Customer Reviews

Arts & Crafts - 2009 Label Sampler

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

 

 

Three 1 star reviews? Complaining about 30 second previews? People, you can download it for FREE and listen to the whole thing! Clue-sticks needed.

Now, about the sampler, not a great package. A few interesting tracks. Maybe one or two artists I'll look at further. If I was promoting my label, I think I would gather stronger material overall. But it did expose me to artists I hadn't heard before. That's the job of a sampler. It's not 5 star, but better than 1 star.

It's a pleasant mixed bag. If you like Brian Eno you may like the new age/ambient instrumental of Bell Orchestre's Icicles Bicycles (I did). And I liked The Major Lift, another nice alt instrumental. And Los Campesinos, which is on par with a lot of the current post-punk sound. And probably more here ...

There is a lot of bad free music on Amazon MP3, but I think this sampler fits into the better half of it. It's a really laid back sampler, and not all of the songs are very original, but most of them are still pretty listenable, and a few are actually quite unique. My favs are "We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed", "Neon Blue" and "Our Age".

People that start bands don't so it for the heck of it. And for the most part they are passionate about what they record and how it sounds. That's why it's a shame how bad the quality of the music on this sampler is. If this record label wants to promote it's products and more importantly it's artists, then what we have here is a dis-service to those same artists. I made it to the third song before deciding to write this. The quality just spews chunks! The second track Phi has so much distortion and wave clipping on the highs, it's almost unbearable to listen to. I've heard better quality from stuff recorded and mixed down in garages and bedrooms than that! Yes, very sad indeed. Maybe they just made it sound crappy because it was free. If I was the bands The Most Serene Republic, or Years, I'd be looking for a new label.

Hey, folks, why are you so keen to trash a FREE sampler here on Amazon? It's FREE. And it's a sampler. If you don't find something you like, try something else. The new Amy Millan track is pretty darn good and her album ain't out till September. I'm also quite enjoying "Fever of the Time" by Zeus. Discovering them here was cheaper than a flight to Toronto. Sure, these freebies can be hit and miss. But can't we all just get along?

The compiler of the CD selected songs that are distinctly varied in style and form from one another but all are for easy listening pleasure. The musical flow from one song to the next is smooth. The sound quality is excellent. The song variations makes this CD never a MONOTONOUS listen, unlike the many CDs now flooding the market whose first to last song almost sounding the same with almost identical backup instrumentation for every song. This CD sounds fresh and worthy to be enjoyed repeatedly for a long time whenever one is tired listening to many monotonous CDs around. I usually rate 4 star a CD with commercial hits. This CD has no hit song yet it deserves a 5 star because I know I will be always listening to it.

Most of the songs just are not that upbeat and there is little here interesting. I love indie music, but this is really not a good CD. Skip this one. The songs are just too droning and boring.

Sorry this sampler is just not very good. The songs are lackluster and mundane. Skip it.

15 songs...all free...and going by the 30 sec previews, only 3 or 4 worth d/l just to see if they're mediocre. Even the Constantines' song was bad.
I wonder why these sound bites can't be 45 sec or 1 min? Who decided on 30 sec. Heck the one song is nothing but the guy talking...

Free is nice but just because it's free doesn't mean it's good. I agree with #1 reviewer. A 30 sec listen is useless...who can tell? A minute or 45 sec would be a bit more useful.