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Album reviews 11/5/15
10 years ago
General
Going back through really ooooold stuff now!
Casey LaLonde
Beware!: Casey is actually FA's own
CorbinBusker, a highly talented indie artist who isn't afraid to go all over the spectrum when it comes to style. He released these two albums for free a little while ago, so I couldn't pass up an opportunity to see what he could do. Beware! opens with "Memoirs of a Jogger's Ghost", an instrumental I've never much cared for, but then moves into "A Knife and a Heart", which I do like, and the very similar "Izmir". He then transitions from light electronic with ghostly vocals to the Gorillaz-esque electro-rap of "Beat Salesman". "Dave and Allison" is another instrumental, a beeping, booming semi-industrial piece. This starts a series of instrumentals which are all fairly interesting, enjoyable and with some highly intriguing artistic modes. The bottom line is, this album is a good introduction to Casey's music, his ethereal voice compliments the soothing music, the songs flow well and different sections of the album carry very different emotions, without clashing against one another. 7.5/10
Hope Against Hope: This was actually released first, I think, but I really can't be sure. It lacks a lot of the smoothness of Beware! The music is very similar to that album's, though somewhat more ambient towards the end. Standout tracks include "Made Up Lies and Stupid Day Dreams" and "Ghost". Beware! is definitely the stronger of the two. 6/10
Soundtrack- Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: I got the video for Christmas, watched it, downloaded the soundtrack and found out I already had it downloaded. I don't know how I'd feel about this if I hadn't watched it first, but I love Dr. Horrible and I love the music. Seriously, if you haven't seen it, you need to, because it's awesome (I missed it online the first time around, of course). The songs are catchy, they work perfectly in the plot and let the characters come alive, not to mention Neil Patrick Harris has a fantastic voice. This really just cements the idea that he's an awesome person. My only complaint would be that the soundtrack is really short, under half an hour, and most of the songs don't even pass two and a half minutes. It's totally worth having nevertheless. My favorite songs are "My Freeze Ray", "My Eyes", "Brand New Day" and "Everything You Ever". 9/10
MandoPony- The Ultimate MandoPony Collection: Mando went and released a stupidly huge collection of some of his music. We're talking 50 tracks and a half-hour exclusive acoustic live performance video, for ten bucks. TEN DOLLARS. That makes it worth getting all by itself. The video's great, just a rendition of five of his songs, with some discussion about them and lots of riffing. There's a bunch of karaoke tracks in this, in case you wanted to record yourself singing along, a bunch of V-Scratch Sessions tracks, and all his 8bit stuff, which he started off with in the fandom. I think he even included two original songs, because they use his real name as the artist. If we take the first 11 tracks as a single album, it's pretty damn solid, and features some of his best tracks, like the opener "Shining Armor", "Sweet Apple Acres", "So Much Left to Know" and "With a Sister". Of course, it does shift around a bit between rock, his usual acoustic stuff, and actual techno like "100 and Counting". So I'll give that an 8/10, because rating the whole thing is kind of impossible. That said, speaking as someone who's been following
MandoAndy since before he started doing brony stuff... There's nothing new here. I've heard all these songs before, and enjoyed most of them. The download was worth it to be able to make myself a copy though. Do check this out if you haven't had the opportunity to listen to his music of late; it's a lot of tracks for not a lot of money.
HeyLasFas- Nightfall:
This starts off with an overture, very nicely orchestrated with a light xylophone that turns into rock halfway through. I like where this is going, well, aside from the narration. I don't particularly like this guy's voice, but he writes a mean guitar riff. It's a concept album, a rock opera about the rise of Nightmare Moon. That explains the narration anyway. Really it all comes down to his voice, though; it's not very good, very quiet and weak in spots, which is a shame, because, for instance, the first full track is ten minutes long and has actual movements, and the instrumentation is great. When he's not holding back on the vocals, he doesn't sound too bad, but overall I can't get into this, and it's a shame because there's so much good in here, like the heartfelt lyrics of "Lament". If you're less hung up on vocal quality than I am and you like lengthy prog rock concept albums, you should definitely check this out. 5.5/10
Foozogz
Vibrant: This is just an EP. The first full track is really energetic happy hardcore and very good. "A Sunny Day" is like nothing I've heard before, just clear and, well, vibrant, and thoroughly upbeat. That and the final track are great. This is just one of those albums you'll be hard pressed to listen to and not feel good afterward. 7.5/10
Tree Vision: An actual album to add and make that review worthwhile. Tree Vision apparently came out in August of 2011, and from the looks of it, it's sort of a continual work in progress as he adds new tracks. So it's less of an album than a collection of stuff, but let's see how it holds up. I'm reviewing this as an album as of July 2012, for the record. It starts off in great style with "Fluttershy Likes Being Nice", an upbeat piece of 8-bit dance. This is followed by "Forever Dreaming", a collab with Omnivore and some of Foozogz' best work. And this is quickly turning into a best-of as the next track is "Sparkle", one of the most beautiful Twilight-centric tracks I've ever heard. There's his awesome remix of Find a Pet, a remix of Japple Ack's poignant "I Love Everything", a crazier remix of the already insane "Rarity Attempts 400 Dresses", and the peppy "Sweetheart". Of course, the song that led me here is the final one, "Love Bloom", but it turns out this is just a fantastic album. If you like upbeat electronica, do check it out. 8.5/10
Casey LaLonde
Beware!: Casey is actually FA's own
CorbinBusker, a highly talented indie artist who isn't afraid to go all over the spectrum when it comes to style. He released these two albums for free a little while ago, so I couldn't pass up an opportunity to see what he could do. Beware! opens with "Memoirs of a Jogger's Ghost", an instrumental I've never much cared for, but then moves into "A Knife and a Heart", which I do like, and the very similar "Izmir". He then transitions from light electronic with ghostly vocals to the Gorillaz-esque electro-rap of "Beat Salesman". "Dave and Allison" is another instrumental, a beeping, booming semi-industrial piece. This starts a series of instrumentals which are all fairly interesting, enjoyable and with some highly intriguing artistic modes. The bottom line is, this album is a good introduction to Casey's music, his ethereal voice compliments the soothing music, the songs flow well and different sections of the album carry very different emotions, without clashing against one another. 7.5/10Hope Against Hope: This was actually released first, I think, but I really can't be sure. It lacks a lot of the smoothness of Beware! The music is very similar to that album's, though somewhat more ambient towards the end. Standout tracks include "Made Up Lies and Stupid Day Dreams" and "Ghost". Beware! is definitely the stronger of the two. 6/10
Soundtrack- Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: I got the video for Christmas, watched it, downloaded the soundtrack and found out I already had it downloaded. I don't know how I'd feel about this if I hadn't watched it first, but I love Dr. Horrible and I love the music. Seriously, if you haven't seen it, you need to, because it's awesome (I missed it online the first time around, of course). The songs are catchy, they work perfectly in the plot and let the characters come alive, not to mention Neil Patrick Harris has a fantastic voice. This really just cements the idea that he's an awesome person. My only complaint would be that the soundtrack is really short, under half an hour, and most of the songs don't even pass two and a half minutes. It's totally worth having nevertheless. My favorite songs are "My Freeze Ray", "My Eyes", "Brand New Day" and "Everything You Ever". 9/10
MandoPony- The Ultimate MandoPony Collection: Mando went and released a stupidly huge collection of some of his music. We're talking 50 tracks and a half-hour exclusive acoustic live performance video, for ten bucks. TEN DOLLARS. That makes it worth getting all by itself. The video's great, just a rendition of five of his songs, with some discussion about them and lots of riffing. There's a bunch of karaoke tracks in this, in case you wanted to record yourself singing along, a bunch of V-Scratch Sessions tracks, and all his 8bit stuff, which he started off with in the fandom. I think he even included two original songs, because they use his real name as the artist. If we take the first 11 tracks as a single album, it's pretty damn solid, and features some of his best tracks, like the opener "Shining Armor", "Sweet Apple Acres", "So Much Left to Know" and "With a Sister". Of course, it does shift around a bit between rock, his usual acoustic stuff, and actual techno like "100 and Counting". So I'll give that an 8/10, because rating the whole thing is kind of impossible. That said, speaking as someone who's been following
MandoAndy since before he started doing brony stuff... There's nothing new here. I've heard all these songs before, and enjoyed most of them. The download was worth it to be able to make myself a copy though. Do check this out if you haven't had the opportunity to listen to his music of late; it's a lot of tracks for not a lot of money.HeyLasFas- Nightfall:
This starts off with an overture, very nicely orchestrated with a light xylophone that turns into rock halfway through. I like where this is going, well, aside from the narration. I don't particularly like this guy's voice, but he writes a mean guitar riff. It's a concept album, a rock opera about the rise of Nightmare Moon. That explains the narration anyway. Really it all comes down to his voice, though; it's not very good, very quiet and weak in spots, which is a shame, because, for instance, the first full track is ten minutes long and has actual movements, and the instrumentation is great. When he's not holding back on the vocals, he doesn't sound too bad, but overall I can't get into this, and it's a shame because there's so much good in here, like the heartfelt lyrics of "Lament". If you're less hung up on vocal quality than I am and you like lengthy prog rock concept albums, you should definitely check this out. 5.5/10
Foozogz
Vibrant: This is just an EP. The first full track is really energetic happy hardcore and very good. "A Sunny Day" is like nothing I've heard before, just clear and, well, vibrant, and thoroughly upbeat. That and the final track are great. This is just one of those albums you'll be hard pressed to listen to and not feel good afterward. 7.5/10
Tree Vision: An actual album to add and make that review worthwhile. Tree Vision apparently came out in August of 2011, and from the looks of it, it's sort of a continual work in progress as he adds new tracks. So it's less of an album than a collection of stuff, but let's see how it holds up. I'm reviewing this as an album as of July 2012, for the record. It starts off in great style with "Fluttershy Likes Being Nice", an upbeat piece of 8-bit dance. This is followed by "Forever Dreaming", a collab with Omnivore and some of Foozogz' best work. And this is quickly turning into a best-of as the next track is "Sparkle", one of the most beautiful Twilight-centric tracks I've ever heard. There's his awesome remix of Find a Pet, a remix of Japple Ack's poignant "I Love Everything", a crazier remix of the already insane "Rarity Attempts 400 Dresses", and the peppy "Sweetheart". Of course, the song that led me here is the final one, "Love Bloom", but it turns out this is just a fantastic album. If you like upbeat electronica, do check it out. 8.5/10
