Stream of Consciousness & Music Reviews

      Imagine in your head what 60's sci-fi sounds like; that's this album exactly. Upbeat, bouncy synths overlaid on light wind instruments makes up most of the album for an easy going and simple listening experience. Mr. Nimoy takes on his role of Spock for the album, telling some tales from outer space and waxing poetic on human life on earth and whatnot. I'm sure by this point you have a pretty good picture of what the music's like. It's simple and pleasant music to have on in the background for 24 minutes, if you don't mind Spock talking at you occasionally. Not much to say here, maybe a neat piece of history for Star Trek fans, and a simple once-over listen for anybody else.      Highlights: Theme from Star Trek, Where Is Love, Music to Watch Space Girls By, You Are Not Alone.  Rating: 3/6

      Continuing my yearly tradition of reviewing Aphrodite's Child on Christmas Eve is their third and final album 666. This is their most well known and critically acclaimed album, and uh, yeah it deserves it. The album is a massive improvement over their last showing with It's Five O'Clock, returning with as much bombastic energy, slow sorrow, and experimental weirdness that was present in End of the World, but now tenfold to deliver an even better product. Every compliment that I paid to their first album is the same here. 666 is a pseudo-concept album, as it tells the story of the Book of Revelations; I'm not religious and haven't read the Book of Revelations, but the 'story' that this album tells is perfectly suited to the band's weird and psychedelic sound, with how cryptic and trippy some of the material can be. In addition, the band has majorly improved their sound that they've established, increasing their quality and complexity, while also...

      ELO's grand return to form, or at least it supposedly is. 15 years after the band's 'final' studio album, 2001's Zoom is... odd. I have some mixed feelings on this one. As I hinted, this album isn't quite the ELO from the 70s and 80s, now with Jeff Lynne being the sole member of the band and featuring various artists on certain tracks; notably George Harrison and Ringo Starr of Beatles fame, and Richard Tandy as the only other returning ELO alumni (and sadly for only 1 song). With this major shift in status quo brings with it a major shift in sound. As you could probably have guessed, Zoom is a big deviation from the band's past works. The album seems much more centered around a more straightforward plain 'rock' sound. It's a bit of a shame compared to how unique and varied other entries in ELO's discography have been, only for their comeback to be as watered down and generic as it is. It's not necessarily bad (Lynne is a very good ...

      Hooray, another obscure micro-genre for me to dig my teeth into! Today's prey is Soulside Eclipse's Forgotten Conquest, a dungeon synth album. If you know me, I love a good synth instrumental (which should be readily apparent from a number of other reviews on this site) and this is no exception. The soundscape that this album creates is captivating, pulling forth of number of emotions throughout its runtime. It's ability of storytelling is fantastic, with it being able to truly evoke vivid imagery through it's instrumentation, especially with accompanying blog post by the artist . The droning tones and overly repetitious melodies and motifs really get across that feeling of loneliness and dread that the "story" is trying to convey. I might say that it can be a little too monotonous and repetitious sometimes, occasionally losing my interest before it shifts towards something else to pull me back in. Sometimes along with this the music can feel a little fl...

      Kicking off 2022's holiday album rush is Prince's debut album, For You. I've heard that he was a perfectionist when making the album, and it shows. Every facet of the music seems fine tuned to be as excellent as possible. Prince's style of funk/soul mixed with an absolutely decadent wave of synth make the tracks have an incredibly funky driving force to them and gives them Prince's impeccable unique sound. All of the elements mix very well and everything plays off of everything else in a way that effortlessly elevates every piece. And this is due in part to the notable audio mixing, which is just superb on every song. Every element is brought in, raised, lowered, emphasized, etc. in a way that helps every part contribute to the overall piece. I also want to give a spotlight to Prince's stunning falsetto, which manages to hit that high and energetic feel of strong Tenor to give the vocals a bombastic energy, while remaining smooth and gentle enough to keep ...