Customer Reviews

Howl

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I knew when I heard the advance cd, people would be a bit upset regarding the departure of the previous two albums' anthems of addrenalin - I was taken back as well, but kinda pleased to see the expansion. I mean, BRMC are talented enough to not rely on the same formulas. To be honest, I shouldn't be rating this album so quickly, but for all the people that think it's sorta terrible, I needed to write a review to counter their motion. This band is great. They still have that Love & Rockets/Jesus & Mary Chain factor working for them - it is just something you will have to sit with instead of instantly saying - I love it...although track 5 is one of their best songs to date.

EXTENDED REVIEW:
Howl is an excellent album that partitions their catalog in two. The best generic description I can come with is Johnny Cash vs. Love & Rockets. The lyrics are brilliant, regarding love, religion and self as the focal points. The music, not a total departure from the previous two, but stripped down to more of an acoustic kickback to contemporary artists like later Dylan. I don't think BRMC was going for any particular sound, nor gave a care about keeping a fan who loved the last two albums. This was about keeping it real in a round about way - and what they are into, NOT what the fans expected them to do, which I totally respect. I don't mind people saying this record is not what they are into, but to say it is terrible means you have no clue to what music is. No offense, but I guess take some.

Wow... where to begin? I am a huge fan of the band's first 2 albums ("B.R.M.C." and "Take Them On, On Your Own"). I knew the buzz was that the new album would be different. I've had the new album since it came out about 2 weeks ago, and have been listening to it quite a bit.

"Howl" (14 tracks, 52 min.) is not just an evolution from the previous sound, but as radical a departure that I can ever recall from a single band. The best way to imagine what this album sounds like it is to picture the band sitting on the back-porch somewhere in the deep, deep South about 100 years ago, and strumming along to some songs, all acoustic if course. The influences of gospel, blues and even country are everywhere. That said, if you can accept that a band can make such a musical departure, you can then start to appreciate the album for what it is, and the inevitable conclusion then is that "Howl" is a terrific album. From the opening sounds of the opener "Shuffle Your Feet", with a gospel choir filling the air, "Holw" is a mood piece that begs repeated listening. "Ain't No Easy Way" (UK single) is a short blast of acoustic jamming, but most songs are pensive ("Fault Line", "Restless Sinner", "Gospel Song" are good examples). This album reminds me in spirit of the "O Brother Where Art Thou?" soundtrack and it's no surprise then that T-Bone Burnett contributed as well to "Howl".

In all, this is a very nice album. If, however, you are looking for more of the sound of the first two BRMC albums, save your money and DON'T buy this. As a separate thought, I am really curious how BRMC is going to take this album on the road. I guess they'll simply have 2 different sets altogether, one for the old stuff, and one for the "Howl" songs. Maybe they'll change outfits as well. It would be appropriate. "Howl" is highly recommended!

This is a strong album that expands this group into a bit larger realm. Not as radical as you might think. Their concerts will have a nice acoustic interlude now. This is good and shows their talent.

There's a couple songs that are Dylanesque and more than a couple that sound like late Lennon Beatles influence. All good.

My favorite songs are Ain't No Easy Way, Shuffle Your Feet, and Devils waitin but none disappont. It's all strong though.

My complaint is with the software that installs when you plug the CD into your PC. It blew up the first time and then tries to copy protect etc. (It's one of the reasons I no longer buy anything Sony besides artists I can't do without, and then I hesitate) If you have an Apple though it rips it perfect and you can then burn from there. (Is there no limits to greed and irritation in this industry?)

Not to mention the fact that you blow on these CD's anymore and they skip. And they expect us not to make copies?

This is not LEGALLY even a Compact Disc! The BBC reports (Nov 4, 2005) that Philips, who defines standards for CDs, is very clear that copy protected "music delivery systems do not count as Compact Discs and cannot use the CD logo." In 2002, Klaus Petri (Philips rep) told Financial Times Deutschland that "those are silver discs with music data that resemble CDs, but aren't".

Apparently this record label is a subsidiary of Sony because Tim Foreman, the bass player of Switchfoot, posted a work around for this disc's style of copy protection (also on Switchfoot's disc under duress) on the Sony music forum. Naturally Sony deleted it. Unfortunately, even with this workaround, the copy protection still gets installed on your computer.

DO NOT ALLOW YOUR COMPUTER TO AUTORUN WHEN YOU PLAY THIS DISC. Also, if you use a username that does not have administrator privileges on your computer the rootkit on the disc may not be able to be installed. But your best bet is NOT to use this disc (or ANY copyprotected SONY disc) on your computer.

This rootkit is the same type of software hackers illegally install on your computer for nefarious purposes and is illegal in some states and a number of nations. It will run on your computer using up CPU power even if the disc is not playing. There is no uninstall provided. You are not warned that it will be installed. (Maybe you are in newer releases, I hear the EULA for the software has been changed online just in the last week. But if your computer is never online you only have the old EULA to read.) It is poorly written code and incompatible with some software, causing freezeups and bluescreens. And if you try to remove it with a spyware tool your computer will all of a sudden not be able to 'find' your CD drive and it will be unusable. For the full story, check out http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-rights.html.

If you are online this rootkit connects you to connected.sonymusic.com and www.sonymusic.com and tells them an id number, apparently identifying the album. So Sony then knows your IP address and what disc you are listening to. This rootkit also hides any files beginning with $SYS$, so if a hacker wants to install software on your computer he can begin the files this way and Sony's software will hide them so you don't find them!

If you use Sony's zip "fix" it reveals the rootkit files, but the 3.4 megabyte "patch" actually updates the rootkit and reinfects your system!

According to one consumer, when he called Sony Tech Support at 212-833-7305 he was transferred to a "very rude" individual who said that he "wasn't even supposed to be talking to me". When the consumer said he "didn't appreciate this unauthorized and apparently illegal modification of my system", he said, "So sue us." So...

In California, if Sony damages your computer, please outline the damage (include the linked article) and file a complaint with the US Department of Justice (http://www.usdoj.gov/), and your state's attorney general (CA: http://caag.state.ca.us/). They are a little more on top of things than most states...

Too bad Sony wants to scare off the very people who are NOT stealing their music online!

SONY
System's Ours! Not Yours!

1) if you want to transfer the songs to your iPod.
2) if you want to make mp3's.
3) if you want to listen to it on your pc.

The cd is copied protected, so you have no rights to it. You have to agree to a restrictive EULA before you are allowed to play it on a PC. You cannot copy the music to your iPod.

If you want this cd, which is very good by the way, purchase it from the iTunes store. Then you have the freedom to copy it to CD, and to copy it to your iPod.

As a side note: Amazon should add a warning label when any music cd is restricted.

Amazon warns you that the CD comes with a security vulnerability. What they don't tell you is that you can't even *play* this CD on a computer without using the bundled software. It's anti-piracy garbage, which means you can't play it, or rip it, without using Sony's onboard junk which creates "licensed" files rather than normal MP3's. I wasted hours figuring out why all the tracks were coming through jumpy and skippy; why the CD plays fine on a CD player, but jitters and garbles on the PC. Now I find I can't even use the files it produces on my portable player.

It's lovely music, a very interesting change of direction for BRMC. But this CD is BS.

I was looking forward to listening to this disc. I had it in my hands shortly after it was released and I was going to buy it until I read on the packaging that it was "Content/Copy-Protected." At that point I put it back in the rack. I refuse to buy discs that compromise my fair use of the music that I'm paying for.

Amazon dropped the ball here by not pointing out that this disc is "Content/Copy-Protected." They only have noted that it's an "Enhanced" disc. Right! If you consider malware an "enhancement," I guess it's "enhanced." If I had purchased this from Amazon I would have returned it as soon as I received it and found that it
had DRM software - malware, really - on it.

RCA's DRM has cost BRMC and a retailer my purchase of this disc.
I'm sure that I won't be the only person not to buy it because of this. I hope someone wakes up and realizes that sales are being lost because of DRM. I hate penalizing artists and retailers because of this garbage, but I'm not going to play along with the RIAA stealing my fair use of music I buy. The RIAA and the MPAA are a bunch of modern day Luddites in my opinion. They refuse to change their outmoded business model. Hopefully, they will go the way of the original Luddites if they continue to attack their own customers.

The one-star rating here has nothing to do with the music on the disc. I never got to hear the disc. This rating is for RCA's treatment of its artists and customers.

If you run Windows XP, do not insert this (or any Sony BMG) CD in your computer. Without prompting for permission, it will install a cloaked 'Root Kit' on your hard drive that can interfere with the proper operation of your computer and leave it vulnerable to hacking and virus attacks. This software is very hard to remove too. This just happened to me. My firewall did not stop it and it destroyed my anti-virus program and several of my system tray applications. VERY BAD STUFF. YOU ARE WARNED. You can search "Sony BMG Rootkit" on one of the big search engines for more information.

Don't buy this album.
This is one of those Sony albums that want you to download their software.
Download this album from itunes or somewhere else. Otherwise you will not be able to even put the tunes on your mp3 player.
No offense to the guys at BRMC - this is a good cd. But please don't let Sony ever do that again.

Most rock stars nowadays get their inspiration from other contemporary rock stars or maybe some of the more imaginative of them have gone as far back as the ancient 80's. But that's about it. Very few of them have an understanding of their craft beyond that and show no interest in gaining an understanding beyond that, especially once the first big check rolls in or the first groupie offers to fondle their bag. It's pretty demoralizing and probably a good explanation as any as to why current rock and roll has been so hideously bland for so many years.

BRMC was never one of those that were bland, though. Perhaps their first two albums didn't exactly revolutionize rock and roll, but they definitely brought a great deal of skill and originality to the genre, which could best be described as kind of a punk/space/psychedelic blend. Both albums rocked pretty hard and were very intense and as good as the first album was, the second was even better. Clearly, this was a band that was going somewhere.

And now this. Wow. To call this a departure is probably the understatement of the year. But you really have to hand it to them: what they did took a tremendous amount of courage. They obviously know that they don't have a huge number of fans yet, and they also must know it is likely that this record is going to turn at least a few of them off. Evidently, they don't care. Make no mistake, this record is a statement. They are not going to wear holes in their jeans, or have perfectly coifed hair, or do five-hundred push-ups a day to make their muscles bulge. They don't want to be pop-stars, trend-setters, or fashion plates. They are, instead, telling the world that they are musicians. Students of music. Practitioners of an art form. This is what they are, and this is what they want to be, and this is what makes them deserving of our attention.

What they have done here is to go back to the rich, early to mid-century heritage of American music. You could describe it variously as folk, country, gospel and, yes, rock, but none of those would be entirely accurate. What it really is, for lack of a better word, is, "Americana." (Interestingly, a reviewer here stated that they were actually going to use that word as part of the album title.) This was also very courageous. Because by doing so, they're not holding themselves up to comparison with some bald, tattooed nitwit who recorded his two-chord thrash album yesterday and will be forgotten tomorrow, they are instead holding themselves up to comparison with mighty luminaries such as Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash, Lead Belly, and literally hundreds of other outstanding American and British musicians past and present.

And it works. Predominantly rhythm acoustic guitar with harmonica, piano, electric guitar, and occasional bass and drum, this album is an outstanding example of classic Americana. These guys have really done their homework. And at least a couple of the tracks are beyond outstanding, they are almost timeless in their appeal. "Fault Line," would be one of those, with its melodic guitar, wistful lyric, and jarring harmonica. "Shuffle your Feet," is a folksy, hand-clapping, foot-stomper, an excellent way to begin the album. "Ain't No Easy Way," with the driving acoustic rhythm, slide-guitar, fiddle and harmonica is either hard-country, southern-rock, early Led-Zeppelin, zydeco or maybe some kind of hybrid of all four: how the heck are you supposed to know? Pure Americana, in any event.

There are a couple of songs here which are distinctive BRMC sorts of things, albeit slower and more acoustic than their usual sound. They are probably not the strongest part of this set. The final song, "The Line," starts off a little too slowly but at about four minutes into this eight minute song it turns into pure gospel--complete with dime-store organ--and is quite mournful and lovely. All it needs is a choir.

Perhaps the best song of all is a song actually entitled, "Gospel Song," which is interesting because it isn't really gospel in the classic musical sense of gospel at all. Oh, it's about Jesus all right: "I will stay with Jesus until I can't stay any more; I will stand with Jesus until I can't take another stone," but it's really more pop or rock, enhanced with a spectacular electric guitar that sounds like they resurrected Jerry Garcia from around 1966.

Perhaps most impressive of all is the amazing fact that BRMC wrote all of these songs themselves. This is almost hard to believe in that at least a couple of them sound like they were written by some legendary figure of the 1940's or 1950's. They are really that good.

Of course this is, in the end, part of their statement. These young men are great musicians and a great band, musically attuned to both the past and present. They are going to be around for a while, and they are going to get better. Hallelujah.