1.	A beautiful greed(introduction)
2.	±0
3.	CARVE WITH THE SENSE
4.	Who are you?
5.	Under the rain
6.	ファンタジア
7.	星のひとひら
8.	HUM
9.	ucess(inst.)
10.	Bright & Right
11.	I stand free
12.	OVER

I was pretty excited when the new Acidman CD came on. I tore open the brown packaging, stared hungrily at the shiny gloss that covered the CD, and destroyed that too. I then placed CD into my player and ripped the hell out of it. When it was safe in my player... I put on my earphones, and like a thirsty man desperate for ambrosia, listened.

You can say I was quite stoked when A Beautiful Greed came along. I'm a big fan of ACIDMAN. Been buying their CDs for 3 years now. Enjoying them... mostly. Of course, then Life came along. And that was... rubbish. Enjoyed a grand total of 2 songs on that album. Hated it. Had nothing really redeeming about it. Which was why I desired A Beautiful Greed. I NEEDED some new sonic landscape to wash away all the bad, bad mojo that flooded my ears last year. I needed some validation of my fandom. Hell, I wanted to fall in love with ACIDMAN again.

I have to say, they did try. They attempted a mix of old and new. Provided a concoction of heavy rock and mellow jazz. Opening track begins with rhythmic keys backed by a lone cello. This quickly escalates in urgency and suddenly, the drums come in fast and furious. In 2 minutes, I am drowning in gorgeous imagery... which leads to ±0, that rocked my socks off with pounding drums and janging guitars. Like Foo Fighters with heavier vocals. Next track continued the trend with their single "Carve with the sense", which was flawed in repetition and simplistic choruses, but was technically brilliant. I craved more.



But that was it.

The next track was a filler. Forgivable. Then another single "Under the rain", which really doesn't know what it wants to be. I get smooth vocals, emo backings... then a jarring change in beats, some screams and crashing guitars... then rinse repeat. "Hum" was a disaster, one that consisted of falsettos and unsure sounds in a bid to be epic. IN ENGRISH. Their instrumental piece was a simple mish mash of bass and guitar beats. Nothing like the inventiveness of Sai, nor the mindblowing epicness of Sol. No, just... sounds. Alas, if you're searching for something new in this album... it's pretty lacking here. It's kinda like listening to an album of filler songs.

However, there are gems. And funnily enough, they aren't the heavy ones. Jazz numbers like "Bright and Right" are beautifully mellow, and does showcase how good they can be when they aren't trying to sound important.

And I think that's the problem. Their first 2 albums had the right mix of riotous fun, punk-styled technically awesome riffs and soothing ballads. Equal was pretty much their magnum opus. And World and Green Chord drifted towards the mellow, but paved a new wave of prog rock that blew my mind. Then, ACIDMAN tried making every song they played important. They placed too much thought in what the song would mean. And that just doesn't work. Equal almost ended up badly, but because the album meshed so well, the effect was brilliant. Life, well, not so brilliant. And A Beautiful Greed, not exactly forgettable, but I'll stick with my backlist thanks.

Newcomers might enjoy it though. Who knows. I might just be jaded.

3/5 stars. What I want to see is a CD of all their jazzy B-Sides.

Hello. I know, it's been a while. A long while. But I am listening to Keith Jarrett and his ivory keys, there's a bottle of James Squire on my table, and the night is warm. So I think I shall say hi.

No philosophy today. Or even a mumble of melancholy. Not even the idle ramblings of the past. No. Just a simple hello. It might be a sign of things to come. Maybe not. My ramblings could return, causing distress to the sane.

Or not. The re-emergence of ramblings I mean.

We'll see.

Hello good people. I might be back.

More than a month. Can you believe it? More than a month since I've updated this thing I once called a blog/weblog. And even if it's been more than a month, the update here... is gonna be sparse. Cause I'm lazy.

In a nutshell, work is done. Uni is done. I'm nicely unemployed. Well, other than the bookstore. I've been applying... but it isn't looking fantastic at the moment.

Other than that... anime, dramas and listening to music. I feel like just collecting all of Bill Evan's stuff. He rox my world.

I think IS DONE! Well, for the moment... still tons of work to be done! DIE ASSIGNMENT DIE!

While I wait for the water to boil in order to make semi-delicious green tea (hooray for odd sentence structure!), I think I shall tell you about Edward Scissorhands. So I went to watch Edward Scissorhands: The Musical yesterday. It's not a bad show, but the title is kinda misleading. Yes, there is music, and such lovely music as well, the whole thing has... no singing. Nor did it have any... talking. None. The whole performance was... ballet. Well, not ballet, though there were lines and pirouettes, with jitterbugs and charlestons scattered about. But yes, it was all dance. And acting. And dance. While not a bad thing, I expected different. So what's the verdict then?

Music? Brilliant. Terry Davis' interpretation of Danny Elfman's dark, whimsical score is nothing short of beautiful. It can make u sigh and can make laugh. It grows urgent, then lays itself gently like snow on grass. And there is snow. Adds to the magic.

Which brings us to props. Dancing hedges, an angel scupture, scissorhands, are just some of the magnificent props to further bring us into this dark illusion.

The characters were fantastic! Not having any lines did not hurt them at all, what with every character having a significant dance style. The ones I felt most interesting were the Evercreedies, whose religious fervour were well-defined in their haphazard gyrations of adoration. Ahem. And when the whole cast dances, every character has a story and it's really interesting to watch what goes on while the main character takes the stage. Edward was really good in portraying the bewildered and love-lorn Scissorhand boy, but the main stars I found, were the side characters!

Plot-wise, well, you would have to watch the film to understand the musical. It doesn't really make much sense otherwise. The little boy next to me looked so bored. No singing and talking remember? And the climax could have been more... well... climatic. I thought it too abrupt.

But it's not bad. If you like dance and crazy characters. And Edward Scissorhands. Go watch!


The End!

Or not.

LISTEN TO MY SONG~!

Wow. Blogger's available in MALAY! Let's try it.

Dayung Sampan.......

Yepp, works alright after all!

Am nice and emo today. The past week has been horrendous, what with store shifting, loads of work, and a 4000 word assignment due in 5 days. Might pull through. Maybe.

Parents are off to Brisbane for fun! Mom's bday in a few days and thus, the Pop decided to take her down to Brisbane to celebrate. Good ole Dad and his ideas. Means some peace and quiet at home for a bit. Not like they are really noisy. Just parental stress is lessened somewhat.

Finally, perhaps a whinge from me, and as cryptic as it sounds - I don't belong. Think about it. I really don't belong.

And youtube clips.





We shouldn't blink. The world becomes friendlier. No one comments anymore. It's sad.