Closing out the round of Soul selections, the Sonic Collective team shares their thoughts on Van Morrison’s album Saint Dominic’s Preview.
Continue readingReview of Saint Dominic’s Preview: Van Morrison
Review of Dap-Dippin’: Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings
As we continue to explore the musical genre of Soul, Sonic Collective member Alain Dupuis has chosen for us to review Dap-Dippin’ with Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. This album was released in 2002, but you’d never know it by listening to it. As part of the Brooklyn soul revivalist movement that kicked off in the early 2000s, this album sounds like it belongs straight out of the 1960s.
Continue readingReview of The Mirror Conspiracy: Thievery Corporation
Essentially a two person ‘band’, Eric Hilton and Rob Garza wrote, produced, and recorded this on their own, with guest Pam Bricker featured on a few tracks.The gang was not united in their feelings about our pick for February, Thievery Corporation’s, The Mirror Conspiracy, which was originally released in 2000. Half of us loved it, while the other half were not so enthusiastic and for a variety of reasons.
Continue readingReview of Erykah Badu: Baduizm
To kick off the new year, and our 8th year of The Sonic Collective, our four members have decided to select an influential album within the genre of soul. The first selection from member Darren Scott is the highly regarded Baduizm album from Neo Soul artist Erykah Badu.
Listen along to hear what we thought of this album and if we felt it stood the test of time. We may have also made fun of Adam Levine, but he probably deserves it.
Continue readingReview of Garbage: Garbage
Here’s our review of our pick for December, 2021. Dig into the discussion of Butch Vig’s production and Shirley Manson’s lyrics. There’s a good chance if you were listening to music in the 90s, you’ll recognize the mashup of styles and sounds Garbage blends together.
Continue readingReview of NERO: Welcome Reality
Here’s our review of our pick for November 2021, Welcome Reality by NERO. This is the debut album for this electronic group, released in 2011. Have a listen to hear what we thought of it.
Continue readingReview of Brian Eno: Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks
Here’s our review of our pick for October 2021, Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks by Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno, which is the ninth solo studio by British Eno and was released in 1983. It was a collaboration with his brother and Canadian Daniel Lanois. Have a listen to hear what we thought of it.
Continue readingReview of Public Image: First Issue
Many music fans know of the punk revolution in the late 1970s that highlighted the band The Sex Pistols and their eccentric, passionate and often blasted-on-drugs-and-alcohol lead man, Johhny Lydon, aka Johhny Rotten. Johhny was quite jaded and was upset at how the Sex Pistols ended and wanted to make his own music. Cue his new band, Public Image. For September 2021, Sonic Collective member Darren Scott selected this first Public Image, soon to be Public Image Ltd. album, First Issue. It’s raw, it’s angry, it’s experimental, it’s post-punk, and it pushed our reviewers to the edge. Listen to our review of this 1978 album and hear how it stands up against the test of time and our musical palates.
Continue readingFour Bands People Love to Hate: The Reviews
For August 2021, we’ll take a closer look at four bands who find themselves in that category. The bands? In no particular order, Creed, Limp Bizkit, Dave Matthews Band, and of course, Nickelback.
Continue readingReview of Björk: Homogenic
For July 2021, Sonic Collective member Scott Gregory chose to review the pride of Iceland, Bjork’s 3rd studio album, Homogenic. None of the four of us within the Sonic Collective had ever listened to any full album from Bjork, so we were intrigued. Listen and you will find out why all four of us respected the artistry, we just had a rough time trying to understand and get into the album. In what scenario can you put this album on? What the heck is going on in the track Pluto? Is Bjork an alien from Bladerunner movies? To learn the answer to all of these questions, please listen along and visit us at TheSonicCollective.com for full show notes, links and media. Enjoy … we didn’t. Sorry Birch Tree lady.
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