It's the music that we choose

Well it's only been like five minutes since my last entry, but I'm still nowhere near sleep. Sooooooooo, I figured I'd do some music reviews/recommendations to pass some more time.

Marilyn Manson - The Golden Age of Grotesque: My hopes for this one was that it would at least be better than the last album(Holy Wood), and with the addition of Skold from KMFDM on bass and coproducing, that was pretty much a guarantee. I was also hoping for a new direction. From each album to the next(until Holy Wood), Manson's sound has changed and they've experimented and grown as a band. Holy Wood, however, was a step back from Mechanical Animals to Antichrist Superstar that seemed to me like they didn't know what to do so they thought "why not remake our biggest album?". This new one is different than those two, but not enough to be really great. The music is rockin' and you can hear Skold's influence, but it's still kind of "been there, heard that". What's more, Mr. Manson seems to be running out of decent lyrics, as this disc is chock full of onomotopoea(sp?) like "kaboom kaboom", "bang bang!", and "doll-dagg-buzz-buzz-ziggity-zag"...and if you know what that last one means, please contact your nearest psychiatrist ASAP.

Blur - Think Tank: Damon Albarn is the man. Has he ever done a bad album? Every Blur disc so far has been great, the Gorillaz are amazing(see below), and he's even scored at least one film a few years back: the wonderfully twisted Ravenous. The new Blur album sounds halfway between Parklife and the Gorillaz disc, with a dose of eastern influence thrown in...and it's great! I'm loving it more with each listen and I listen to it pretty much every day. Oh and Fatboy Slim produced two tracks, but the results are better than you'd think...and this is coming from a Fatboy fan, so there:P

Abandoned Pools - Humanistic: I think this one came out about two years ago. I only heard of them from Clone High(they do the theme song and appear in the last episode). This is the kind of rock music I usually don't like. It could be described as whiny I guess, or the kind of post-alternative alternative rock that could show up at end of a teen sex comedy...but dammit, I like it a lot.

boy these reviews are getting shorter, eh?

It's Tha Joint - Illaphilla's Classic Hiphop Mixtape: A compilation I made of late 80's-early 90's rap, including Tribe Called Quest's "Scenario", Blacksheep's "This or That?", "Regulate" by Nate Dogg and Warren G, "Rock the Bells" and "Mamma Said Knock You Out" by LL Cool J, and a host of Dre and Snoop songs. It just won't leave my player...let me know if you want a copy:)

I think I'm getting tired now, so here's a few more quick recommendations before bed:
Placebo - Sleeping With Ghosts
Spacemonkeyz vs. Gorillaz - Laika Come Home
Various Artists - More Music From 8 Mile
LoFidelity Allstars - Don't Be Afraid of Love
2 Many DJ's - As Heard on Radio Soulwax pt. 2
Cowboy Bebop - Music for Freelance Remixes
Radiohead - Hail to the Thief demos
DJ Green Lantern - Shady Records Mixtape Vol. 1 and 2 these have some great tracks from Em, 50, D12, Obie Trice and others that don't appear on any commercial releases. Look for em on Kazaa.

send me some music recommendations foks!