A bunch of fantastic artists dropped new albums this past month of September. P!nk, The Killers, Green Day, Mumford & Sons, Imagine Dragons, etc… There was a plethora of brilliance that hit the music industry. Here are some albums that you should pick up:
I had bought the Imagine Dragons “Continued Silence EP” earlier in the year and this full album, their first, is an awesome blend of heavy beats with alternative rock. Sometimes that’s a weird blend. “Radioactive,” the album’s opening track, uses those heavy beats (an almost dubstep sound) throughout. Meanwhile, tracks like “It’s Time” end up summoning a more “Mumford & Sons” sound (this is definitely a good thing).
This album gets a 4/5 for me. I’m excited to hear more from them.
I am a devout Matthew West fan. I think he’s one of the most talented songwriters in our day and age. Each consecutive album he’s released has just been better and better. After “Story of Your Life,” an album completely inspired by stories that people sent in, I was eager to listen to “Into the Light,” for the same reasons. “Forgiveness,” “Do Something,” and “We Are The Broken” are some of my favorite tracks throughout. He just knows how to write songs that speak to people whilst still having them “sing-along-able.” :] He’s 4 for 4 on albums in my book.
This one gets a 5/5 from me. One of my favorite albums of all time.
¡Uno! is a return to the sound of old for Green Day. This is a heavier album than both American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown. There are no ballad tracks to be heard on this outing. ¡Dos! and ¡Tres! will be out in the months to come, and maybe those may have some of the sound of the two concept albums, but this is still a great set of tracks for the band. “Nuclear Family” has the sarcastic/anti-authority bite we’ve come to expect from the band. “Kill the DJ” is one of those tracks that places Green Day firmly into the pop-punk genre that they’ve played around with in the past.
3/5 here. Waiting for the next two companion albums to thrill me.
After the release of the single “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)” and the leak of “The King is Dead (But the Queen is Alive)” I was incredibly excited for a new outing from P!nk. Funhouse was a phenomenal album and I wanted more of it. The Truth About Love is of course, a more “love” oriented album. My favorite track for now is “True Love.” It’s a poppy piano blend about the trials of loving/hating someone at the same time; the struggles of any relationship. “Slut Like You” brings the heavy rock sound of yore to the album whilst “Beam Me Up” brings the ballad. This album is a fantastic outing by P!nk, but in my opinion, Funhouse is still her best album to date.
4/5 here.
The Killers always aim to please and this album is no different. This is the album that has been making the most rounds through my media players and headphones. It’s fairly difficult to find a track on the album that’s merely decent, because they’re all so GREAT. “Flesh and Bone,” “Be Still,” “Here With Me,” “Battleborn;” the hits keep coming throughout the album. I also got the deluxe edition, and those three tracks offer some great additions to the album as well, with “Prize Fighter” being my favorite track of the whole album. “Battleborn,” the title track, has a weird effect, in which the sound becomes louder (like, volume-wise) midway through the track, seemingly for no reason. I downloaded it multiple times just to see if it was me and it wasn’t. This only detracts a little bit though. The Killers once again released a stroke of brilliance into the music arena.
This one earns a 5/5 from me. Albums don’t get much better than this.
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I haven’t had a chance to listen to Mumford & Sons’ “Babel” or No Doubt’s new album, among other ones that were released. If you have, let me know what tracks I need to listen to first, or whether or not I need to pass them up altogether! Sound off in the comments!
The Muse Is Strong In This One 