24 Hour Project

[YI]

Okay, I've got fuck all to do tomorrow. I haven't got enough dollar to go anywhere...so fuck it...I'm having a solid 24-hour music-a-thon.

Yeah, just gonna keep my arse awake for 24 hours and listen to as many albums as possible/review them in here.

Will take requests...although...only if I can be arsed...so request away if you want anything 'reviewed' (I doubt these reviews will be great once I get tired ).

And we're underway...with album #1 - "All Killer No Filler" by Sum 41.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Canadian indie wank time, review "Random Spirit Lover" by Sunset Rubdown.

[Lowerdeck]

Got any Drive-By Truckers?

[YI]

My internet is being the biggest cunt ever at the minute...I'll download it again once it starts working properly, so you might to wait a few hours for it.

And no Lowerdeck, but I'll try and get some when my internet stops being a dick...I've been trying to post this for like 10-minutes.

Edited September 16, 2009 by YI

[YI]

#1 - "ALL KILLER NO FILLER" by SUM 41 [2001]

This album means so, so much to me. I have so many teenage memories tied up in this thing (school trip to France ) it's impossible for me not to love it. 2001 was the summer of pop-punk; Blink, Sum 41, Offspring, American Hi-Fi, Alien Ant Farm, Sugarcult etc. all getting serious airplay. It was also the summer of that "Do You Really Like It? Is It, Is It Wicked?" song!

I can't particularly remember masses of the summer, but I remember I spent half the nights downstairs, awake all night, flicking between "The Magic Roundabout" (which I remember distinctly was on until 5am) on the Cartoon Network and the various music channels that I had at my disposal. Things were changing. Earlier in the school year the kids in Blink 182 hoodies were "Goffs" suddenly shit like that was everywhere and the band that 'spoke to me' the most was Sum 41.

When I say 'spoke to me'...I think it was more I had their CD at my disposal. This was long before the days I became the music nerd I am now and get hold of full albums, for the likes of Blink/AAF/Offspring I'd grab a few singles from Kazaa and that was that, but Sum 41 I had myself a full CD, ripped from a friend. Over the years he was very good to me this friend, musically. I remember off the top of my head getting copies of the self-titled "Killswitch Engage" record from him, "Land Of The Free?" by Pennywise, a couple of 4ft Fingers records (still can't listen to them without thinking about him...not in a gay way...just they were his favourite band ) "Infiltrate.Destroy.Rebuild" by CKY and a little something called "Twisted By Design" by a 'little band' called Strung Out...the fact that he lived with my ex-girlfriend for 2-years and has basically disappeared off the face of the planet (I think I heard he's living in Coventry now...which is fucking random to say the least) is all 'forgiven' for the fact he introduced me to Strung Out.

Now enough of my stupid ramblings. Sum 41 fucking rock(ed). Seriously, the tunes on here hold up so well, it's ridiculous. For a 'perfect', mainstream pop-punk record everyone seems to flock towards "Enema Of The State", and rightfully so, it's absolutely bitching. But the songs on here seem to have so much character, a bit more about them, Sum 41, while still not straying far from the basic formula seem much more happy to try different things. From the fast and furious, borderline hardcore stylings of "Never Wake Up", the hip-hop twinge in "Fat Lip" and I love "Heart Attack", purely for it lures you into thinking it's your token "shitty slow ending song" and then it kicks you right in the bollocks.

In fact, there's only one thing that turns me off about this album..."Motivation". I've never been able to get away with it. The fact it's positioned slap bang in the middle of two of my favourite songs on the album "Rhythms" (which along with "Summer" are two of the most perfect straight up pop-punk tracks ever written) and "In Too Deep" does nothing to help it either.

One of my favourite albums ever and if I go into it, try and block out everything I associate with it, the songs still shine through as absolutely perfect songs that are in a class of their own and have so much character in comparison to other bands in the field. From here things didn't go so great for Sum 41. The 2nd album, whilst having moments of fleeting brilliance was for the most part horifically bland, the 3rd showed fantastic promise with the darker edge and some incredible tracks ("No Reason", "Pieces", "Angels With Dirty Faces", "The Bitter End" etc.) but losing all ethnic minorities from the band hit them hard as the 4th album is one of the most disgusting albums I've ever listened to and the band should be rounded up and prosecuted for their crimes against the C-G-Am-F chordal pattern.

BEST SONGS: "Rhythms", "Summer", "In Too Deep", "Crazy Amanda Bunkface" and "Fat Lip"

RATING: 9(.5 on a good day)/10...about as perfect as a pop-punk album can be...if only it was one song shorter.

HOO FUCKING RAY!!!!!

Yeah;

#2 - "The 4th Sign" by CJ Bolland

#3 - "Discovery" by Daft Punk

Edited September 16, 2009 by YI

[Dingle]

Anything by Sunn O))))) ¬_¬

[YI]

Anything by Sunn O))))) ¬_¬

Oh you can fuck off.

Still, might go see them in December.

[Dingle]

get on msn.

But a review of Sunn O)))) is what the people want!

[King Ellis]

Tightrope by Stephanie McIntosh

[YI]

get on msn.

But a review of Sunn O)))) is what the people want!

MSN still wont let me on...internet is fucking pissing me off.

[YI]

#2 - "THE 4TH SIGN" by CJ BOLLAND [1992]

CJ Bolland is 'technically' a local artist...well he's not, but he was born in Stockton...but moved to Belgium when 3-year old...so yeah, not a local artist in any way shape or form. But whatever. It's getting late. I wanted a bit of dance music on the go. And well, seeing as this is an opportunity to ram a good artist people may not have heard of down your throat, I'm going to take it.

CJ Bolland achieved a smidge of success in 1996 where his song "Sugar Is Sweeter" topped some USA dance chart. The song itself sounds supiciously like Aphex Twin. But that's not on here so it's not particularly of importance. In all honestly, this is one of the better IDM albums I have ever heard. You will see me rant and rave about how in IDM the producers/DJ's seem to forget that the word "Dance" is in there. yeah, those tape effects are clever, it sounds cool...but when the things lacking any form of groove or beat, so there's no possible way you could move in time to it, they're just taking the fucking piss. With Bolland, at least on this record, you don't have to worry about that in the slightest. A great blend of techno in there providing some truly memorable hooks in songs that are so, so, so ahead of their time.

For example, you've got tracks like "Camargue" which would so easily fit alongside the late 90's tracks from mainstream artists such as The Wamdue Project and Love Inc. There's great tunes that follow similar patterns and basslines to the 'full-on'/psytrance trend of the past few years. Hell, even "Nightbreed" shows hints towards the 'off-tone' kind of stabby melodies that have recently taken pride of place in big songs for 'big' dance acts like MSTRKRFT and Bodyrox.

When you compare this to say the earlier work of Richard D James and The Prodigy (yeah obvious choices, but my knowledge of artists in this area isn't the best) this has aged fantastically well. All the songs are exciting, production wise they still sound good (a little 'thin', but still good). The tracks all have their own individual feeling and sound, but still come together perfectly as a unit, as an album as a whole. And thankfully there's a very distinct groove and often beat in all of the songs. FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC!

BEST SONGS: "Thrust", "Pendulum", "Camargue" and "Nightbreed"

RATING: 8.5/10 - Way ahead of its time musically IMO, sound wise it's good and has aged pretty well, although some of the songs drag a little bit, but that's an argument that can be made for every artist in the genre

#3 - "Discovery" by Daft Punk

#4 - "Hot Fuss" by The Killers

Edited September 16, 2009 by YI

[Dan]

You should get some sleep man.

After you do Hot Fuss (Y)

[YI]

...reviews going slow...Jouzy is providing a distraction with hilarious anecdotes.

#5 - "Box Car Racer" by Box Car Racer

I might go to bed...I didn't do this concept right, I should have started you know...after going to bed. FUck it, I'll still review 24 hours of music tho.

Edited September 16, 2009 by YI

[Hellfire]

Just continue now. I want to read your reviews at the end, when you're hallucinating and the shit you are writing becomes even more ridiculous. As for albums, I'll throw a guilty pleasure of mine with "The Inevitability of a Strange World" by Halifax. I'm kinda interested in hearing what you'd say about it.

[TheRossWalker]

Frankmusik - Complete Me

Because I want to see how you review someone you pimped heavily after all the best bits were removed in the studio.

[YI]

Okay...got about 5 hours kip, been listening to some shit this morning...think I'll just continue on now for the time I have left. Need to do reviews for;

#3 - "Discovery" by Daft Punk

#4 - "Hot Fuss" by The Killers

#5 - "Box Car Racer" by Box Car Racer

-------------------------------------

#6 - "Evacuate The Dancefloor" by Cascada

#7 - "Out Of The Blue" by Electric Light Orchestra

#8 - "Dog Problems" by The Format

#9 (Current) - "Four Minute Mile" by The Get Up Kids (was the first thing on my MP3 player when I made breakfast/continuing it on on my PC)

I'm not sure whether to try and start the 24 hours from Cascada again or not.

Going to start nailing requests next, Sunset Rubdown and Frankmusik first.

[YI]

#3 - "DISCOVERY" by DAFT PUNK [2001]

Touted by some as quite possibly the best dance album ever, it's hard to disagree. First of all you've got the amazing pop-song styled singles, "One More Time" and "Digital Love" which are one of those fantastic blend of songs that both get people on their feet to scream their lungs out at karaoke and to dance like complete and utter pricks on the dancefloor, something that is missing in a lot of dance music these days.

I could go on and on listing the high points of this album, but because I'm a cunt, I'm going to focus on things that annoy me about it for the time being. "Aerodynamic", there's no denying the opening riff is absolutely fucking insane. But Jesus Christ, stick to a fucking concept. The jumping around, the fact the song doesn't segue has always annoyed the ever loving shit out of me. "Too Long" is exactly what it says on the tin...and actually...fuck it...that's about it, besides "Veridis Quo" being a bit cheap and rubbish. But yeah...that's it.

From the crescendo-ing "Superheroes", the cool "Harder Better Faster" to the funky as hell "Voyager" and "High Life"...and lets not forget the laid back "Something About Us", which sounds like a computer singing an early Jamiroquai song. A great deal of variation on an absolutely tremendous feel good album. And almost definitely the definitive dance record of the last decade. The hooks are just out of this world.

Also Halloween this year, me and a mate will be going out as Daft Punk...we wanted to do it last year, but time/budget was against us.

BEST SONGS: "One More Time", "Superheroes", "Crescendolls", "High Life" and "Something About Us"

RATING: 9/10 - such an amazing album, killer hooks with only a few blips in there that bring it down

Edited September 16, 2009 by YI

[Blue Rosler]

Requests

Shaggy - Hot Shot

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Amadou & Mariam - Welcome to Mali

Noah & The Whale

Jamie Lidell - Jim

[YI]

#4 - "HOT FUSS" by THE KILLERS [2004]

Oh man, The Killers. I've had the pleasure of seeing The Killers twice. Once, must have been around 2004/2005 in York, shortly after the release of "Hot Fuss" and the second time headlining Leeds Festival in 2008. Both shows were worlds apart, the two bands that played seemed very different, but were united by the fact of regardless of what you think of them, they really did throw themselves headfirst into their performances. In the years between the shows The Killers have become a global phenomenan, Brandon Flowers has been outed as one of the worlds biggest knobjocks and for some hilarious reason the band decided to market their 2nd album by all deciding to grow facial hair, which varied from hideous to an awesome 'keep him away from your kids' beard from the drummer.

"Hot Fuss" falls very neatly into what is called the Jimmy Eat World category. Where half of the album is absolutely stunning and the other half is so dull and drab that it makes you want to throw lit matches into your ears to burn away the pain. It doesn't fall quite as neatly as "Futures" does, where the first 5 or so songs are good, the next 5 are the devils work, but it's pretty close. The first half of the album is populated with the singles and fantastic opener "Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine" really sets the scene well. After the first 5-tracks you may be fooled into thinking that this is going to be one bloody AMAZING album, the tunes are catchy, albeit with some hilarious lyrics like "I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier", "Somebody told me, you have a boyfriend who looks like a girlfriend"...and that's even before you try to actually figure out WHAT THE FUCK THE CHORUS TO "MR BRIGHTSIDE" ACTUALLY FUCKING MEANS!

But yeah, things take a pretty fucking big nosedive from here on out. "Andy, You're A Star" sounds like a song written by a comprehensive school band/early Babyshambles without the charm. "On Top" attempts to save things with a really nice opening synth riff. It's got quite a catchy chorus too, but unlike the songs in the first half, it does just feel like an afterthought. The next three are terrible, with the only redeeming feature being the cool as fuck bassline in "Midnight Show". Then there's the closer "Everything Will Be Alright"...which, I don't think I actually normally make it to when I listen to this album...because I actually really liked it. Sounds more like an early Aqueduct or a Long Winters song. The droning synths and the effects on the vocals, really cool. Nice song. But yeah, the songs on the 2nd half of the album really seem like afterthought, basically, "We need more songs to release an album".

Oh, while I'm here. Lets talk about re-releasing singles. Okay, that's fair enough. BUT DID YOU HAVE TO FUCK WITH THE MR BRIGHTSIDE VIDEO!?!?!! I don't want no shitty fucking 'period drama', presented in colours which are way too bright. I want the original video, you know the one that looks like a peeping tom staring into a woman's bedroom window using a kaleidoscope. Yeah, awesome video.

BEST SONGS: "Mr Brightside", "Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine", "Somebody Told Me", "Smile Like You Mean It" and "All These Things That I've Done"

RATING: 6/10 - a lot of memorable singles, really tails off after the first 5-songs, where there's only a couple of 'acceptable' tracks...still the strength of that opening still makes it an above moderate album

#5 - "Box Car Racer" by Box Car Racer

-------------------------------------

#6 - "Evacuate The Dancefloor" by Cascada

#7 - "Out Of The Blue" by Electric Light Orchestra

#8 - "Dog Problems" by The Format

#9 - "Four Minute Mile" by The Get Up Kids

#10 - "Random Spirit Lover" by Sunset Rubdown

#11 - "Complete Me" by Frankmusik

Edited September 16, 2009 by YI

[YI]

Bah the concept took another hit, the girlfriend came round for a bit before she has to go to work...so yeah, had about an hour and a half of listening to nothing...I don't know whether to just bail out of this at this point.

#5 - "BOX CAR RACER" by BOX CAR RACER [2002]

There was a time when I absolutely adored this album. It was weird, because it came along very much as I'd started the transition to more 'underground' punk-rock (I say 'underground', for the most part they were still big bands to be fair) and was basically stuck in the mentality of "Blink 182 are overrated and gay". Something which later came back to haunt me when seeing them live, because as I 'liked them the least', I had to take out a mate who was in danger of fainting and missed "Dysentery Gary".

But yeah, Blink were far from my favourite band at the time, but for some reason I really dug this. I first caught the video to "There Is" when some random pop-punk band were on Gonzo and pimping the hell out of it, it wasn't until a little bit later that I realised it was Tom Delonge. Now, I love Tom Delonge. Bollocks to what people say, yes he's a complete and utter jeb-end, his voice is terrible and a lot of the time his songs are 'obvious', but he's fucking hilarious. Fuck Kanye West, Tom Delonge is a billion times better, Delonge has CONFIRMED he will change the world through his music in 30 years, he's put a fucking timeframe on it, Kanye's just empty shells of promises, he's NOTHING!

When Blink broke up there was one thing that never added up for me. Mark and Travis claimed that Tom basically put nothing forward/wrote very little towards the self-titled album...if that's the case, how come it sound so much like Box Car Racer!?!?! Unless of course, Travis Barker secretly wrote the two albums. Fuck even "Easy Target" has the same kind of 'awkward chorus that doesn't fit the rest of the song' that "All Systems Go" on here has.

Okay, I should really talk about the songs themselves. There is little hints towards A&A in here. The verse of "Watch The World" for example could easily be spliced into an Angels song, in fact a lot of the choruses could be, it's just they tend to build into big ROCK style choruses. "Cat Like Thief" is a standout track, featuring guest vocals from Tim Armstong of Rancid/The Transplants etc. Well I presume it's Tim Armstrong, it could just be some random Latino who's had a stroke.

Yeah, it's a concept album and all that as well. The guy kills himself. Yeah, I'm bored of reviewing this...seeing as like I'm like a shitload of albums behind, I'll just finish this up. It's actually really quite good. A few dud tracks and Tom Delonge 'cringe' moments. But stands up alongside the first A&A album as good Delonge efforts.

BEST SONGS: "Letters To God", "Cat Like Thief", "And I", "There Is" and "I Feel So"

RATING: 7.5/10 - a good album with a handful of great tracks. While there's a few I can't get away with and a pointless instrumental, it's a far from harmless album with about 8/9 songs that I really enjoy