Music is trash, except for the following.
Come on Pilgrim
-Pixies, the four guardian angels in my version of Heaven.
Pixies. A rockband that sings about interbreading, Samson, sludge from New Jersey, Crickity Jones, seamonkies, bombing Japan, ladies in radiators, aliens and the University of Massachusetts of all things. Like all bands they had a beginning, and the EP, "Come on Pilgrim", was that beginning.
"Come on Pilgrim" is the Pixies at their rawest. It's recording quality is pretty off kilter. Black Frances sounds like he's as far away from the microphone as possible. It also features more Spanish songs than usual. And it has "Nimrods Son", which is the only song I can enjoy sung in a dumb country accent. I guess it helps that the chorus features the line "You are the son of incestuous union"
While it doesn't have any real hits on it like their later albums would, it's got such a wonderful energy to it that most bands have on their first albums. Back when they tried their damndest to get noticed, but having feelings they'd just be ignored for the idiots with emo glasses and soulpatches....great, I'm infusing my school days into this review.
But none the less the love is there in this album. "Ed is Dead", "Levitate Me" and "I've Been Tired" are the highlights on it for me. It's kind of hard to find. At the very most, look for their follow-up album, Surfer Rosa, which is pretty good as well.
Trompe le Monde
-Pixies again.
The polar opposite of Come on Pilgrim. This was the Pixies final album together. And it sounds nothing like the EP. Theres not many albums where I can just put it into my CD player and play it without skipping a song here or there, but this one is so rocking that I can just let it play forever and not get tired of it.
While it's not as creative as the Pixies first two albums, and really Surfer Rosa or Doolittle should be in this spot, I just find the songs on this album to be more catchy. "U-Mass" is a good example of this general catchiness. Same goes for "Motorway to Rosswell" and "Planet of Sound".
And plus, the climax to "The Sad Punk" is just win.
Antichrist Superstar
-Marylin Manson, priest of my religion.
Well. Despite having two Pixie albums on here, I decided to try and limit everything to just one per artist from here on out. Which is now going to hamper my thought process into explaining why I'll take one album over another, despite both being equally good.
And in this case, it's either Antichrist Superstar or Mechanical Animals. Antichrist Superstar takes the lead. Why? I dont know.
So Antichrist Superstar. A name I've said three times so far without expalining anything about it. Well, it's a rather well done rock album created in the mid-90's, where pretty much everything sucked by that point in time from everyone, and it's made by Marylin Manson, a silly person who acts like he's some sort of demon while wearing costumes that'd make David Bowie turn his head and cough.
And before we go on, I have to say Marylin Manson is one of the few people that can manage to balance out music and singing without taking away from either camp. Well, only when Twiggy was around, the last album was kind of bland in the music catagory. But all this praise for him is making me sound like some sort of goth, and I hope no one thinks of me as one of those freaks. Please?
But back to Antichrist. It's the album everyone will remember for having "Beautiful People" on it, and nothing else. Which is a shame, because there are songs that are even better than that on it, such "Irresponsable Hate Anthem" which is the COOLEST opening song with the COOLEST guitar riffs EVER. PERIOD. Screw you, I'm right. It also features a little known songs such as "Wormboy", "Mister Superstar", "Angel with the Scabbed Wings" and the title song which has my favorite chorus line: "Cut the head off, grows back on. I am the hydra."
While most people will ignore this wonderful product of hate because it's Marylin Manson, I recommend it to anybody who wants to rock out to something not made by limpwristed jerk offs like Greenday or "classic rock", a genre of music with no song structures or anything meaniful behind their songs. Beattles suck. Led Zepplin is the worse. Pink Floyd actually got better with time before collapsing into ego singlularity after The Wall.
Right. I'm losing track of what little train of thought I ever have. Uhh....next?
Persona 3
-Shoji Meguro, voice of the one true God.
This was tricky. Persona 4 in a way is catchier, more fun to speed to and more rockin' than Persona 3's soundtrack. But since I only own the soundtrack to that, and have not played the actual game the music is created for, Persona 3 wins by all the wonderful moments I associate the songs to. And man, did I want to cry when "Burn my Dread (the Last Battle)" started playing. Uhhh....
Since hearing Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne's music, I've followed Shoji Meguro to the ends of the Earth. RPG's usually are only good for the battle themes, but he managed to trandsend that stereotype and create a fully listenable soundtrack. Man I can't stress how beautiful the staff roll song is.
But this about Persona 3, not SMT3. When I first heard it, I was taken back it's style change. Normally I associated Shoji for hard rock guitar songs thanks to the Digital Devil Saga... not rap and pop. But after getting used to the new change, Persona 3 rose through the ranks and has quickly become a standered in my CD players. It was so good, despite the soundtrack Atlus (God bless them) packed in with the game, I went out of my way and bought the full album along with FES just for two extra songs ("Master of Tartarus" and "The Deep Psyche"). Okay, so I waited till I played the FES expansion till I bought that album, but still it too was wonderful. "Heartful Cry", man. "Heartful Cry".
Anyways, rap music. Capcom, unsurprisingly, fell flat on their face with trying to mix rap music into a videogame with Street Fighter 3. But Shoji on the other hand, like proving with SMT3 that RPG music can be more outside of the battlefield, took the challange and managed to make such memorable songs such as "Mass Destruction", "Deep Breath" and my personal favorite, "Burn My Dread (the last battle)".
While the Tartarus songs do get a bit redundent, FES makes life a bit better with "Interstice of Time"
And now, time for the best album ever in human history.
Guilty Gear XX: The Midnight Carnival
-Daisuke Ishiwatari, the only true God.
Again, like Persona 3 and Persona 4, this was a tough one to choose. Guilty Gear 2: Overture is technically better with songs like "Worthless as the Sun Above Clouds" and "Diva", but nostalgia overrides technicality any day. Blow me. How else can anyone think the mass produced crap by Treasure is "fun"!?
This was my soundtrack to life in junior high. "Liquor Bar & Drunkard" was MY themesong at the time. I can't say enough about this double disk heavy metal head-bang-a-thon from the viking Gods. It got me into music, it got me to play instruments, it kept me going through the sheer Hell that school is for those who did't find some stupid clique to fit into. I would risk my life and walk home just so I could listen to it, rather than be distracted by a bunch of idiots on the school bus. In otherwords, it made me the bastard that I am today. And by the way, anyone who says Hard Rock Tracks is better is lieing and most likely is a disgusting waste of skin who enjoys Japanese pop idols. This has live bass and drums, instead of some crappy clicks for snares and a midi bass (though I will admit, "A Solitude That asks Nothing in Return" is better on Hard Rock Tracks).
Each song is so full of personality that they perfectly matches the character they were painstakingly crafted for. Daisuke is one of the only composers I know that can make heavy metal with a melody and soul, instead of some chaotic mess you'd normally find with music that calls itself rock or metal. "Keep Yourself Alive II" is more of a rebellious song thanks to it's cocky bass and drums and that oh so glorious organ in the background than anything a punk band can come up with now a days. Oh man, you said something disrespecting about Bush? Please. Quit sacrificing a potentially good song for your stupid ass political agenda. Daisuke was able to get his point across for what kind of person Sol Badguy is without even having to write lyrics.
Take that, "RISE AGAINST" and "SYSTEM OF A DOWN".
Anyways... Not only does this have all of X's character songs rearranged by a live band, but you get all of the new (at the time) songs as well plus a few By Your Side tunes like "Meet Again" and "Pride and Glory". While it doesn't have any of the songs from SLASH or Accent Core (and man, would I love to have "Keep the Flag Flying" and "Launch Out" on disk), it's still worth it. "The Midnight Carnival" is a song I want playing while running into a fight I'll most likely die in. "Simple Life" is a fun tune to drive to. "Haven't You Got Eyes in Your Head?" is the only song with a saxaphone that I like (helps that it's not a jazz song, a genre thats even worse than "classic rock").
If I wasn't poor, I'd probably buy this album for my nonexistent friends. Thats how much I love it.
Anyone who downloads this and does not purchase it (like anything else I mentioned) has more or less just sealed their fate for a eternity in Hell.
