Brief Reviews

Here are a few albums that I have listened to lately, but do not have strong opinions about them one way or another.


As Far As the Eye Can See by People in Planes.
Judging albums by their cover and title is a bad thing to do, but I really thought any CD with graphics this cool must contain a lush modern rock outfit with sweeping songs and tight harmonies like Ivy. Still, this is a solid effort and there are some atmospheric songs here, though People in Planes features guitar driven pop/rock with some artistic embellishments.


Young for Eternity by The Subways.
The Subways do a good job bouncing between high energy rock songs and mellower ballads. As expected with this type of band they are incredibly over-produced, but these British youngsters have created a more listenable album from top to bottom than many of the “garage rock” (I’m using this term very loosely) revival bands.

Tourist by Athlete.
The Britpoppers return from the solid debut of Vehicles and Animals. They streamlined their sound for the new CD, losing some of their quirkiness musically and lyrically. This is still a decent album in the vein of Coldplay, but it’s an average effort at best.


Everything Is by Nine Black Alps.
Comparing bands to Nirvana is mean and unscrupulous…but…well…these guys sound like Nirvana. This is fun and rocks hard. It’s basically Nirvana if Kurt was not introspective and only cared about creating catchy, radio-friendly tunes.