Neadtobreathe - daylight

Track one
0.01 - very quiet voice saying 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4
0.02 - delay driven guitar kicks in - yet another christian band with a strong U2 influence
0.06 - the drums and bass kick in -we're in for some energetic pop rock, with production so shiny you can see yourself in it.
0.20 - The vocals join the mix - and to my ears the singer sounds like a cross between the audio adrenaline guy before his voice was completely wrecked, and both phil joel and Pete Furler from the Newsboys— not quite like any one of then in particular, but it brought those guys to mind as I listened to it walking through Hagley park on the way to work.
0.50 - The chorus - a big, big chorus! with shiny overdive and keyboard synth pads
1.00 - the falsetto harmony - just like phil joel
1.15 - second verse- verse structure is 2 lines at a time with dominant vocals and delay driven background guitar, alternating with 1 line with full on overdrive
1.50 - second chorus hits
2.16 - Instruments drop back a bit, making the gently sung bridge vocal "sing out, sing out" clear and obvious
Builds, builds, builds, builds then...
2.49 - The band drops out completely, leaving just the vocals for this rendition of the chorus
2.52 - The keyboard comes in
2.54 - drum fill
2.57 - The rest of the band come back in - cue impassioned chorus and bridge repeats until song end.

That one track is enough to give you a feel for the rest of the album. Highly listenable, highly polished, highly produced, and highly clichéd upbeat Christian rock.

Blenderhead- figureheads on the forefront of popular culture

This album intrigues me. Do I love it or hate it? Is it Emo or Punk? Are the songs well crafted or chaotic? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Is all of the above true? The guitar tones and vocals could easily draw comparisons to early Juliana Theory, yet somehow it doesn't seem as likable at first. The songs seem abrasive, and at the first listen are too much. But after a second or third listen, you get past that and you notice the interesting guitar work, and nice guitar tones, the meaning in the lyrics. The instrumental in the middle is quite cool, and the songs in the second half seem a little more conventional— which is both nice and a pity at the same time. I think, when it comes down to it, this is album contains some fantastic music, but is put together in an odd way which hides that. Does that make sense? I think I love it, but I could be wrong.

House of Heroes and Dizmas

So, here are my thoughts on two of the CDs from my 5 CDs for 5 bucks experiment.

House of Heroes by House of Heroes
This is one of those CDs that is good, but not quite good enough to demand I play it instead of one of the other CDs in my ever growing collection. I mean, there's nothing wrong with it, the production is good, the vocals and instruments are good, the songs seem good... It's just not enough to demand my attention, which is kind of a pity, as it seems like it's the sort of album I could really enjoy once I get to know it.
Highlights— in some places it sounds like a younger, punkier muse. Not all the time, but just in some places the singer's wail, and the music behind it comes close to matt bellamy and co.

On a search in America by Dizmas
Wow- based on preconceptions from the cover, I was expecting some kinda pop rock with a folky influence.... Track one hits and it's dirty rock, no folk, lots of screaming. The screaming gets kind of toned down for the next couple of songs, track 5 could almost pass as a church song... and then it kicks in again. From there on in, it sounds more and more like the juliana theory (with extra screaming) every song. Seeing as I quite like the juliana theory, and don't mind a little screaming in my emo, I really enjoyed this album— especially for a dollar.