Shotgun CD reviews are short reviews on CDs that you can usually pick up for $10 or less. For further explanation, check the FAQ

Muddy Waters - The Definitive Collection (blues): When I was around fourteen years old, I lost my taste for the blues once I figured out how simple they were to play. Not much has changed since then, because as far as I’m concerned, Robert Johnson and his old timey blues cronies can suck it. If he made a deal with the devil to play like he did, he should kick Satan right in the devil dog because he lost a perfectly good soul for nothing.

Muddy Waters, on the other hand is one of the few blues artists that I not only tolerate, but I actually enjoy. The 24 tracks in this collection are listed in chronological order so that you can hear the progression of Waters’ style from 1948 to 1964. Although considered by many to be the father of Chicago Blues, Muddy Waters stopped playing guitar in 1955, so only about 9 tracks on the album feature him on guitar. Even on hits like “Mannish Boy” (”I’m a main. I spelled M… A child… N…”) and “Got My Mojo Working”, Jimmy Rodgers handled the guitar work and Muddy Waters was on vocals only.

I don’t know exactly what sets Muddy Waters apart from other artists. Maybe it’s the combination of electric guitars and vocals that verge on shouting that chase off that typical “poor me” blues feel that tends to turn me away. I’m no connoisseur of the blues, but this is one of the few blues albums that I enjoy. B+

The Dirty Pretty Things - Waterloo To Anywhere (indie rock): I’m not used to indie rock having this much punchy energy, but this album rides high enough that at times it almost verges on the garage rock sound of The Hives, who have been a favorite of mine for a long time. Waterloo to Anywhere is steadfastly indie though, and I typically steer clear of the hip vibe that seeps out of the genre like sewage, but even though I’m sitting here playing in a pool of shit, the tapping of my feet completely distracts me from the stench. I feel so dirty for liking this, but maybe I can take some comfort in the fact that the indie Borg that is Pitchfork didn’t think it was all that great. B-

Amon Amarth - With Odin On Our Side (Viking death metal): I know that Viking death metal is one of the most ridiculous forms of metal since corpse paint took over black metal, but I can’t help liking it. It’s so… epic. I usually tune out metal lyrics because they have a tendency to ruin metal for me, but when the lyrics are all about wearing bearskins and fighting epic battles, I can’t help but get sucked in.

The album tends toward the melodic and non-brutal side of death metal, so it’s a pretty good gateway for classic metal fans who are looking to make the jump into death metal. If you add in the Viking factor, listening to this album makes even mundane tasks a hundred times more epic. Hell, when I listen to this album while food shopping, it makes it less of a chore and more of a conquest. Even though I have yet to burn the coffee aisle to the ground, if I’m sporting a beard and listening to this album, there’s a very good chance that I will conquer and subjugate Captain Crunch and all of his cohorts in the cereal aisle. I have even been known to claim the frozen food section the name of Odin. Sure, the manager will no longer allow me to plant flag and claim a stronghold in bread aisle, but really, fuck him, man. We all need to feel like Vikings once in a while. B

Christina Aguilera - Stripped (pop): I can hear you now: “What did we tell you about buying pop, Jon Dyer? We warned you not to do it.” I know, I know, but I’m not musically one dimensional, so to balance out my brutal death metal side, I sometimes need to dive headlong into pop. Like death metal, I don’t pay attention to the pop lyrics, because they tend to ruin the music for me. This album is no exception. While I can’t argue with the production values or Aguilera’s singing ability, I can only deal with about four of the twenty tracks on the album, and I’m not sure if I like them because they’re good, or because pop radio made them familiar. The rest of the album is made up of slow songs that I just can’t seem to get into. I’m not saying they’re bad, but they seem to require high estrogen levels to enjoy. C

Suffocation - The Best Of Suffocation (death metal): Suffocation only made three albums in the four short years they existed, so it’s a little odd that they have a “best of” compilation. The band is almost always put on a pedestal as a pioneer of death metal, so I picked this album up after listening to a few quick samples. Unfortunately, there must be something wrong with my ears, because when I listen, I feel like I’m missing the amazing music that other people seem to hear. The songs were drawn from all three albums and are full of blast beats and growling vocals, but its so bland in both music and production that I have a hard time distinguishing between songs. Sure, I keep my finger off the skip button if the tracks come up individually in a random death metal MP3 mix, but when played back to back, it gets boring really quickly. Pioneers or not, this isn’t an album that I like to listen to the whole way through, and I really don’t understand what all the hype is about. Either the band is overrated, was good for its time, or I don’t simply don’t “get it”. C

Posted in Music