Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Oh god!, March 25, 2007
I have been in debate as to pick this album up for quite a while now. Its seems that previous albums by !!! divide reviewers into two groups; Its either overrated yet somewhat fun, or you can dance to it so therefore its good. Im not a 'dancer', and I don't buy mediocre albums, but then again, with record sales like they are getting lately, and the cool album art of 'Myth Takes', I was inavoidably drawn in.
First listen I was hooked. There is so much stuff going on in this album that I immediately started it over. I began to wonder where the hell the negative reviews were coming from. I delayed reviewing this because I thought that maybe this album wasn't as good as my first impression had led me to believe. Again, I was wrong. About twenty listens later, this album has the same freshness and creative attraction that it did on listen number one.
This album is damn good.. and I finally realized why. Like my favorites, Pink Floyd, !!! are easily capable of cramming experimentaion, dense atmosphere, and down-right wierdness all into one album, while still being able to keep a keen ear open to pop sensibilities. You will rarely find an album this fun, yet challenging at the same time. From disco, to trip-hop, there is definately something for every listener in 'Myth Takes'; and yet with all its pop and cheese, I am still delightfully able to find something new with each listen. Head to head with Pain of Salvation's 'Scarsick' for the best album of the year so far.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sweet... sweet-sweet... sweet-sweet-sweet-sweet... ("Sweet Life"), July 19, 2007
I've never really heard !!! before hearing this album, and since hearing this of course, I felt obliged to check out their previous material. It just doesn't stand up to this, however. It seems until "Myth Takes", Chk Chk Chk (or whatever) never really reached their mark potential. Fortunately, for us as well as them, they released this album laced completely with crafty electronics, sonic guitars and dance-stimulating rhythms.... oh yeah, and maniacal choruses that make you want to shatter things.
The album starts out less than stellar, though, with the title track but quickly picks up around track three with "Must Be The Moon", which must be one of the best songs released this year (and guess what: it's not even the best song on this album!). "Must Be The Moon" is some of the most fun I've heard in a song this year. It's fast paced. The bass is all over the place, going in and out at the right times. There's a ton of sonic and electronic sounds going in and out as well, often trading places as the primary melody. The best thing overall about the song (as with most of the songs on this album) is the chorus. It's rapid and undeniably catchy. If you're listening to the chorus and not singing along with it then you must have the greatest sense of self-control imaginable.
The next song, "A New Name", is overshadowed by "Must Be The Moon" but it is a really good song. The pace is a lot slower but it's equally melodic. I love the effects they use on their instruments in this song. And again, the chorus is amazing. It's undeniably catchy and I find myself always trying to sing along with it but failing to reach the high notes Nic "The Penguin" Offer (vocalist) does so successfully.
There's a few other good songs as well, "Bend Over Beethoven" is an eight minute rocker. "Yadnus" has a sound of empowerment. The melodies of "Heart Of Hearts" keeps on ascending until it reach sonic mayhem. "Infinifold" is the slow closer.
I will finish this review by talking about what I believe to be the best electronic song this year: "Sweet Life". This song starts out with a completely hypnotic bass melody. Enter a repetitious guitar melody as essentially hypnotic as the bass melody and !!! got themselves a groove. Singer, Nic Offer, is too comfortable with this melody and the lyrics work. "Been sitting so long, thought I forgot how to walk. In the mist of all the stillness, there's a new kind of knock." The song quickly builds and builds until BAM! The chorus is nuts! Utter mayhem of cascading bass lines, raging guitars, Nic singing "sweet" repeatedly and what can only be described as a very disturbed percussionist. This is one of those rare songs where once you've first heard it, you repeat the play of it constantly. It just kicks your arse each and every time.
I will ultimately rate this a 4.5, which is a superb rating. I feel this album and LCD Soundsystems' latest make for a very good year for electronic music. I hope these guys can keep up the stylish work. I plan to keep my ears and eyes wide open for more from this band and hope to catch them live some day soon.
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10 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This This This Rips Rips Rips, March 6, 2007
merriam-webster's new collegiate dictionary effectively defines the noun "dance" as follows: "a series of rhythmic and patterned bodily movements usually performed to music".
this doesn't even come close to the near-epileptic contortional fit that seized me about one and a half minutes into my first listen of "myth takes".
"louden up now" and earlier releases were great, in their own less-than-tethered way, but this album is a flashpaper-bright journey into a pulsating neon psychosis of dancing disco rollergirls, exploding sunsets and fields of swaying skyscrapers. if you understand that last phrase on even the most cursory level then you owe it to yourself and your future seeds to buy this album and play it until it wears out and you have to buy another copy.
what do you like? epic classic rock? drunken disco? maybe some stuck-in-my-head-like-gum-on-my-shoe pop tunes? some tribal dancefloor napalm? we can keep going, but it's all here...
for an added trip, try playing the album while checking their website [...] (which seems to have been designed by a cryogenically frozen timothy leary)while listening to the record...if you think you can handle it.
don't make a mistake, jump on "myth takes".
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