Epinions Recent Reviews for omophagia

From the Garden State to Orange County and Back Again—- Death Cab for Cutie’s Plans

Thu, 8 Sep 2005 23:33:05 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - One of the most infuriating developments in pop culture in recent memory is the appropriation of “indie” as something of a novelty sub-genre—- see also the endless string of pop fads extending from swing to ska to “Latin” to bluegrass to nu-metal...

Diabetics Beware-- Tim Burton’s Hyperglycemic, Cowardly Charlie & The Chocolate Factory

Sun, 17 Jul 2005 22:19:38 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - Spoilers Ahoy That director Tim Burton’s adaptation of delightful misanthrope Roald Dahl’s Charlie & The Choclate Factory is marginally more faithful to its source material than was Mel Stuart’s 1971 version, Willy Wonka &...

The Unbearable Slightness of Being-- Coldplay's X & Y.

Sat, 11 Jun 2005 17:12:06 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - The pre-release press infinitely more interesting to engage than the album itself, Coldplay's X & Y arrives accompanied less by hype than by pre-written Buzzword Bingo cards. Arrange the following words and phrases as you see fit, and your...

End Of Love [Digipak] - Clem Snide: The Life Ironic With Eef Barzelay-- Clem Snide Celebrates the End of Love.

Tue, 24 May 2005 00:10:18 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - Irony is corrosive. Those were the three words with which my college creative writing professor opened his final comments to me at the conclusion of our semester-long seminar, and they are perhaps the single-most significant, influential...

Work That Disaffect-- Ryan Adams & The Cardinals' Cold Roses

Sat, 14 May 2005 00:37:47 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - "When I pick up my guitar / This is the song that always comes / Don't know what I'm singing 'bout and / Don't know what for." -- Ryan Adams, "Rosebud." "Self-deprecation" is a criticism rarely if ever lobbied against Ryan Adams, and it...

Abs Conquer Dead Indians, Ghostly Children, Logic-- Andrew Douglas' God-, Craft-Forsaken The Amityville Horror.

Tue, 19 Apr 2005 00:17:12 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - Spoilers Ahoy. It's far too obvious and too easy to claim that all of the problems with Andrew Douglas' The Amityville Horror stem from the fact that it's a remake. While there's certainly cause for concern in the fact that mainstream...

Tell Me All Your Politik-- M.I.A.'s Attention, Indie-Cred Grabbing Debut, Arular

Thu, 7 Apr 2005 19:33:34 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - File M.I.A.'s Arular alongside Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Ann
ie's
Anniemal, The Arcade Fire's
Funeral,
and Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine under...

Nashville Star Makes Good -- Kerosene, Miranda Lambert's Incendiary Debut

Fri, 18 Mar 2005 01:39:14 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - Like anyone with self-delusions of breaking into the world of entertainment criticism, I strive for a certain degree of "professional" objectivity. I make a point, for instance, not to review any albums by my all-time favorite band, R.E.M., knowing that...

Girlfriend in a Coma, I Know It's Serious-- Tori Amos' Lifeless The Beekeeper.

Thu, 24 Feb 2005 22:13:20 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - I've always told you the songs are separate from me. Yes, I write them; I gather the elements. But I do so by going around and listening to other people's stories. I watch the audience. I study how people react to what I've already created, and that...

He Does Like to Repeat Himself-- Eastwood's Insufferable Million Dollar Baby

Mon, 7 Feb 2005 01:44:00 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - Spoilers Ahoy. Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here. No Exit. Boxing is Backwards. And So On. The point of no return-- the moment in which the fact that, no matter how often it might threaten to do otherwise, the film will never become genuinely...

Stone-Cold Bluffing with the Race Card-- Big & Rich's Problematic Horse of a Different Color

Mon, 23 Aug 2004 03:50:38 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - "Brothers and sisters, we're here for one reason, and one reason alone: to share our love of music. We present to you, Country Music Without Prejudice." Thus the duo Big & Rich announce themselves to the world, immediately and...

Buttercup Makes Her Grumpy Face-- Avril Lavigne's Second Subdermal Irritant, Under My Skin.

Wed, 4 Aug 2004 19:49:17 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - Given the problems in having developed a public persona as the anti-Britney whose biggest radio hit happens to be a power-ballad, Avril Lavigne's music career simply lives or dies by the strength of her songs' hooks. As much as Lavigne has attempted to...

How to Win Friends and Influence People-- The Dixie Chicks' Anti-Establishment Home

Tue, 26 Nov 2002 04:20:23 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - I've railed against the pathetic state of mainstream country music in about half of the reviews I've written for this site, but I haven't done so in a while, so let's get everyone caught up.

Country music continues to be in a state of flux, as...

Q: Nikka who? A: Frank Sinatra's God-daughter, Britney Spears' Best-Ever Opening Act.

Sat, 3 Aug 2002 03:06:40 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - I like to think that I have fairly accurate gut reactions when it comes to the music I should purchase. For instance, I had never heard anything by or read anything written about Kelly Hogan before I picked up a copy of her 2000 disc Beneath the...

Or, More Accurately, Pyrite

Thu, 20 Jun 2002 01:31:04 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - One of the most baffling critics' positions of the past year surely has to be the hyperbolic praise lavished upon the film Shrek. Sure, it's pretty enough, but Shrek itself essentially boils down to a cloying game of Name! That!...

The Grammy Curse Strikes Again!

Wed, 13 Mar 2002 19:19:27 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - The Starland Vocal Band. Christopher Cross. Milli Vanilli. Paula Cole. Although there are a handful of notable exceptions-- Sheryl Crow and Alanis Morissette, for instance-- winning the Best New Artist award at the Grammys has long been considered by...

Country Grammar, Revisited.

Tue, 12 Mar 2002 17:19:41 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - One of the main reasons that my postings on Epinions basically came to a halt last summer was that, in my attempt to review all of the albums in my alt-country collection in alphabetical order, I ran into a couple of albums that I just didn't have any...

Biography of the First "Alternative" Musician

Sun, 22 Jul 2001 18:49:08 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - ”Woody Guthrie was the first alternative musician. While Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley were busy peddling escapism to the masses, Woody was out there writing songs from a different point of view with a lyrical poetry that captured the awesome majesty of...

Aliens and Monkeys: A Love Story

Fri, 6 Jul 2001 21:40:02 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - The title of Dan Bern's most commercially successful album, Fifty Eggs, is an allusion to the films Cool Hand Luke and Reality Bites. In the latter film, Ethan Hawke's horribly pretentious character remarks that "No one can eat fifty...

"The thrill of the flight..."

Fri, 6 Jul 2001 20:01:43 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - In every genre of music, there have always been countless of should-be superstars whose undeniable talents somehow belie the fact that they lack mainstream success-- the behind-the-scenes players often used by "bigger" stars as springboards to fame.
...

Rolling themselves into a rut.

Thu, 5 Jul 2001 20:57:59 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - Before I begin my actual analysis of Asleep at the Wheel's 1995 anthology album The Wheel Keeps on Rollin', I have to come clean as to why I purchased this album when I found it on sale in the used bins recently-- because I can't say that I'd...

"When You're Afraid You've Peaked..."

Thu, 31 May 2001 17:38:08 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - Mary Chapin Carpenter has always been somewhat of a musical oddity. Ivy League educated, politically-outspoken liberals with a penchant for writing folkie, introspective songs aren't necessarily the best candidates for commercial success. Nevertheless,...

"There is something about death / Like love itself!"

Fri, 9 Mar 2001 17:50:35 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - I still find it difficult to imagine Richard Buckner's sales pitch to the CEO of Overcoat Recordings when he first decided to record The Hill.

RB: "Well, have you ever read Spoon River Anthology?"

CEO: "You mean that...

Not much change in this pocket...

Tue, 6 Mar 2001 23:51:30 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - Perhaps one of the acts least deserving of their "One-Hit Wonder" status, the Georgia Satellites are well known for their inescapable Southern rock anthem, "Keep Your Hands to Yourself," which blurred the lines between country, pop, and rock in the...

To hear Ryan Adams (is to be sad, is to be high)

Fri, 22 Dec 2000 01:25:42 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author omophagia - There are some artists whose obscurity is the result of their being too difficult for the mainstream music listener to "get." And then there are artists whose obscurity stems from the fact that their music simply isn't all that good.

...