one of the most amazingly underachieving albums of the year, with the loss of one of their guitarists and as is evident, a large part of their musical inspiration, they manage to release an album lacking any substance.
The album rolls from one song to another with very limited differences, the moments of musical creativity come so few and far between that its a wonder if these are the same individuals who featured on 'hold conversation'. Vocally there has been some growth, but as overall songwriters, it seems to be fairly sedated, with each musician holding back from their best performance.
With nothing more than a wateredown version of the saosin self titled album, the getaway plan have managed to take a major step back musically while making leaps and bounds in popularity. Time will tell if this sacrifice will benefit or ultimately harm the band. |
| The Mars Volta Tremulant |
| The Mars Volta Amputechture |
| The Mars Volta The Bedlam in Goliath |
| The Mighty Mighty Bosstones Let's Face It |
| The Offspring Smash |
| The Red Chord Prey for Eyes |
| The Strokes Is This It |
| The Used The Used |
| Thrice Identity Crisis |
| Thursday Five Stories Falling |
| Trophy Scars Goodnight Alchemy |
| Yellowcard Underdog |
