The TV Tropes Album Exchange Club

Track 8 wouldn't download, for whatever reason.

What's the specific problem? I tried it just now, and it worked fine.

edited 14th Sep '10 4:26:37 PM by Lordnecronus

I dunno, it just didn't show up in Windows Media Player.

The download worked fine for me as well. Try downloading it again Spain? I've listened to it all once now though I wasn't completely focused on it.

I'll try again in a sec.

As for the rest of the album, I can't say I was impressed, it seemed like they couldn't decide if they wanted to do RAAAWWWR METAL or Pink Floyd's more spacey stuff. I liked the atmospheric instrumentals, but I hate hate hate the singer, he's an annoying, generic, metal growl singer. On a whole, 4/10

I'm sure someone disagrees with me.

edited 14th Sep '10 5:38:46 PM by SpainSun

I meant to comment on this before, but forgot:

I suggest Relient K - Forget and Not Slow Down. It's not religous so no one should feel uncomfortable. Most of the album is break-up songs.

I think my next suggestion is going to be something really religious.

I may suggest a Gospel album at some point, and I'm very irreligious. So yeah, no connection between listening to Christian music and actual faith as far as I'm concerned, it's more of a cultural piece to me.

Denying religious music is denying the first several thousand years of music.

Anyway will check out this thread later.

But albums didn't exist several thousand years ago. D:

I don't think anyone is denying religious music here, tho'.

They still had written music...

But anyway I like church music so I may be a bit defensive and uh this is pointless go back to your exchanging

I agree with you....

I'll give it a listen tomorrow, most likely.

As for the rest of the album, I can't say I was impressed, it seemed like they couldn't decide if they wanted to do RAAAWWWR METAL or Pink Floyd's more spacey stuff. I liked the atmospheric instrumentals, but I hate hate hate the singer, he's an annoying, generic, metal growl singer. On a whole, 4/10

I'm sure someone disagrees with me.

*bursts into tears*

I did have a feeling you'd be put off by the vocals. This is probably the inverse of your view, but I personally find that the vocals work best when they're full-on growling; at the time, Johan Edlund (the vocalist, and main member of the band) was making a transition from death growls to clean singing, so his cleans are quite weak. He did eventually improve, though.

The two big flaws in the album for me are that the clean singing is quite weak, and that "A Pocket Size Sun" gets a bit dull at times (and since it's the last track on the album, it makes Wildhoney feel anti-climactic). Aside from that, it's one of my favourite albums OF ALL TIME. But, yeah, it definitely won't appeal to everyone, mainly due to the mixture of two seemingly-at-odds genres (which, as you said, can come across as the band not being able to decide what they want to play).

It's good for what it is. I've never been a huge fan of the "chug chugga chugga chugga" guitars or the death growls, but yeah, it's still quite good. It's definitely far from a typical metal album.

...yeah, not really a fan, gotta say. Don't care for the growls or the clean vocals. Some of the instrumental bits were kind of interesting but overall I'm not really feeling it. =/ I'd rather just go listen to a psych or prog rock album.

edited 15th Sep '10 10:59:22 AM by Zudak

I've listened to it all the way through once...It wasn't a terribly in depth listening where that was all I was focusing one. I must make one of those before the three days are up...

I don't seem to love it to death, but it is helping cure my aversion to most if not all things metal though. Must listen to more and develop stronger opinion thing.

Summary of thoughts after one listen through:

Track 1 - Sure it's mostly just atmospheric sound effects, but I like those, so thumbs up.
Track 2 - Ooh, this is going quite well too, maybe this won't be as bad as I first thoooOOHHH GOD THE VOCALS. I could have coped with screaming to an extent, but death growls apparently don't sit well with me. Guitars aren't bad though.
Tracks 3 & 4 - must admit these drifted past me a little, though I don't remember disliking them. Must do better on next listen.
Track 5 - SYNTH STRINGS? NOOO! Why would you do that to an otherwise not-too-bad track?
Track 6 - Another one that kinda drifted by. I think I thought it was okay.
Track 7 - Okay, so it's only 1:20, but it's quite beautiful. By far the best thing on the album as of yet.
Track 8 - Scratch that. This wins. I actually, genuinely really like this one. Things are looking up!
Track 9 - Another good one, I likes my instrumentals and this does not disappoint.
Track 10 - Surprisingly subdued, and the female vocals lend a bit of variety to proceedings. Another track I actually really like. However it's a bit disappointing that the track kinda trundles to a close, when I was expecting it to thunder, like a prog-metal equivalent of Mew's Comforting Sounds.

In summary - Starts surprisingly subdued, track 2 vocals kill the atmosphere slightly dead for me. First half didn't really do anything for me, but the second half is a vast improvement, with things really picking up on Kaleidoscope. Best track - Do You Dream Of Me?. Worst - Gaia, just because synth strings.

I need to listen to it again to figure out what happens in tracks 3, 4 and 6, and also to get a grip on the lyrical content (no idea what's going on there). Will post again when I've done so and possibly revised my opinions.

Okay, first impressions after one listen. I am somebody who appreciates metal even if I'm not a metal head, so I'm not going to be turned off by metal growls like others who aren't used to those kind of vocals or just don't like them.

This album does make a good first impression. I would have liked it if the guitars came in more subtly but the chord progression that they came up with was interesting enough. There was a slight dissonance to it that drew me a bit. There were a few other places during the album where I was drawn in, but then fell back after feeling it wasn't going anywhere.

I think that's my main complaint with most of the tracks. There isn't enough large scale change for me to feel like there's a good sense of progression, but there are too many big changes for it to be good minimalism. The large changes meant that I wasn't able to appreciate the smaller changes that were happening in the repetitive segments. I heard a few of them, but I wasn't able to appreciate them.

By the third track, I found myself wishing for a new tempo. The same tempo was pretty much sustained throughout the album, although there were a few points that at least felt like something fresh. After the instrumental piece, "Gaia" felt like it broke the tempo a bit. It helped also that they were playing around with time signature in that track, just a bit. However, I feel they could have gotten everything they wanted to say out in that track in four minutes rather than the six they use.

The strongest track for me was definitely "Do You Dream of Me?" because that one felt like there was a sense of progression. The guitar parts moved, they went through chord progressions in a more organic manner. I kind of wish that the track picked up a bit more at the halfway mark. Either commit fully to picking up or deny the audience completely. It felt like they kind of did it halfway.

The guitar solos were.. Kind of average, really. I don't really think they added much to the track. I'm not sure if I would have liked them to be more structured or more chaotic.

The vocals didn't bug me at all. I've heard singers deviate much more from normal singing.

As for the instrumental tracks:

• Wildhoney: Good, but would have liked the guitars to sneak in more, as I said.
• 25th Floor: Did not appeal to me.
• Kaleidoscope: Decent
• Planets: Seemed promising but didn't go anywhere.

I'm going to give it a couple more listens to see if I warm up to it, but as it stands, I don't think I'm adding it to my collection.

I listened once through and it didn't make much impression. Not bad, though. I'll listen again tomorrow and pay more attention.

"Wildhoney": Too in-between. Was this supposed to be a song proper, or to just serve as a brief album intro?

"Whatever That Hurts": Pretty good. I like the poundy drums in the metal bits.

"The Ar": Dig those ethereal choir vocals and the synths backing the rough vocals. Nice, tempo switchup halfway through. Oh, it was just a breakdown.

"25th Floor": Again, more an interlude than a song.

"Gaia": Everyone else complained about the synth-strings, but I think they actually work when that ethereal choir is singing over them.

Actually, is that "ethereal choir" actual flesh-and-blood people, or is that samples or a keyboard? I've heard songs before that used a mellotron to add ominous chanting when no choir was available.

"Visionaire": I feel nothing. Wait, the bridge is pretty cool.

"Kaleidoscope": Hey, this instrumental is actually a song.

"Do You Dream of Me?": Pleasant, then the bridge happens and the song is suddenly cool.

"Planets": It's metal IN SPACE! Likey.

"A Pocket Size Sun": Starts off too low-key, but I like the second half with the odd instrumental noodling.

Okay, about the vocals: I like some metal and some rough vocals, but I'm by no means a connoisseur of either. So this is just my opinion, but the guy's rough vocals do nothing for me.

FINAL VERDICT: I'll give this another listen before I decide whether to keep it or not.

Whose album is up next?

Aaaaaah I forgot to listen to it all the way.

After another listen my judgement is less harsh. I still feel they didn't take proper advantage of the materials they had.

Rats, didn't get a chance to listen to this a second time because I spent all of yesterday moving my stuff back into my house at uni >_<

Oh well, 3 days is up. The next album is...

...*drumroll*...

Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass.

Reposting this Grooveshark playlist from Wicked's original post for convenience.

Get lis'nin', yo!

Oh dear...I missed the deadline for making my comments. I'll try to keep to schedule better with this next album. I'll post my thoughts anyway. Better late then never after all.

Now then...You mentioned that the tracks segue into each other. This is one thing I rather liked about the album. I've always been fond of songs that segue to the next seamlessly like that. It did lead to that nice "Oh what am I listening to now...Holy crap the album is almost done..." feeling when I look at what's currently playing. That will likely go away never to return if I listen to it enough though. I can enjoy that feeling until then though so...

The vocalist I like. I prefer him when he isn't growling though. Growling isn't my favorite thing. I don't hate the growling or even particularly dislike it. I like it somewhat, but it's not really my thing.

I like Wild Honey, but it's so short and I keep thinking it's part of Whatever That Hurts. I am fond of the change half way through The Ar. I prefer it over the first half of it. 25th Floor I like. Gaia I don't care for much either way really...

It has improved my view of metal. I must research this genre thing more...

Now to the next album.

edited 17th Sep '10 1:43:02 PM by Aondeug

*pokes head in*

1. Ooh, this is rap. Don't generally like rap. Still, pretty good. Kind of weird, and the Title Drop was kind of gratuitous, but pretty good.
2. This is quite good. I mean, title song and all, but still.
3. Hmm... a little talklike at the beginning. Improves a little after a while, but not much. Aaand back to talky. Yeah, don't like this one that much. (Does get better as it goes, though)
4. Starts a little dissonant. In fact, stays a little dissonant. Probably the point of the song, but I don't like it much. Again, gets a little better near the end, but that's probably only because I'm used to it after it gets past the second chorus.
5. Ooh, starts with a guitar. Good. In fact this one generally starts better than the last two. Little slow. Not bad. Was not expecting the "object at rest" bits, but I guess I should by now. Still pretty good song.
6. Starts okay. Still pretty decent. Not much strong opinion on this one.
7. Is that it a metal growl? No, it's not a growl. Starts kind of slow other then that, but gets pretty good as soon as it really starts. Staying pretty good so far.
8. Pretty okay so far. Like some of the stuff going on in the background in this one. Yeah, this is good.
9. Do not like the trombone this starts with. Generally don't like how this starts. Okay, got better. Pretty average for this. In fact, beginning to notice that most of these sound pretty similar. Hopefully it's not just me.
10. Ooh, comes on pretty fast. Sorta like the background on this one too; it makes it a little more distinct from the last few. And it's slowed down quite a bit. It seems to be commenting on its own slowness now, heh. And there it goes again. I think I llke this one.
11. Starts with a better trombone than a few songs ago. I like it again, but now the similarity of everything to everything else is starting to annoy me. Like the guitar in the background here.
12. A little slower than the others. Speed of the lyrics and the background stuff are the only differences I'm noticing between any two tracks, which is kind of not that much for me. Still like the occasionally background guitars.
13. Okay, this one is a bit different. Not bad.
14. Starts weird, oh wow that was a weird transition. Little funky again, like 4 was. Little farther along now: if they had this chick to sing for this whole album, why's she only singing now? Could've stopped a lot of the monotony. Now big empty space. Pigs seems to be a little dissonant again. Now kazoo. Now it's over.

In general pretty good, but kind of samey.

Also, sorry if it sounded like I am a rap newb, because I am a rap newb.

edited 17th Sep '10 3:33:21 PM by BlackHumor

^ Sup! Seen as you're here, why not recommend an album for the rest of us to listen to? I mean, I guess it's not compulsory but that's how the album club rolls .