Epinions Recent Reviews for c-option

Cake by The Trash Can Sinatras: Obscurity Knocks, And How – The Undeserved Insignificance of the Trash Can Sinatras

Mon, 10 Dec 2001 17:08:38 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - In tribute to the crushing insignificance of the payouts for music reviewers rendered by Epinions' many "improvements" during my long absence and in honor of the never-ending string of zeros in my earnings summaries, I have decided to mark my reentry...

Bridget Jones' Diary: Bridget Jones's Diary - A "Real Girl" Fest

Sun, 8 Apr 2001 23:48:45 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - I’m not a "real girl." I’ve never ordered a Diet Coke, don’t obsess over fashion magazine quizzes, don’t coffee klatch about men who are emotionally unavailable and don’t call the day after, don’t drown my sorrows in chocolate and then suffer paroxysms...

God Bless The Blake Babies * by Blake Babies: The Blake Babies - God Bless Psychic Renewal

Sun, 11 Mar 2001 15:55:32 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - At times of great emotional upheaval, sometimes the best thing to do is to be reactionary about music, to reach for songs and artists from a happier time in your life. To pretend you’re back in those happier days, to wipe out all the knowledge and...

Northwest Airlines: Northwest Airlines - Kinder, Gentler Incompetence

Mon, 8 Jan 2001 05:00:05 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - Since moving from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Boston in October, I’m a commuter girlfriend. I spend my weeks in Boston, and nearly every other weekend in Ann Arbor with the old ball and chain. This jet-setting lifestyle has necessitated intensifying another...

Best, Volume 2 by The Smiths: The Smiths - The Sounds of Delayed Adolescence

Tue, 19 Dec 2000 05:38:59 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - There was a point in my life when I considered my tastes pretty mature for my age. As a precocious kiddie I was reading “serious literature” while my friends were still working their way through the Choose Your Own Adventure series, I attended far more...

Ping Pong by Momus: A Litmus Test for Your Smugness Quotient

Sun, 19 Nov 2000 16:45:45 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - Part scenery-chomping musical actor, part that guy in your college English class who annoyed everyone by throwing around 50 cent words to prove how smart he was, part weedy wet of the week, Nick Currie a.k.a. Momus is an acquired taste. Momus seems to...

Come On Feel The Lemonheads by Lemonheads: Come On Feel The Letdown

Mon, 30 Oct 2000 12:48:46 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - There was a time in the early 1990s when Lemonheads frontman Evan Dando was the pinup boy of alterna-pop, his stringy locks, squinting baby blues, and scrawy shirtless chest regularly featured in a wide variety of entertainment publications and...

Cynthia Heimel - Sex Tips for Girls: As Timely As Sex and the City (not an endorsement)

Mon, 16 Oct 2000 11:20:37 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - You might think a book titled Sex Tips for Girls that was written in 1983 might be a touch out of date. After all, haven’t gender roles and sexual politics progressed just a smidge in the last seventeen years? Apparently, the sad answer to that...

Almost Famous: Almost Cool...Or How I Learned to Like This Uncool Flick

Mon, 9 Oct 2000 20:31:58 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - Almost Cool...Or How I Learned to Stop Posturing and Like This Painfully Earnest Movie*

I went to Almost Famous expecting to loathe it. Why, you may wonder. Well, since the reviews of Almost Famous have been nearly unanimously...

Boston: My Beantown Reunion Tour

Wed, 4 Oct 2000 17:13:33 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author c-option -
Review Topic: Sights & Attractions

After a two-year exile in Ann Arbor, MI, I’m returning to my beloved Boston this weekend to take up my first professional position since becoming a full-blown Master of Information (I’m not...

Girlfriend by Matthew Sweet: The Fatal Flaw of Matthew Sweet

Tue, 3 Oct 2000 00:28:05 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - Like the tragic heroes of literature, many rock stars have a fatal flaw that prevents them from being universally adored. Paul McCartney’s is his fondness for syrupy lyrics, Bono’s is his narcissism, Roger Daltrey’s is his horrible penchant for muscle...

A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness by Rocketship: The Soundtrack for a Lunar Love Affair

Wed, 20 Sep 2000 11:19:04 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - Rocketship make the kind of spacey pop music that even the most jaded among us (and I’d say I’m pretty close to the top of the jaded list) should be able to appreciate. But just because the music is spacey, that doesn’t mean the music is cold and...

P.U.N.K. Girl [EP] by Heavenly (Pop): A Spoonful of Sugar To Make the Medicine Go Down

Sat, 9 Sep 2000 13:49:51 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - How do you write about your favorite release by your favorite band* of all time? This is the dilemma I’m presented with in trying to describe Heavenly’s P.U.N.K. Girl for you. I’ve been debating this with myself for weeks, to no avail. But...

Tago Mago by Can: Can – Not Just for The Fellas Anymore?

Mon, 4 Sep 2000 01:54:29 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - The Backstory on My Dislike of Krautrock

College radio DJs, specifically male college radio DJs, can be some of the snobbiest, most elitist people you’ll ever meet. I should know – I was one (well, except for the male part), at...

Yes Darling, But Is It Art? by Television Personalities: Do You Want to Be Cool? Of Course You Do!

Thu, 24 Aug 2000 17:35:11 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - I am going to do you a big favor today. First, ask yourself this question. Am I cool? (Not me, silly. You.) Now, do you know about the Television Personalities? If you answered “No” to either of these questions, please proceed immediately. You...

Grandpaw Would by Ben Lee: Ben Lee Broke My Heart

Wed, 16 Aug 2000 16:33:07 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - Ben Lee is one of the great musical disappointments of my life. Because, quite frankly, Ben Lee is an a$$hole. I feel quite comfortable making this assertion because, since attending one of his rage-inducing live performances about three years ago,...

The Way Of The Vaselines: A Complete History * by The Vaselines: Kurt Loved 'Em, and So Should You

Sun, 6 Aug 2000 18:19:06 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - Kurt Cobain had great taste. I say this not because he single-handedly brought moth-eaten cardigans into fashion, not because he and Courtney named their daughter "The Bean" after a Carolyn Chute novel, not even because he was "The Voice...

Icky Mettle by Archers Of Loaf: Rocking Out With Humor and Wit

Sun, 23 Jul 2000 15:38:17 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - Humor gets me every time.

The Archers of Loaf make guitar-heavy rock music, with straining vocals and screeching guitar licks, not usually the first choice in listening for a pop fetishist like me. But the Archers of Loaf hold the...

The Who Sings My Generation by The Who: The Explosive Debut from These Bad Boys of Rock

Fri, 21 Jul 2000 13:57:19 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - The Who Sings My Generation, the debut album from the Who, is one of the great artifacts of the early 1960s mod movement and one of the most stunning debut albums in rock history – a high energy masterpiece which blows me away every time I listen...

Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant - Belle & Sebastian: A Standoffish Disappointment

Mon, 17 Jul 2000 22:45:21 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - Belle and Sebastian make precise, delicate pop songs, winning in their beauty and simplicity. Their music is so delicate, in fact, that you're almost afraid to get too close for fear it might shatter. At their best, though, Belle and Sebastian beguile...

Grand Prix by Teenage Fanclub: Music to Bounce To

Thu, 13 Jul 2000 16:20:54 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - How often do you hear music that makes you bounce up and down? Not mosh, not pogo, but bounce up and down, just from the sheer joy the music makes you feel. Teenage Fanclub will do that to you.

One of my favorite shows in all my years of...

Tone Soul Evolution by The Apples In Stereo: Music for Better Days

Tue, 11 Jul 2000 14:43:35 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - Do you ever feel pangs of regret for missing out on times you never lived through? Many of my pseudo-nostalgic pangs are music-related – I wasn’t born yet when the great girl groups like the Shirelles and the The Ronettes captured the airwaves and...

Wasps' Nests by The 6ths: The Return of the Intelligent Pop Song

Fri, 7 Jul 2000 14:34:29 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - Stephin Merritt is one of the great, underappreciated musical geniuses of our time, a prolific songwriter with a knack for creating the most heartbreaking songs of love and loss. Oh, don’t get me wrong - he’s well-known in hipster circles, and has...

University of Michigan-Ann Arbor: Looking for a little direction? You won't find it here.

Fri, 7 Jul 2000 12:33:52 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - The School of Information at the University of Michigan is a relatively new school built on the back of a well-established graduate-level library science program. A reengineering of the curriculum in 1997 expanded the original focus to encompass a much...

What's The Story Morning Glory? by Oasis: The Soundtrack for a Nation

Wed, 5 Jul 2000 13:40:05 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author c-option - It’s difficult for a cultural phenomenon to take hold as quickly or as pervasively here in the U.S. as it is in the U.K. Our nation’s just too big, and the culture too fragmented for a band to invade every corner of society, much as MTV or VH1 so-called...