Customer Reviews

Madonna

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I agree with previous reviewer it's slicker than the band's self-titled debut but that doesn't make it less. Overall I prefer the coherency of "Madonna" - in fact one of the miracles of this group is the way they make chaos coherent - even melodious. Another miracle is the drumming: best I've heard on any rock and roll record in years. Even the songs that didn't initially jump out at me have become favorites: for example I wasn't all that crazy about "Totally Natural" and then late one night I was driving down the freeway with two friends and when this song came on we all fell silent, listening as it started out slowly, then went into high-speed overdrive, getting even faster until it seemed to explode, then picked itself up from its own ashes and slowly, lyric by lyric, rebuilt itself into an even greater frenzy. It was like travelling through seven dimesions in the space of about four minutes. So what do these guys sound like? The only comparison I can make is the Sonic Youth of "Daydream Nation" - but that record and no other - and even then Sonic Youth has more of a high-end sound - less muscular and more offkey - than Trail of Dead. The only record of 1999 I like as much is Built to Spill's "Keep It Like A Secret" and as time goes on I think I'm beginning to prefer "Madonna".

This is why I love indie rock, every so often a band will come around that will just totally blow my mind away. We had Fugazi, At The Drive-In and now, even though I've found out about them a little late, we have Trail of Dead. Just like Sonic Youth did before, the music just pulls you in with a soundscape of crashing guitars, emotional vocals, and some of the best drumming known to rock.

Mistakes and Regrets could have been a big hit, and the use of creepy interludes sets a perfect mood for the album. Totally Natural's tranquil to it's catharsis of noise leaves me in awe everytime and A Perfect Teenhood's wall of white noise is another highlight. While the band may have a huge Sonic Youth influence, they are in no ways a rip off of the band. Trail of Dead has a very original sound and I can't wait to see what lies ahead for the band.

I'm surprised by the reviewer who says that Trail Of Dead cannot capture the intensity of their live shows on record. I saw them live recently, and they are still one of the most incredible bands I've ever seen live (and this was probably one of their tamer performances too). But I do think that Madonna captures the intensity of their live shows. Madonna is a lot harsher, chaotic, and noisy than their brilliant Source Tags & Codes, but the melodies and musicianship make for one of the best releases of 1999. Trail of Dead have been compared to Sonic Youth on this record, but they are in no way ripping SY off. Trail of Dead have more of an upfront hardcore-punk sound, are much angrier, and have less of an "avant-garde" or "art rock" slant. Again, the combination of melody and noise is brilliant; I was really suprised how intense the band sounds on this record. A few songs do fall apart ("Totally Natural" and the must-hear-to-believe "A Perfect Teenhood"), and the rest are played with much vigor and passion. The strings that are oh-so-prevalent on ST&C pop up here and there (including on some eerie interludes) and do seem to hint at what these guys were headed into for the future. And the album's closer ("Sigh Your Children") is so gorgeous, I wish it would have gone on much longer (two minutes is not enough). Trust me, see them live and buy the album. You'll be getting your money's worth both ways.

The first ...Trail of Dead album I had heard was "Source Tags and Codes." That album left me feeling ecstatic at the thought that I'd stumbled into a band this awesome.
And then I heard "Madonna." This album is everything good off of "Source Tags..." and so much more. This album really seems to move in a way that "Source Tags and Codes" can't compare with. The songs move from disillusionment and then to despair and finally in "A Perfect Teenhood" to hatred. And it's not so much the vocals or lyrics that portray these moods so much as the intense and emotionally charged playing. A lot of noise rock bands could only do that, but TOD seems to be able to take that and apply it much more ferociously than their forefathers like My Bloody Valentine or Sonic Youth really never came close to.
'Madonna" is my favorite ...Trail of Dead album. This album is for anyone who loved Sonic Youth's "Sister" and wondered why more albums like this were never produced.

Love this band--and I'm probably one of the few people who like their new material more, and believe they got better as musicians. This album--as much as I like it fierceness, is almost unlistenable. The band is all over the place, some of the stuff just doesn't connect. When it does, like on "Flood Of Red" and "Mistakes And Regrets", it predicts better things to come on the 'Source Tags & Codes' album, where their sound and songs just gelled better.

Trail of Dead definitely have (had) their own thing going: it's not quite punk, it's not at all prog, but it borrows liberally from these genres and more. The scattershot singing and sections where the band all get off-time here just seem to belie a dashed-off quality in the recording. Sometimes that can be a good thing, but with material as thin as this, it just grates.

At a time when noisy rock music is supposedly at it's lowest commercial ebb, one of the more brash and energetic proponents of the genre grabs a fair amount of attention. Instrumental comparisons to mid-era Sonic Youth (EVOL, Daydream Nation) are accurate, but Trail Of Dead drive the chiming, harmonic edge of their guitars to a new hedonistic extreme and provide a substantial challenge to the more dance orientated "alternative" acts when measured on the Richter scale. Some of the songs are weighed down by a rhythmic and vocal sensibility from the punk era, but when the Trail Of Dead take a more expansive and sonically adventurous turn, the results are most invigorating.

Hey! HEY!! Where are the soundbytes???

Possibly my vote for best album of 1999, "Madonna" has less to do with Ms. Ciccone than with the mythic lure of the divine, as manifested by these four energetic dervishes in washes of dense guitar noise and whirling drums. The production here is more immediate than their debut (although never as 'warm' as their privately issued demo cassette which will rearrange your furniture if you're not careful!) and has a more textured feel.

"Mistakes and Regrets" wraps despair in a screeching yet almost angelic guitar veneer, culminating in crashing, galloping drums. "Totally Natural" is less inspired, and devolves into a blatantly Sonic Yoop spin in mid-stride. But "Claire De Lune', ruminating over lost love and hopes, takes on an infectuous 3/4 time spin, as much a lament as a lullaby.

"Madonna" lacks some of the muscle found on their debut, but acts as one frictionless piece, flowing imperceptibly from one title to the next. In the end, "A Perfect Teenhood" wraps things up as it usually does onstage, when giant amplified-rubber-band guitars make repeated glacial headbutts into oblivion (or, in a live context, a pile of rubble).

Sure, these guys listened to "Daydream Nation" a few times too many, but at least someone is carrying the flag again.

Words can't actually do justice to the sound of this record because it is one of the most powerful albums i've ever heard. One of the most interesting things on the it are the drums, which clatter and crash down like a ton of bricks and are amazingly effective. Songs like "Mark David Chapman" are very deep about the celebrity killer but the way it's sung and the way it rolls along is gonna knock anyone dead. "Perfect Teenhood" god i don't know how they didnt burst the recording level when being produced, so fast! and yes there are echoes of Sonic Youth, the old classic Sonic Youth that is. Overall quite breathtaking, even the songs that don't grab you straight away, give them time and this will never leave your Hi-Fi. Better production might be an issue but it will spoil the whole style and make them sound mainstream like every other rock band....brilliant...BUY IT NOW!

Trail of Dead's Madonna is my favorite album of 99. Nirvana made poison and Motley Crue look ridiculous. Trail of Dead will make arena rock bands like creed and feul, and all these rap/rock hybrids who lack soul, look foolish. What i'm saying is Trail of Dead is going to be the next big thing.

although my opinion holds that this album doesn't quite reach the intensity and rawness of the first, it still has a unique and emphatic quality about it...the production is definitely better than the first, but i'm sure that's due to fact they had more time and better resources to record this album than the first (a rushed episode that involved smuggled studio time, mad shootouts with texas rangers and a run-in with brujeria; it was not a pretty sight)...conrad's writing (e.g. totally natural, mistakes & regrets) remains well crafted and catchy, and i actually think i prefer jason's writing (e.g. blight takes all, flood of red) on this album to the first...neil's writing debut with the band (mark david chapman) shows strong potential for further output in the future...(previous statements assume the vocalist of each track is it's creator...if not, my sincerest apologies)...i really have a difficult time believing the individual who wrote the previous review even listened to the same album..."pseudo rage against the machine?"...I surely don't know where that comes from...rage is completely different in the fact that their music normally works around grooves and scream-rap...and "hindi/hare krishna undertones?"...maybe for the album's artwork, but that has nothing to do with the music?...nothing in the album sounds eastern to me (and the "hydra" is from greek mythology, not hindu, in case that threw someone off)...overall, this album is really good and deserves a chance by anyone who digs on sonic youth, slint, fugazi, et al...and bring a helmet if you happen to catch their live show...solid objects seem to have a tendency to project themselves around the club in the band's presence...it's a phenomenon that has scientists baffled and art bell's still consorting with the darker forces of the universe to come to some resolution...beware, their title is somewhat of an epithet...