manpark

it's not like Weezer haven't tried asking their fans which songs should make an album in the past, and that didnt produce much agreement or a flawless record. There is a lot to like on this one though.

Oh and I have no idea what "the guitars are woefully exaggerated" means in this review

and 'I'm Your Daddy' are two highlights for me, plus 'Put Me Back Together' is the best Weezer song in many a year.

That said 'Love is the Answer' and 'In the Mall' are real stinkers. If you combined the standouts from this and the Red Album you'd have one amazing record.

As it is you've got two patchy ones. 3 is unfair. 6 is about right cuz some of these songs are Weezer at the top of their game, they just don't seem to be able to tell the difference between the great stuff and the crud anymore

about the lyrics is spot on but I would have graded it a little kinder for the stuff that does work. For me it's another 7 in a line of 7s (maybe Waited Up is an 8)

better than i was expecting. still gonna be a download before buying job methinks

have always been pretty bad, no? and even the first album had its bryan adams moments/stadium style sing-a-longs. nevertheless they've all had their moments. the bits i've heard from this sound pretty good, brass excursions aside

embarrassing band. proving that as musical genres needing revisiting go, grunge is pretty much dead last

there isn't one interesting answer in this interview. even the terminator thing, it's just a variation on 'we're not really into rock music anymore', dull band makes outlandish claim to make themselves seem more interesting.

no-one owes these guys any kind of apology for criticising the music they make or the way they go about it. Editors = chodes one and all. their music = chode rock. childish enough for you?

although Tallahassee was 2002. and it had its fair share of

"what will happen will happen, and that, despite our best and varied efforts, we will never be ready for it."

as in this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMmll92na5o and the excellent description that precedes it.

Still I think 8/10 is about right. A definite step up after 'Heretic Pride', not quite a 'Get Lonely' or a 'Full Force Galesburg'

muse are doing in this clip is treating their music with the contempt it deserves.

i can appreciate overblown prog.

i can appreciate slick rock gems.

i would appreciate a genuinely subversive gesture if that's what this was. unfortunately all we have here is arrogant douchebags

dreadful. and the thing is i wish it was going to be great, but you can only follow a band who don't know which songs they write are good for so long before you go, yknow what, the deluxe edition of this one isnt worth £15 so i can get 5 shit songs on top of 10 weak songs. i can write that myself

a few more bands would have the decency to stay split up

sound like the band from 'young person's guide to becoming a rock star'. talk about change the record. britrock revival anyone? no? thought not

are playing on the thursday too

Neon Bible is as good as Funeral. Maybe even a little better. Also I'm glad they played so many shows supporting Neon Bible and dispelled a little of the mystique because the hype surrounding Funeral was nauseating

about this. for packaging enthusiasts perhaps

is really strong. there's one total dud, 'What a Catch, Donnie', and the single 'I Don't Care' is pretty poor. however this might be Fall Out Boy's most consistent album yet. sure 'Take This to Your Grave' has more energy and 'Under the Cork Tree' and 'Infinity on High' have more high points but 'Folie a Deux' continues their weird pop punk/post harcore/pop trip in a way i'd never expected. lyrically it's pretty much the same (weirdly since the lyricist is now meant to be happily domesticated), but Patrick Stump's music continues to be suprising and excellent. great stuff. if only the occasional one ball-ed indie band had the guts to make an album this good

is a douche

...liked the album version of 'have you forgotten' but that alternative take is great. fantastic band, first four albums and 'april' in particular. sun kil moon were easily the best band i saw last year, and it was a good year for gigs

i think a lot of the problem stems from the UK being relatively small. things like punk get picked up on by the media pretty quickly, and the scene gets spoiled. not because i'm an elitist and i only want me and my friends to like a band but because thousands of copy cat hack bands join in. whatever was great about that scene gets taken over by whatever is marketable about that scene.

what i always liked about the american underground scene of the 80s and 90s (and it still goes on) was that bands needed truly independent labels because major label national success wasnt a viable option. self released records and touring networks were, be it the minutemen, calvin johnson, (early years) modest mouse, whoever. if you're free from major label or even 'career' considerations you can play whatever music you like. even if the punk music you make takes influence from rush and yes, and there's a lot to appreciate about those bands however ridiculous large parts of their output are.

my only problem with the above article is that it still comes from the viewpoint that we should be building career artists to have sustainable back catalogues for record companies. bands can build back catalogues on their own anyway if they have passion for what they're doing. plus REM arent a particularly great example of a small band made good as they got reasonable label and media attention nearly from the get-go. they werent toiling in obscurity throughout the 80s, they were a big indie band who became the biggest indie band.

anyway, there is a ridiculous number of records you can seek out, by bands who were signed to major labels and indie labels, right down to bands you're lucky to find out about at all. it's all more accessible than ever, you don't need marketing campaigns to convince you to buy any of it. would i love people to pay me for the music i make? sure. but it's not about that, it's about making records you want to make first and foremost. then share them with other bands or people who inspire you if you can, your friends if you can't, and your bandmates if your friends think your band sucks. take Guided by Voices as an example. they made 5 albums and an EP, funded by teacher loans before anyone even really heard them. no one who is serious about it needs to be nurtured by a label. i don't wanna hear records by anyone who hasnt got the interest left at the end of a working week to write music.

i leave the final word to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIgMOmbFIw0

we all like to have our mutual record collection congratulated, would be nice to have a suprise thrown in there somewhere though

i have nearly all Prince's albums, and the best of them (which includes more of his 90/00s output than he is given credit for) blow all competition away. this one is alright, pretty much on a par with 3121, still not a patch on The Rainbow Children and Musicology

..i liked the No Age record a lot. and Built to Spill, though surely that came out well over a year ago.

and while i would have included the White Stripes, i'm glad to see Editors don't feature, if ever a band sucked industry cock at every turn it's them

...just reiterating the point above that there is a different american sense, first came to my notice in the Hold Steady lyric #working backwards from the doctor to the drugs. from the packie to the taxi to the cabbie to the club#. makes a lot more sense that Jo Whiley and Mark Radcliffe (Whiley in particular) misunderstood than Iggy Pop was being racist

...perfect from now on, there's nothing wrong with love, live, then the other three in any order. halo benders also worth checking out.

i was at the nottingham show and it sounds like a pretty similar deal. they were just masters of their craft. didnt put a foot wrong all evening. with one tiny exception perhaps, my friend picked up the setlist and they skipped 'distopian dream girl' which would have been nice to hear. still best show i've seen in years

i think Up was great too. until Around the Sun i'd never been one of those 'it was great til Bill Berry left' REM fans, but ATS really lacked any inventive drumming. practically every song the drums come in at the same point and they sound like some 'soft rock 1' preset on a kids keyboard. it works fine for 'Leaving New York' but most of the rest suffer. also the other instruments were polished nearly out of existence. which is a shame because Michael Stipe sings his heart out on that record. anyway this jackknife lee seems to work with universally crap bands but hopefully just the change of surroundings might kickstart REM some

...heard the record? for a start the record has roughly 15 seconds of piano in and it's barely audible. there are songs on this record, most notably 'stuck between stations' which sound like bruce springsteen, this is not one of them. they have never denied their classic rock influence. in fact they celebrate them.

to compare the hold steady to the killers is just moronic. craig finn at least has some reason to be sounding like bruce springsteen, he has cited him as an influence for over 10 years, even when his records (in Lifter Puller/the Brokerdealer) sounded nothing like the Boss. The Killers on the other hand are jumping on what remains of the born to run reissue bandwagon and will probably sound like the Klaxons this time next year.

In conclusion this is from maybe The Hold Steady/Lifter Puller's worst album, but the album deserve at least a 7 and the song at least an 8. Whereas the Killers deserve to choke on the corporate cock they like so much