Album reviews

“Favourite Worst Nightmare” by Arctic Monkeys

The bad boy British Rockers’ new album is one to behold. In simplicity, this album grabs on from the intro and never lets go, wailing and shredding the whole way through. A first listen through the album led down a tricky road in understanding just what the group was about, other than rocking out with power chords. It’s the lyrical mastery though that really drives the songs in addition to the intensity; the vocalist isn’t fantastic and he doesn’t have to be. As a follow-up to their first album (“Everything they say I am, I’m Not”), which had much acclaim, this album is on par but does not surpass it. This hopefully won’t be a declining trend for the band. Overall, a superb album.

Songs I Recommend: “D is for Dangerous,” “If You Were There,” “Beware,” “This House is a Circus.

“Zeitgeist” by The Smashing Pumpkins

The sixth album in the Pumpkins’ line, performed only by Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlain, is the band’s first album in seven years; that’s a hell of a tag line to an album. Believe it or not though, it meets the hype. The album as a whole is easily recognizable as early Pumpkins in the punk scene and not the Eva Adore Pumpkins we became familiar with in the late 90’s. The album has 3 singles which never really succeeded on the charts, though “Tarantula” was the closest to reaching the top with a #2 slot on the Billboard charts. On a whole, the album was good and each song was its own individual experience. However, there was definitely some drag on the songs “United States” and “Pomp and Circumstance.” There was a lot of potential to be tapped with this alum which unfortunately wasn’t reached, but it is definitely worth it to shell out the dough and buy the album. If you never liked the Pumpkins, this album is not any kind of recreation of the band and it brings back most of the original style of the early years minus James Iha and D’arcy Wretzky. I highly recommend this album to anybody though and hope that maybe some of the negativity with the Pumpkins can be shaken off with their latest.

Songs I Recommend: “Bring the Light,” “Doomsday Clock,” “Tarantula,” “7 Shades of Black.”