Since I have been sick and unable to move, I have gotten a chance to catch up on quite a bit of media that has been sitting around on various hard drives for too long. Here’s what I’ve caught up on and my thoughts on it.
- Linkin Park: A Thousand Suns. I originally listened to this album in simple iTunes preview form after the first single was released. Back then I believe I called the album ‘pure shit’. What’s my opinion now that I have listened to the entire album from beginning to end? It’s a decent album if you you’re not interested in listening to a Linkin Park album. It’s very electronic and has a heavy tribal beat influence. It sucks as a Linkin Park album, but succeeds as an album to listen to in the background while doing work. Oh yeah, J.J. Abrams wants you to stop using his poster from Star Trek as your album cover.
- Phil Collins: Going Home. I love Phil Collins. Always have, always will. That being said, this album is a total cop-out. His first album released in 8 years is nothing more then a cover album. 2002’s ‘Testify’ was a disappointment, but to wait 8 years for cover album is just a smack in the face.
- Sting: Symphonicities. Coming off of the release of 2009’s ‘If On A Winter’s Night…’ is essentially Sting covering himself. He’s taken his hits as well as his hits from The Police, removed his band, added a symphony, and tried to pass it off as ‘new’. Sorry, this is not new. While he did manage to brilliantly re-image quite a few of his most popular songs on 2001’s ‘All This Time’, the new version of these songs are quite dull. The only standout is ‘I Burn For You’. My advice is to buy that single and leave the rest of the album.
- Dexter: Season 5. What can be said? This was one the most anxiety ridden season of Dexter to date. I won’t give away any spoilers, but you’ll be in for a shock when you see how it ends!
- Californication: Season 2. This was a ho-hum season at the start. It was really slow to get going a looked like a watered down version of the brilliant first season. It’s not until we start getting to know Lou Ashby and see what his influence can do on Hank that we really start to see this season shine.
- Californication: Season 3. This season instantly found the energy that was left of from season 2. Rolling along, we start to see what is the real problem in Hank’s life — Hank. And nothing, I mean nothing, can prepare you for the ending.
