2011 Music Review: Hot Sauce Committee Part Two

The guy who posts a review once every 6 months is writing two in one day, look at that

Yeah this was really overdue. The death of Adam Yauch in May was depressing news, especially for me as now I can't ever see the Beastie Boys live. Not only that, but we probably won't ever be getting part one of the Hot Sauce Committee. I was originally going to post a review after I heard of his death, but didn't probably due to time restraint. Well, I'm doing it now, so here we go, let's review one of my favourite music artists of the alltimes eh

After the shambles of an instrumental album that was The Mix-Up, the Beastie Boys jumped back into action with Hot Sauce Committee Part Two. In terms of sound and content, this album sounds more like a Hello Nasty Part Two. It's full of popping and driving electro beats and subject-less lyrics. The seriousness of lyrical content appears again on tracks such as Too Many Rappers, but overall this is a much more relaxed recording, as it should be. 

Unfortunately, this album has a bit of filler towards the end. Now, I know you might say that Ill Communication had filler every track (it really f*cking didn't, you're just not listening to it properly), but the filler on this album is chucked onto the end of the album, making it dim down as compared to actually propelling towards an actual ending. This is a shame, as Hot Sauce Committee Part Two is a really enjoyable recording if you discount this, but I've never enjoyed having to stop an album because it reached a point where I was getting uninterested.

Overall though, it isn't an interesting Beastie Boys album. They have better recordings in every other album, (except the Mix-Up of course. Don't listen to that.), but that said I still enjoy it. It has managed to avoid sounding too old fashioned, which, may I add, is astounding for a hip-hop group. So kudos to the Beastie Boys for recording interesting material for more than 20 years, it's something that no other hip-hop musician has been able to do so well.

Composition - Neeeeh. It is the worst composed Beastie Boys recording.

5/10

Structure - It's aite. Gets boring toward the end though.

7/10

Creativity - Hip-Hop isn't a creative genre by any means (but I would say that). Go and find out for yourself.

9/10

Lyrics - Funky motherf*cking Donkey!

8/10

RIP Adam Yauch. I will remember you for wearing clothes that didn't fit you properly and being there for me all 2012. Wait, I think I've said too much

2011 Music Review: The Whole Love

I'm going to try and squeeze as many reviews for 2011 as I can before the new year. There's still a fair few recordings that I want to write about. So the next one is The Whole Love by Wilco.

So basically, before I delve right into this, I'm no huge Wilco fan. I've never took any of their other albums seriously and still have trouble doing so. That actually goes for their songs too, I don't really know any of them. I don't know any of the band members, any fellow fans of their music, yet here I am writing a review for their album. Okay lets get started.

The Whole Love... is an album about love. A lot of love, and given the title, that's what you would expect. However, it hits the barrier between pop lyrics and an alt. rock style quite nicely. However, it is neither a pop album or an alt. rock album, it's neither too focused to be either of those. Instead it sits nicely in the good old genre of indie, but given Wilco formed around a time where alt. rock bands were flying up and down, it's very hard to give them a definite style, especially here.

The album doesn't constantly push the barriers of rock though. Most of the songs stick to one sound, with The Art of Almost being the closest to something experimental. This does not let the album down much at all, as it still bounces and has a good feel to it.

Composition - Good. Very good. There are some tracks that sound a bit off, but the general composition of the whole album leaves you very little room to nitpick.
9/10

Structure - Erm, it's alright. Wilco played it safe with the structure. But hey; safe is sound!
8/10

Creativity - I don't know. I haven't heard any other Wilco albums properly other than Wilco, The Album, so it's a little unfair to judge how creative this is compared to their other stuff. As a general rule of thumb however, I don't see acres of creativity being ploughed into this recording. It's definitely not experimental for an 8th album or whatever number it is.

Lyrics - Bland, generic, you know, the usual. I will admit that they do fit in well.
6/10