Artist name: R.E.M.
Album name: Accelerate
Label: Warner Bros
Gender: Rock/Alternative
Release date: April 1, 2008
ZMErating: 9/10
Website: www.remhq.com

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I used to love R.E.M.! Despite the fact that I never bought that ‘best band in the whole world’ crap, they were good; they were more than good, they were fantastic! They just brought this positive energy that was just captivating. Then they turned really political and stuff and so the past three albums dispelled some of their charm. But now, with this return to the roots they managed to clear of the rust from their guitar chords and manage to release something that’s actually good. But it’s kinda short, at just under 35 minutes. It’s very energetic and politically charged, with pretty much obvious lyrics such as ‘if the storm doesn’t kill me the government will’, and it’s like a cold shower on a not so sunny day.

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Artist name: The Black Keys
Album name: Attack & Release
Label: Nonesuch
Gender: Blues Rock/Garage Rock
Release date: April 1, 2008
ZMErating: 9/10
Website: www.theblackkeys.com

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The Akron duo has always startled me as being terribly underrated, by the general public, considering their immense potential and talent. Sadly, timing wasn’t on their side. If you take a small trip down memory lane you’ll find that The Black Keys first started being active, round the same time another garage rock duo was gaining popularity, the now notorious White Stripes. Apparently the world’s not big enough to house two power duo’s, but while Jack and Meg have constantly experimented with their sound from recordc to record, The Black Keys have been content enough with their bluesy/garage rock sound. For four long albums the band has leaved their sound formula untouched, which although very tight and solid, could feel very repetitive and dull. On their latest effort, however, The Black Keys have finally managed to innovate and experiment with their vibe, through additional instrumentation and of course one of the best displays of production I have ever set my ears on. This is „Attack & Release.”

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Judas Priest’s much-anticipated new album, “Nostradamus” will be released in Germany on June 13 via Sony/BMG, on June 15 in the rest of Europe and June 17 in North America. It promises to be really something; aside from the music it will be delivered in a ewel case, as a deluxe digibook and as a special box set containing the new album on three LPs, a 48-page book and a poster.

But fans are concerned more about the music, as they should be. Asked whether the album will include “full-on-assault” tracks like “Painkiller” or if it will stick to the more classic Judas Priest style that Priest had on “Angel Of Retribution”, Judas Priests’ singer Rob Halford said:

“Well, I think, you know, I think it’s always important to remember that the Priest in all of the years that we’ve been together, we’ve been very determined to give each record its own definition, and identity,” he replied. “As you know, we’re into double digits now since ‘Rocka Rolla’ all the way through to ‘Angel Of Retribution’, all the hundreds and hundreds of songs that we’ve released, you know. I guess the other thing is in terms of what we try to stand for is that we really avoid repetition. And that’s an easy thing to fall into when you have a commercially successful record in terms of record sales and recognition, as ‘Painkiller’ was for us. But, I mean, you listen to ‘Angel Of Retribution’, and I think it’s a very powerful, strong record, with a lot of the great elements that we all love about Judas Priest. So, you know, I think your feelings are one that would be expressed by millions of Priest fans around the world, you know. Everybody is very passionate about everything that we’ve ever done. There’s always an eagerness to maybe refocus on some of your favorite moments. But we just leave that there. It’s in the great breadth of things that we’ve achieved in that three decades plus of making heavy metal. We’re just excited now to be focused on the present endeavor of ‘Nostradamus’.”

They’re also going on a tour which will include epic shows in which they will perform the entire Nostradamus album (!), as well as their more classic songs. Judas Priest is strongly rumored to be teaming up with Heaven And Hell, Motörhead and Testament for a U.S. tour this summer.

Artist name: Tristan Prettyman
Album name: Hello…x
Label: Virgin
Gender: Acoustic Rock
Release date: April 15, 2008
ZMErating: 9/10
Website: www.tristanprettyman.com

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I have been dying to review this album because I am such a big fan and I’ve been waiting for this release for eons, so pardon me if this review gets slightly biased. Hello…x is Tristan’s 2^nd studio album, following twentythree, which was released in 2005. When I got this album it’s not been released anywhere else, only in Japan and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. After 3 whole years, the music has changed very much, the previous album was more of an easy listening, beach-y and surfing type of music, while Hello….x has evolved into a much more bluesy and soulful sound, adding a little a dash of rock and country here and there.

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Artist name: The Raconteurs
Album name: Consolers of the Lonely
Label: Warner Bros. Records
Gender: Alternative/Blues
Release date: March 25, 2008
ZMErating: 9/10
Website: www.theraconteurs.com

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Two years ago Jack White announced his latest side project, The Raconteurs, with a bang, after the group’s debut record “Broken Boy Soldiers” was very well received. Partly, of course, because of White Stripes‘ high notoriety and cult like following. Now, the band has reached record number two in the form of “Consolers of the Lonely.” First off, I think it’s better you try to erase any preconceptions and previous notions of The Raconteurs from your head, as this sophomore release is significantly more different then anything they’ve put out before. Broken Boy Soldiers had a set sound that carried though the entire listen, which although was great and catchy, tended to get highly repetitive after a while, Consolers however is so beautifully diverse, packed with tons of different kind of tunes from 70’s classic blues, to garage rock, to pretty pop.

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Artist name: Counting Crows
Album name: Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings
Label: Geffen
Gender: Folk Rock
Release date: March 25, 2008
ZMErating: 10/10
Website: www.countingcrows.com

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Well boys ‘n’ girls it’s here! Don’t know if you were expecting it, but I certainly eagerly awaited their return. Without further ado, I’ll just get right into it and tell you about it. First of all, the name struck me; could it be related in any way with the novel with an almost similar title, written by Alan Sillitoe. Probably not, doesn’t matter anyway, it’s just interesting if you ask me. It’s fresh, original, and shows that they still have ideas. The good thing is that it resembles the Foos album In Your Honor; the bad thing is that well… it resembles In Your Honor.

Here’s Adam’s claim on it:

“Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings is the story of what happens when all the bright lights start to burn instead of glitter and you become more of a part of the shadow they cast behind you than the person you are in front. Produced in two parts by Gil Norton & Brian Deck, it’s about a flood of sin and liquor and dissolution and insanity and it’s about trying to rebuild the life you wrecked in the wake of that flood. It’s about the way it feels. It’s about me. It’s a Counting Crows album. We’re back. We were only ever as far gone as you can go.”

The thing is that it’s really easy to agree and to relate to him; the big life is tough. Keeping your head high and holding your breath amidst all these delusions is really tough;and it must be really really hard to strip down to your very core and expose yourself and make music and lyrics in this way.

The album is divided into two parts. The first part (the Saturday nights) is just surprisingly fast, heavy and scrappy… it’s great! A terrific reminder of their early days
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Artist name: Yael Naim
Album name: Yael Naim
Label: Tôt ou tardAtlantic
Gender: Pop
Release date: March 18, 2008
ZMErating: 7/10
Website: www.yaelweb.com

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There’s been a entire frenzy lately with Apple’s latest gadget: the Macbook Air and as it’s almost always the case with Apple ads, the artists featured on them get a heck load of attention. Yael Naim, untill now a anonymous French/Israeli singer, is the latest artists to have one of her songs featured on one of Steve Jobs’ ads, as her now notorious “New Hope” became the soundtrack for the official Macbook Air ad, joining the likes of Feist, Jet, CSS or even Bob Dylan, who’ve already had a taste of the benefits that come with mainstream advertisement. And if you’ve found the 30 second ad quite delightful, you’re in for a treat my friend. Wait till you hear the whole thing, meaning Yael’s entire self-titled sophomore album.

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Artist name: Ludo
Album name: You’re Awful, I Love You
Label: Island
Gender: Power Pop
Release date: February 26, 2008
ZMErating: 7/10
Website: www.ludorock.com

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The St. Louis power pop quintet have been gaining a lot of ground lately, getting more and more airing space on the radio, increasing their fan base day to day and of course gaining a lot of exposure on music blogs. In a nutshell Ludo could be described as a Queen/Weezer’s bastard son, or well daughter depending how you look at it. It’s that somewhat unique mixture of Freddy Mercury’s flair and Rivers Cuomo’s humor, that makes the band an awesome power pop act. “You’re Awful, I Love You,” follow-up to their previous “Broken Bride” EP, is Ludo’s third album and the band’s first major label debut via Island Records.

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Artist name: Nine Inch Nails
Album name: Ghosts
Label: The Null Corporation
Gender: Industrial Rock
Release date: March 2, 2008
ZMErating: 5/10
Website: www.nin.com

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Well boys and girls, it’s here! Since it was announced, we’ve all been (more or less) eagerly expecting it, and now it finally reached us. The new ‘groundbreaking’ album from Nine Inch Nails hit the shelves servers and… well… it sucks! Let’s shed some light, first: I gave it a 5 because it promotes an idea worth fighting for, striking the record labels where it hurts! For that, brave music warriors, you’ll never get below 5. But the music… it’s not rock, it’s not pop, it’s the modern electronic way of playing african tunes; oh, and it’s just instrumental.Being released under the blue, in circumstances that remind us oh so much of Radiohead, I was expecting it to be about as good as In Rainbows. Wrong again! It’s so redundant and shallow, without anything that makes you want to listen to the end of the songs; it’s hard to say that it’s music as a matter of fact. But fear not, NIN!

There are people who will love it!The hardcore fans will be pleased, as well as the teenage girls that have a crush on Trent, and oh yeah there’s gonna be that group of people that don’t get it, but they’re never going to admit that they don’t get it, so they’ll just say it rocks.But this album, aside from the aforementioned, lacks coherency. One moment it sounds really loud and noizy, the next it’s all quiet. There’s one track in which you actually have to wait about a minute and a half before you get the first note. At first, I thought I got the wrong thing. Also, it’s way too redundant to make it appealing, and although it’s intented to sound as jazz improvisation at some times or Noize at others, if you ignore all the effects and fancy stuff, it’s quite mediocre. If you ignore them, you get the sound of a decent guitarist warming up and maybe trying to improvize some licks. At some point, it sounds as if a cow is grazing instead of music.

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Artist name: The OaKs
Album name: Songs For Waiting
Label: Self-Released
Gender: Indie/Folk
Release date: March 3, 2008
ZMErating: 8/10
Website: www.oakstheband.com

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Passion and meaning have somewhat started to fade away in today’s music, particularly in the more lyrically prominent scenes like folk and indie. The Oaks however, a Florida based band founded by college mates Ryan Costello and Matthew Antolick, are a different story, with potent lyrics, that convey a powerful message, as well as a great display of skillful musicianship. Much of their songs are centered around war and  man’s auto-destructive nature, themes influenced by Ryan Costello’s two-year stay in post 9-11 Afghanistan, which led to the duo’s debut album conception. Now after expanding The Oaks to a six piece band, the group follows the same style and direction on their sophomore release “Songs For Waiting,” but with a much higher degree in sound quality and vibe.

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