valen

Blossom's birthday is tomorrow. I just picked up part of her girft this morning. I'm not going to say what it is, but I'm sure whe will be talking about it in her journal later.

KSU starts on Monday. God help us all.

Here is my #7 Album:

Dredg - El Cielo

"After four years of waiting, Dredg's follow up to 1998s Leitmotif has finally hit the stores. For those of you unfamiliar with the band, Leitmotif was one of the most artistic pieces of rock released in the past five years, a concept album so imaginative that every pressing of it was sold out until Interscope picked up the band and rereleased it. The hype for El Cielo has been enormous and the pressure of releasing another fantastic release is definitely there, especially amongst the die-hard fan base the band has accumulated.

Simply put, El Cielo is music for the seasons and immediately establishes Dredg, once again, as a band to watch. It's an album almost too good for the underground, laden with colorful guitar playing, tight drumming, driving bass and beautiful vocals. If anything, Dredg has reached a creative level in two releases that some musicians take years to develop: a sound that is uniquely theirs and almost indescribably beautiful. The influences on this record range all over the place: jazz drumming, emotional yet clear singing and the perfect syncopation of bass and guitar that few other bands (Radiohead and U2, as examples) can match.

Like Leitmotif, this is another concept album. Instead of going in an entirely new direction, El Cielo feels like the awakening from the sleep/paralysis that the narrator was stuck in during Leitmotif and his encounters with other people. It is the response to Leitmotif, and each song corresponds with its respective journal entry and flows aurally with the words in it. This album is a reaction to the events of Leitmotif, and aurally is a reaction to Leitmotif as well: gone is the screaming, the grind of the guitars, the ambient noise. Songs are their own sonic journies that flow beautifully: guitars take on ambient personalities, bass and drum flow, and the likes. Pretty much every track is a keeper, while the Brushstrokes serve as interludes between each "movement" in the CD." - Amazon.com

By the way, I will be going to see Dredg perform on the 28th of this month in Nebraska. I can't wait.

08 - Fleetwood Mac - The Dance
09 - Dream Theater - Scenes From A Memory
10 - The Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie