Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (5000)

Content

Ross (3284 KP) rated Anthology of American Folk Music by Various Artists in Music

May 26, 2020

Rolling Stone's 278th greatest album of all time

I had hoped this album would be a 1-disc compilation of the likes of Bob Dylan and maybe some of the San Francisco bands. Sadly, it turned out to be a 6-disc set of a diverse range of musical styles prevalent throughout young America in the late 1920s and early 30s.
Some of this was good, the more typical blues songs much like Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. There were a number of Cajun songs which were listenable. There were also a number of fairly poor early gospel songs which were really hard to suffer through.
This is an important album historically, showing some of the earliest musical recordings, and chronicling the range of musical style, that could almost be mapped across the USA.
Interestingly, "King Kong Kitchie-Kitchie-Ki-Me-Oh" is a variation of the old Scottish song "Frog Went A-Courting", written about various French suitors to Scots nobles. I found it interesting that this song must have travelled across the Atlantic and been adapted to suit the tastes there.

Kudos

Lowri Catryn (229 KP) rated Everyday Life by Coldplay in Music

May 7, 2020

Everyday Life by Coldplay

2019 | Pop

9.0

(1 Ratings)

Album Rating

Violin (5 more)

Adventurist metaphors

Spiritual

Equality

Reality

Vocals

Lacking depth (0 more)

Adventurous album taking on the uplifting but also brutality of reality and it's every day themes.

A new (different) album from Coldplay, which is definitely revealing their experimentation. The band take on heavy themes of love, war, racism, faith, gun control, friendship, climate change, police brutality and other every day themes in life. It is a double album consisting of 'Sunrise' and 'Sunset', which reveals the difference between the every day highs and lows of the above mentioned themes.

The opening of 'Sunrise' is set beautifully with string arrangements, with the lead violinist doing an excellent job of playing uplifting but also emotional tones to set the mood for the themes. Good versus bad, happy versus sad.

Coldplay never venture far from meeting with Eastern and Western sounds to encourage the acceptance of different religions and ethnicities.

'Sunset' is accompanied with loungey rhythm and blues tones which compliment the themes and meaningful lyrics.

However I can't help but note that I feel some depth is missing to convey their messages.