Heavy on the Playlist

Albums that I have downloaded the past month....

Kaiser Chiefs - Employment

This garage rock band named themselves from a football club down in South Africa. The music in this album while not so original, but so diverse and mostly catchy. "Everyday I Love You Less and Less" is a very anthemic song with funny sometimes stupid lyric :D. "I Predict a Riot" is their catchy first single. "You Can Have it All" reminds me of some ol beach boys 60s music, or some flat out 90s brit pop. It took me a pretty long time to take out any song from this album from my playlist. 8.2/10

The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan

Before this one, the White Stripes has struck big with "White Blood Cells" and "Elephant", two great, raw and bluesy album. This time, they still have a lot of rawness...but it seemed that they didn't come with a solid plan... some of the songs sounded like unfinished stuff.. a dissappointing effort from them. 5/10

System of A Down - Mesmerize

It's really hard to classify this band. They really have their own sound...I might say Armenian trash metal? ahahha. There's nothing much changed from SOAD from their previous effort, they still speak out about politics, culture and other stuff without any hesitation. They have songs about "hollywood" pop culture, pornography even cocaine. Their compositions never cease to amaze me with a lot of melody but still with a lot of noise. They come up with another great stuff. 9/10

Coldplay - X and Y

This one to me sounds more like a combination between a more mainstream friendly "Parachute" and experimental "Rush of Blood to the Head". Nothing really new, just same ol Coldplay sound. Even a few of them resembles the song from their previous album... "Speed of Sound" and "Clocks" has a very similar intro.. that doesn't bode very well for me... 6/10

The Bravery - Special Edition

Another band with The prefix. Does it sound like another "the" band? The Bravery is highly influenced by New Order....new wave kind of stuff. Some people even compare them with Joy Division. Heavy on synth and keyboard.One of the reasons I downloaded their album was the fact that they will play in Jakarta in Jakarta Movement festival on August 6th and I'm thinking about watching these guys. The album itself is heavy on synth and guitar effect. It's actually not that great but I found myself nodding my head listening to a lot of the tracks like Fearless, Public Service Announcement. The overall sound of the album also kind of follow a lot of the same formula over and over. 6/10 for the quality 8/10 for catchyness :D

J-Rocks - Topeng Sahabat

Another newcomer in Indonesian music scene. They might be the first major label indonesian j-rock record. While I don't know that much about J-rock music, I found their music to be pretty fun and engaging. The vocal sometimes sounds a bit malay-ish (u know what i'm sayin? ;)), but that's ok. I like Topeng Sahabat (muse-ish), Lepaskan Diriku, Ceria ... 7.5/10

Various Artists - OST Gie

This one is dedicated for a movie with 50s 60s Indonesia background. We were treated with a lot of catchy oldies. Nurlela, a song in minang language but very catchy. Titiek Puspa also contributed with the line that i love..."Manisku, mengapa kau membisu" :D. There's also some good ole rock tracks to accompany the demo scene... Andy Rif and Speaker 1st gave a good performance with their rendition of Bob Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone". The title track itself is so good it's still very heavy on my playlist. This is a must buy for you people who don't mind listening to catchy oldies hehee.... 8/10