Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
not as bad as you might think, July 23, 2008
i just recently got into electro but i found this album to be pretty good. i am not a hardcore jxl fan so i don't have much nostalgia about his previous albums. to be fair, it is not the most interesting electro that i've heard but i gave it five stars because i really believe it deservees a higher rating. i personally enjoy the "obnoxious" tunes and also the lo-fi synth parts because i love the grungy, buzzy, hip-hoppy electro. and that is exactly what this is. also, this seems to be a very danceable album. i liked it.
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5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Basically Garbage, March 19, 2008
At first listen, when skimming over this disc I thought there might've been promise. None of the tracks really jumped out at me as being bad, but at the same time nothing struck me as particularily good either. After the 2nd listen (the 1st full listen really) I knew I'd made a terrible mistake picking this CD up.
...This is Junkie XL? What happened? There are honestly only a handful of tracks worth checking out on this album, the rest is this god awful regurgitated electro sound that we've already heard plenty before & I don't remember anyone being particularly fond of it in the 1st place. The majority of this album sounds like something you'd hear off one of Oakenfold's studio albums; just kinda corny, drab, poppy, recycled electro house. Maybe something from Hyper's studio's album or a really bad Mylo wannabe. Not stuff that I can imagine anyone getting overly excited over aside from the few mindless souls that'll listen to anything so long as it's electronic. Yet reading some of these other reviews you'd think JXL was some kind of musical genius. In the past I agree Junkie's made some great music not the least of which being his collaboration with Sasha on his "Airdrawndagger" album. Listening to that & then listening to this you'd make absolutely no connection between the 2 unless someone told you. One track in particular track #6 "More" (the longest track on the album I might add) will make you wanna violently stab pens & pencils in your ears to stop the musical raping of your ear drums. This has got to be by far one of the stupidest songs in the history of music. I can't imagine anyone (much less JXL) finishing that song and then saying to themselves "Oh ya baby, that's going on my album!!". I mean seriously, how embarassing. They should've titled it "Less" & cut the run time down to 2 seconds. As I mentioned above all the tracks on the album are extremely short too, the longest track (More) clocking in at 6:01 & the rest averaging between 4 & 4:30 minutes. It's unmixed & only 12 tracks long, so there's really no excuse for this other than just sloppy/lazy/lame music. "Stratosphere", "1967 Poem" & "Zage" are all worth a listen, but not at all making the CD's price justifiable. Use whatever DL service you use & check out these particular tracks & even than I'd use caution actually paying for any of these. The rest of the album really is just a big mess. This might've been okay a couple years ago when Electro was really starting to take off, but we've all already heard this before & we've all moved on to bigger & better things since. I know I'll be returning my copy & getting my money back ASAP.
This is the reason electronic music doesn't sell here in the US. This is the mainstream garbage that we line our Electronic Dance sections in our stores with. Are we that brain dead that this is the best that we can come up with when there are SOOOOOOOO Many other artists that never make it to our shores unless we pay the imported price. There's literally a whole genre of music out there that most Americans just don't get to hear & therefore will never understand. So our music stores are litered with garbage & we get Oakenfold, Hyper, DJ Irene, 4 Strings, Darude, ATB & Cicada. It's really kind of sad. Anyway, bottom line, !!!Do Not Buy This Album!!!
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty darn bad, May 6, 2008
My problem may be that I was looking for a reprise to something like his last album, Today, which I thought was very good (also my first JXL album--maybe it was unusual for him and his old stuff sounded more like this one). Some great musical talent and substance in it. This album is bad. It sounds like any number of simply forgettable people who mix in their basement...maybe send a track to friends and their friends go "yeah, it's not bad", but it's simply a hobby to them.
I'm positive that for some songs he used a $69 keyboard from Radioshack (beginning of track 4 really is the worst for that), because it is that bad. One reviewer said his stuff sounded like something from an Oakenfold album, which I think is nuts. Oakenfold can be hit or miss but generally has stuff worth listening to.
I have tried with this one, I really have. It just not good music, let's be honest about it. In fact, the only single good part about the album is in track 2 (cities in dust) at 2:20. It sounds just at that point for about 45 seconds what we had from Today. If being generous, I'll give that track 12 is not bad, either.
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by Junkie XL 
