War Tapes - ‘Dreaming of You’ free Download

Hailing from Downtown, LA, War Tapes are an indie/post punk band who I was recently introduced to through their myspace. After downloading their single for free, I think everyone should hear this band.

They are signed to indie label Sarathan Records, and produce an amazing sound - described as a mix between The Cure, Depeche Mode, and AFI - its a healthy mix and after hearing the soaring chorus, you will quickly find yourself humming and singing along

I would highly recommend giving them a listen, so download the single, “Dreaming of You” for free Here, and see what you think.

Avril Lavigne - The Best Damn Thing - Album Review

I’ve been purposely avoiding doing a review of ‘The Best Damn Thing’ because I knew it wouldn’t be very favourable. But now that the album-titled track has been released, bringing the total singles from the album to four, I’ve run out of excuses and I have finally done it. The album refused to fade away into history, like I was hoping it might.

Released in 2007, a lot of big names worked on the album on various parts - and I mean big names. Travis Barker (Blink-182, +44), Josh Frese (NIN), Deryck Whibley (Sum 41, and husband to Avril - lucky guy), Dr Luke (Carlos Santana, Kelly Clarkson), but sadly maybe it was too many cooks that spoiled the proverbial broth. More on that later. A lawsuit was filed against Avril Lavigne and Dr Luke after allegations of plagiarism - on ‘Girlfriend’ the most popular single. It is indeed remarkably similar to The Rubinoo’s song ‘Boyfriend’ and even has the same basic rhythm and lyrics such as “hey hey, you you, I want to be your girl/boyfriend”. Judge for yourself Here

Despite everything before and after the release, the album has been a success. But this album is what you would expect coming from a 12 year old. It’s bratty, whiny, and very very annoying. Her cute Canadian accent has been replaced by a whiny slutty bore and while most of the choruses are all right, the versus make you cringe. Her rap efforts are horrific and her vocals are not good enough, no where near good enough. what’s worse is that almost every song has this sort of gangster rap wannabe theme to it (I think everyone has heard the senseless “I’m the mother facking princess” line in Girlfriend, similar lines appear in other tracks) were she is rapping about how nobody is good enough for her and she is the best damn thing, so to speak. Only on Innocence and When You’re Gone is some actual singing ability shown. It’s like she didn’t even try or think about how the album might sound. She was drunk during some recordings though, which might explain a bit.

The videos have been equally awful and cringe worthy. Gone are the ties, skateboards, and punk bracelets. Instead we now have dance routines, cheerleaders, backing singers, bleached blonde hair, ultra cheesy dressing up scenes, and very little instruments are actually shown to be played. While Avril looks as dazzlingly sexy as always in all the videos, it’s not the same as before. She’s changed into exactly what she used to say disgusted her. about the music industry. There is less maturity now than before which doesn’t make sense, and not even hearing Girlfriend a million times has made me like it. EDIT - actually hearing the Chinese version of the song always makes me laugh, even on the worst of days. Look Here

Releasing a clean version of the album and one with swearing included is even more confusing - if you want to appeal to kids then don’t swear, and if you want to swear then don’t compromise you’re work just to sell more. Don’t have it both ways. Swearing in songs doesn’t bother me if its needed, or if it fits in - but it feels and sounds like Avril was doing it just to seem more ‘bad-ass’, when in fact, she was much more rebellious in Let Go. I still say that Avril Lavigne has produced two excellent albums, but ‘The Best Damn Thing’ is a real shame, and bitterly disappointing. Glimpses of hope are evident in When You’re Gone and Innocence, and choruses, but I hope the next offering is much, much better. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to make a fun, up-beat, energetic album but there still has to be more creativity and better songs than this. Finally, WTF was that Girlfriend remix all about? Why would you want to make a rubbish song even worse? Look at you’re peril - it might possibly be the worst thing in the entire history of music….seriously. It pains me to give such a low score, but I think it’s fair.

Overall - 4/10

Elliot Minor - Elliot Minor - Album Review

I’ve been waiting for Elliot Minor’s album now for what seems forever. Holding the album release until just now [April 2008] after four single releases probably didn’t actually help matters. What it has done however, is build up a lot of hype for the band. The quintet are possibly the next Fall Out Boy - not in terms of music style or visual appearance, but in the way that most people have a strong positive or negative reaction towards them. You will probably either love them or hate them. Their blend of classical music and rock is no where near the quality (or style) of Nightwish, nor is it as original as people think - however, between them they play the violin, piano, clarinet, cello, double bass, saxophone, and of course, drums, guitar, bass and keyboard. So, no doubt they have enough talent to be a success. I’m not loving them just yet - their posh accents and general “jolly ho” attitude hasn’t won me over yet - but having generally liked the singles that have been released, I took a punt on the album and had a listen.

Elliot Minor’s début and self-titled album begins with a mellow, upbeat song which is very reminiscent of Simple Plan called ‘Time After Time’ before launching into the familiar ‘Parallel Worlds’, which includes two contrastingly brilliant guitar solo’s as well as being the fastest song on the album. ‘The White One Is Evil’ is a song full to the brim with orchestral instruments/keyboard effects, which are emphasised for most of the song. It makes it a little dragged out, but nevertheless keeps it memorable for the style if nothing else, and is in fact one of the best songs on the album. ‘The Liar is You’ was a surprise as its really slow and doesn’t excite me much, although it has grown on me since. ‘Lucky Star’ is better and more like what I was expecting Elliot Minor to produce, it takes a while to get going however so ends up being a short song. ‘Jessica’ is another most people will be familiar with, although it’s not one of the better singles, to me anyway. ‘The Broken Minor’ is my favourite song from the album and is even better than ‘Parallel Worlds’. The complexity of the song and the variety of instruments used is slightly over-whelming at first, but when you sit back and listen to it, it sounds great all mixed in together. Guitars, drums, keyboard and vocals all seem to have their own little segment, and the beginning and end of the song are purely instrumental, leading seamlessly into the next. Great stuff. ‘Still Figuring Out’ always makes me laugh because I can’t help but sing along to the opening in a posh voice. A bit cruel maybe, but the song itself is very good, making good use of an up tempo drum beat and is probably one of the better songs on the album. ‘Silently’ is poor, mainly because it’s so similar to ‘The Liar is You’ which makes it even slower and just as dull. The penultimate song on Elliot Minor’s début album ‘Running Away’ is excellent, and is another of the better songs on the album, but the final song ‘Last Call to New York City’ is just overkill on an average song. While initially it’s quite good, it goes on and on, and at 6 minutes long, it feels like the boys were trying to create an anthem for crowds to sing along to at gigs, but they ultimately fail because its just not that good a song to begin with - I think they were trying to create another type of ‘Broken Minor’ - although the fireworks at the very end of the album are a neat touch indeed. Similarly, most of the tracks have a synth/keyboard intro/outro at the beginning/end of the song which is a good idea to link between songs so you hardly notice the change.

The band have toured with Simple Plan, Fall Out Boy, and, errr McFly (best not spread that around eh boys), and are playing at this years Download Festival, so Elliot Minor’s future is looking rosy. The album itself is slightly disappointing really. A lot of the hype and promise shown in early singles ‘Parallel Worlds’ and ‘The White One is Evil’ is not apparent on the album, and the songs tend to be very hit and miss. Their sound is not as consistent as I imagined it to be, and some songs don’t fit in very well (too many chill out songs for me). I was expecting much more from Elliot Minor but the album is still going to please fans, but won’t win over many people listening to them for the first time. So, if you’ve loved the singles so far then go get it, but I suspect everyone else will want to stay clear. Some songs are too similar to each other, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing - Broken Minor, Parallel Worlds, White One Is Evil and Jessica are all brilliant, but similar in sounds and style, as are the slower songs. So chances are you will either like all, or none, of the songs on the album

As a fairly big/growing Elliot Minor fan, I really like the album but suspect it will vary greatly from person to person.

Overall - 8/10