09-27-03 @ 3:15 am EDT

Lookie what I found at Wal-Mart last night! ^_^

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000C9ZL8/ref=m_art_bow_1/102-4787474-4610562?v=glance&s=music

It's finally out! YEE! :D

All right...now that I got the darn thing (and I think I can safely say this must have been the first time I've ever snatched up a CD for the sake of snatching up a CD...because they don't have it on cassette, naturally), I have to hold off on my OFFICIAL opinion of it. I've listened to all the songs only once so far, and my first impression opinion is that: It's NOT as good as Everything You Want. That's not to say it's bad; just that it doesn't live up to their last album. *shrug* It happens. You'll notice I never even mention their previous albums. That's because I listened to samples of one at Amazon once and HATED it. It was not the same guy singing on lead vocals, and the musical style was completely different. Hence I prefer to pretend older albums do not exist, that Everything You Want is their "first" album. *plugs ears and sings la la la*

But anyway, while I'm a TAD disappointed, it's not a total waste. It was worth it just for "I'm Still Here" (the lyrics to which I got SLIGHTLY wrong in my older entry--then again I got those from a Japanese lyrics site before the album and thus the liner notes were released, so can you blame me?); and the very first song, "When You Cry," is very good also. A few more of the songs have the POTENTIAL to be good, with a few more listens. And then there are a few I'm iffy on; just not sure. You see, with music, I often have to listen to something a few times before I can really appreciate it. (There are some exceptions, like with "I'm Still Here" itself, but more often than not I have to listen more than once.)

I remember this happening back when I got Rhythm Of The Pridelands. This is a very unusual album which spun off of The Lion King soundtrack. None of the songs are from the movie. There's even a completely different version of "Hakuna Matata." ONE song IS sung by the characters Timon and Pumbaa ("Warthog Rhapsody"--it would've been great in the movie), but most of the rest is by Lebo M and an ethnic African ensemble. I bought it because, hell, it had to do with The Lion King. Back then I bought ANYTHING that had to do with The Lion King!

The first time I listened to it...I wasn't quite sure what I thought. It was...different. :/ It was not the TLK soundtrack, and that was bothersome because I ADORE the soundtrack. Rather, it was inspired by the soundtrack, and some of the music was much like that in the movie score. (The same tunes, in fact, only now with words included--in Swahili, I think.) So I was not really disappointed or anything, but I was kind of confused. So I just listened to it again, and again...

Today, Rhythm Of The Pridelands is one of my very favorite albums. I will even dare to say it is BETTER than the original soundtrack, if only because most of the music (with the exception of "Warthog Rhapsody," obviously!) stands on its own and can be listened to out of context; whereas most of the music from the soundtrack makes little sense if you haven't seen the movie. (Though the title songs, "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" and "Circle Of Life," stand well enough alone. The rest don't, for obvious reasons.) I sometimes play soundtrack maker in my head, and list what songs I would like in my OWN stories if they were movies, and this is one album I pilfer from often. ^_^;

So...er...what does a Disney movie have to do with Vertical Horizon? Beats me, I think I forgot the point I was making. O_o Okay. What I think I'm saying is that I might just have to listen to Go (oops, that's the new Vertical Horizon album title, can't believe I forgot to mention that!--they could have come up with a better album title, IMO :/ ) a few more times before I can truly begin to appreciate it. Often, one gains a greater appreciation of music when they MEMORIZE THE WORDS. (Yes, I can sing the Swahili words to some of the songs from the Pridelands album...*cringe* >_< )

Meaning, I'll just try to acclimate myself to the album before I can really comment on if I like it or not. I do know already that I like "When You Cry" and "I'm Still Here." Iffy on a few of the others. Even with Everything You Want, there were a few songs I didn't care for as much...it wasn't until the past month or so that I began to truly love "All Of You," a song I had previously not cared for. (At the time of this writing the only songs I don't care for on that album are "You Say" (which I can tolerate, but it doesn't do anything for me) and "Shackled" (it's THE WRONG DAMN GUY SINGING THE SONG! SHUT HIM UP, MATT SCANNELL!)

There was a review I found on the page above at Amazon which I found interesting; it picked up on a few of the things I noticed myself on first hearing the album. I would not be QUITE so harsh as to give them three stars only, especially on only one hearing; but the reviewer made some good points. Hm. I was going to post that review here, but...it's suddenly gone! :? That's odd, I just read it a little bit ago and now it's not there anymore. How strange. Well, basically the reviewer said that after a while, most of the songs started to sound alike. And I have to agree on that--they do, to an extent. The very first time I heard "I'm Still Here" on the radio, even before the DJ announced it was Vertical Horizon's new song, I recognized the familiar guitar sounds; they were what caught my attention, even if I did not consciously associate them with Vertical Horizon at first. There's something distinctive about their music, at least on their last two albums, and yes, their songs start to sound the same.

Not that I'm complaining. O.O Hey, if it works, it works, right?

Well, that was my semi-review or whatever, and I just got distracted looking at the official Vertical Horizon website so I'd best go now...tar.

(Thank you P. and S. for the comments on the reincarnation of Skew!)