Review Music That Other People Gave You

Antonio · 07-01-2009, 04:48 PM

now i know there most people here take great care and pride in choosing their albums and music, but there are those times when someone gives you a CD, asking you to check out a group or an artist and you say "eh, what the hell?".

well in this thread what we do is take a piece of music that was given to you by someone, whether it be a friend/family member, aquaintance, or someone here, and review it. it can be good or bad, i'd like to see your opinions on this kind of stuff.

i'll start:

Ozzy Osbourne-Blizzard of Ozz

i got this from one of my high school friends a few years ago, one of those "Omg Randy RHOADS!!" guys who sh*ts himself off the riff to Crazy Train. well i expected to only mildly enjoy this at best, but this album is just great. not only was it one hell of a breakout for Ozzy Osbourne, as i said before this is the definative release for ex-Quiet Riot axman Randy Rhoads. he tears up the fretboard, but in a good way. he also shows a bit of clssical training in his 40 second piece "Dee". It's worth saying that this is a truly enjoyable album and that it shouldn't be written off as a great deal of wankery and self inflatedness. This is something that deserves a listen from everyone.

8/10

Favorite Tracks: Crazy Train, Goodbye to Romance, Dee, Mr. Crowley

Antonio · 07-01-2009, 10:37 PM

23 views and no replies? you guys make me sick.

Megadead2 · 07-01-2009, 10:40 PM

This is an interesting idea. My girlfriend gave me a Trans-Siberian Orchestra album as a Christmas/birthday present (they're in the same week) last year, I may review that in this thread.

Antonio · 07-03-2009, 08:16 AM

c'mon guys, i'd like to see someone else try this

Megadead2 · 07-03-2009, 03:00 PM

OK HERE YOU GO

Artist: Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Album: Beethoven's Last Night
Year: 2000
Genre: Rock
Styles: Progressive metal, rock opera
Rating: 6/10

I received this CD as a Christmas gift from my girlfriend last year, but as it is not the sort of album I would normally have sought out I never gave it much of a proper listen. Now, however, I have decided to give TSO's music a closer listen. Founded in 1996 by three musicians who had previously worked together in power-metal act Savatage, the band became famous for a "Carol of the Bells"-for-guitar-heroes hit called "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" which still remains part of the canon of gimmicky-but-fun holiday-season pop songs alongside "Jinglebell Rock", "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" and the like. Since 1999 the band has also been known for their over-the-top stage spectacle, a feast-for-the-eyes setup of pyrotechnics, lasers, and pretty much anything else the producers can get their hands on.

Beethoven's Last Night is the band's only album not based on Christmas music, instead based on "arrangements" of the music of Ludwig van Beethoven formed into an epic rock-opera telling a fantastical fictional story about the composer's....well, last night. I use the term arrangements loosely because the final result resembles the source material only through small motifs (mainly famous excerpts from pieces like the "Moonlight Sonata" and the Ninth Symphony, along with, oddly, some Mozart and Rimsky-Korsakov as well). Except "Fur Elise", which is, in fact "Fur Elise", these are new songs with some familiar melodies, not painstaking adaptations.

The songs are a mix of heavy metal--of the melodic persuasion, complete with palm-muted riffing, wailing leads, pinch harmonics, and the like--and power ballads of the sort you might hear on FM classic rock radio. This is not music of Beethoven caliber, with subtlety, ambiguity, and elaborate design--but then, no one is really expecting that from a TSO album anyway. I do, however, feels that it is rather weak, for several reasons. The main problem here is that, like most arena rock, at 73 minutes it is a tiring affair. Many bands think that if you strum one epic power chord per measure, each power chord an epic circle-of-fifths jump from the previous, while a vocalist hits really notes and sings something that can't quite be called a melody above you, you will sound epic. In reality, though, you will sound tedious. This is why ballads like "After the Fall" fail. The vocals in general have a precious, overwrought cheesy faux-operatic feel ("cheesiness" is pretty much central to this album's nature), and the lyrics are ultra-Romantic important-sounding silliness with words like "prattle" thrown in to manufacture a nineteenth-century atmosphere. The orchestral synths are of a very bad and campy 1980s quality. The snare drum sound is annoying, and the use of the low end of the piano as a bass is dubious. Classical motifs are thrown in when they make no sense, with no connection to what has just happened in the music (the way "A Last Illuision" jumps from "Flight of the Bumblebee" to "Ode to Joy" is the biggest example). Most importantly, the obviousness of the whole affair is quite grating.

But despite all these flaws, I don't actually hate or even dislike it. The point here is to recapture a childlike innocence and wonder, and while it often fails, the effort is admirable. If you listen to it purely emotionally, abandoing all reservations about tackiness, kitchiness, tastelessness, and silliness, there is quite a bit of fun material here--"Requeim (9th Symphony)" is very catchy with its hard-rock riffs, as is "Vienna" with its '80s synth beat. This is not great music or art, but that doesn't mean it is bad entertainment. In fact, at times it's even beautiful.

07-03-2009, 03:00 PM	#5 (permalink)
Megadead2 Music Addict Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 68	OK HERE YOU GO Artist: Trans-Siberian Orchestra Album: Beethoven's Last Night Year: 2000 Genre: Rock Styles: Progressive metal, rock opera Rating: 6/10 I received this CD as a Christmas gift from my girlfriend last year, but as it is not the sort of album I would normally have sought out I never gave it much of a proper listen. Now, however, I have decided to give TSO's music a closer listen. Founded in 1996 by three musicians who had previously worked together in power-metal act Savatage, the band became famous for a "Carol of the Bells"-for-guitar-heroes hit called "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" which still remains part of the canon of gimmicky-but-fun holiday-season pop songs alongside "Jinglebell Rock", "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" and the like. Since 1999 the band has also been known for their over-the-top stage spectacle, a feast-for-the-eyes setup of pyrotechnics, lasers, and pretty much anything else the producers can get their hands on. Beethoven's Last Night is the band's only album not based on Christmas music, instead based on "arrangements" of the music of Ludwig van Beethoven formed into an epic rock-opera telling a fantastical fictional story about the composer's....well, last night. I use the term arrangements loosely because the final result resembles the source material only through small motifs (mainly famous excerpts from pieces like the "Moonlight Sonata" and the Ninth Symphony, along with, oddly, some Mozart and Rimsky-Korsakov as well). Except "Fur Elise", which is, in fact "Fur Elise", these are new songs with some familiar melodies, not painstaking adaptations. The songs are a mix of heavy metal--of the melodic persuasion, complete with palm-muted riffing, wailing leads, pinch harmonics, and the like--and power ballads of the sort you might hear on FM classic rock radio. This is not music of Beethoven caliber, with subtlety, ambiguity, and elaborate design--but then, no one is really expecting that from a TSO album anyway. I do, however, feels that it is rather weak, for several reasons. The main problem here is that, like most arena rock, at 73 minutes it is a tiring affair. Many bands think that if you strum one epic power chord per measure, each power chord an epic circle-of-fifths jump from the previous, while a vocalist hits really notes and sings something that can't quite be called a melody above you, you will sound epic. In reality, though, you will sound tedious. This is why ballads like "After the Fall" fail. The vocals in general have a precious, overwrought cheesy faux-operatic feel ("cheesiness" is pretty much central to this album's nature), and the lyrics are ultra-Romantic important-sounding silliness with words like "prattle" thrown in to manufacture a nineteenth-century atmosphere. The orchestral synths are of a very bad and campy 1980s quality. The snare drum sound is annoying, and the use of the low end of the piano as a bass is dubious. Classical motifs are thrown in when they make no sense, with no connection to what has just happened in the music (the way "A Last Illuision" jumps from "Flight of the Bumblebee" to "Ode to Joy" is the biggest example). Most importantly, the obviousness of the whole affair is quite grating. But despite all these flaws, I don't actually hate or even dislike it. The point here is to recapture a childlike innocence and wonder, and while it often fails, the effort is admirable. If you listen to it purely emotionally, abandoing all reservations about tackiness, kitchiness, tastelessness, and silliness, there is quite a bit of fun material here--"Requeim (9th Symphony)" is very catchy with its hard-rock riffs, as is "Vienna" with its '80s synth beat. This is not great music or art, but that doesn't mean it is bad entertainment. In fact, at times it's even beautiful. __________________ My RYM Profile My Last.fm Last edited by Megadead2; 07-03-2009 at 03:06 PM.

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07-01-2009, 10:40 PM	#3 (permalink)
Megadead2 Music Addict Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 68	This is an interesting idea. My girlfriend gave me a Trans-Siberian Orchestra album as a Christmas/birthday present (they're in the same week) last year, I may review that in this thread.