Reviews of music
Hello all! Welcome to the first (and hopefully not last) installment of Play It By Ear, a bi-weekly weekly column where every two weeks week I discuss my thoughts on a different video game’s soundtrack. You can see the list … Continue reading Play It By Ear #1 – Dustforce
Pen! started listening to The Zolas in 2019 during a rough and extended emotional slog through not-yet-resolved heartache, his former manager having shared with him one of the songs, Get Dark, off this very record, expressing his bafflement over the … Continue reading Record Reviews with Pen!
The fourth in the remixed and augmented Beatles albums to be released, Revolver almost didn’t happen. There were two reasons. First, so much of the instrumentation had been recorded onto single tracks live, that it was thought to be impossible … Continue reading Did I Tell You I Need You: Revolver Super Deluxe Edition Album Review
Powerage, or: Bon Scott done got a broken heart Powerage occupies a funny spot in AC/DC’s discography. It’s the one before Highway to Hell, the band’s commercial breakthrough(ish) and maximum power, and after Let There Be Rock, and altogether far, … Continue reading Record reviews (with Pen!) rides into the sunset
One of the stranger hits of the Eighties was a song by the band named Stars on 45[footnote]Starsound in the UK and Ireland; later Stars On.[/footnote]. 45s, you may remember, were vinyl singles with one tune on each side, Sides … Continue reading The Day Thread Celebrates Stars on 45
Flick of the Switch, or: Brian Johnson vs. Women I’m doing this for my own sake, for my own sake in terms of getting AC/DC out of my system. This is Flick of the Switch. AC/DC, riding high off three … Continue reading Record Reviews with Pen! (week three)
Welcome, comrades, to another edition of Record Reviews (with Pen!), a semi-regular column in which I review whatever the hell I’ve been listening to semi-recently. – Fly on the Wall, or: (indiscernible Brian Johnson squealing) The year is 1985, AC/DC … Continue reading Record Reviews (with Pen!) this week
The Darkness – Motorheart, or: Late in the game goodness Relegated by the greater public to One Hit Wonder status, The Darkness have been steadily releasing albums almost all of which outdo their initial blow-up, Permission to Land, itself a … Continue reading Record Reviews with Pen!
This review brought to you by: Me being a silly boy and volunteering right when my schedule blew itself up. It’s not 6 months late, it’s 6 months early from a self-imposed 2023 deadline that I totally didn’t make up … Continue reading Music Review: trentemøller – No More Kissing In The Rain
Composer Will Bates probably isn’t a household name, but his music has most likely been in your house at one time or another. With 71 credits over the last 12 years, Bates has done music for multiple television programs and … Continue reading Review: Far Cry 6 – Vaas: Insanity (Original Game Soundtrack)
This review brought to you by: someone asking the site mods to give it a listen and then having the mods put out an open call. Is it already time for mid-to-late 2010’s throwback music? And, weirder still, can it … Continue reading Music Review: Agnes – Magic Still Exists
Back in 2006, when I was running a coffee roasting company, we had a giant 100-disc CD player (Yeah, yeah, we had an actual physical CD player. Shut up) that everybody contributed albums and mixtapes and what-have-you to. There was … Continue reading Wax Tailor- “The Shadow of Their Suns”
The first song from Nashville-based pop artist Eulene’s upcoming self-titled EP, “Working On A Train”, wastes no time in setting its mood, opening with a snippet of “This Old Hammer Killed John Henry”. The John Henry motif is further established … Continue reading Music Review: “Working On A Train”, by Eulene
Reviewed: David Bowie – “Heroes” / OutKast – Hey Ya! / The Kinks – You Really Got Me / Prince and the Revolution – When Doves Cry / Little Richard – Tutti Fruitti Continue reading Quisterflaang’s Canon #026-030
Reviewed: Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven / Otis Redding – (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay / John Lennon – Imagine / Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five – The Message / Sex Pistols – God Save the Queen Continue reading Quisterflaang’s Canon #021-025
Reviewed: The Beatles – Strawberry Fields Forever / Elvis Presley – Heartbreak Hotel / Michael Jackson – Billie Jean / The Clash – London Calling / The Beach Boys – God Only Knows Continue reading Quisterflaang’s Canon #016-020
Reviewed: Aretha Franklin – Respect / Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart / Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run / The Rolling Stones – Sympathy for the Devil / Sex Pistols – Anarchy in the U.K. Continue reading Quisterflaang’s Canon #011-015
Reviewed: Chuck Berry – Johnny B. Goode / The Ronettes – Be My Baby / Marvin Gaye – I Heard It Through the Grapevine / Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On / The Who – My Generation Continue reading Quisterflaang’s Canon #006-010
Reviewed: Bob Dylan – Like a Rolling Stone / Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit / The Beatles – A Day in the Life / The Beach Boys – Good Vibrations / The Rolling Stones – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction Continue reading Quisterflaang’s Canon #001-005
A Beatles guy listens to Brian Wilson’s masterpiece and is reminded less of Sgt. Pepper and more of one of the most celebrated sitcoms of the past twenty years. Continue reading Late to the Party: The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds (1966)
I thought I’d take a walk todayIt’s a mistake I sometimes make Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, “Oh My Lord” Pre-Amble I don’t know if I know any casual fans of Nick Cave. People who like Nick Cave really … Continue reading Late to the Party: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
