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On their eponymous debut, Chicago's Blue Shade Witness draws heavily on the wide open melodies and guitar-based dynamics of Brit-pop and the U.K. bands that followed it. It's a pretty painstaking facsimile, actually -- Joel Bennett's voice soars and breaks with startlingly proper amounts of melancholia and detachment, and the quartet's guitars rattle and surge meaningfully. "Stars Will Shine" is the obvious standout here: "In time I know that we'll be free/We'll kiss the sun with golden wings/And the stars will shine on me" -- it's hard not to picture thousands of Coldplay fans singing along with that bit of soft-focus abandon at the Carling Weekend. Of course, this is Blue Shade Witness in Chicago, not Chris Martin and co. at Reading. But the replication is so spot-on, it's hard not to like the latest model if you already loved the old one. "Way It's Meant to Be" is more of the same, alternating between the usual chugging chorus hook and a quiet, layered verse, while "Ever-Passing Moment" switches up the model by channeling straightforward modern rock (think Fuel). Ultimately, originality is a scarcity in the Blue Shade Witness playbook. But the quartet does borrow wisely, and it plays its cards well. ~ Johnny Loftus
Recorded at Sound Factory Studios, Chicago, Illinois and Staar Studios, Park Ridge, Illinois.
Blueshadewitness: Joel Bennett (vocals, guitar); Aaron Ruse (guitar, background vocals); Brandon V (bass, background vocals); Seth Guge (drums).
Producers: Blue Shade Witness, Joey Donatello.
Personnel: Joel Bennett (vocals, guitar).
Audio Mixers: Joe Donatello; Mike Zirkel.
Recording information: Sound Factory, Chicago, IL; Staar Studios, Park Ridge, IL.
Photographer: Joan Bennett.
This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia audio files.
This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files. Blue Shade Witness Review
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Purchase Blue Shade Witness CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Trans-Siberian Orchestra Night Castle CDs (2009)
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| | Bob Dylan Christmas In The Heart CD (2009)
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After the initial shock fades, the existence of CHRISTMAS IN THE HEART seems perhaps inevitable. After all, the thing Bob Dylan loves most of all are songs that are handed down from generation to generation, songs that are part of the American fabric, songs so common they never seem to have been written. These are the songs Dylan chooses to sing on CHRISTMAS IN THE HEART, a cheerfully old-fashioned holiday album from its Norman Rockwell-esque cover to its joyous backing vocals. Apart from the breakneck "Must Be Santa," which barrelhouses like a barroom, Dylan doesn't really reinterpret these songs as much as simply play them with his crackerjack road band, dropping in a little flair -- restoring "we'll have to muddle through somehow" to "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," singing the opening of "O Come All Ye Faithful" in its original Latin ...
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| | Matthew Sweet Under The Covers Vol. 1 CD (2006) Digipak
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The discographies of both pop-rocker Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs's former band the Bangles are heavily steeped in 1960s sunshine pop, so it's little surprise that the two would team up for an album of covers devoted to their favorite decade. UNDER THE COVERS VOL. 1 finds Sweet and Hoffs performing songs by the Beatles, Dylan, the Beach Boys, the Velvet Underground, the Zombies, and others, throwing in a few tasty obscurities ...
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