Chevelle -- Wonder What's Next

This is the second album from the band Chevelle, a Grunge/Hard Rock Band that is often put in the same group as Tool. This type of a genre seems like a very hard genre to do well. There are som ebands that really have a hold over it and know how to make some impressive stuff. However, because it's such a hard genre there are a lot of bands that really aren't any good, especially most of the newer bands that put out 2-3 cds. Chevelle seems to me like one of these bands. Now before any of you hardcore hard rock fans start disagreeing with me, I do like my fair share of hard rock, but as someone who just can't bring myself to immerse myself into the culture so that there is no return, I can't give this genre the benefit of the doubt. Especiallyt when there are bands like Chevelle trying to make music. A band which seems like the Oasis of Hard Rock due to it's 2 brothers and ever changing other members of the band. Also when a band like this decides to make a lighter song so that it can become a hit, that is one thing that I dislike the most about rock bands like this.

I couldn't find anything I liked on this album. If anyone has any good thoughts on the album I am sorta curious, but overall, I don't like this album at all. But I will give them a .5 for effort cause I doubt I'll ever give zero out of four stars, and as a note on that, I'd never seen Rolling Stone give a zero rating until they rated K-Fed's new album. Anyways, .5 out of 4 stars.

Phish -- Lawn Boy

Lawn Boy is the second studio release album by Phish. This is one of my favorite album covers by the way. The follow up album to one of my favorite albums of all time, this album is a good cd as well. On this one they really experimented with the lyrics, and created some of their best loved tunes. Probably my favorite set of lyrics on this album is on the first song called "The Squirming Coil", which says "Id like to lick the coil some day, Like icarus, who had to pay, With melting wax and feathers brown, He tasted it on his way down". This is one of their nicer melodic albums, and also very mellow.

This is a good album to start out with or to get as a second album. This album is a classic, and has very little flaws to it, however it's not quite four star material. It's one of their best, but when it comes to Phish, their albums just aren't as good as their live stuff, and it makes the albums just a little sub-par. 3.5 out of 4 stars.

Primus -- Antipop

This is the third album I've done by this group. Antipop is their latest full length album and it came out back in 1999. This album is much different from their earlier albums as it sides itself more with the nu-metal of the day like Limp Bizkit and Korn. At least it does for the first half. The second half starts getting back into the funky side, but they still keep the dark tone that the begining of the album put together. This album might be more memorable if the first and second half were reversed as it's always been hard for me to get past the first 6 songs. But yet this second half is pretty decent. With the exception of the last song "Coattails of a Dead Man" which just seems to go forever.

Overall, this is one of their lesser albums and should only be picked up by big fans of Primus. Start somewhere else if you want to get into this band. This album has some good songs here and there, and the layout of the album as a whole is actually quite decent, however the lack of memorability of this album and the scattering of just sort of lame songs here and there, doesn't give it too high merits in my book. Overall I'm going to give this one 2.5 out of 4 stars.

Violent Femmes -- Add It Up (1981-1993)

The Violent Femmes are an alternative/folk rock band that started in 1981 and are still together today. This is a compilation album chronicalizing their music from their beginnings until their original drummer Victor DeLorenzo left to pursue a solo career. Even if you don't recognize the name of the group, most people have heard at least one of their songs as a couple of them are very famous and used all over the place. The most famous is probably their hit "Blister In The Sun". The lead singer also has a very recognizable voice which isn't usually mistaken for anyone else. This compliation was one of the groups biggest selling records, and it has most of their big hits as well as a couple of song which had been unreleased until this album came out, such as the title song "Add It Up". It was actually the song Add It Up which got me to finally seek out some of the band's other music.

This is actually quite a decent album. It has a lot of cool songs of which I had already known about and some that I hadn't previously which I really enjoy. The song Kiss Off has become one of my favorites off of the album. The Violent Femmes suffer the same thing as They Might Be Giants and other bands in that if you don't like the lead singer's voice you won't be listening to any of their stuff. But if you can get passed his voice or even find you like it then you'll like this group. Now ususally I'm not a fan of Best of Albums and will usually not pick them up but this one I ended up doing so and it's actually pretty decent and makes me want to check out their other stuff. This is a really good collection of songs, but it's really an album per se, and so it doesn't really flow well between songs, that's pretty much my only qualm with this album. So as such I'm giving it 3.5 out of 4 stars, and will probably end up getting some of their actual albums.