Free Music Friday: Miss Angie - Time and Space

Anyone else remember Miss Angie? Back in 1997 Miss Angie released a great little alternative record called 100 Million Eyeballs which featured the minor hit Lift My Eyes Up. Apparently she released 2 other records after her debut but I've never heard either of them.

ANyway, after a hiatus she has returned with Time and Space and is offering it as a free download. The late 90's alternative rock is gone and in it's place is a synth drive, slower pop record. I've only spun the record once so far and it's enjoyable. The songs are solid and worshipful. Different from what I was expecting.

You can download Time and Space for free here: http://missangie.bandcamp.com/

Lights - Siberia

I've had a recent obsession with pop music. Yeah, like radio pop. What can I say, it makes me want to dance and I like dancing. Anyway...

Trolling the internet I came across a post with a list of this weeks new albums and included on the list was a new album from Lights called Siberia. It was labeled as Christian dance/electronic. As someone who's always look for quality electronic music I picked up the record.

Siberia is a great pop album! Lights isn't going to reminding anyone of Katy Perry or Britney Spears. But Siberia is catchy, upbeat, and it's fun. The songs are well crafted. The title track kicks the record off and is a little... quirky. The hook gets in your brain but the rhythm in the delivery of the lyrics is just off beat enough that the harshest of pop music haters will find something to enjoy here. Where the Fence is Low has a great driving synth bass line. The album's first single, Toes, is pop music perfection. Super catchy and would fit on any pop station in America and be the best track on the radio!

14 songs at nearly an hour long, Siberia is another surprise find this year. The album features guest appearances from Holy F-K and Shad. Another great pop record. I highly recommend checking this album out.

New Found Glory - Radiosurgery

I love New Found Glory! Catchy pop punk just works for me and unlike many other artists who have shifted their sound as they've gotten older, you pretty much know what you're getting with New Found Glory. And I like that. The band's seventh full-length, Radiosurgery, is more pop punk goodness. While I won't be declaring this the best or my favorite NFG record (because Coming Home holds a special place in my heart) but it's hard to argue that NFG is good at what they do.

The title track, and album's first single, kick the record off. Fun song, not the greatest opening track but not bad. Drill It In My Brain, I'm No the One, Caught In the Act, and Memories and Battle Scars are my favorite tracks on the record but that's not to say that the other songs suck. Every track is fun and that's exactly what this record should be.

If you're a New Found Glory fan you're going to love this record. It's fun pop punk. What more could one want?

Relient K - K is For Karaoke (Full-length)

Over the summer I reviewed Relient K's cover ep K is For Karaoke, an album I really enjoyed. The band re-releasing the album as a full-length with more song excited me. Pop punk is a great style of music for cover songs and Relient K's ep was excellent.

If you have the ep... You probably don't need the full-length. The best songs on the album are the ones that were on the ep. Baby, Crazy, Doctor Worm, Surf Wax America, Here Comes My Girl, Everybody Wants to Rule the World... Those are the best tracks on the record.

The new tracks are nice. One Headlight is probably the best of the new songs. The Distance, Interstate Love Song, and Africa are all nice cover but they don't grab you. Inside of Love is great and I enjoy You're the Inspiration and Motorcycle Drive By but neither of those are tracks whose original I'm familiar with.

If you didn't pick up the ep, I do recommend getting the full-length. Even though the best songs are the ones from the ep, K is For Karaoke is a solid record start to finish and is just a lot of fun. Put it on, sing-a-long, and enjoy.

Mutemath - Odd Soul

I've been critical of Mutemath in the past. I wasn't super impressed with the band's self-titled debut (although I do enjoy that record) and Armistice didn't do a thing for me. A band that was hyped as a great live act wasn't translating to their albums for me. Nice band but nothing special for me.

Odd Soul is on a different level though. And by different level, I mean the band has completely switched their sound up and that switch is working for me. While fans of the band's previous albums will probably be disappointed, as someone who didn't connect with Mutemath, Odd Soul is a perfect reintroduction.

The first three tracks remind me of Gnarls Barkley, which could be why I dig this record so much. Odd Soul, Prytania (especially this track), and Blood Pressure all feel like they could have been tracks on Gnarls Barkley's Odd Couple record. Blood Pressure begins to kick things up high gear. Heads Up has a really nice swagger... Like an updated version of the Isley Brothers or something along those lines. A really groove laden track. Allies has some great guitar riffage and a ton of fat synth layers. Cavalries is a great throwback, classic rock sound instrumental that flows out of Allies. The Beatles meets the Mars Volta.

Well songs get repetitive at moments and at times my interest was in and out, in my opinion, it's still the best album Mutemath has released yet.

The Meltdown 50

New Music from Maylene and The Sons of Disaster, Switchfoot, Hands, Braille, and Friends.

Hundredth - Let Go

Melodic hardcore is a genre that I think a lot of people have similar feelings towards that I do for metalcore. While I understand people's thoughts that it's a stale genre with no originality... I like the genre. Misery Signals and Your Memorial are two of my favorite current bands in the heavy music scene.

Hundredth is a band I probably would have ignored but they released a video for the album's first single Remain & Sustain. And while the song was catchy, the fact that Hundredth had a Sandlot inspired music video was really all it took for me to download their album.

Let Go is a lot better then I expected it to be. The album starts with a 20 second intro that, as most intros on albums go, is useless and unnecessary. But outside of that, it's just good, uplifting, positive hardcore. The clean vocals are used sparingly. There isn't breakdown after breakdown. Nothing is super catchy or poppy but Remain & Sustain has a great gang vocal that gets in your head and We Can Take Them All ends on a strong note with a great declaration that gets stuck in your head.

Let Go is a great record and hardcore fans should love this album.