quinta-feira, 29 de novembro de 2007

Kraftwerk - Computer World (81)

»
The last great Kraftwerk album, Computer World captured the band right at the moment when its pioneering approach fully broke through in popular music, thanks to the rise of synth pop, hip-hop, and electro.
»
As Arthur Baker sampled "Trans-Europe Express" for "Planet Rock" and disciples like Depeche Mode, OMD, and Gary Numan scored major hits, Computer World demonstrated that the old masters still had some last tricks up their collective sleeves.
»
Compared to earlier albums, it fell readily in line with The Man-Machine, eschewing side-long efforts but with even more of an emphasis on shorter tracks mixed with longer but not epic compositions. While the well-established tropes of the band were used again — electronically treated vocals, some provided by Speak and Spell toys; crisp rhythm blips; basslines and beats; haunting, quirky melodies — there's a ready liveliness to the songs, like the addictive "Pocket Calculator," with its perfectly deadpan portrait of "the operator" and his favorite tool, and the almost winsome "Computer Love."
»
Cannily, the lyrical focus on newly accessible technology instead of cryptic futurism and vanished pasts matched this new of-the-now stance, and the result was a perfect balance between the new world of the album title and a withdrawn, bemused consideration of that world.
»
The title track itself, with its lists detailing major organizations presumably all wired up, echoes the flow of Trans-Europe Express, serene and pondering. "Pocket Calculator" itself is more outrageously fun, thanks to the technical observation that "by pressing down a special key it plays a little melody."
»
Others would take the band's advances and run with them, but with Computer World Kraftwerk — over a decade on from their start — demonstrated how they had stayed not merely relevant, but prescient, when nearly all their contemporaries had long since burned out.
»
Postado por às Nenhum comentário:
Marcadores: , ,

Kansas - Song For America (75)

Clique para Download


1 Down the Road
2 Song for America
3 Lamplight Symphony
4 Lonely Street
5 The Devil Game
6 Incomudro--Hymn to the Atman

Probably the most prog of Kansas' albums, this one spotlights long, orchestrated songs and unusual time signatures.

There is an extended nine/eight instrumental break in the middle of the title track.

"Lamplight Symphony" offers long, orchestrated passages.

When the energy is there, it is intense energy, such as "Down the Road" and "The Devil Game."
,
The longer songs unfortunately can lose a passive listener.

But all in all, this is a good (if not adolescent) recording for a group of this genre.
Postado por às Nenhum comentário:
Marcadores: , ,

K.C. & The Sunshine Band - Oh Yeah (93)

»«

1 Megamix : That's the Way/Shake Your Booty/Get Do [The Official Bootleg: I'm Yo]
2 Somebody Somewhere (I'll Be There)
3 Will You Love Me in the Morning
4 Hold Me Tight
5 Give It Up
6 Please Don't Go [Live in Versilia]
7 Coast to Coast
8 I Can't Forget
9 Gonna Let It Go
10 Don't Stop
11 Turn the Music Up
12 Desire
13 High Above the Clouds
The Bee Gees may have been the undisputed disco kings of the late '70s, but KC & the Sunshine Band weren't far behind.
»«
From the mid- to late '70s, the multi-member and racially integrated group led by bandleaders Harry Wayne "KC" Casey and Richard Finch racked up some of the era's biggest and instantly recognizable dance hits.
»«
Casey and Finch first met in 1972 while both were employed by TK Records in Miami, FL, where among other chores, Casey served as a personal secretary and booking agent for artist Timmy Thomas.
»«
KC & the Sunshine Band officially formed in 1973, but a debut single, "Blow Your Whistle," sunk from sight upon release. But it was another Casey/Finch original, "Rock Your Baby," that R&B artist George McCrae scored a hit with in 1974 as KC & the Sunshine Band began issuing further albums and singles, quickly scoring big hits on their own.
»«
The group then began an impressive run of disco hits: 1977's "Shake Shake Shake (Shake Your Booty)," "I'm Your Boogieman," "Keep It Comin' Love," "Boogie Shoes" (the latter included on the monster-selling soundtrack to the hit John Travolta disco movie, Saturday Night Fever), 1979's "Do You Wanna Go Party," and 1980's "Please Don't Go."
»«
Despite earning nine Grammy nominations (receiving three awards) and selling millions of records, KC & the Sunshine Band were still susceptible to the backlash that disco bands felt by the dawn of the '80s, eventually leading to dwindling sales and the group's split by the early '80s (although KC scored a moderate solo hit in 1983 with "Give It Up").
»«
Come the '90s, an appreciation of everything '70s swept across the U.S., which led to a renewed interest bands from the era, prompting KC & the Sunshine Band to re-form for concert performances.
»«
That decade saw the release of countless KC "hits" collections and even an episode of VH1's popular Behind the Music series that studied the group's ups and downs.
»«
Postado por às Nenhum comentário:
Marcadores: , , ,

Hawkwind - Electric Tepee (94)

Clique para Download PT1

Electric Teepee was the first album to show Hawkwind's interest in trance/ambient/techno sounds, but those elements do not pervade the album like they do on It Is the Business of the Future to Be Dangerous.
»«
In fact, the disc opens with the fast-paced, hard-edged rocker "LSD."
»«
That cut is pure modern Hawkwind space rock energy. Another smoking rocker included in this set is the Alan Davey-penned piece "The Secret Agent."
»«
It is one of the stronger cuts ever done by the modern Hawkwind, and it alone is worth getting this album.
»«
This disc will certainly be perceived as an inconsistent one, but the shining moments more than make up for that problem.
»«
Postado por às Nenhum comentário:
Marcadores: ,

A Cor Do Som – Acústico

Clique para Download

»«

Este álbum reúne grandes nomes da música em 16 faixas.
»«
Aqui, eles apresentam grandes sucessos e releituras para clássicos da música brasileira.
»«
O álbum conta ainda com participações especiais de Moraes Moreira, Daniela Mercury e Caetano Veloso.
»«
Não perca!
»«
Postado por às Nenhum comentário:
Marcadores: ,

João Bosco - Comissao De Frente (82)

»«
São mais de trinta anos de uma carreira, como é notório, desde o início orientada por um imperativo estritamente artístico, passando ao largo de oportunismos, modismos e afins.
»«
A ética musical de João Bosco sempre teve uma única lei, parágrafo único: a invenção.
»«
Seu compromisso com a canção popular é marcado pela firmeza de uma obra que atravessa as décadas preocupando-se fundamentalmente com o próprio fazer da canção: melodia, ritmo, harmonia, letra, canto - a grande tradição da canção popular brasileira.
»«
A importância histórica da data convidou a que se a comemorasse de forma inédita: gravando o primeiro DVD de João Bosco - Obrigado, Gente! -, com um repertório feito de seus memoráveis clássicos (dos sambas da década de 70, da incontornável parceria com Aldir Blanc, aos sucessos românticos dos anos 80/90, como "Memória da Pele", "Desenho de Giz", "Papel Maché", etc.), todos em arranjos depurados através dos muitos anos de intimidade com as canções.
»«
Postado por às Nenhum comentário:
Marcadores: ,

quarta-feira, 28 de novembro de 2007

Jethro Tull – Benefit (70)

Clique para Download



Benefit was the album on which the Jethro Tull sound solidified around folk music, abandoning blues entirely.

Benefit was the album on which the Jethro Tull sound solidified around folk music, abandoning blues entirely.

Beginning with the opening number, "With You There to Help Me," Anderson adopts his now-familiar, slightly mournful folksinger/sage persona, with a rather sardonic outlook on life and the world; his acoustic guitar carries the melody, joined by Martin Barre's electric instrument for the crescendos.

This would be the model for much of the material on Aqualung and especially Thick as a Brick, although the acoustic/electric pairing would be executed more effectively on those albums.

Here the acoustic and electric instruments are merged somewhat better than they were on Stand Up (on which it sometimes seemed like Barre's solos were being played in a wholly different venue), and as needed, the electric guitars carry the melodies better than on previous albums.

Most of the songs on Benefit display pleasant, delectably folk-like melodies attached to downbeat, slightly gloomy, but dazzlingly complex lyrics, with Barre's guitar adding enough wattage to keep the hard rock listeners very interested.

"To Cry You a Song," "Son," and "For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me" all defined Tull's future sound: Barre's amp cranked up to ten (especially on "Son"), coming in above Anderson's acoustic strumming, a few unexpected changes in tempo, and Anderson spouting lyrics filled with dense, seemingly profound imagery and statements.

As on Stand Up, the group was still officially a quartet, with future member John Evan (whose John Evan Band had become the nucleus of Jethro Tull two years before) appearing as a guest on keyboards; his classical training proved essential to the expanding of the group's sound on the three albums to come.

Benefit was reissued in a remastered edition with bonus tracks at the end of 2001, which greatly improved the clarity of the playing and the richness of the sound; the four additional tracks are "Singing All Day," "Witch's Promise," the elegant, gossamer-textured "Just Trying to Be," and the smooth hard rocker "Teacher" — which had the first truly memorable guitar/flute riff in rock music (or Tull's output).

Written and recorded prior to Benefit, they're all lighter in mood than the material from the original album, adding some greater variety but fitting in perfectly on a stylistic level.

Beginning with the opening number, "With You There to Help Me," Anderson adopts his now-familiar, slightly mournful folksinger/sage persona, with a rather sardonic outlook on life and the world; his acoustic guitar carries the melody, joined by Martin Barre's electric instrument for the crescendos.

This would be the model for much of the material on Aqualung and especially Thick as a Brick, although the acoustic/electric pairing would be executed more effectively on those albums. Here the acoustic and electric instruments are merged somewhat better than they were on Stand Up (on which it sometimes seemed like Barre's solos were being played in a wholly different venue), and as needed, the electric guitars carry the melodies better than on previous albums.

Most of the songs on Benefit display pleasant, delectably folk-like melodies attached to downbeat, slightly gloomy, but dazzlingly complex lyrics, with Barre's guitar adding enough wattage to keep the hard rock listeners very interested.

"To Cry You a Song," "Son," and "For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me" all defined Tull's future sound: Barre's amp cranked up to ten (especially on "Son"), coming in above Anderson's acoustic strumming, a few unexpected changes in tempo, and Anderson spouting lyrics filled with dense, seemingly profound imagery and statements.

As on Stand Up, the group was still officially a quartet, with future member John Evan (whose John Evan Band had become the nucleus of Jethro Tull two years before) appearing as a guest on keyboards; his classical training proved essential to the expanding of the group's sound on the three albums to come.

Benefit was reissued in a remastered edition with bonus tracks at the end of 2001, which greatly improved the clarity of the playing and the richness of the sound; the four additional tracks are "Singing All Day," "Witch's Promise," the elegant, gossamer-textured "Just Trying to Be," and the smooth hard rocker "Teacher" — which had the first truly memorable guitar/flute riff in rock music (or Tull's output).

Written and recorded prior to Benefit, they're all lighter in mood than the material from the original album, adding some greater variety but fitting in perfectly on a stylistic level.

»«
Postado por às Nenhum comentário:
Marcadores: , ,

Heróis Da Resistência - Heróis Da Resistência

Clique para Download
«»
Em 86, com a vontade de cantar sua próprias canções, Leoni resolveu montar uma nova banda, “Heróis da Resistência”. Lançou três Lps e conquistou mais um disco de ouro.
«»
As canções “Só pro meu prazer” e “Double de corpo” se tornaram hits imediatos.
«»
Com o tempo, os objetivos artísticos do grupo passaram a divergir e o músico voltou para a estrada para iniciar sua carreira solo lançando em 93 “Leoni”, seu primeiro álbum produzido por Beni Borja .
«»
A música Garotos II se manteve por seis meses nas paradas de sucesso.
«»
O CD teve participação dos Heróis e de George Israel na faixa de abertura“ Nada como eu e você”.
«»
Postado por às Nenhum comentário:
Marcadores: , ,

Frank Zappa - Does Humor Belong In Music (86)

®
As Frank Zappa was focusing more on his computer and orchestral music in 1985-1986, he put together an album and a video of live material from his then-last tour from 1984.
®
Does Humor Belong in Music? was released in January 1986, in Europe and Japan only.
®
In 1995, Ryko issued it for the first time in the U.S. (a reissue for the rest of the world) with a thorough remix, new cover artwork, and a different edit of "Let's Move to Cleveland" (adding one extra minute). Asking the title question is answering it, at least when Zappa is concerned.
®
It expresses a way for him to get back at music critics who despised his stage antics and scatological humor in the early '80s — from a man who was trying to affirm himself as a "serious" composer.
®
The CD documented the 1984 band (Ray White, Ike Willis, Bobby Martin, Alan Zavod, Scott Thunes, and Chad Wackerman) for the first time.
®
Old songs from the '60s and '70s like "Trouble Every Day" and "Penguin in Bondage" are given a harder edge, while "Let's Move to Cleveland," "Hot-Plate Heaven at the Green Hotel," and the concert version of "What's New in Baltimore" got their premiere recording.
®
Because of Wackerman's electronic drums, the razor-edged guitar sound Zappa used at the time and his fiddling with digital recording techniques, the album sounds oddly lifeless, almost clinical.
®
It has its moments but is by no means an essential item.
®
The video and CD present different track lists.
®
Postado por às Nenhum comentário:

Arc Angels - Arc Angels (92)

Clique Aqui para Download


1 Living in a Dream
2 Paradise Café
3 Sent by Angels
4 Sweet Nadine
5 Good Time
6 See What Tomorrow Brings
7 Always Believed in You
8 The Famous Jane
9 Spanish Moon
10 Carry Me On
11 Shape I'm In
12 Too Many Ways to Fall
◄
◄
There are one-hit wonders throughout the history of music, but very few one-album wonders like the Arc Angels.
◄
After the death of blues-rock guitar hero Stevie Ray Vaughan, fellow singing guitarists, Texans, and Vaughan devotees Doyle Bramhall II and Charlie Sexton formed the quartet with Vaughan's rhythm section of bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton.
◄
Their 1992 debut release would also be their swan song, but the self-titled album would prove to be one of the best rock/pop/blues recordings of the decade as well.
◄
The opening "Living in a Dream" is the only tune Sexton and Bramhall II co-composed, and is perhaps the closest that the Arc Angels come to re-creating Vaughan's signature sound.
◄
"Paradise Cafe" is one of a handful of tracks Sexton co-wrote with pop composer Tonio K., but he and Bramhall II engage in some ZZ Top-like call-and-response vocals, and Bramhall II's Vaughan dedication, "Sent by Angels," features some of the album's most impassioned singing.
◄
Funky tunes like "Sweet Nadine," "Good Time," and "Carry Me On" lighten the mood, and Shannon, Layton, and guest keyboardist Ian McLagan play brilliantly throughout in setting up the singing guitarists.
◄
The spirit of Vaughan permeates the recording, from the production of Little Steven to the liner notes ("Dedicated to our friend, Stevie Ray Vaughan. We miss you"), yet never sounds forced, purposeful, or contrived. Alas, the final two songs — the rocking "Shape I'm In" and epic "Too Many Ways to Fall" — sport titles that point toward the Arc Angels being a Vaughan-like comet rather than a future veteran group. Sexton's solo recording career had started as a teenager; Bramhall II and his father Doyle Bramhall were friends of Vaughan's (the elder Bramhall even composing and co-composing tunes with the guitar giant).
◄
But the two frontmen who complemented each other so well nonetheless couldn't blend their egos as easily. Arc Angels stands as testimony that a band needn't have a long career to have a lasting legacy.
◄
Postado por às Nenhum comentário:
Marcadores: , ,

terça-feira, 27 de novembro de 2007

Frank Zappa - Hot Rats (69)

Clique Aqui para Download

.
.
Aside from the experimental side project Lumpy Gravy, Hot Rats was the first album Frank Zappa recorded as a solo artist sans the Mothers, though he continued to employ previous musical collaborators, most notably multi-instrumentalist Ian Underwood.
.
Other than another side project — the doo wop tribute Cruising With Ruben and the Jets — Hot Rats was also the first time Zappa focused his efforts in one general area, namely jazz-rock.
.
The result is a classic of the genre.
.
Hot Rats' genius lies in the way it fuses the compositional sophistication of jazz with rock's down-and-dirty attitude — there's a real looseness and grit to the three lengthy jams, and a surprising, wry elegance to the three shorter, tightly arranged numbers (particularly the sumptuous "Peaches en Regalia").
.
Perhaps the biggest revelation isn't the straightforward presentation, or the intricately shifting instrumental voices in Zappa's arrangements — it's his own virtuosity on the electric guitar, recorded during extended improvisational workouts for the first time here.
.
His wonderfully scuzzy, distorted tone is an especially good fit on "Willie the Pimp," with its greasy blues riffs and guest vocalist Captain Beefheart's Howlin' Wolf theatrics.
.
Elsewhere, his skill as a melodist was in full flower, whether dominating an entire piece or providing a memorable theme as a jumping-off point.
.
In addition to Underwood, the backing band featured contributions from Jean-Luc Ponty, Lowell George, and Don "Sugarcane" Harris, among others; still, Zappa is unquestionably the star of the show.
.
Hot Rats still sizzles; few albums originating on the rock side of jazz-rock fusion flowed so freely between both sides of the equation, or achieved such unwavering excitement and energy.
Postado por às Nenhum comentário:
Marcadores:

Duran Duran - Seven And The Ragged Tiger (83)

Despite the fact that Seven and the Ragged Tiger couldn't match the unrestrained pop/rock ebullience of 1982's Rio, Duran Duran put three of the album's singles in the Top Ten, taking it to number one in the U.K.
.
Even though "The Reflex" gave the band their first number one hit, there's an overabundance of fancy glitz and dancefloor flamboyancy running through it, unlike "New Moon on Monday"'s straight-ahead appeal or "Union of the Snake"'s mysterious, almost taboo flair.
.
It's apparent that Seven and the Ragged Tiger's content has the band moving ever so slightly into a danceclub arena, with the songs leaning more toward their ability to produce a sexier sound through electronics and instrumentation than through a firm lyrical and musical partnership.
.
Even the unreleased tracks trade Duran Duran's handsome edginess for a shinier sound, heard mainly on "I Take the Dice" and "Cracks in the Pavement." It's here that Lebon and Taylor's personalities begins to get overshadowed by the demand to produce a more synth-snazzy and fashionable style of music.
.
Although they may have turned their songwriting down a notch in order to succumb to the pabulum of synthesized pop, they didn't relinquish every aspect of their genius, and when they do deliver, it's bright, energetic, and effectual.
.
Duran Duran's new direction eventually gave Seven and the Ragged Tiger double platinum status.
Postado por às Nenhum comentário:
Marcadores:

Arrigo Barnabé - Tubarões Voadores (84)

Clique Aqui para Download

1 Tubarões voadores (Luiz Gê - Arrigo Barnabé)
2 Crotalus terrificus (Arrigo Barnabé - Paulinho da Viola)
3 Neide Manicure, pedicure (Paulo Barnabé - Arrigo Barnabé)
4 Kid Supérfluo, o consumidor implacável (Ricardo Porto - Arrigo Barnabé)
5 Papai não gostou (Bozo Barretti - Arrigo Barnabé)
6 A Europa curvou-se ante o Brasil (Bozo Barretti - Carlos Rennó - Arrigo Barnabé)
7 Lenda (Roberto Riberti - Hermelino Neder - Arrigo Barnabé - Eduardo Gudin)
8 Mística (Roberto Riberti - Arrigo Barnabé)
9 Mirante (Carlos Rennó - Arrigo Barnabé)
10 Canção do astronauta perdido (Arrigo Barnabé)
Postado por às Nenhum comentário:
Marcadores:

Arrigo Barnabe & Banda Sabor De Veneno - Clara Crocodilo (80)

Clique Aqui para Download


1 Acapulco drive-in
2 Orgasmo total
3 Diversões eletrônicas
4 Sabor de veneno
5 Infortúnio
6 Office-boy
7 Clara Crocodilo
8 Instante

Nascido no Paraná, estudou composição na Universidade de São Paulo, onde se tornou um dos líderes da vanguarda paulista, baseando seu trabalho na experimentação e demonstrando influências do dodecafonismo erudito.

Participou do Festival Universitário da TV Cultura nos anos 70 com "Diversões Eletrônicas" e em 1980 gravou o primeiro LP independente, "Clara Crocodilo" com o qual excursionou pelo Brasil acompanhado da banda Sabor de Veneno.

Seu segundo disco, "Tubarões Voadores", foi aclamado pela crítica.

Compôs para cinema e teatro, ganhando diversos prêmios, e participou como ator do filme "Cidade Oculta", para o qual compôs a trilha sonora.

Seu trabalho é eclético, mesclando a vanguarda da música erudita contemporânea com música pop e rock pesado.
Postado por às Nenhum comentário:
Marcadores:

Aerosmith - Rock In A Hard Place (82)

Clique Aqui para Download

1 Jailbait
2 Lightning Strikes
3 Bitch's Brew
4 Bolivian Ragamuffin
5 Cry Me a River
6 Prelude to Joanie
7 Joanie's Butterfly
8 Rock in a Hard Place (Cheshire Cat)
9 Jig Is Up
10 Push Comes to Shove

Rock in a Hard Place is the sound of Aerosmith at their most "out of it."

Not to say it's a horrible album by any means — in fact, there are more than a few pleasant surprises — but without the guitar team of Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, it didn't possess the magical chemistry of their '70s classics.

Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay filled in for the departed duo, and it turned out to be the group's most studio-enhanced and experimental record up to this point.

To keep up with the then-current musical climate, vocoders and synthesizers can be subtly detected, as heard on the space-age "Prelude to Joanie" and in the beginning to the otherwise tough rocker "Lightning Strikes," which served as the album's lone single/video.

"Jailbait," "Bitch's Brew," "Bolivian Ragamuffin," and the title track showed the band could still rock out despite their three-year layoff between albums, a cover of "Cry Me a River" showed their gentle side, while the psychedelicized "Joanie's Butterfly" was the album's surprise highlight. But it didn't take an expert to know that Aerosmith was not the same after the loss of the aforementioned members.

And so did the band, who welcomed Perry and Whitford back into its ranks two years after Rock in a Hard Place.
Postado por às Nenhum comentário:
Marcadores: , ,

segunda-feira, 26 de novembro de 2007

U2 - Joshua Tree (87)

---> Clique Aqui parta Download


Using the textured sonics of The Unforgettable Fire as a basis, U2 expanded those innovations by scaling back the songs to a personal setting and adding a grittier attack for its follow-up, The Joshua Tree.

It's a move that returns them to the sweeping, anthemic rock of War, but if War was an exploding political bomb, The Joshua Tree is a journey through its aftermath, trying to find sense and hope in the desperation. That means that even the anthems — the epic opener "Where the Streets Have No Name," the yearning "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" — have seeds of doubt within their soaring choruses, and those fears take root throughout the album, whether it's in the mournful sliding acoustic guitars of "Running to Stand Still," the surging "One Tree Hill," or the hypnotic elegy "Mothers of the Disappeared."

So it might seem a little ironic that U2 became superstars on the back of such a dark record, but their focus has never been clearer, nor has their music been catchier, than on The Joshua Tree.

Unexpectedly, U2 have also tempered their textural post-punk with American influences.

Not only are Bono's lyrics obsessed with America, but country and blues influences are heard throughout the record, and instead of using these as roots, they're used as ways to add texture to the music. With the uniformly excellent songs — only the clumsy, heavy rock and portentous lyrics of "Bullet the Blue Sky" fall flat — the result is a powerful, uncompromising record that became a hit due to its vision and its melody.

Never before have U2's big messages sounded so direct and personal.
Postado por às Nenhum comentário:
Marcadores: , ,

U2 - Achtung Baby (91)

---> Clique Aqui para Download

1 Zoo Station
2 Even Better Than the Real Thing
3 One
4 Until the End of the World
5 Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
6 So Cruel
7 The Fly
8 Mysterious Ways
9 Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World
10 Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
11 Acrobat
12 Love Is Blindness

Reinventions rarely come as thorough and effective as Achtung Baby, an album that completely changed U2's sound and style.

The crashing, unrecognizable distorted guitars that open "Zoo Station" are a clear signal that U2 have traded their Americana pretensions for postmodern, contemporary European music.

Drawing equally from Bowie's electronic, avant-garde explorations of the late '70s and the neo-psychedelic sounds of the thriving rave and Madchester club scenes of early-'90s England, Achtung Baby sounds vibrant and endlessly inventive.

Unlike their inspirations, U2 rarely experiment with song structures over the course of the album.

Instead, they use the thick dance beats, swirling guitars, layers of effects, and found sounds to break traditional songs out of their constraints, revealing the tortured emotional core of their songs with the hyper-loaded arrangements.

In such a dense musical setting, it isn't surprising that U2 have abandoned the political for the personal on Achtung Baby, since the music, even with its inviting rhythms, is more introspective than anthemic.

Bono has never been as emotionally naked as he is on Achtung Baby, creating a feverish nightmare of broken hearts and desperate loneliness; unlike other U2 albums, it's filled with sexual imagery, much of it quite disturbing, and it ends on a disquieting note.

Few bands as far into their career as U2 have recorded an album as adventurous or fulfilled their ambitions quite as successfully as they do on Achtung Baby, and the result is arguably their best album.
Postado por às Nenhum comentário:
Marcadores: , ,

U2 - Boy (80)

---> Clique Aqui para Download



From the outset, U2 went for the big message — every song on their debut album Boy sounds huge, with oceans of processed guitars cascading around Bono's impassioned wail.

It was an inspired combination of large, stadium-rock beats and post-punk textures. Without the Edge's echoed, ringing guitar, U2 would have sounded like a traditional hard rock band, since the rhythm section and Bono treat each song as an anthem.

Of course, that's the charm of Boy: all of its emotions are on the surface, delivered with optimistic, youthful self-belief, yet the unusual, distinctive guitar textures give it an unexpected tension that makes it an exhilarating debut.

The songs may occasionally show some weakness — the driving "I Will Follow," the dark "An Cat Dubh," and the shimmering "The Ocean" stand out among the sonic textures — yet the band's musical and lyrical vision keep Boy compelling until the finish.
Postado por às Nenhum comentário:
Marcadores: , ,

U2 - Rattle and Hum (88)

---> Clique Aqui para Download



Functioning as both the soundtrack to the group's disastrous feature-film documentary and as a tentative follow-up to their career-making blockbuster, Rattle and Hum is all over the place.

The live cuts lack the revelatory power of Under a Blood Red Sky and are undercut by heavy-handed performances and Bono's embarrassing stage patter; prefacing a leaden cover of "Helter Skelter" with "This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles, and now we're stealing it back" is bad enough, but it pales next to Bono's exhortation "OK, Edge, play the blues!" on the worthy, decidedly unbluesy "Silver and Gold."

Both comments reveal more than they intend — throughout the album, U2 sound paralyzed by their new status as "rock's most important band."

They react by attempting to boost their classic rock credibility.

They embrace American roots rock, something they ignored before.

Occasionally, these experiments work: "Desire" has an intoxicating Bo Diddley beat, "Angel of Harlem" is a punchy, sunny Stax-soul tribute, "When Loves Come to Town" is an endearingly awkward blues duet with B.B. King, and the Dylan collaboration "Love Rescue Me" is an overlooked minor bluesy gem.

However, these get swallowed up in the bluster of the live tracks, the misguided gospel interpretation of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and the shameful answer to John Lennon's searing confession "God," "God, Pt. 2."

A couple of affecting laments — the cascading "All I Want Is You" and "Heartland," which sounds like a Joshua Tree outtake — do slip out underneath the posturing, but Rattle and Hum is by far the least-focused record U2 ever made, and it's little wonder that they retreated for three years after its release to rethink their whole approach.
Postado por às Nenhum comentário:
Marcadores: , ,
Assinar: Postagens (Atom)