Notable Artists... III

Ok so it's time for a new post. Today I'm posting another in the "Notable Artists" series where I write about a group that may or may not be well known but that I think is worth a mention. This entry is all about a band called Maná. Maná began in 1987, but before that they were known under a different name and had a slightly different set of members. They sing in Spanish and originate from Mexico.

So the first time I heard Maná was about a year ago, I heard one or two tracks and later bought the album Arde El Cielo which was the album which my then (and current) favourite Maná track was from. My favourite song by this band is Arde El Cielo from the album of the same name. The music they play is a lovely blend of rock and Latin American music, a combination that works really well. I admit that I'm not an expert on the band, I only have the one album, but I plan to get more in the future. The problem is that most of the CDs have to be imported for sale in Britain, so that has an affect on the price tag. Anyway, I try to understand the lyrics as best I can (they're in Spanish) and I do ok, I'm picking up phrases here and there.

The album is really good, it's got a lot of great tracks, I'll try and translate names of songs where I can, but I may be wrong, I'll do my best. Some of the highlights for me are: Dejame Entrar, Clevado en un bar (Stuck in a Bar), Arde El Cielo (Burn the Sky). Most of the album (including the first two tracks listed in this paragraph) is live, Arde El Cielo and one other track are studio recordings. Overall it's a great album, and I enjoy the fact that it's from a different culture, it adds even more variance to my already varied music taste. I enjoy listening to music from other cultures; bands from other countries that I've mentioned include Rammstein the German Industrial Metal gods and The Fifth Ocean from Russia. Anyway, that just about wraps up this entry about Maná. I thoroughly recommend that you check them out, they're very famous so if you want to find out more they'll show up in a search engine. So this is goodbye for now, until next time which I will try to make fairly soon.

Cheers,

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Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly (Album): Review

You may remember I wrote an entry about albums that I was looking forward to, well now I have one of them, it came in the post today. The album in question is Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly's self titled album, his third album to date. The first two: Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager and Searching for the Hows and Whys are very good, although my favourite of the two is his first album, Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager. Anyway, I've been of fan of his (Sam Duckworth's) music for a few years now, and have seen him live once. So there's the background, onto the album.

The opening track is called Hand Me Downs, and it's perhaps my favourite track of the album. The song is very similar to a lot of the tracks from the first album, predominantly using an acoustic guitar and vocals and little else. This has turned out to be a great formula for Get Cape's tracks, the absence of too many other parts allows the listener to concentrate on the lyrics more.

Collapsing Cities is the second track of the album. It starts with a nice acoustic guitar line, soon to be joined by an electronic section comprising of (as far as I can tell): drums, bass, and trombone. The combination, while it may sound unusual, works well, I particularly like the use of trombones, they were used on tracks from his earlier work and they fit really well in my opinion. Overall it's a good track.

The third song; Nightlife, starts with an electronic feel, and this continues throughout the song. There's a really nice melody comprised from a xylophone and a trumpet which works really well.

All Of This Is Yours is the fourth track, and it features Baaba Maal. It has a cultural feel, especially in the intro. The song contains an interesting electric guitar line that has hints of funk music in my opinion. There's a trumpet line that's utterly brilliant, quite simple, but it works very well. It's quite a varied song, but this seems to be a good thing.

The next track; Queen for a Day has a indie/punk/rock feel to it, and has a faster pace than some of the other songs on the album. The lyrics to this song are nice, and are interspersed with instrumental fills. A good track.

The sixth track is All Falls Down starts with a few great lyrics (not that the rest aren't good, I just liked these in particular): "You, you only reap what you sow. Stick to the things that you know." It's a pretty solid track.

The next track is called Where Will You Stand?. It starts with a symphonic feel, and this continues throughout the song. The electronic elements added in this track fit in well with the calm atmospheric feel that the track has. I think this is a really nice song.


Stitch By Stitch (it took me so many attempts to type that for some reason, I must be tired) is the eighth track of the album. It's pretty good, I don't think it sticks out as one of the best of the album, but it's certainly very good. This track also contains Interlude which is actually very nice.

The ninth track on the album is called The Uprising (not to be confused with the Muse track of the same name), and it's brilliant. It's got a great tempo, and the way all the instruments fit together is fantastic. The way it switches between periods of loud and soft works really well, and the effects added are very well done. Another of my favourites from the album.

The penultimate song is The Plot is very similar to songs from the first album. The guitar line isn't too complicated, but sounds great all the same. The song has some really good lyrics, and the notes the vocals use work really well. This is surely one of the best songs of the album.

The final song from the album is Morning Light. It starts with a great acoustic guitar introduction. In fact the guitar throughout this piece (and all the other songs) is brilliant; Sam Duckworth is a very talented guitarist. It's a nice song to bring the album to a close.

Overall I think it's a great album. The vocals are well done, the guitar is tight, and the effects and electronic additions fit well with the other parts. The lyrics are clever and are delivered well. In terms of how it compares to the other two albums, I'd say that it's better than the second album; Searching For The Hows And Whys, but isn't quite as good as the first album; Chronicles Of A Bohemian Teenager. Still, it's a great piece of work.

I'll be back with a review of the new Skunk Anansie album Wonderlustre when I get hold of it, but I'm not sure when that will be. But I'll continue with other posts where I provide the usual musical nonsense I usually talk about. Thanks for reading, if you've read this whole post I applaud you, but if you've read some of it I applaud you anyway. Feel free to comment as usual, anyone else heard this album? Anyway, that's it for now.

Thanks,

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Songs from TV Shows... I

Before I start I will just clarify the title. This blog entry is not about TV show theme tunes, it's about songs featured within TV shows. For being featured in a big hit TV show can give instant fame to a band, because all the people who like the song on the show will then go and hit the "search" button on whatever search engine they use to find out what the song is. So I thought that I'd share a couple of tracks that I've heard on TV shows that I quite like.

The first song I'll mention, is I Hear The Bells by Mike Doughty, I won't elaborate on this too much because I've already mentioned it in the previous entry. Anyway, I first heard it when I caught an episode of Grey's Anatomy, but I didn't really pick up on the song at that time. I happened to see the same episode a while later and heard the song, and instantly it was in my head. I found out the name of it not too long later.

Another song, in fact I heard this song first out of the three I believe, is Dreaming of You by The Coral. It featured in an episode of Scrubs and like I hear the Bells it was only when I saw the episode for a second time that I searched the track afterwards. It's a great song, I have the album that it's from; their self titled debut album The Coral. It's a very addictive song in my opinion (in hindsight it could well have been included in the previous entry about songs that I've been addicted to, but what can you do?), and it has some great lyrics. An example of a really clever line from the song and probably my favourite is:

"When I'm down and my hands are tied,
I cannot reach a pen for me to draw the line."

So it's a great song with some great lyrics, really worth a listen, although it may not be to everybody's taste, but that's the same with every song ever written, there will always be somebody that doesn't like it.

The final track I'll mention in this post is Now We Can See by The Thermals. I only recently searched this track despite having seen the episode it was on many times. The TV show it was on is one of my favourites, so I've seen the episode a fair few times. Anyway, it has a really addictive intro, but I still haven't decided how much I like the song, it may be a while before I know how much I like the track as a whole, but it's interesting anyway. If you're interested the TV show I saw it on was Chuck.

Well that's just about it for now, I'll be back soon with a review of Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly's new album (I pre-ordered it today, it's out tomorrow), and I have another blog entry planned for a review of the new Skunk Anansie album. There'll be other stuff but I'm not entirely sure what yet. Anyway, take care, and feel free to comment as usual.

Thanks,

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