Search - Alaska :: Emotions

Thumbs up for Alaska!

Hartung, Silke | Bonn, Germany | 04/08/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I got the CD late last year and I can only recommend buying it! It's melancholic and happy and rocks!
I'm from Germany and it's a pity this CD isn't out over here, it's like... exactly what's missing!
Have a listen and then go and get it :-)"

Nice debut

Keenan Keller | 02/20/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I recommend buying this disk if you are interested in up-and-coming new rock bands, especially those with a guitar-based 'lo-fi' bent. I saw them live in Philly and their music was part acoustic, part electric. Their set went from mellow acoustic duets to full-on, noise-inspired, energized rock. Their music is melodic and uses interesting chord changes, song structures, and vocal harmonies. It is alternative/lo-fi in genre as opposed to blues-based rock.This disc includes the best from their live set. Comparisons to Sebadoh, Beck, Hayden, Smashing Pumpkins (Pisces Iscariot), and early Radiohead come to mind. While their music may sometimes borrow from these artists, it merely references them without copying. In this way, they make a unique addition to a woefully sparse Lo-Fi genre. The best cuts are the driving melody of 'Broken', the high-energy waltz of 'The Western Shore', the epic 'In My Time', and the Beck-would-be-proud 'Rust and Cyanide'. Despite a few near-misses on the disc, it is listenable straight through and every time I listen to it, I hear more that I like. For the hits noted above and their potential for a 5-star disc in the near future, I give them 4 stars for this excellent debut. Rock on Alaska and come back to Philly soon!"

This album is good, but alaska! is even greater

Keenan Keller | LA | 02/26/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This album is above all things, quite beautiful. It treads the lines between, folk and rock, melencholy and aggression, love and apathy, and in doing so, forces the listener to actually listen, becoming an active partner through the songs.

Songs such as "Broken", with the haunting attrative voice of Russell Pollard making you want save him, and "In My Time" in which the cruchy guitar and powerful lyric make you want to fight the rising tide. Almost all the songs have a heart and direction lacking in most contemporary bands. I would recommend this album to almost anybody.

But beyond the album, i had the oppertunity to have seen them live on more than one acation and i belive that they are the best live band around in which no one knows of yet, and i say yet because at several of these shows, they played only "new" songs from their up and coming album, "Rescue through Tomahawk".

These songs hold a wieght and power that shatter you. Songs like the beautiful heart wrenching "Surrender", which, start of slow and gradually build to an emotion high of love and need, "Krystal Korpse" with it's serpentinesque jangle and spook house feel, and "Real is your Control", which i believe will be a big hit for them in the future.

So in review. Buy Emotions and Be on the Look out for Rescue Through Tomahawk, which will be one of the best albums of 2005."