Customer Reviews

Anti Sampler 2009

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In my experience with Amazon's samplers I usually find that while there may be a gem or two as far as song quality, the recording quality and/or production quality leave something to be desired.

That's not the case with Anti Sampler 2009...for once, those of you who care about the sound quality of your music can rest assured that you won't run into too many problems here...in fact, many of these recordings equal those of better known, big label artists.

The other highlight of this compilation is that the majority of these songs are new releases...no attempts here to sell you on songs that are 5 or 10 years old. I did some homework and found that the original release dates of all but three of the tracks are indeed 2009 material, and four of these song's albums haven't even been released yet...that's what a sampler is supposed to be in my opinion...a sampling of NEW music from some of the label's artists. (I was unable to find info on the Aggrolites' "It's Gonna Be Okay").

As you can tell from the previews, the genres here are so diverse it would be nearly impossible to find them all to your liking...we've got Alt-country from Neko Case and Jolie Holland, Blues-folk from Ramblin' Jack Elliott and William Elliot Whitmore, Reggae/Ska from Westbound Train and The Aggrolites, some gospel-R&B and R&B/Soul, and the rest falling somewhere in the Alternative Rock category. It wouldn't be right of me to 'rate' many of these songs simply because the styles of music aren't my thing, but even in the genres of my interest, something feels lacking in terms of song quality.

Neko Case's and Julie Holland's offerings are good but not great, Jason Lytle's "Brand New Sun" has a decent chorus...and I like the crisp but warm guitar work, but he mixes in some ear-turning synthesizers that don't seem to fit the otherwise folk/rock tone. I find Michael Franti's deep, raspy vocals to my liking on "Hey World", and the song is okay, but it doesn't have me doing any cartwheels over it.

The lone bright spot for me song-wise is "I'm Sorry, Baby But You Can't Stand..." by Bob Mould...a great song from beginning to end, and one of the least 'alternative' tracks on the sampler. It's the only song that left me wanting to explore the artist further, which is the ultimate goal of a sampler.

Hopefully you'll have better luck with these songs than I did...like I said, the sound quality here is excellent and you can clearly comprehend what these artists are attempting to deliver because of it. It's great that they've set this up so you can download each track separately...with so much variety there's little chance of the desire to download it as an album. 5 stars for recording/production and giving us the latest releases...2 stars for questionable song quality. Overall grade: C+

It's hard to argue with free, but if the purpose of a free sampler is to get you to check out an artist's other albums, then this collection falls short. If the only tracks you ever heard by soul legends Mavis Staples or Booker T were these, you might be tempted to miss out on some true classics... and if the only Aggrolites cut you heard was this one, you'd think I was crazy to cross state lines to see them.

Bottom line: worth a listen, but replay value is questionable.

Anti had a good chance to promote their artists but I think the song quality isn't there and they fell short. In my opinion, Anti is full of great artists and for maybe reasons of being stingy? held out on some better songs, not saying they should of put out their best but comeon...

Check this CD especially for the song "Check Your Time" of Westbound Train - you will like this song. The songs "Hey World" and "Talking Old Soldiers" are also exceptional selections in this free CD. Thank you, Amazon.