Jack White Lazaretto (2014) Genre: Alternative Pop/Rock, Blues Rock, Country Rock, Folk Rock, Funk Rock

Jack White

Lazaretto (2014)

Genre:  Alternative Pop/Rock, Blues Rock, Country Rock, Folk Rock, Funk Rock

I have allways

been really interested in Jack White’s career he’s part of a very small elite that pushes the limits of what you can do in rock, constantly pushing the envelope and nailing it each time. Rock is far from dead with guys like Jack pumping out records. Now let’s talk about this record, it funny that in all the descriptions that I have found about this record none of them mentions how funk influenced this album is, funk rock is very present and I love it.

                                                                                     

Vocals and Lyrics: Jack does a great job in this department and I love how uses female backing vocals in creative ways. 9

Instrumentation:                    

Guitar: Jack does plenty of his trade mark crazy guitar solos; it’s freaking cool how he constantly uses vintage guitar pedals in innovative ways.    

The other guys on the album: The musicians that he brings on board, bring a lot to the table; the instrumentation to this album is really good. 8.2

Melody and/or Structure: In both cases he does some really interesting stuff. 10 

Sound, Production and Feeling: This album is probably in sound and production the most interesting album to come out in 2014. 10

Songs: Every song on this album just kicks butt 11

The Bad:  

                                                                                                                         

Originality: in my opinion  this is Jack Whites definitive album I can’t find anything I don’t like about, but what I like the most even though Jack finds his inspiration in old school rock this album sound super fresh and innovative. 10

Overall: 58.2

Nine Inch Nails Hesitation Marks (2014) Genre: Industrial Rock, Electronic, Alternative Rock

Nine Inch Nails

Hesitation Marks (2014)

Genre: Industrial Rock, Electronic, Alternative Rock  

I had high expectations for this album, it was  Reznor’s Industrial Metal comeback; Trent had been exploring his softer and esoteric side in other projects outside of Nine Inch Nails like working with Atticus Ross on the Social Network sound track and on the How to Destroy Angels ( which I liked a lot). So it was finally time to rock out for  Trent in a NIN a NIN album, boy o boy was I wrong.  

                                                                                     

Vocals and Lyrics: Lyrically and vocally he repeats tons of stuff that we’ve have already heard on previous albums, the song “Copy of a Copy” sounds a little bit autobiographical. 6

Instrumentation:                    

Guitar: Adrain Belew Ex King Crimson plays on the majority of the tracks and it’s a real let down that his participation in each song is pretty limited, I can’t believe how under used this guy is on this album. Lindsey Buckingham ex member Fleetwood Mac  also plays on a few tracks.

Bass: Now in this case Pino Palladino (John Mayer Trio, Jeff Beck , Adele…) actually gets to step into the spotlight,  he has a killer bass line in “All Time Low” that has weird funky groove, it’s probably one of the most original tracks on the album.

Drums: There is only one track with live drums; on the the rest of the album Trent uses drum machines, sapping most of the energy out of the production..   

Keyboards: You can hear cool stuff here and there 6.95

Melody and/or Structure: It’s weird to say that some of Trents songs are getting a little too predictable lately they seem to follow the same formula over and over again. 6

Sound, Production and Feeling: Look its NIN, the album sound and production are  always going to be top notch, and the general dark and somber mood is pretty well done 10

Songs: Even though this album is a letdown it does have a couple of really good tracks 11

The Bad:  This album sages a little too much, there are moments that it gets boring. -2

                                                                                                                         

Originality: Trent just revisits too many old concepts there  is nothing new on this album. In my opinion NIN should stay as Trent’s Rock project and he should make a more  band oriented album next time 7

Overall: 45.95

Foo Fighters album review Sonic Highways (2014) Genre: Hard Rock, Post Grunge, Alternative Rock, Pop Rock

Foo Fighters

Sonic Highways (2014)

Genre: Hard Rock, Post Grunge, Alternative Rock, Pop Rock  

If you are a music nerd like me you'll really appreciate this project, but you must see the documentary series that has the same name made by Grohl to really understand what Dave trying to do on this  fantastic album, in many ways its similar to Dave's Sound City Project.  

                                 

Vocals and Lyrics: Dave Grohl, does an OK job but vocally and lyrically none of the songs really stand out, that's what I thought till I saw the Sonic High the documentary, and I discovered how personal the lyrics are to Grohl,  the songs have tons of references about the history of the music of the places that Dave visits, for example on one of the songs Dave makes a couple of references to Gary Clark Jr. and if you didn't see the episode of Sonic Highways about Austin Texas, this it just flys right past you.10

Instrumentation:                                                                

Guitar:  Smear and Shiflett guitar playing is one of more interesting aspects of the album, their playing has a more of a Rock and Roll feeling, which is refreshing.Gary Clark Jr. is one of the guest guitar players with Rick Nielsen from Cheap Trick and Joe Walsh from the Eagles

Bass: Nate Mendel, is one of the most uninteresting bass players in rock, his playing is as basic as they come.

Drums: Taylor is a solid rock drummer, his executions flawless. 7.5

Melody and/or Structure: Grolh knows how to make great songs.  10

Sound, Production and Feeling: The production of Mr. Vig leans on adding extra musicians to add to the songs making them sound bigger and more epic at moments. Now after watching the doc series I want to kill Vig the A-hole instead of taking advantage of the sound of each of the special places that they used to record  the album, he just used his standardized style of mixing, what a wasted opportunity. 8

Songs: It's good from front to back 8

                                                                                                                         

Originality: Fascinating project a real treat for music nerds like myself. 10 

Overall:53.5

Hey guys are your opinions on this album; I love comments good and bad.