Tag: album reviews

Def Leppard: Hysteria

Scott Gregory, November 2019

Love is like a bomb, baby, c’mon get it on

Livin’ like a lover with a radar phone

Lookin’ like a tramp, like a video vamp

Demolition woman, can I be your man?

Despite similar hairstyles in the 80s, Def Leppard and Celine Dion are worlds apart when it comes to love ballads, but if you caught from last month’s review I already had hair metal on the mind, this pick might not be as big a surprise for you.

Not only did Def Leppard help form the vanguard of the 80s British heavy metal scene, they were at ground zero for the creation of the MTV generation. It’s hard to imagine anyone who hit their teens back then not running into these guys on TV or radio weekly if not daily. And if you worked in a mall with piped-in music, god help you.

I was tempted to go with Pyromania from 1983, but so much happened to the band between then and when their next album, Hysteria, released in 1987. I eventually went with Hysteria because it’s really the first album with their crystalized sound, and seemed to excite and piss off fans in equal parts. It introduces the new electronic elements needed to accommodate drummer Rick Allen losing his arm in a car crash, and Mutt Lange really went all out in the production of a locked down, masterfully crafted album.

They say the intention was to create a similar to Michael Jackson’s Thriller, where every song could be a single, and the fact seven of the twelve tracks actually did chart shows how successful they were in this goal. Rolling stone ranks the album in their top 500 of all time, and the top hair metal album of all time.

So step inside, walk this way, you and me babe, hey hey. Join the Sonic Collective this November in head banging to Def Leppard’s 1987 album Hysteria. Rock on dudes and dudettes.

Def Leppard, Hysteria

Spotify

Apple Music

Wikipedia

Def Leppard doing a perfect cover of Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus

Celine Dion: Falling Into You

Alain Dupuis, October 2019

This is not a joke.
We are absolutely listening to Celine Dion this month.

I’ve been threatening everyone with this for a while, and now, as the leaves turn yellow and the cold October air brings with it the looming threat of another Canadian winter, the time has come!

I fully expect this to be a polarizing one, but those are some of the most enjoyable and interesting episodes of The Sonic Collective, as far as I’m concerned. So strap in, bucko. We’ve got ourselves a damn album to review!

Back in 1996, Celine Dion released Falling Into You, an album which eventually came to sell 32 million copies. Let that sink in. THIRTY-TWO MILLION COPIES. It’s one of the best-selling albums of all time, so how could we not review it at some point? I won’t even mention all the awards Dion managed to take home as a result of this album. Needless to say, regardless of our personal feelings now or at the end of the month when it’s review time, history suggests that people seemed to really appreciate the music of Celine Dion in the 90s.

Indeed, Falling Into You is a heavy-hitter that received a lot of radio and television play thanks in no small part to singles like It’s All Coming Back To Me Now, Because You Loved Me, and of course the title-track, Falling Into You. The album also contains a number of notable covers.

What I find particularly interesting is that despite the incredibly impressive sales-figures and innumerable radio-plays, this was a critically mixed album. Billboard, AllMusic, and Entertainment Weekly gave it positive reviews, while the LA Times and Rolling Stone Album Guide gave it very unfavourable reviews. It makes me wonder what the Sonic Collective’s final consensus is going to be. Tune in at the end of the month to see for yourself. And better yet, join us along for the ride! Listen to the album then let us know what you think in the comments, or on Facebook, or Twitter, or SoundCloud. Good pick? Bad pick? We wanna hear from you!

That’s it… we’re finally doing this, fellas! Grab yourselves a pumpkin-spiced latte, because autumn has arrived, it’s my turn to pick, and the only thing that can warm my icy-cold heart is some mid-90s power ballads from the queen of Can-Con, Celine Dion.

album reviews celine dion falling into you monthly picks

Radiohead: Kid A

I’ve never listened to an entire Radiohead album.
I really like Creep.
I’ve heard a couple other songs, but they didn’t resonate.
I feel Radiohead is a band I won’t like, will be a bit too weird, but I’m not sure why?
I semi-reluctantly selecting Radiohead’s Kid A as my pick for August 2019, fearing I won’t like it, which will make for a long August. But the time for a Radiohead experience has come.

They most recently came to attention while reading a list of Best Albums to Listen to High and Kid A was right at the top. Searching ‘Best Radiohead Albums’, many other sites also listed Kid A as their best.

This, the band’s fourth studio album, was released on October 3, 2000, and incorporates electronic elements, drum machines, and was influenced by Brian Eno (someone I really like) among others. Interestingly, the band released no singles or videos for Kid A, instead relying solely upon the Internet to promote its release, something highly unusual at the time. It won a Grammy for Best Alternative Album and in 2012, Rolling Stone ranked it number 67 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Strap in for Kid A and lets see where it takes us!

Other albums considered this month: