Since I’ve been busy the past few days with previously mentioned things, I’ve decided to release an album review I’ve been working on. This time on AC/DC’s newest album, Black Ice.
I’ll take you through song by song. First off, Rock ‘n Roll Train. Well it was released prior to the album as a single, and to be honest, I think AC/DC made the right choice. This song is filled with classic hard AC/DC chords, with short powerful lyrics. It’s definitely a taste of “retro” rock for those listening to AC/DC for the first time. It’s one of my favourites in the album, but there are a few others in which AC/DC does something new which I like. 8/10 overall.
Numero dos, Skies on Fire. An interesting song… not one of my favourites to be honest. A nice head bopper at best, at worst an irritant in your ears. The best part has to be the nice chorus somewhat reminiscent of the chorus in Smoke on the Water (due to the “sky” part mainly). 6/10 overall.
Third, Big Jack, and this one really is big. AC/DC hits this song off with a few intro songs, then continues their nostalgic music from the past with the lyrics, chords pattern diving you deeper and deeper into the 70s. I liked this one, and I have to say the chorus and solo really bring out the past with a modern twist. 8/10 overall.
Next up, Anything Goes. This was one of the “different” songs I was talking about. In this one AC/DC lowers the tone of the singing, and brings in some really nice lyrics worth listening to. The guitar remains ever-present playing its riff in the background. Things really start to hit off in the solo. Really a different tune from AC/DC. A really bluesy-rockish song. I loved it. 9/10 overall.
War Machine came fifth. Some nice bass lines come as the intro of the song, while reminding some of us of Iron Man due to the bass drum beat. The guitar then brings in a cool, smooth riff, making you bop your head with every beat. Now if this is too un-AC/DC for you, the chorus and lyrics really bring the song back to the band’s roots. 8/10 overall.
Smash n Grab. Not much to be said, a usual AC/DC song, nothing too special. Even the solo is generic AC/DC. That being said, I didn’t like it too much (with the exception of the guitar solo, but as mentioned, you can find that in pretty much any AC/DC song). 4/10 overall.
Spoilin’ For A Fight is next. I really loved this one due to the deep vocals introducing you into the feel of the song with the bass playing throughout. Then comes in the generic vocals+riff pattern. I’d give it a 6 or 7 if not for the really great use of guitar for the melody. I loved the sound it made in this song, and due to that alone I’d give Spoilin’ For A Fight 8/10 overall.
Coming next is Wheels. This was a real toe-tapper for me, I’m not sure what made me like it. Could’ve been the muted guitar chords in the lyrics, or the loud “BAAAAAAM” in throughout. The riff also combines some real nice pre-AC/DC and even pre-Zeppelin chords from the real old days of rock and roll which makes me like the fact that AC/DC is experimenting even today! 9/10 overall.
Its over 9… thousand! Decibel. This is a real funky one, especially the beginning. The guitar riff is really funky, and the vocals are smooth and low compared to usual AC/DC. As you progress it turns the clock back to usual toe-tapping AC/DC with some funky moves on the guitar. Overall, pretty damn nice, 9/10.
Number ten is probably my favourite, Stormy May Day. Why? Because its so damn cool! It combines awesome 70s/80s AC/DC with some really slick and fucking pro blues licks. It’s the best AC/DC song I’ve heard since Back in Black! I absolutely think that this should be one of the favourites. Not only are the licks excellent, but while the guitar wails blues, the vocals echo back with similar lyrics, but only in true AC/DC style. 11/10 overall. Just can’t argue with 110%… and shut up if you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking.
Eleventh is She Likes Rock n Roll (which I somewhat doubt in our school (excluding Steph…)). As usual it opens with some nice chords, and then bass pounds in like Stuuuuuuuu (not that many u’s) from Joe Satriani’s tour group. I love the bass lines in this song, its pretty nice to listen to while just having a nice time during the summer, winter, fall, whenever really. Unfortunately, its not all that special, therefore 7/10 overall.
Coming up next is Money Made. This one is also nice. Some cool bluesy riffs, along with a really nice set of lyrics. Surprisingly, while the title turned me off, the lyrics really paid off. Really rang some truth (Colbert reference) through me. Other than that, its a nice song with a few bluesy-rockish guitar sections, and a cool solo. 8/10 overall.
Unlucky thirteen is Rock N Roll Dream. I liked the opening for this song. It was like a band that isn’t AC/DC was playing it due to the fact that there was no strong echoing chords vibrating through your head. In fact its a really quiet song with some nice meaningful lyrics, really giving a damn good change for AC/DC. But as Starfire did for Dragonforce, AC/DC has to go insane at some point, and turn back to their roots (which they do). I liked this one, which gave the exact opposite meaning of number thirteen, but meh. 9/10.
Next is ROckin’ All The Way. I didn’t really find this one anything special. The vocals were average, but there are better songs, meanwhile all the instrunmental parts were rather boring. Surprisingly wasn’t even that much of a headbopper. 5/10.
Last, but definitely not least… BLACK ICE! It’s an album name… and a song name (omgosh!). I liked it. It was a funk riff at the beginning, with some cool rhythmic drumming, making it an overall pleasing song. Vocals, meh, nothing much to say here. I loved the change during the chorus though, it was really interesting. The change in the guitar part was also pretty nice, making a spectacular finale for AC/DC’s latest album. 9/10 overall.
In general, the album experimented with some blues/funk rock, and it turned out nice, but it also had songs for the classic AC/DC fans which I really like. You really need this balance in an album -> new styles, and classic style (*COUGH DRAGONFORCE… TRY SOMETHING NEWWWW!!!!*). I enjoyed it thoroughly, and am looking forward to the concert in January. Overall, 9/10.
And this took me a fucking long while, so you twats can go suck it if you’re going to complain to me.
Here’s a sample of one of the “projects” I’ve been working on. In addition I’ll be buying a jack converter soon and will be able to plug it into my computer to make better recordings. As some of you may know this is one of the four different songs I’m working on as part of my covers of the masterpieces I mentioned in a previous post. Without further adieu, here’s the sample (40 seconds, from one of my practices).
As per my opinion in no specific order I consider the following songs shown below to be masterpieces of rock music due to their variety of styles within the song, and the fact that they accomplish using this variety quite successfully in a pleasing matter. That was a long sentence, so without further adieu here are the songs.
Shine On You Crazy Diamond - Pink Floyd (too many parts so just youtube yourself if interested (its 20+ min so warning))
What if you were born in another country, to another family. Would you still have the same views, the same values, the same outlook on life? Would you still be as innocent or as cynical as you are today? How would you feel about this? Would you prefer to be in said life, or do you like your own one more? These are the questions that I’ve been asking myself recently. Even though your life may be better/worse would you want to give up everything you see before you today? Your own beliefs and ideals possibly? For example, would I want to give up my left-wing socialist views to live in a better country such as France or Germany and in return live a life of extreme conservatism? It’s really quite interesting to think about, try it.
I actually recieved an comment posted here (deleted) “informing” me that Serb-Croatian is no longer considered a language, but rather separate languages. Well to them I say - bite me, I don’t give a crap. I shall always consider Serbo-Croatian to be a language, no matter what any country or organization in the world will say.
I just found the most random and awesome song possible called Amerika i Engleska by Rambo Amadeus (a Serbian rock, rap, pop, electronic, folk, every fucking thing possible musician). Here are the Serbo-Croatian lyrics and English.
Serbo-Croatian
Spanska cizma imperijalizma
uz pomoc kulturnog terorizma
zajmova, kredita i raznih satelita
permanentno blate ugled Druga Tita
Kataklizma, komunizma
kataklizma, komunizma
Svi dobro vide a niko da prizna
klimu rasizma i liberalizma
side i homoseksualizma
sve su to produkti kapitalizma
Kataklizma, komunizma
kataklizma, komunizma
Losije danas za bolje sutra
ponavljaju meni od jutra do jutra
bez takve zrtve Amerika i Engleska
nikada nece postati zemlja proleterska
Ref.
Amerika i Engleska
bice zemlja proleterska
Amerika i Engleska
nece biti zemlja proleterska
Partizani, mi smo braca
a drug Rambo nam je caca
i Japan ce ovih dana
bit’ u ruke narkomana
Kataklizma, komunizma
kataklizma, komunizma
Neprijatelj kleti iz straha i sadizma
uporno rusi temelj komunizma
stanimo na rep imperijalizmu
povratimo ugled socijalizmu
Kataklizma, komunizma
kataklizma, komunizma
Losije danas za bolje sutra
ponavljaju meni od jutra do jutra
bez takve zrtve Amerika i Engleska
nece postati zemlja proleterska
Ref.
Ne daj se, Ines
ne daj se godinama, moja Ines
Bila jednom jedna baba
nije znala sta sa radi
dosadan joj bio zivot
Kataklizma, komunizma
Kataklizma, komunizma
(2x)
English
Spanish boot [of] imperialism
with [the] help [of] cultural terrorism
Loans, debts and various satellites
Permanently dirty outlook Other Titan
Cataclysm, communism Cataclysm, communism
Everybody good sees but nobody to accept [it]
Climate [of] racism plus liberalism
siderite [?] and homosexuality
Everything is the product [of] capitalism
Cataclysm, communism Cataclysm, communism
Lotion today for [a] better future
[They are] Repeating me from morning to morning without such [of] America and England
[it will] Never stop [to] become [a] country [of] proletarians
Ref. America and England Will become a country of proletarians America and England Will not be a country of proletarians
Partisans (basically Yugoslavians), we are brothers
but my friend Rambo is our grandfather
and Japan will [one of these] days
be in [the] hands [of] addict[s]
Cataclysm, communism Cataclysm, communism
Enemies swear from fear and sadism
Trying Russians [the] base [of] communism
Stage on [the] tag [of] imperialism
[We will] Return [the] look [of] socialism
Cataclysm, communism Cataclysm, communism
Horrible today for [a] better tomorrow [They are] Repeating me from morning to morning without such [of] America and England
[it will] Never stop [to] become [a] country [of] proletarians
Ref.
Don’t give up, Ines
Don’t give up [for] years, my Ines
Once there was one grandmother *(technically, but normally means wise (old) woman)
Didn’t know what she did
Boring was her life
Here are some nice songs that can be enjoyed regardless of language (kinda like Pavarotti I guess). You can pretty much ignore the videos unless you really want to watch them.
Maslina Je Neobrana (Dalmatian Song)
041 - Azra (Yugoslavian Song)
And fine, a song by an English-speaking person… (even if it is country music-ish =/)
This is yet another one of my rants against Canada’s FPTP system, explanation of Arrow’s Impossibility Theorm, and an idea for an alternative in Canada. Thanks to Habbit for valuable discussions, ideas, and random stuff which I didn’t really need to know.
Canada and “The Old Ways”
If you’ve read some of my old posts (or even visited Fair Vote Canada (maybe if you were high or something)), you would know about my explanations of Canada’s FPTP system. Nevertheless I’ll re-spew it in a shortened form. Canada has a system called the First Past The Post system (or plurality, or FPTP as I shall call it). This system basically states that a country is divided up into districts and each seat = 1 district. So for a X Party candidate to win two seats, they need to get more votes than any other party in that district, e.g. In this case The B Party wins with 40% of the vote.
A Party: 30%
B Party: 40%
C Party: 30%
Seems fair enough when presented like that for one seat doesn’t it. But when you enlarge that by several hundred seats, it is hardly fair. Take for example in 1993 when Kim Campbell of the PCs won two million votes nation wide, yet only won two seats. This was because in no place in Canada was she higher than the other competing candidates. She won around 16% of the vote, but got 50 less seats than the reform party who won 52 seats with 18% of the vote. Very fair (if you’re a retarded twat).
Now what I mean by Canada’s old ways, is that most countries have moved to another system rather than staying on a plurality system in hopes of making votes count more (with the exception of the UK). There are two main classes for electing a MP - single-member and multi-member. FPTP, plurality, two-round (often for Presidents, Chancellors, etc.), and Condorcet are all single-member system. Meanwhile proportional representation (including d’Hondt, Sainte-Lauge, Mixed member, STF (single transferable vote) are all examples of multi-member. What multi-member does is it attempts to make the percentage of votes close to the percentage of seats one. Here’s an example of the 1993 election (sorry for picking on you Kim Campbell). The first number is the amount of seats with the FPTP system, the second is the d’Hondt method (a form of PR) and the third is the percentage of votes.
Liberal Party: 177 | 127 | 41.24%
Bloc Quebecois: 54 | 41 | 13.52%
Reform Party: 52 | 57 | 18.69%
NDP: 9 | 21 | 6.88%
Progressive Conservatives | 2 | 49 | 16.04%
Well now, 47 seats is quite a lot isn’t it. Especially when you consider that only 295 seats were up for grabs that election. In this situation the Liberals did not achieve a majority because they did not have 51% of the vote, and the PCs did not achieve 2 seats because they did not have <1% of the vote! In a FPTP system, its quite easy to get a majority even with 40% of the vote, but with the PR system, that is never the case. Now, on to Arrow’s good old Impossibility Theorem.
Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem
Also known as Arrow’s Paradox. This Theorem basically states that no matter what electoral system is used, democracy shall not TRULY be democracy where every single person’s voice is heard. Take for example an imaginary election in the land of Pommeraniacansuckmyass. They are holding a presidential election between three candidates, it is the first round, here are the results.
Biteme: 36%
Merrdicksucks: 22%
Asdf: 42%
So Merrdicksucks was eliminated (I wonder why…).
Biteme: 51%
Asdf: 50%
Now they voters who supported Merrdicksucks have to choose between two candidates who they do not care about. Therefore 22% of the voters did not truly get to choose. And the voters who choose Asdf are not happy, because originally they had more votes, and due to the Merrdicksucks demographic, they lost out. Therefore only about 36% of the people are truly happy, and votes actually counted. Even in a pluarlity system not EVERYONE’s vote can be taken into account.
Take a Page From the Book of Germany
So Nikola, if no election system works, why bother? Nothing works so lets go with the best system, the PR system! Woah there, slow down you dumb twats. There are problems with the PR system, such as the case in Spain, where the MPs are loyal only to their party, rather to their constituents, resulting in something that is not really representation (thanks Habbit for the help!). Well, the best thing to do then is to combine both systems! The FPTP system where MPs are loyal to their constituents, while a further amount shall be elected via the PR system, making everyone’s vote count! How great! Now what I recommend for Canada is the following. 120 seats elected via the FPTP system.
40 in Ontario
29 in Quebec
14 in BC
11 in Alberta
5 in Saskatchewan and Manitoba
4 in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
3 in Newfoundland
2 in PEI
1 in Nunavut, Yukon, NWT
That’s about 308/2.6 = 120. That’s how I got the number (rounded from 2.5). The rest of the seats shall be distributed through the provinces via the PR system. That means that 188 seats shall be distributed via the provinces and a PR system.
65 in Ontario
46 in Quebec
22 in BC
20 in the Atlantic provinces (combined into one electoral district)
17 in Alberta
17 in (a combination of Saskatchewan and Manitoba into one electoral district)
2 in the Territories (combined into one electoral district)
Why I decided these numbers. Well, I believe that something similar to what Germany is doing, a distribution of seats between loyalty and fairness to the voters is the best thing. I choose a proportion a bit different from their method, simply because I felt that more seats in the PR system would be necessary in Canada considering the fact that there are large territories and provinces and even small parties can win a few seats.
Well that’s my rant, bye everybody!
Thanks for reading! (if you read to here, otherwise, screw you, damn twats).
Posted on October 29th, 2008 by nikola