Customer Reviews

Z

5 star:		(74)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(28)

 

 

It's painfully ironic that one of my favorote bands, so real and gritty and alternative to the mush that's out there, have a new CD deal with a company that puts secret software in it so that if you try to download the cd you ruin your computer. I hear that Sony started this type of software program. All consumers should be warned.

On to the music: Not my favorite album but still has a half dozen strong songs. The band has lost some of its members and I feel they're trying to find a new sound, one that doesn't have as strong identity as past releases.

Protect your computer and protest this dangerous type of CD; buy the songs individually on the Internet.

This is a great cd, but sony's rootkit INFECTS YOUR COMPUTER WHEN YOU SCAN IT! Here's the scoop from pitchforkmedia.com

"Here's the crux of the suit, straight from the legal papers: "As a result of Sony's failure to disclose the true nature of the digital rights management (`DRM') system it uses on its CDs, thousands of computer users have unknowingly infected their computers, and the computers of others, with this surreptitious rootkit. This rootkit has been responsible for conflicts within computer systems, crashes of systems, and other damage."

The suit, which accuses Sony of "fraud, false advertising, trespass, and violation of state and federal statues prohibiting malware, and unauthorized computer tampering," claims that the suspect software has been included on certain Sony BMG Music CDs since this spring. Albums to watch out for include Amerie's Touch, My Morning Jacket's Z Kasabian's Kasabian, Neil Diamond's 12 Songs, Cassidy's I'm a Hustla, Kings of Leon's Aha Shake Heartbreak, and, appropriately, the Bad Plus' Suspicious Activity and the Coral's Invisible Invasion, among others.

In short: if you're about to load that new My Morning Jacket disc onto your hard drive, STOP. Sell the album back to the record store and buy something on Dischord."

Whatever the merits of the music, I tossed this disk in the garbage. Why?

1. Upon insertion in the computer, requires you to agree to a contract that restricts usage to approved devices etc and inserts software on your hard drive to monitor usage.
2. After agreeing it launches a goofy proprietary application to play the music instead of a media player.
3. You cannot play the files in iTunes
4. You cannot rip the files to you computer
5. You cannot play the songs on you iPod.

This attemnpt to restrict legal usage of the music is outrageous and should be tolerated. Is the band aware of this? Do they support it? It is bad business, bad publicity and done in bad faith.

My Morning Jacket's previous album, 2003's "It Still Moves" was a great album, creating a fair amount of buzz, among other reasons for the band's tireless live tours. Two years later comes the follow-up album, amid even greater expectations. The good news is that the band lives up to it.

"Z" (10 tracks; 47 min.) is a terrific, and challeging but oh so rewarding, follow-up to "It Still Moves". The band expands its musical pallet, with some keyboards more up front, and even dipping into reggae. There is no weak track on the album. The opener "Wordless Chorus" is an off-beat apetizer, which gets filled by subsequent tracks. The best of the album is the reggae-flavored "Off The Record", which simmers into a break-out jam towards the end, just great. No, this isn't MMJ of "At Dawn" or "Tennessee Fire", but hey guess what, the band is evolving (bringing Wilco to mind). Sign up for the journey. You won't be disappointed! Other stand-out tracks include "What a Wonderful Man" (with great guitar licks from Jim James), and the closer "Dondants", an epic 8+ min. tune.

I happen to catch MMJ on the opening show of their current US tour, and the "Z" songs translated even better live. "Off The Record" became a 10+ min. epic, just beautiful. This surely is one of the very best albums to be released this year. Highly recommended!

The CD will install software to your computer which endangers the functionality and reliability of your computer. I really wanted to buy this CD (I heard some of it and really liked it), but music isn't worth ruining my computer over.

Link to news article:

(...)

Sony/BMG releases contain new spyware ... I'm not a tubthumper, and usually work around such issues. Well, one optical drive and reinstall of windows later, it's not so funny. I still can't even play this on a computer -- shame on the label and the band.

For those thinking I'm not tech-savvy, I work for a software publisher and assemble PCs from component parts for fun; this is the most insidious overwrite of the Windows DLL files I've seen in quite some time.

Worse is the results of the rootkit: monitoring of your web surfing habits, and depriving consumers of their legal rights to rip MP3 files and listen on a portable player.

I love this record, and this band, but I'd wait until Sony makes a public announcement that they will ship new product that does not contain MediaPlex before I would recommend it's purchase. Don't say you were not warned - this is a real pain.

I listened to this at a listening station at Tower and thought it was great. Was ready to buy but saw the DRM warning on the jacket. This CD only works with devices that are compatible with Windows Media Player. If you have an iPod, you are out of luck.

Since I listen to almost all of my music on my iPod, this format is worthless to me. Hopefully they will release a more useful version of this.

The application is also accused of shortening the life span of the user's hard drive by performing a scan of system processes every 1.5 seconds.

Another widely publicised feature of the technology is a rootkit that hides the digital rights management technology from the system and the user.

The rootkit will actually hide any file, process or registry key that begins with the characters '$sys$', making it extremely easy for virus authors and hackers to hide malicious applications from virus and spyware scanners.

Just reading about the DRM disaster Sony BMG have created and wondering why anyone would want to buy this CD if you can't put it on your MP3 player or your computer. What century are these people living in????

I burst into tears when I heard that this CD is copy protected because I am a HUGE fan of My Morning Jacket! Why do the record labels want to make life so hard for consumers?! I hate copy protected records and refuse to be BULLIED into buying them! I refuse! REFUSE!