For Lack of a Better Name

Deadmau5 | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 22, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ultra Records
• ASIN: B002JODUI4
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,041 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #24 in Music > Dance & DJ > Electronica
  • #96 in Music > Pop > Dance Pop > General AAS

Track Listings

1. FML

2. Moar Ghosts N Stuff

3. Ghosts N Stuff (ft. Rob Swire)

4. Hi Friend!

5. Bot

6. Word Problems

7. Soma

8. Lack Of A Better Name

9. The 16th Hour

10. Strobe

Editorial Reviews

In less than two years this Canadian-based whiz kid has gone from near obscurity to receiving numerous accolades. This Grammy-nominated, Juno award-winning electronic music sensation debuted as #11 of the top 100 DJ's in the world! Now he's about to unleash "For Lack of A Better Name", the follow-up to his critically acclaimed 2008 debut "Random Album Title". Here DEADMAU5 takes a different turn by incorporating various styles of music into multi-blocks of songs. The surefire hit from the number one-selling artist on Beatport and the most in-demand producer in electronic music today!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Album!, August 21, 2010

By 

Gary Peterson (San Diego, California USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: For Lack of a Better Name (Audio CD)

I enjoy electronica music, and have for at least the last 10 years. It's a manufactured type of music constructed largely with the use of computers and some old-fashioned music lovers feel that nothing but acoustical music using actual instruments is the only true music. Well, so what? I'd say that almost any interesting and amusing sounds put together in a structured manner and played for the enjoyment of an audience might be considered music, and electronica is just exactly that. Some of the composers are artists and musicians second to none and I strongly suspect that electronica will become an ever-increasing fraction of the total musical output.

So, if I enjoy electronica music, where might I go to find interesting sources of information about such music? Well, I'm 74 and rarely go to hip concerts dominated by young people and, likewise, I'm not a part of the club scene. Let's face it, people of my age just don't listen to electronic music and if I discuss it with them I draw nothing but blank stares. My wife (29) likes electronica and we share quite an overlap in listening to dance music, but her tastes tend to lean more toward electro pop and bubblegum, whereas I'm more interested in the hardcore electronica dance music. My best source of purchasing information has been the Amazon computer. It analyzes my past purchases and wanderings and offers interesting suggestions for what I might like. I've found some excellent recordings in this way. A second source is listening to my XM car radio and I'm partial to the BPM dance channel. I was listening a couple weeks ago and picked up some wonderful stuff by Deadmau5 (pronounced Deadmouse). I ordered the "For Lack of a Better Name" the Next day.

The Deadmaus5 CD is an excellent recording and I've enjoyed it very much. It's real beat-heavy stuff with a wonderful and highly varied rhythmic background. The sound is crisp and clear and nicely mixed. Voices and vocals are a minor part of the total recording except on a few of the early tracks. In some places, voices are used somewhat like strange musical instruments. Plus, there's all sorts of other strange sounds. In some places the mood is gloomy and funeral like, but even that is fun. It's excellent dance music, that's for sure, and fun to listen to also. I'd say the listening experience in some places is closer to listening to some types of classical music than popular music. Some people call it Progressive House or Electro House, but I disdain using these micro-genre classifications. It's quite excellent quality electronic music, that's what it is, and it shows a lot of talent and musicianship on the part of those who put it together. Bravo! I guess it's been given and nominated for a bunch of awards, and that's easy to understand. One listen is all it takes. I'd say that it vaguely reminds me of some of the early music of Matthew Dear, one of my other favorite electronica composers. Sorry, I really don't have any other comparisons. "For Lack of a Better Name" is just an excellent album and stands alone in my book and I'll be looking into a few other Deadmau5 offerings.

The sound quality of this CD is quite high, but to fully appreciate it you'll need to have good playback equipment. I have a 100-watt per channel stereo with 7 speakers including two 12" woofers and an 80-watt powered subwoofer. I like to play the CD at fairly high, but still comfortable, volume. In that way, I feel the dramatic bass and the higher notes come across as light, delicate and playful. My system is minimal. If you ever get the chance, play this CD on a high-end system. It's just awesome!

Gary Peterson.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but suffers in a few key areas as an album, December 30, 2010

By 

Steward Willons (Illinois) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: For Lack of a Better Name (Audio CD)

After listening to 4x4=12, I decided to re-evaluate my opinion of Deadmau5's earlier work. It follows thusly:

The opening FML is interesting and serves as a sort of prologue with some dramatic, non-4/4 drums taking us into some familiar territory around the mid point, at which point we're solidly in Deadmau5's world. "Moar Ghosts 'N' Stuff" is a pretty forgettable dance number - great beat, but little melodic interest here. However, it leads into "Ghost 'N' Stuff," which is a nice vocal tune. Sure, the lyrics aren't anything special, but it's definitely a solid track.

Keeping the energy high, "Hi Friend!" is another vocal track. It is more melodically simple, but the intensity gets amped up with a perpetually ascending synth noise - the sort that doesn't exactly fit within the tonal structure of the music, but works nonetheless.

"Bot" follows taking the energy down a bit with a somewhat creepy character. This perfectly exemplifies my problem with deadmau5: there is one cool idea (the little synth obstinate) and the production is extremely tight, but the track is almost seven minutes, making the idea-to-time ratio way out of proportion. When you factor in the requisite 60-90 seconds of beat build-up and beat build-down, you're left with what seems like a LOT of filler.

The problem continues with "Word Problems." It sounds a bit like something Richie Hawtin might do, but with less interest. When Hawtin does a ten-minute track of stark minimalism, he always has an edge. There is always something changing gradually, even if the changes are slight. He also tends to craft the aural dimension of his music so as to be different from anyone's idea of standard-issue techno. With Deadmau5, it sticks way too close to the progressive house formula to hold my interest.

"Soma" suffers from a similar lack of musical ideas, except for the instrumental break around 3:50. It's such a welcome relief that I wish Deadmau5 had continued it further, or integrated it into the rest of the track. Things pick back up with "Lack of a Better Name," which has some very nice synth sounds, more melody, and a nice (if brief) chord progression. "The 16th Hour" is also a really nice track with a good dramatic arc - lots of build-ups and breaks. This is exactly the kind of thing that Deadmau5 should be doing more of - variety.

Everything ends with "Strobe," which is not nearly as crazed as one might think. I always expect a Deadmau5 tweak-fest, and I'm always surprised when I get to the end and it's dark and ethereal. It's an interesting direction that we see again on "Right This Second" on 4x4=12. It works with "FML" to bookend the CD with a solid postlude.

For the reasons listed above, I'm still not overly impressed with Deadmau5 at this stage. A lot of these problems (e.g. variety, melody, form, overly long intros) are fixed on 4x4=12, which is great - he's growing with each release. If any of these songs were presented outside the context of the album, I would feel a lot different. They would all be very good prog house tracks, great for any mix. I commend Deadmau5 on releasing full-length albums when so many producers are happy to put out 12" singles. I really wish more were doing exactly this, because I am still committed to the idea of the album. However, if one is going to ask listeners to consider their work on an album scale, there needs to be sufficient variety to hold our interest. Deadmau5 is make great strides toward this idea, but on "For Lack of a Better Name," he's not quite there. For that reason, I would start with 4x4=12 and work backwards.

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Deadmau5 Review, April 19, 2010

By 

Andrew Bennett-Jackson "Afro Thunder" (Charlottesville Va) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: For Lack of a Better Name (Audio CD)

Following the advice from numerous suggestions from class, I deiced to find more about Deadmau5. Deadmau5 is a modern technosonic musician specializing in the art of electrical sound synthesis and audio engineering. Deadmau5 is run by Joel Zimmerman and is based in Toronto Canada. Deadmau5 has won many awards in recent years and has produced eight albums since 2006. Looking at some of the more recent work that has been done, the album "For lack of a better name" was released in 2009 and contains 10 songs.
One of the most iconic distinctions of Deadmau5 is the driving beats and complex rhythms that make up most of their songs. The use of repeated rhythmic patterns was made possible by the advances in sequencers and synthesizers like the Buchla and Moog. The driving rhythm that makes many of the pieces by Deadmau5 so enjoyable is made possible by early those early inventions as well as the work of many people. The rhythm that Deadmau5 uses are made up of one single tempo and stays constant for many of the piece, however the complexity of the rhythms comes from changing time signatures. This can be heard in the first song "FML." The pieces start off with a drum set playing a repeating pattern and a thud of a bass drum is added in. The pattern slightly changes and a continuous falling tone, also known as a Sheppard tone, is heard for a small duration of time. After it ends the bass line starts and this makes up the rhythm of the piece. It appears to be in triple meter but every so often a measure of duple meter is added. This can also be heard again in the song "Hi friend." In this one the constant rhythm is interrupted by a few measures of a different meter. It still remains in duple meter but it changes from common time to one that is cut time. This change is help by the fact that the melody also changes from an increasing beeping sound to a suspended tone accompanied by the cut time feel with offbeat claps.
The melody in many of their songs is not considered to be as an important factor as compared to the rhythm and the underlying bass. This effect makes the piece more suited for dance and clubs were the bass and rhythm are important. In addition the length of many of these pieces combined the rhythm and the bass would make it easy to dance to for a long time. This is not to say all the songs on this album are just straight beats for ten minutes. Often Deadmau5 will add a few measures where the melody is the only thing that is happening. This in the case in the song "Soma." Halfway through the piece there is a slow and contrasting piano and synthesizer melody this is then followed by the same rhythm that appeared before the melody break.
Overall the album has many pieces which has catchy rhythms and beats. They will seem interesting because of the use of different types of sounds and samples used. Even if there is no distinct melody used in all the pieces there are pitched beats which make up a melodic rhythmic pattern which is enjoyable. If you are looking for a good song to dance to or something to listen to at a party then any of the songs on this album would be a good choice.