Listening Project: July

So I'm supposed to listen to this little lot:

• Green Day - American Idiot
• Scissor Sisters - Scissor Sisters
• The Killers - Hot Fuss
• The Chemical Brothers - Push the Button
• Athlete - Tourist
• Keane - Hopes and Fears
• Scissor Sisters - Scissor Sisters
• Doves - Some Cities
• G4 - G4
• 50 Cent - The Massacre
• Stereophonics - Language. Sex. Violence. Other?
• Tony Christie - Definitive Collection
• Natalie Imbruglia - Counting Down the Days
• Basement Jaxx - Basement Jaxx: The Singles
• Akon - Trouble
• Bruce Springsteen - Devils & Dust
• Akon - Trouble
• Steve Brookstein - Heart and Soul
• Faithless - Forever Faithless – The Greatest Hits
• Gorillaz - Demon Days
• Oasis - Don't Believe the Truth
• Coldplay - X&Y
• James Blunt - Back to Bedlam
• McFly - Wonderland
• James Blunt - Back to Bedlam
• David Gray - Life in Slow Motion
• Katie Melua - Piece by Piece
• Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better
• Sugababes - Taller in More Ways
• The Prodigy - Their Law: The Singles 1990–2005
• Robbie Williams - Intensive Care
• Westlife - Face to Face
• Il Divo - Ancora
• Madonna - Confessions on a Dance Floor
• Eminem - Curtain Call: The Hits

June opining

The Killers - Hot Fuss is fine, perfectly servicable rocky sort of stuff, but doesn't grab me somehow.

The Chemical Brothers - Push the Button is okay to have on in the background, but pretty dull.

Athlete - Tourist feels very nondescript to me. I'm not sold.

Doves - Some Cities is weird and experimental and I don't like it much.

G4 - G4 was too hard to find. All I got was a cover of The Circle of Life and I mean, that's a good song, but you're not getting credit for it.

50 Cent - The Massacre starts off with a profanity-ridden song about how 50 Cent is amazingly hard and sells drugs and waves guns around and doesn't care what anyone thinks. Happily it turns out I don't care what he thinks, so that works out nicely and I save a lot of time (I did try another couple of tracks, equally pointless).

Stereophonics - Language. Sex. Violence. Other? is pretty hard to hear, but the music is at least pretty pacey and moderately varied. I do generally like being able to actually hear the lyrics though.

Tony Christie - Definitive Collection is unavailable.

Natalie Imbruglia - Counting Down the Days is a little repetitive, but I find I really like her voice and it's quite nice relaxing stuff to have on as I write.

Basement Jaxx - Basement Jaxx: The Singles isn't uncatchy musically, but it's staggeringly repetitive.

Akon - Trouble has a logo written in unconvincing fake blood, so that's not promising. The actual music isn't particularly like that as far as I can tell. It's kind of okay? I can't really make out the lyrics in half of the songs. Lonely seems okay, a little repetitive but at least it's a bit different. Journey I genuinely enjoy, although it's one of those songs that seems to demand a bit of attention - it's not a running song. In general I think the second half of this CD works better for me than the first. I Won't is also decent.

Bruce Springsteen - Devils & Dust is very samey. It's fine to have on in the background, and I can nod my head along to the songs well enough. I'd have to listen to this more carefully to pick much out, because I think Springsteen is very word-focused, and I don't really have time for that right now.

Steve Brookstein - Heart and Soul is kind of hard to track down, and appears to just be a load of covers. His voice is okay.

Faithless - Forever Faithless – The Greatest Hits counts as a compilation album, and I'm skipping those.

Gorillaz - Demon Days again has at least one singer who seems intent on making it as difficult as physically possible to make out anything he's saying. They seem musically interesting although the lyrics of each song seem rather repetitive. It's sort of vaguely fun but I definitely won't be going out singing any of these because I've no idea what's happening.

Oasis - Don't Believe the Truth I find much better than some of their earlier stuff; it's still pretty odd lyrically, but it's an enjoyable set of tracks with some solid melodies.

Coldplay - X&Y was a decent album that I didn't especially register because I was writing.

James Blunt - Back to Bedlam was an album I thoroughly expected to hate, because man James Blunt came in for a lot of stick and didn't impress me at the time, but I actually quite liked this and now I'm wondering whether there was ever anything wrong or it was just fashionable to dig at him? Was it simply the relatively high voice - in which case Scissor Sisters and the like have eclipsed him? Sheer overexposure? I did a bit of research and also found suggestions that his music seems a bit more aimed at the female market, which historically does get people a lot of stick because society (see: musicians that mums like are for rolling eyes at, musicians that dads like are simply out-of-date).

McFly - Wonderland is perfectly tolerable.

David Gray - Life in Slow Motion grates on me - for some reason I find his voice really annoying here and I have to move on.

Katie Melua - Piece by Piece is a nice chilled album with songs that are pleasant to listen to, and I might even end up singing along to with a couple more listens. I intend to find out.

Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better doesn't really strike me as particularly interesting. The song sound quite similar to each other, even down to the beats.

Sugababes - Taller in More Ways is that one with Push the Button, which I have heard approximately 89 billion times. This does not make it bad, just overexposed. It's still catchy. It's a decent album on the whole, the songs seem both catchy and moderately interesting in topic and lyrics.

The Prodigy - Their Law: The Singles 1990–2005... I don't really get it. It's okay, but a bit all over the place?

Robbie Williams - Intensive Care sounds entirely 100% like Robbie Williams, but in one of his more generic moods.

Westlife - Face to Face sounds like Westlife should. It has You Raise Me Up too. This is fine. It's not life-changing or anything, but I enjoy it.

Il Divo - Ancora is classical music and therefore excluded.

Madonna - Confessions on a Dance Floor just wasn't really interesting somehow. It was very repetitive-beat-y and lacked interesting melodic or lyrical patterns. Not her best work, I think.

Eminem - Curtain Call: The Hits has a couple of decent songs, but it's a hits album so that's expected. A lot of it's just not interesting.