Pads & Panels

Artist: Anthony Raneri

Album: New Cathedrals

Label: Gumshoe Records

Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

Anyone who has heard Bayside, love or hate, can agree that Anthony Raneri’s songwriting and vocal style are unique. So a solo effort seems like the logical next step for the singer and songwriter, and Raneri launched an independent label earlier this year to release his first “solo” effort, New Cathedrals, a five-song EP.

Bayside has already gone acoustic, so the first question on everyone’s mind should be, “What does this offer that I’m not getting from a Bayside album?” And the simple answer is diversity. The core of the Bayside style is there, primarily because it is again Raneri’s unique approach taking center stage, and it is most evident in a track like “The Ballad of Bill The Saint,” which feels like it could have fit in on a Bayside album. (more…)

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Artist: Various

Album Title: Transformers: Dark of the Moon – The Album

Record Label: Reprise Records

Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

Just in time for the latest Michael Bay CGI/explosion extravaganza, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Reprise Records released Transformers: Dark of the Moon – The Album, or, as it would be title if being totally honest, Transformers: Songs Maybe Loosely Associated with the Movie. As the back of the case proudly proclaims/admits, “a number of tracks may not be contained in the film.” Either way, they are available now in three formats. (more…)

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Top Staff Music Picks for 2010

All right, so with music, I believe more than video games or film, different genres and sounds relate to different people in so many different ways that it would be absolutely ridiculous, with the general entertainment offerings we provide (i.e. we’re not just a “punk” or “metal” or “pop” site), to create a numbered “Best of” list for music for the year. Instead, with our varied tastes, I challenged our writers to pick one album apiece that stood out to them more than anything else last year, and then explain why and describe it a bit so readers would know where they are coming from in terms of taste. Several answered the call, and these are our recommendations, depending on your tastes, for the album’s that caught our attention in 2010. We hope you enjoy it, and give a few of them a try.

–Bill

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My Chemical Romance

Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys

Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys is My Chem’s follow up to 2006’s widely popular The Black Parade. The theme of this album focuses on the band’s fictional alter egos, the Killjoys, and their exploits in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The songs are decidedly more energetic than with the previous effort, and both vocals and the guitars seem much more confident when compared to past albums. Once I started Danger Days, I immediately noticed it sounds more like an honest-to-goodness rock album. The album’s first single “Na Na Na […]” is a prime example of this, and the fun, up-tempo anthem starts the album off with a bang. While it is true that songs like “Bulletproof Heart” and “Save Yourself, I’ll Hold Them Back” sound like evolutions of the music fans came to love with albums like Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge and The Black Parade, tracks like “Scarecrow” sound far different than anything the band has done before. This track in particular evokes a sound reminiscent of the Beatles, with frontman Gerard Way layering softer and more subdued vocals over the slower-paced track. Although MCR has defiantly changed the feel of its sound, Danger Days is great album that gets better and better with repeated plays, and deserves a spot in any collection. (more…)

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Title: Gran Turismo 5

Platform: PS3

ESRB: E

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Developer: Polyphony Digital

Rating:

Review by: Archie Easter

Five years in the making, Gran Turismo 5 has been long awaited by fans of the racing franchise.  With such a well established pedigree and promises of over 1,000 cars and every form of racing from NASCAR to go-karts being represented in the game, hopes and expectations have been understandably high. Now that series head Kazunori Yamauchi’s racing magnum opus is out on the streets and rolling through living rooms everywhere, the question remains – can the game possibly live up to the hype?

Let’s get this out of the way right now – when it’s firing on all cylinders, GT5 is downright gorgeous. The game’s intricately detailed cars and new weather effects like rain and snow are faithfully reproduced and combine to create instances of near photo-realism. In addition, more than 200 of the cars have modeled interior dashboards so that players can actually use a more immersive cockpit view while driving. While many of the cars look amazing, a possible side effect of the game’s large stable of vehicles was that there are a couple of models that noticeably suffer from lower resolution textures. (more…)

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Title: Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite

Writer: Gerard Way

Artist: Gabriel Ba

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

Umbrella Academy’s debut trade, Apocalypse Suite, opens with wrestler “Tusslin’ Tom” Gurney winning a championship belt. He does so by dropping an atomic flying elbow on a space squid from Rigel X-9. And the scene is set for the wackiness that is the creation of My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way and artist Gabriel Bá (Casanova). (more…)

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