Ok I guess since I started blogging its all been really positive, apart from the French hip hop, electric guitarist idiot from a few weeks ago at the Road Trip that needs to be locked up for what he did. But tonight in this short blog, and I mean short, I'm going to break a bit with tradition and give something a cautious thumbs down and I feel really guilty for doing this because my depth of research shows that I am probably in no position to judge.
One of my favourite finds from last year was Florida Rock band Sister Hazel. I quickly acquired all their albums including their live acoustic set and fell in love with a lot of the tracks. They're a talented bunch of musicians with a nice sound and some great songs, a few "that cut just a little too deep" (that's a line from Mrs Potters Lullaby which is a Counting Crows song - as well as a line in my blog...awesome connection).
So for months they've been building up to their new album Release, I think I saw the first promos on Facebook and on their Myspace back in April, and well I got a bit excited as I guess my musical attention has been turned elsewhere over the past few months. So the album comes out this week and here's where the caveate lies...I heard 30 second samples of each track on the iTunes store and you know, I wasn't impressed. Before you judge my musical judgement, let me tell you why not. Each Sister Hazel album has been slightly different from their last (musically the sounds change so much between albums right the way through from their self-titled debut album through Fortress and Lift, etc). Every time there's been something that makes you think, wow that's a new direction, that's a bit different, that's fresh....sort of in the way that Counting Crows can produce an album like Recovering The Satellites which is quite heavy and electric musically and then throw out This Desert Life (musically in my opinion the best album they have ever produced) which has a very different sound to it.
Release just didn't give me that feeling and you can usually get that in a few seconds. It seems like a solid album and the songs could probably nicely fit into any of their other albums comfortably. That's not a bad thing but I guess I hoped they'd continue evolving and well maybe just maybe they've found their limit and I'm getting picky. As I said I heard 30 second clips and I will get hold of a copy but it's just a bit underwhelming. I wonder what other people think...
Shorter tonight as promised and after a marathon video uploading session last night, I am off to bed early....Ciao people xxxx
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