This is a thread to review any album/CD/Music DVD in depth. For now (until Whistle Dog caves in to my request  ;)) we will only be listing positive reviews.

I'll start off with one I got two days ago: Music Bank, The Videos.

This is all the videos from Alice in Chains' Music Bank Box set, on a single DVD. Since I'm a huge AiC' fan, by default this gets a good review, but lets dig a bit deeper.

Track listings:
1)King 5 Documentary
2)We Die Young (2 versions)
3)Man in the Box
4)Sea of Sorrow
5)Would?
6)Them Bones
7)Angry Chair
8)Rooster (Unedited version)
9)What the Hell Have I
10)Down in a Hole
11)No Excuses
12)I Stay Away
13)Grind
14)Heaven Beside You
15)Again
16)Over Now (MTV unplugged)
17)Get Born Again

Many of these videos I had never seen before, or hadn't seen in over 10 years. The videos for "What the Hell Have I" and "Get Born Again" were particularly awesome, as were both "We Die Young" videos. The KING documentary was nice, showing the band in their pre-Facelift days, but at 10 minutes run time it was entirely too short.

The DVD came with no defects and all tracks played correctly, however their isn't a booklet of any kind that comes with the DVD, save a Sony advertisement booklet. There are snippets of many of AiC' other songs between the videos, which was a nice touch.

I would have to give this 1 1/2 thumbs up or 4 stars though for two reasons. The main reason is that unless you really really like the videos, there is nothing here at all that an Alice in Chains' fan wouldn't already have. No new or rare songs, and though the cover lists "Social Parasite:, "I Can't Have You Blues", and "Queen of the Rodeo" (all pre-Facelift tracks) as being included, they are only partial recordings and not complete videos. The KING documentary is also snippets of the band just messing around and not really a true documentary, though it did my heart good to see Layne having fun and goofing around, especially with a pisstake of "Love, Hate, Love".

If you are unfamiliar with Alice in Chains, this is an excellent buy, since 17 songs (and videos) for 15$ is a steal. This offers at least one song from every album except for "Sap", and if you are new to Alice in Chains this is probably the best way to get aquainted with them (the "Unplugged" CD or DVD is also great, but that's another review).

Manic Street Preachers - Forever Delayed (The Greatest Hits)

http://ec3.images-amazon.com/images/P/B00006SM6R.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V65930578_.jpg

{Click one to see the music video}

01 | A Design For Life
02 | Motorcycle Emptiness
03 | If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
04 | La Tristesse Durera (Scream to A Sigh)
05 | There By the Grace of God
06 | You Love Us
07 | Australia
08 | You Stole the Sun From My Heart
09 | Kevin Carter
10 | Tsunami
11 | The Masses Against the Classes
12 | From Despair to Where
13 | Door to the River
14 | Everything Must Go
15 | Faster
16 | Little Baby Nothing
17 | Suicide is Painless (Theme From M*A*S*H)
18 | So Why So Sad
19 | The Everlasting
20 | Motown Junk


The Manic Street Preachers are a rock band from Wales who began their successful career in the 90s and are still going strong today.  If you have never heard of them, it might be because they are not well-known in North America, but nonetheless, this is a wicked CD and is one of the best Greatest Hits Collections I have ever bought.  From the period of the songs on this CD, they had a total of 28 hits, so there are 9 songs missing (Door to the River did not become a hit), but all in all, it is a wicked collection of songs from a great band

Because they are not well-known in North America, I didn't start to get into these guys until around 1999 when "The Masses Against the Classes" came out.  I've been a fan ever since, and if you like what you see in the videos, I recommend picking up a copy of this CD.  You won't be disappointed.  My favourite track on it is "Little Baby Nothing".  I could listen to that song all day 8)

When this CD was first released, it came with a limited edition CD featuring 13 remixes, which being a limited edition means it is no longer available, though used CD stores may have it


01 | La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh) (The Chemical Brothers Remix)
02 | If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next (David Holmes Remix)
03 | Tsunami (Cornelius Remix)
04 | So Why So Sad (Avalanches Remix)
05 | Faster (The Chemical Brothers Remix)
06 | If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next (Massive Attack Remix)
07 | Kevin Carter (Jon Carter Remix)
08 | You Stole The Sun From My Heart (David Holmes Remix)
09 | Tsunami (Stereolab Remix)
10 | Let Robeson Sing (Ian Brown Remix)
11 | The Everlasting (Stealth Sonic Orchestra Remix)
12 | You Stole The Sun From My Heart (Mogwai Remix)
13 | A Design For Life (Stealth Sonic Orchestra Remix)

I do remember the howls of disbelief when 'Forever Delayed' was released...

Why?

Well, there was hardly any inclusion of any of 'The Holy Bible' on it (which hardcore Manics fans claim was their best effort...)

Mind you, it's hardly what you'd call a bundle of fun...Richey Edwards (who went missing and was eventually presumed dead) wrote most of the tracks under a cloud of depression...not exactly an album you could slip on at a party (unless you wanted the guests to leave pronto!)

Therefore 'FD' conveniently skims over this uneasy listening 1994 effort and concentrates mostly on the later radio-friendly stuff...

I have a limited amount of space for them...the stirring 'Australia' being my favourite...

I do remember the howls of disbelief when 'Forever Delayed' was released...

Why?

Well, there was hardly any inclusion of any of 'The Holy Bible' on it (which hardcore Manics fans claim was their best effort...)

Mind you, it's hardly what you'd call a bundle of fun...Richey Edwards (who went missing and was eventually presumed dead) wrote most of the tracks under a cloud of depression...not exactly an album you could slip on at a party (unless you wanted the guests to leave pronto!)

Therefore 'FD' conveniently skims over this uneasy listening 1994 effort and concentrates mostly on the later radio-friendly stuff...

I have a limited amount of space for them...the stirring 'Australia' being my favourite...


I was a little disappointed to NOT see "Revol" and "She is Suffering" on Forever Delayed.  It's like they totally skipped over The Holy Bible, though they did include "Faster".  On a happier note though, they did release a special 10th anniversary commemorative edition of "The Holy Bible" on a 2 CD + DVD set 8)

Under the Pink by Tori Amos (1994, Atlantic)

1994's Under the Pink, the sophomore album to her landmark debut Little Earthquakes, shows her expanding relentlessly into new musical directions. Whereas LE was a highly personal "diary", she described UTP as her "impressionist painting." On UTP, she explores feminist themes more in depth, the title "Under the Pink" referencing the emotions going on under the "pink" or the surface of women. Much of the album focuses on the relationships between women. Musically, she explores reggae and classical music, and moves in more inventive directions with her piano. She moves into increasingly enigmatic territory, becoming freer and freer from musical conventions and moving into uncharted soundscapes.

The opening track, "Pretty Good Year", is an aching elegy moving between repressed and outraged tones, showcasing her vocal and musical versatility in a powerhouse. Her lyrical subtlety is further showcased in "God", which provocatively admits that "God needs a woman to care for him" in a track critical of the holy deity from a woman's perspective, but forever restrained, allowing for impressionistic loops of band instrumentation. "God" uses electronic percussion and snaky bass lines to create an inventive, unique backing track of complexity to equal the complexity and thought of the lyrics. "Bells for Her" is an eerily subdued, wintry song about the relationship between a pair of friends that showcases her piano experimentation. On this track, she played with her Bosendorfer piano, rolling ball bearings up and down the strings to produce a muted, hypnotic sound. "Past the Mission" is a vaguely reggae-influenced, restrained pop song featuring the background vocals of Trent Reznor. "Baker Baker" and "The Wrong Band", interior, heavily introspective and musically subtle and clever songs about love and friendship, are hauntingly decisive and have a deceptive simplicity about them. "The Waitress" is a blasting song about competition between women that shows how much of a rock instrument a piano can be-nobody has before used a piano like Tori Amos. "Cornflake Girl", her biggest hit single ever (it reached the top 5 in England), is a rollicking track about the destructive friendships between women using Irish instrumentation and the only "rock band" track on the CD.

The last third of the album, tracks 9-12, is devoted to a suite of classically-inspired piano pieces, unusual sonic landscapes of melting emotions. "Icicle" is a haunting, wintry, and sensitive track based on a church hymn about female masturbation, and "Cloud On My Tongue" is a bittersweet, icey-warm perfect piano pop track of ethereal beauty (that counts as my favorite ever Tori song.) "Space Dog" is a sci-fi minimovie that uses the piano as inventively as on "The Waitress", to create sounds normally made by synthesizers, electric guitars, and drums with one instrument. "Yes, Anastasia" is a mini-symphony that communicates as much through sound as words in its vocal and instrumental extremes.