Rock,
acoustic artists resemble retro mood, sound
By Toby Lewis
On-line Forty-Niner
Go
Kart Go: Flying
The
first word that comes to mind when listening
to Go Kart Go’s “Flying” is average. The
songs are loaded with catchy guitars and
melodic vocals.
The band tends to get a bit loose at times,
but for the most part they keep it in the
pocket.
Listening to this band is hard without respect
for their particular product of rock music,
but on the whole it is average.
Towards the end of the album, the songs
tend to run together. I think this album
would work great as background music while
vacuuming your car. C
Benna:
What’s Meant to Be
At first listen I thought this album was
a little cheesy, but the more I heard, the
more it grew on me.
You have to appreciate this CD for its acoustic
qualities. Benna’s songs are catchy and
melodic, the elements that pop music should
be.
Benna plays acoustic guitar very well and
uses some pretty interesting vocal harmonies.
The vocals in some songs remind of the band
Lush.
Many of the songs on this artist’s third
release have a kind of retro ’80s Love and
Rocket’s feel, but with a lot more pop.
B-
Longwave:
The Strangest Things
The first track on this CD left me wondering
which band the members of this band were
fans of more as kids: The Cure of Tears
for Fears.
Is the music of the ’80s really starting
to comeback? Actually, this band sounds
like they are trying to blend the sound
of U2 in their early years with an attempt
to capture a modern pop sound.
If you were or are a fan of the old MTV
show 120 Minutes, you may appreciate this
CD. This band definitely does not sound
like they are trying to help a movement
go forward.
They seem to be trying to bring a movement
back. What I do not think this band realizes,
though, is that you can never be as good
as the original. C
Vonray:
Self-Titled
This band walks a fine line between soft
rock and hard rock but tends to lean a little
more towards hard.
The only problem I have with this band is
that I have heard it all before. The album
does tend to grow on you the more you listen
to it.
The songs get into your head and the band
uses some interesting melodies and song
structure that keep it from becoming torture
to listen to.
If Ben Harper was white and only cared about
success by selling millions of albums, this
is probably what he would sound like.
Some songs do have a kind of soul-folk feeling,
but the pop outweighs the soul on this one!
C+
Placebo:
Sleeping With Ghosts
I was very impressed by the choice of this
band to put an instrumental song as the
lead song on this bands fourth album.
What they may lack in originality they make
up in energy. The band is fairly original
in the way they blend ’80s style pop rock
with late ’90s popular rock.
The music has energy while at the same time
maintaining enough melody to satisfy the
average pop music fan.
Placebo is very big in their home country
of England. They have sold over 3 million
records and have three top-ten albums in
the United Kingdom. B
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