Review(s): The Unknowns

The following were reviewed but were done so in a fashion that the date and order of reviews were lost.

Eric Clapton - Me and Mr. Johnson: Robert Johnson is good. Eric Clapton is good. Eric Clapton covering Robert Johnson? Not so much.

Cold Sides - Cold Sides: It is really difficult to determine greatness on a single listen. Suffice it to say, this is really good.

Bob Dylan - Lovesick: This Victoria Secret Exclusive offers only one song not anywhere else, and even that is a remix. It's still cool to own though.

Bob Dylan - The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6: Live 1964: Concert at Philharmoic Hall: The odds of winning the lottery: 1:135,145,920 Odds of this being bad: 0:135,145,920

Inspiral Carpets - Rare As Fuck, Volume 1: This shit's rare for a reason: no one wants to hear it.

90 Day Men - Panda Park: I'm so confused. This was either genius or rubbish.

the pAper chAse - CTRL-ALT-DEL-U: "I hate the sun. The sun is uncontrollable and unforgiving. With the sun, you can't shape and sculpt to reality"

the pAper chAse - whAt big teeth you hAve: Chasing after a more melodic vocal doesn't seem to fully work for the pAper chAse, but it's not bad. Not until after did I find out that two of the songs are covers - they were that convincing.

the pAper chAse - young bodies heAl quickly, you know: What made hide the kitchen knives so brilliant was the vocals being front and center. On this release, however there is just too much going on and any emotion is lost. I will not give up.

Piebald - All Ears, All Eyes, All The Time: I must recuse myself from this review due to my undying love for Piebald.

Sex Positions - Sex Positions: A better follow-up to American Nightmare's Background Music than their actual follow-up. With a little refinement, it could have surpassed the original.

The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow: Pop music done well is hard to beat. This disc will take some doing.

The Traveling Wilburys - Complete Collection (2CD): Even the b-sides, instrumentals and demos of these 5 geniuses blow away 90% of everyone else.

Van Morrison - What's Wrong With This Picture?: What's wrong is that Van Morrison is using his immeasurable abilities in a (seemingly) worthless genre: Vocal Jazz.

The Whole Nine - Take What You Get: Seeing as how I'm an acquaintance of a member of this band, I'm going to take some extra space for its review. Bottom line is that it is too busy. Too much going on and the vocals get lost (poor production/mixing?). Additionally, none of the music stands out. It's all the same emo/pop punk whiny repetition (as are the vocals). The songwriting is not the strongest either. That being said, this band has the potential to fill the void left by Reach the Sky, which was a band that was "emo for the hardcore kids, and hardcore for the emo kids." Now all they need to do is work on that.