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My first encounter with Barenaked Ladies was with the album Stunt, as I’ve mentioned before. By chance, I recently found Gordon (very) cheaply and of course, invested in it. One more album to explore before judging or condemning, I thought. It turned out to be a stroke of luck because this quickly became one of my favorite albums at the moment. Humor is present all the time, and describing Barenaked Ladies as a band with...
Stunt is the fourth studio album by Canadian Pop/Rock act Barenaked Ladies. I got it many years ago to broaden my horizons, I sometimes acquire albums about which I have no prior knowledge. This is one such album! I really had no idea what I would hear when I ordered it. The name certainly led me to think it could be a girl band of some sort. Not that I literally expected fully naked girls...
Even though, in my music-loving life, I have generally preferred various rock variants. The harder, the better! Megalomania is one of the albums I’ve been most excited to hear in recent years. Although it was a few tears ago I originally wrote those first lines. It felt incredibly unlikely that the Danish group Aqua would release a new album 11 years after “Aquarius”. Which was their second album. Their debut came back in 1997, and...
I don’t know if Aqua made more than two albums, Aquarium and Aquarius. Well, actually I do know now, but when I originally wrote about Aquarius I think there were only two albums in total. Anyway, this one doesn’t measure up to the previous one! It’s certainly not bad in any way, but the hit quality isn’t there in the same way. It’s still okay to listen to, and some songs are fantastic, but something...
Aqua and the album Aquarium is music that I discovered in recent years. I used to find it a bit silly and childish in its sound. Even if it was done with a bit of self-distance. But now I have realized the greatness of Aquarium! Almost every song is incredibly catchy, and the voices, the delicate female voice, and the deep male voice that made “Barbie Girl” such a hit work really well! It’s easy...
I’ve always thought the cover art of Eye II Eye by Scorpions looked kind of odd. To be perfectly honest it’s a hideous album cover. I never heard Eye II Eye until today though. I never read anything about it or seen it in any list of Scorpions’ best albums. That might be discouraging but despite the album cover being plain ugly it has something that drew me to it. I know you should judge...
I get news from record companies from time to time with new music to listen to. I have seldom written about them since I didn’t think I had the time or the right means to do it. But since I introduced the mini-review segment here on Active Context I think I can do more of these. It’s always fun to explore and even if it’s not music that usually suits me it’s very interesting getting...
First of all, I want to say that I don’t think this sounds half-written in any way. Second of all, I love the artwork. Now, the artwork has little to do with the musical experience of course, but it does attract och detract the listener. I tend to be more interested in exploring stuff where the artwork attracts me in any way. You can usually tell what kind of music you’re gonna get from the...
Of course, as a swede, I cannot ignore that ABBA releases a new album after 40(!) years. Voyage has been out a few weeks now and it felt like I needed to review this album. I don’t think it takes a swede for it of course, but somehow ABBA is in our heritage, our Swedish legacy to the music business. With that said, I must confess that I was not old or interested enough in...
I listen to a whole lot of music but it’s only on occasion I have enough energy to write something like a review about it. I thought I would take this opportunity to very quickly describe what I have been listening to in the last week without going into any depth. But first, some background. When I was very young I listened mostly to what was played on the radio at the time. Later I...
Once upon a time I got one of the earliest albums with Texas. I think it was even the first album they made. Because I liked it so much I soon got all the other albums as well. I noticed that the musical style changed of the years though and Jump On Board is another logical development into the pop area. In the beginning it was more kind of blues rock but that’s long gone....
I Believe I own Amy Macdonald’s first two albums. They are very nice listening experiences. I like her voice a lot. It sounds like she’s singing somewhere in the back of her through and it gives a certain sound. I suppose Amy’s music qualify as country pop but to be honest I don’t hear much country music in there. The exception is in her voice. It’s hard to explain but there’s something country there. Apart...
