Fallen Empires

Snow Patrol's new album Fallen Empires came out last Sunday (or actually to be more precise, THIS Sunday...Jan 22) stateside and I picked it up in store today. It was well worth the extra 3 months of waiting. It's definitely a progression of Snow Patrol's sound, but still retains many elements of the Snow Patrol that we all know and love. There are some really interesting instrumental songs on the album, including "Berlin" and "Broken Bottles Form A Star" - which a perplexing but genius end to a solid album. Of course, There's "Called Out In the Dark", the pop-y and catchy single released from the album and "This Isn't Everything You Are", a  breathtakingly beautiful ballad. There are still Snow Patrol's signature ballads - like "New York", another intimate and chilling song. Also provoking is "Those Distant Bells". There are also some songs on the new album such as "The Weight of Love" and "The Garden Rules" which are both reminiscent of earlier Snow Patrol, but also seem to suggest a new direction at the same time. All in all, it's a fantastic album that really showcases Snow Patrol at it's best.

Keep Calm And Party On

New Year's Eve is inevitably a party night. Heavy drinking, heavy dancing, and heavy partying. From the writers here at Christie Road, here's a compilation of track that are both danceable, catchy, and perfect for New Years Eve.

NEW YEAR'S EVE PLAYLIST:
-Fluorescent Adolescent - Arctic Monkeys
- Lucid Dreams - Franz Ferdinand (How can you NOT dance to this?)
- Hurricane - Panic! At The Disco
- Pink Lady - Feed Me
- My Mistakes Were Made For You - The Last of The Shadow Puppets

- House Music - Benny Benassi

- Scatta - Skrillex
- Twilight Omens - Franz Ferdinand
- Mr. Brightside - The Killers

- Generation For Sale - Phace

- Beat it - Michael Jackson (Classic. Don't Hate.)
- Something To Die For - The Sounds
- Death - White Lies
- Houdini - Foster The People (Screw "Pumped Up Kicks")
- In The Next Room - Neon Trees
- Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites - Skrillex
- Love - Foster The People (You have to L-O-V-E this song)
- My Propeller - Arctic Monkeys
- The Age of Understatement - The Last Shadow Puppets
- Tony The Beat - The Sounds
- Last Day of Magic - The Kills

FOR THE MORNING AFTER:
- Breakfast - EMA
- Sunday Morning - The Velvet Underground (How perfect, right?)
- New York - Snow Patrol

- Autumn Fire - Jordan Rudess
- This Isn't Everything You Are - Snow Patrol

- How Deep is Your Love - Bee Gees

- Far From Heaven - Dream Theater
- Alcoholiday - Teenage Fanclub
- Black Balloon - The Kills

- Wait For Sleep - Dream Theater

- Sentimental - Porcupine Tree
 - Wish You Were Here - The Sounds
- Velocity Girl - Snow Patrol

White Lies

The White Lies (Previously Fear of Flying) are a band from Earling, England. Their sound is kind of like a fusion of The Killers, Franz Ferdinand and Interpol with some Joy Division thrown in (The vocalist - Harry McVeigh sounds a bit Ian Curtis.) I can't believe that I have not listened to them earlier...just as I started to think that it was getting near impossible to find other artists that I like, here come the White Lies.  Their music is a solid dance rock - it has a good beat with sprinklings of synth and Harry McVeigh's voice completing it all. Their album To Lose My Life...(2008) is infused with organ every now and then and gives the impression of a sort of dark euphoria. Their most recent album - Rituals (2011) has a little more of a darker sound and is more mature than To Lose My Life, with more soaring melodies and contemplative lyrics than the dance-rock of To Lose My Life. Rituals, to a certain degree, reminds me of Florence + The Machine at points, employing some of the same part whimsical writing techniques. As a whole, the sound of Rituals is a little heavier and when breaks of light do come through in the music, it's a brilliant triumph.

Christmas music

Why can't all christmas music be this boss.

Click here to listen to An Operative Me Christmas on bandcamp.

Anyhow, while you're enjoying that, here's a list of christmas music I have been enjoying to a great extent.

1) White Christmas-Frank Sinatra. Yes, I actually like his stuff!

2) Jingle Bell Rock-Bobby Helms. The original.

3) White Christmas- Jordan Rudess. By far, the most liberal version of white christmas I have every heard.

4) Carol of the bells-August Burns Red. Surprisingly good

5)Silent Night, Holy Night- Joe Satriani.

6) White Christmas-Zakk Wylde. I might be just a little obsessed with White Christmas.

7) Santa Claus is Coming to Town-Dokken

8) Another Rock and Roll Christmas - Iron Maiden

9) White Christmas - The Drifters.

10) We are the Night- Dabin. Dubstep is actually pretty awesome.

Yes, I realize that it's after christmas. But who doesn't like listening to Christmas music?

Merry Christmas

Peer pressure.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Darkest Hour

Wow... It's been such a long time since I posted. Funny.
So anyways... I shall now rant about a band called Darkest Hour (obviously).
The band goes under a melodic death metal/metalcore label...
And I don't have much to talk about. Go figure.
Awkward post right here.
The music itself has a mixture of calm stuff and raging stuff, as do a lot of songs in the same genre. Darkest Hour has a somewhat distinguished sound, although it does get a bit repetitive throughout the albums. I found that a lot of their songs are in C minor, which probably doesn't make a huge difference to the general public.
And it sounds kinda cool... One thing that separates this band from other death metal bands is that the singer actually kinda sings sometimes. Their songs have a distinguished melody line combined with the death metal growl, which is pretty cool. Also (random), this is probably one of the nerdiest-looking death metal bands. Ever. That isn't a bad thing, by the way. And yes, I was too lazy to include an image so you'll just have to search yourself.
... That was a short rant.

Multiverse - Widek

So, got-djent.com offers a lot of free downloads which I browse through very frequently just to see what new releases there are. The great thing is, it's all djent, so you're pretty much guaranteed it's going to be quite awesome if you're into that sort of thing. Multiverse is one of the albums that I recently downloaded and was quite impressed with, so I'm going to talk about it. That was phrased really awkwardly... ANYWAY, without further ado, let's begin.

The first track, "Injection" is really short with this heavy riff that really sets the mood for the rest of the album to come. It also is followed by some screams which was, unexpected, but original. "Multiverse", the next track, follows in a similar fashion. Heavy intro riff with lots of syncopated rhythms that are typical of djent. Once that kind of gets rooted, an ambient melody jumps in which is unexpected, but well paired with the original riff. "Ghost ressurection", the penultimate track, is probably my favorite one. It has this amazing heavy introduction followed by ambient melody which is, in turn, followed by another riff. Almost like a trade off between rhythm central music and melody central music. "Enter through the Sun", the final track, is extremely different from the rest in structure. While the others immediately begin with this "hit hard" feel with the heavy riffs and then transitions into ambient melodies, this one is almost the reverse. The melody is brought out in the beginning and the building up of a song is done. Almost like a layer cake. The melody remains almost completely unchanged throughout the song, like bell tones, while the guiltar, bass, and drums come and go.

This was an extremely enjoyable listen. You should all go check it out here. http://widekmusic.bandcamp.com/track/multiverse