Your basket is empty

Categories:
Results 1 to 20 out of a total of 4013
From
HI-RES$17.59
CD$15.09

L'Homme à tête de chou

Serge Gainsbourg

French Music - Released January 1, 1976 | Universal Music Division Mercury Records

Hi-Res Distinctions The Qobuz Ideal Discography
Even tolerant music fans shudder inwardly at the mention of the concept album, a largely prog rock genre that spawned many of the greatest aesthetic indiscretions of the '70s. L'Homme à Tête de Chou (The Man with the Cabbage Head) is a concept album and shares some of prog's general characteristics, but it's unlike anything emanating from rock's beardy depths. In the spirit of his 1971 masterpiece Histoire de Melody Nelson, Gainsbourg sets this album's brief tale amid a widescreen musical canvas. Whereas Melody Nelson was provocative without being explicit, the gravel-voiced Gallic lecher goes X-rated here -- albeit without sacrificing his poetic élan. In this morbidly comic song cycle the narrator's muse is Marilou, a black shampoo girl: during their ill-fated fling, he descends into unhinged obsession, beats her to death with a fire extinguisher and ends up in a psychiatric hospital (convinced his head has turned into a cabbage). Although the title track retains something of Melody Nelson's cool Baroque pop gravitas, Chou doesn't replicate that earlier record's alternately brooding and soaring melodic grandeur. Instead, it draws on an adventurously varied palette, spanning rock, country, disco, jazz, reggae, and funk. In places, the shifting styles match the different images or situations that Gainsbourg presents, sometimes without concern for subtlety: "Marilou Reggae" finds Marilou grooving to Caribbean sounds, while tribal rhythms on "Transit à Marilou" heavy-handedly signify her exotic sexuality. The songs are most satisfying when the relationship between lyrics and music is less literal, more evocative -- especially "Lunatic Asylum," where tympani, didgeridoo-like drones, dramatic organ, and insistent percussion soundtrack the protagonist's insanity. Elsewhere, subject matter and sound are divorced completely, the cheery funk of "Ma Lou Marilou" contrasting with the narrator's murderous thoughts. L'Homme à Tête de Chou is an underrated Gainsbourg album. Notwithstanding some dubious synth coloring, it's his second-best '70s release, ranking among his finest recordings.© Wilson Neate /TiVo
From
HI-RES$13.29
CD$11.49

CMFB …Sides

Corey Taylor

Hard Rock - Released February 25, 2022 | Roadrunner Records

Hi-Res
From
HI-RES$11.49
CD$9.19

Persona Non Grata

Exodus

Rock - Released November 19, 2021 | Nuclear Blast

Hi-Res
From
CD$22.59

L'homme à tête de chou

Serge Gainsbourg

French Music - Released June 23, 2023 | Universal Music Division Mercury Records

From
HI-RES$18.09
CD$15.69

West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum

Kasabian

Alternative & Indie - Released June 5, 2009 | Columbia

Hi-Res Distinctions Sélection du Mercury Prize
From
CD$9.19

Mauvais œil

Lunatic

Hip-Hop/Rap - Released October 24, 2000 | 45 Scientific

Distinctions The Qobuz Ideal Discography
From
HI-RES$16.59
CD$14.39

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Karl Bartos

Germany - Released February 9, 2024 | Bureau B

Hi-Res
Karl Bartos joined Kraftwerk during their Autobahn tour and played a crucial role in the band as they laid the groundwork for synth pop, electro, and techno. He helped write many of the group's most iconic and best-loved songs, including "The Model," "Computer Love," and "Metropolis," a haunting tune inspired by Fritz Lang's 1927 dystopian classic of the same name. Decades after leaving the band and sporadically issuing efforts ranging from Kraftwerk-style electropop to guitar-driven pop-rock (as Elektric Music), Bartos decided to compose a score for another key work of the German Expressionist cinema movement, Robert Wiene's 1920 horror touchstone The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Telling the tale of a respected yet mad hypnotist who drives a somnambulist to commit murders, the dark, visually striking film is often interpreted as a commentary on German society's obedience to authority. Bartos' 75-minute score is obviously meant to be heard while watching the film itself (it's in the public domain, so it's easy to view online for free), so that all of the tracks sync up with the corresponding scenes. As such, the track titles generally spell out the moods of the individual pieces. Both parts of "At the Funfair" sound like playful circus music, the "Scary Memories" are appropriately spooky, tracks like "Arrest of the Suspect" and "Interrogation" are tense and suspicious, "Cesare's Attack and Escape" gets dramatic and alarming, and so forth. It all fits the film to a tee, and makes for a riveting audio-visual experience. Unfortunately, when listened to on its own, most of the score is indistinguishable from the type of generic background music heard on any number of children's programs on public television, as it largely consists of preset keyboard tones and simplistic melodies. Yet there are moments that stand out, like the buzzy synths and excited crowd chatter of the "Funfair" tracks, and the hypnotic, post-minimalist rhythms and choral arpeggios of "Lunatic Asylum" and the title theme. Bartos' score to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a treat for film buffs, but most Kraftwerk fans will likely find it underwhelming.© Paul Simpson /TiVo
From
CD$15.09

Saturnine Martial & Lunatic

Tears For Fears

Pop - Released January 1, 1996 | EMI

Spanning the group's prime period of 1983 to 1993, Saturnine Martial & Lunatic is an odd, incomplete collection of B-sides and rarities from Tears For Fears. Although this material is valuable for hardcore fans, it only scratches the surface of the group's B-sides. Nevertheless, several prime tracks -- including the non-LP U.K. hit single "The Way You Are" and a cover of David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" -- are featured, which makes it worthwhile for dedicated fans, even though its incompleteness (especially since it comes at the expense of several weaker latter-day cuts) will make Saturnine Martial & Lunatic a frustrating listen.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo
From
HI-RES$14.09
CD$11.29

Panta Rhei

Niklas Paschburg

Alternative & Indie - Released March 17, 2023 | 7K!

Hi-Res
From
HI-RES$16.29
CD$14.09

The Dog and the Future

Agar Agar

Techno - Released September 28, 2018 | Cracki Records

Hi-Res Distinctions 4F de Télérama
From
CD$7.89

Walking on a Flashlight Beam

Lunatic Soul

Rock - Released October 13, 2014 | Kscope

From
CD$16.59

2Pacalypse Now

2Pac

Hip-Hop/Rap - Released January 1, 1991 | Interscope

When 2Pac's full-length debut, 2Pacalypse Now, came out in 1991, it didn't have the same immediate impact, didn't instantly throw him into the upper echelons of rap's elite, as Nas', Jay-Z's, or even his biggest rival, Notorious B.I.G.'s did, but the album certainly set him up for his illustrious and sadly short-lived career. Part of its initial problem, what held it back from extensive radio play, is that there's not an obvious single. The closest thing to it, and what ended up being the best-known track from 2Pacalypse Now, is "Brenda's Got a Baby," which discusses teenage pregnancy in true Pac fashion, sympathetically explaining a situation without condoning it, but it doesn't even have a hook, and most of the other pieces follow suit, more poetry than song. The album is significantly more political than the rapper's subsequent releases, showing an intelligent, talented, and angry young man (he was only 20 when it came out) who wanted desperately to express and reveal the problems in the urban black community, from racism to police brutality to the seemingly near impossibility of escaping from the ghetto. He pays tribute to artists like KRS-One, N.W.A, and Public Enemy, all of whom he also considered to be provoking discussion and reaction, but he also has cleanly carved out an image for himself: articulate and smart, not overtly boastful, and concerned about societal problems, both small and large (and though he discusses these less and less as career progresses, he never leaves them behind). Yes, the edges of 2Pacalypse Now can be a bit rough, yes the beats aren't always outstanding, and yes, the MC's flow can be a little choppy, even for him, but it's still a great look at what 2Pac could offer, and a must-have for any fan of his, or hip-hop in general.© Marisa Brown /TiVo
From
CD$15.69

Lunatic

Kongos

Alternative & Indie - Released September 22, 2014 | Epic

From
HI-RES$16.59
CD$14.39

Through Shaded Woods (Deluxe Edition)

Lunatic Soul

Folk/Americana - Released November 13, 2020 | Kscope

Hi-Res
From
CD$11.12

Italo by Numbers Vinyl #1

Gazebo

Pop - Released March 16, 2018 | SWR

From
CD$10.49

Lunatic Soul

Lunatic Soul

Progressive Rock - Released October 6, 2008 | Kscope

From
CD$12.59

Floating Palace

Hippie Sabotage

Electronic - Released December 3, 2021 | Hippie Sabotage

From
HI-RES$15.09
CD$13.09

Under the Fragmented Sky

Lunatic Soul

Ambient - Released May 25, 2018 | Kscope

Hi-Res
From
HI-RES$18.09
CD$15.69

West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum

Kasabian

Alternative & Indie - Released June 4, 2009 | Columbia

Hi-Res Booklet
From
CD$14.39

Deicide (Reissue)

Deicide

Rock - Released June 25, 1990 | Roadrunner Records

With a shockingly tight performance and a handful of evil anthems, Glen Benton and company managed to craft a death metal classic with their eponymous debut. Taking their Satanism to a new level of seriousness, Benton was burning crosses into his forehead and desecrating churches to promote this album, something that didn't exactly endear them to the mainstream metal media. While similar (and even weaker) groups were getting hyped up as the leaders of the death metal underworld, this album struck a chord that would, for good or bad, instantly inspire legions of like-minded groups. The riffs are actually memorable, with insane blastbeat drums and an uncanny sense of timing guiding the songs as they charge through one by one. "Lunatic of God's Creation" may be one of the best death metal songs written in this period, taking all of these elements to their natural extreme and crafting an ugly Satanic epic. "Carnage in the Temple of the Damned" is a speed-happy chunk of blasphemy that borders on grindcore, while "Dead by Dawn" is another gem that survives on the creative riffing and horrible vocals. Benton's vocals are actually one of the main features, as his guttural growl is touched up by production tricks to sound absolutely hideous and tortured as he spews his Satanic nonsense. At the time it seemed quite evil, and the press surrounding him suggested that he was willingly possessed by demons that sang through him. On top of that, he also claimed that since he was the antithesis of Jesus Christ, that he would kill himself at the age of 32 to mimic Christ's death. Heady stuff for a death metal band, but even though the gimmick may have banished them from the cover of Hit Parader, it didn't take away from the effectiveness of the album. They would later go on to make questionable musical progress and strip away much of the brash suggestiveness of their image (for the record, Benton failed to commit suicide when he claimed he would), but before all of that they still managed to craft one truly great album in the death metal genre that will survive long after the gimmicks are gone.© Bradley Torreano /TiVo