What Music are you listening to? Discussions Welcome!

wow, who is that guy? That's quite bad. Sadie is alright , I might've liked that tune if it wasn't over wifey riddim, wowsers that was an annoying tune in 07 or 08 or whenever it came out and it was no Stay with Me in my opinion, that one was a real classic. Tinie used to wish he was Ironic, and Sadie's no Shola either to be fair. Shola was even fire on that Giggs tune too, one of the few Giggs tunes beside talkin da hardest I actually like and pretty much just for her, as I don't really need Giggs' sexual bragging. Still, tune, and I love the way they quite inappropriately keep referring to it as "beautiful music".

 
Yeah Shola is definitely better. Only good tune Tinie made at that point was Hood Economics - but then Chip, Ice Kid and Wiley did the beat better than him on Westwood. Chipmunk got all the hype but Wiley's freestyle was better.

 
How many users here remember that Lauren Laverne was the lead vocalist in a pop punk band in the 90s?


She was also the guest vocalist on this Mint Royale gem too
 

Came back to Goat - World Music. There just isn't anything else quite like this anywhere in my music library with their concoction of Alternative Psychedelic Space Prog Disco-Krautrock Afro-Experimental Fusion. They truly are the GOAT at what they do!
 

Of all the criticisms Dream Theater often receive, about the only one I can generally agree with is the rather hit or miss lyrics. Over Dream Theater's almost 30 years of activity, they've only really had 3 primary writers, guitarist John Petrucci, drummer Mike Portnoy and keyboardist Kevin Moore. Sure James LaBrie and John Myung write on occasion, but between them, they've probably penned less than 10 songs over 13 albums, so I'm not sure they count. Of their writers, Portnoy has always been the strongest. Whilst Kevin Moore's writing was often far too abstract on sometime bordering on nonsense, and Petrucci's lyrics are often cheesy fantasy that can be fairly cringey, Portnoy mostly bases his songs on his real life. Weather is be any of the songs from the Twelve Step Suite or The Mirror, that dealt with his alcoholism battle, or Honour Thy Father, that was pretty much a big middle finger to his step dad, his lyrics always felt like they had more weight to them than the others. Not that the other two are terrible song writers, but I think most will agree Portnoy was the best.

Of all the songs he wrote before he quit the band around 2010, I always think the 1995 epic 'A Change of Seasons' as possibly his best. Not only did he pen the whole song, which is a rarity for Dream Theater epics, with songs like Octavarium and Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence having lyrics contributed by two or more band members, but I think it's probably the most personal song he ever wrote. If you know the story behind the lyrics, it really gives them a gut punch. The song was written about the death of Portnoy's mother, and how him learning about the phrase 'Carpe Diem', 'Seize the Day' in Latin, led him to tell his mother how much he loved her, before a freak flight accident led to her early death. Knowing this story really contextualises the lyrics, and gives them way more meaning than if you just listened to them blind. Not only are the lyrics great, but it's possibly one of the best Dream Theater songs period, being the earliest example of a song they wrote over 20 minutes in length. Although I probably do like Octavarium better on the whole, I still have a ton of love for A Change of Seasons.

What's pretty sad about it is that it showed some great potential for keyboardist Derek Sherinian, who makes his Dream Theater debut in 'A Change of Seasons'. He was only on 'A Change of Seasons' and 1997's lackluster 'Falling into Infinity' before him and the band parted ways. Makes me wonder if the studio hadn't meddled in the production of 'Falling into Infinity', leading to some turbulent times for the band, if he might have stuck around a little longer than one EP and one album.
 
I had a crap day and had a huge fall out with a friend over their idiocy. (I think it's sorted now, but only because I let some of his dumb **** slide.) Listening to this on a loop is getting me through, I'm not even sure it's good, but doesn't love obscure American indie electropop bands?

 
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I was surprised to find that All Time Low have released a new song! I've been following the band since they released their Nothing Personal album in 2009 and have loved their stuff ever since. Admittedly, this new track isn't as catchy as their usual 'leading singles', but I'm excited for a new album anyway.

 
Who wants to hear Lemon write about Dream Theater some more?!
...
No one? Well that never stopped me before!


So, despite being a huge Dream Theater nerd, I never really got around to listening to their debut album, When Dream and Day Unite, until just the other day. For those who don't know, When Dream and Day Unite is, to date, the only Dream Theater album not to have James LaBrie on vocals, and as such, it's pretty much the black sheep of their discography, and it was what put me off it for a long time. However, I thought it was about time to give it a fair shake, and whilst I don't regret it, it's almost certainly their roughest album. When you compare it to the two solid gold albums that followed it, Images & Words and Awake, it just doesn't compare. I'd hesitate to call anything on the album bad, but most tracks just aren't as memorable as what would follow in later albums and the vocalist Charlie Dominici, just sounds kinda weak. This especially shows when you listen to live performances of songs from this album, after Dominici was replaced with LaBrie, as LaBrie does a much better job, to the point where I'd say the tracks you can get live versions of, such as A Fortune in Lies and The Killing Hand from Live at the Marquee or Afterlife from Score, make the Studio versions almost obsolete. All in all, I can see why this isn't exactly topping anyone's best Dream Theater album lists, but it is pretty neat to hear them hone the style that would eventually make them the biggest name in Progressive Metal even almost 30 years after the album released in 1989.
 
Lately I've been listening to All Time Low's new album, Last Young Renegade. They're a band I've followed for a really long time now (I started listening when they released Nothing Personal), and although they've changed and evolved over the years they've kept most of the music sounding fairly similar. However, Last Young Renegade brings an end to that in a lot of ways - being a mishmash of new and old sounds.

One of my favourite examples of the newer sounds is Afterglow. Lyrically I really like it and the sound is an interesting one. It just sounds more pop than the rock/punk sounds they usually roll with which is a nice change and actually ATL work with the pop sound a lot better than I thought they would. It's pretty cool. ^^
 
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