You get this, what I’ve been listening to lately…in short:
Ani DiFranco - Red Letter Year: Her best album since 2003’s Evolve, has a strong focus on her jazz influences - as have most of her recent albums - but still makes room for a couple of tracks of her signature guitar work. Her vocals come through clean and clear, and the album is nicely varied - with some slow tracks and some upbeat ones. Fortunately, Red Letter Year is saved from the overproduction that has plagued her last couple of releases - really allowing her songwriting, which is wonderful as always, to shine through. 9.5/10
Amanda Rogers - Heartwood: By far her best album yet album yet, every track is simply a joy to listen to combining quality songwriting, Amanda’s pretty but never bland vocals, skillful piano, and sensible guitars and strings that never overpower the rest of the music. It’s simply a triumph of “indie pop” music, and definitely one of this year’s absolute must listen albums. Strongly recommended to anyone who doesn’t mind their music a bit on the lighter side, and anyone who is a fan of Rogers’ previous releases should love it. 10/10
Metallica - Death Magnetic: Quite simply, Metallica produced a great album for the first time in more than a decade. Complete with memorable riffs, intense solos, and silly lyrics - it’s a Metallica album alright. Hetfield’s vocals take on the more clean and melodic approach that was used in recent albums, but other than that this is pure late 80’s Metallica born again. You can occasionally hear parts that are a bit similar to other songs in their repetoire, but the same could be said of most band that have been around as long - so I’m really not going to fault them for it, especially since you’d probably not notice unless you were really looking. Somewhat interestingly, they manage to sound a bit like Dream Theater on Cyanide, or rather - to sound like Dream Theater did when trying to sound like Metallica, and are obviously taking a strong influence from Slayer in My Apocalypse - the only truly weak track of the album, but I’ve never been a Slayer fan either. The strongest points of the album are The Unforgiven III, probably the most melodic track on the album - but still having a healthy energy to it, and The Judas Kiss, which includes a speed metal solo almost reminiscent of DragonForce. This album has to be everything Metallica fans were looking for, and if they think it isn’t - they’re just being even more whiny and irritating than they already were. Death Magnetic stands as a great, if not revolutionary, album - and easily the finest Metallica release since And Justice For All. 9/10
And more…but I have homework to do, so that’ll have to wait for another post.
