其中包括一些live的表演、翻唱以及已发行但未收录在张悬个人专辑中的曲目。
张悬，这是一个温暖的女子，温度的盘旋往复总是能在她的声音里找到长眠的归宿，然后安静的憩在床沿，闭上眼睛听她唱歌。她太淡然，淡然到每次只有发片的时候我们才能捕获到与其应该想匹配的蜂拥而上，要知道，她的音乐是掳掠了多少人的心。
虽然08年张悬没有发片，《如果你冷》，其实没关系，因为这个秋冬来有张悬。

Dream Theater，堪称是90年代以来最重要也最具代表性与影响力的前卫金属乐团，其92年所发表的专辑《Images and Words》，为当时的金属乐开创出新的表现形式，专辑中高层次的技术展现，使得团员纷纷成为各方注目的焦点，也使得这张专辑顺理成章地成为前卫金属史上的经典代表作，也是所有前卫金属乐迷奉为「圣经」的必备专辑。

Dream Theater成立於80年代中期，最初的团名为Majesty，由三位出自美国波士顿著名的Berklee音乐学院的吉他手John Petrucci、鼓手Mike Portnoy、bass手John Myung，再加上keyboard手Kevin Moore所组成。1986年3月，主唱Chris Collins加入DT，并录制了一张demo。然而由於Chris的嗓音无法胜任DT的要求，不久离开了DT。87年新任主唱Charlie Dominici加入，团名也正式更换为Dream Theater，同年11月发行了具有历史意义的第一张专辑《When Dream And Day Unite》。专辑具有极佳的音乐性和技巧性，并已展露出DT特有的编曲特色，然而这张专辑却是叫好不叫座，惨淡的销售成绩使乐团面临多方面的问题。由於主唱的音色和演唱实力仍然无法与DT的音乐相契合，於是被要求离去。

91年新任主唱James Labrie加入乐团，其出色的音色和厚实的嗓音与DT成为完美的搭配，至此DT可算是有了最完整的阵容。果然，在92年的专辑《Images and Words》推出后获到相当大的回响，不仅将乐团的声望带上高峰，也正式宣告前卫金属时代的来临！在这张专辑中，所确立的复杂编曲样式、吉他键盘对弹，以及丰富多变的节奏，无一不成为日后大多数新生代乐团所仿效的对象。Petrucci快速流畅的吉他技巧令人赞叹，keyboard手Kevin Moore深厚的弹奏实力，在专辑中如《Take the time》、《Under a glass moon》等歌曲里，都展示了与吉他对拍竞飙的绝佳风范，而在《Another day》、《Surrounded》曲中却也有著极其柔美而令人动容的抒情手腕。鼓手Mike Portnoy灵活且复杂多变的鼓点，总是带给听者无比的惊奇感(光看他的鼓具就觉得很不可思议)。而bass手John Myung则同样身手不凡，除了与鼓紧密搭配，也能和吉他键盘做对弹。当然主唱James Labrie的演唱功力与乐团的搭配也只能用「完美」来形容了！

94年第三张专辑《Awake》的推出，可说更确立了Dream Theater在前卫金属乐界王者的地位。此张专辑延续前一张《Images and Words》的技术导向，并更上一层楼。不仅编曲极为复杂，在篇幅上亦增长不少，其中还包含了近三十分钟的三乐章式串连组曲，堪称是一部绝作！一般第一次接触到这张专辑的人，或许会觉得乐曲过分冗长且艰深难懂，然而对於所有前卫金属的乐迷来说，这张专辑无疑是一部极品中的极品，值得细细去品味。在我听了这么多的前卫金属专辑后，回过头来再听这张专辑时，依然还是再次地被感动。在我心目中，大概很难再找到一张作品能超越《Awake》的技术表现及其成就了！

不过，令人遗憾的是，在94年8月，keyboard手Kevin Moore由于音乐方向上的分歧而离开DT(后来跑去Fate Warning，并参与专辑《A Pleasant Shade Of Gray》，目前已自组乐团Chroma Key)，此一空缺在几经波折后，确定由新任的keyboard手Derek Sherinian入替，让人不禁为DT未来的发展感到忧心。95年所发表的EP《A Change of Seasons》，除了第一首《A Change Of Seasons》为创作曲外，其他四首则是收录自一次在英国伦敦Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club的现场演出。其中有三曲分别为翻唱自Elton John、Deep Purple及Led Zeppelin的作品，而第五首《The Big Medley#10:34》更是取自Pink Floyd、Kansas、Queen、Journey、Dixie Dregs、Genesis六首歌所混合而成的组曲，藉由这几首翻唱的曲子，算是表达了DT对这些陪伴他们成长的老前辈们的敬意。 长达23分钟的同名曲《A Change of Seasons》，是由七个段落所组成的叙述长篇曲，戏剧性的编曲、丰富的情感，加上畅快的旋律实在令人荡气回肠！这种深沉的感觉似乎是在DT过去的作品中所不曾听到的，这也预示着DT的成熟期的即将来临！

沈寂了两年的Dream Theater，在全球前卫乐迷的引颈盼望下，终於在97年10月推出了第五张的正式专辑《Falling Into Infinity》。然而这张专辑的推出却得到了极端两极化的评价。相较於之前的作品，此张专辑的风格改变相当地大，不再完全只侧重於乐器编曲与技巧的高复杂度，反而更加重了整体气氛的营造与旋律的优美感，同时音色上则变得较为沉重。在keyboard方面，新任的Derek Sherinian表现十分称职，不同於以往keyboard与吉他并重的突出表现，在此张专辑中不强调keyboard的solo，而是在音色的润饰与气氛的营造上下了相当多的功夫。不过，DT过去的一些表现手法和精神依旧是继续存在的，如专辑中的《Just Let Me Breathe》，正是延续过去专辑的复杂特色，快速流畅的吉他弹奏，厚重的bass与大量变拍的鼓点，keyboard亦展现了与吉他对飙的能力，整体的表现仍维持在《Awake》时期的水准。而《Hell's Kitchen》与《Lines In The Sand》两首共16分钟的乐曲及末尾13分钟的《Trial Of Tears》则再次展现DT在长篇幅编曲上的功力。演奏曲《Hell's Kitchen》不但相当优美且气势磅礴，《Lines In The Sand》兼具了重量感与优美旋律，而《Trial Of Tears》全曲由三个段落所组成，并一气呵成，这首乐曲指明了Dream Theater试图前行的新方向。然而，并不是所有的乐迷都能接受DT这样的改变，有人认为这张专辑已经变了味道，不再是过去所熟悉的Dream Theater了。特别是keyboard手Derek Sherinian个人对於键盘音色的偏好，也使DT的新作显得十分沈重；另一方面，有人则乐于看见DT有这样的改变。因为一个乐团不能永远一陈不变，否则终会陷入窠臼。而对我来说，虽然我也喜欢这张专辑，不过我还是很怀念过去的DT。听惯了《Images and Words》的人可能得花点时间才能适应这张专辑了！(或许无法适应？)

在FII专辑发行后，吉他手John Petrucci和鼓手Mike Portnoy乘著空档的时间，邀来了King Crimson的bass手Tony Levin，与Dixie Dregs的keyboard手Jordan Rudess合组了一个project乐团Liquid Tension Experiment，并在98年发表了同名的演奏专辑。这张专辑的推出立刻受到了极广大的好评！专辑中展现了在DT过去的作品中所鲜少听到的活泼作风与丰沛情感，四位音乐大师尽性地挥洒与

The Power to Believe is an album by the band King Crimson released in 2003, a companion to the preceding mini-album Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With (2002).

Melody A.M. is the debut studio album by Norwegian electronic music duo Röyksopp, released on 3 September 2001 by Wall of Sound. Songs from this album have been used in television adverts and computer games; "Remind Me" was formally featured in an advertisement for GEICO Insurance in one of their popular Caveman ads, while "Eple" was licensed by Apple and used as the introduction music for the Mac OS X v10.3 setup assistant. The Silicone Soul remix of "Poor Leno" was featured in the soundtrack to the 2003 snowboarding video game SSX 3. "So Easy" was the soundtrack of T-Mobile's launch advert featuring the face of a baby appearing around places in a city.

Elbow’s new album, their fourth, is reassuringly boring on initial contact. Reassuring because if Elbow fans know anything, it’s that the band they love make music that rewards revisiting, that slowly unfurls itself over time to reveal sonic and emotional depths inconceivable at the first glimpse. If The Seldom Seen Kid jumped out and stamped itself on the dancefloor or airwaves from the off, you’d know something was amiss.
Because the joy of Elbow is in the details, both of Guy Garvey’s beautiful gutter poetry and his band’s wondrous arrangements. Their songs are completely bereft of platitudes and cliché, both musical and emotional, and this is the triumph that elevates them above the bands so often erroneously labeled as their contemporaries (most namely Coldplay): when an Elbow song repeats itself it is to build tension and release, not because it has nowhere else to go; when Garvey opens his mouth to sing it is to express the details of real human stories, not anonymous lines that anyone could project upon.
It’s with a typical pragmatic emotion, and lack of moribundity, that The Seldom Seen Kid is titled in memory of a friend of the band who died two years ago. That pragmatism is extended to the record’s production: for the first time, Elbow have done everything themselves - recording, mixing, producing - without any outside help, a fact of which they are justifiably proud.
Elbow’s albums have always been considerably better in pure sonic terms than their contemporaries, and there is no erring from this quality here; absolutely every element throughout the album is rendered beautifully, be it guitars, strings, any facet of a myriad array of percussion, or the microscopic sonic touches that paint life and dust into every sun-beam illuminated corner of the recording studio. Instruments and voices reverberate and decay in a way that enhances the songs by making them evolve inside your ears with every listen.
‘Starlings’ starts The Seldom Seen Kid with a bizarre squall of headache noise and then clockwork nothingness with gentle, gentle, padding percussion and gossamer harmonies. Huge swells of sound surround Guy Garvey in imperious cycles as he begins to sing (“so yes I guess I’m asking you / to back a horse that’s good for glue / if nothing else”); it’s not a new direction for Elbow – short of sounding like The Kooks there are few new directions they could travel – but it doesn’t sound quite like anything they’ve done before.
They’ve also never done anything quite like ‘The Fix’ before; dappled, opalescent organ and guest vocals from Richard Hawley making for a Lynchian evocation of the crooner’s milieu. Over their last two albums Elbow have escaped the spooky, crawling claustrophobia that occasionally threatened to engulf them on their first records (think ‘Bitten By The Tail Fly’ and ‘I’ve Got Your Number’); something like ‘The Fix’, or even the European lilt and drone of ‘An Audience With The Pope’, laconic and pointed, which flits into Tom Waits-esque fucked-up dusty guitar licks, would have been outside of their capabilities five years ago.
‘The Bones Of You’ (which is supplicated bizarrely but beautifully into a lone piano and trumpet playing a jazz elegy of ‘Summertime’ while Big Issue sellers and pedestrians go about their business outside the studio) and ‘One Day Like This’ are the twin emotional high-points of the album, each deploying a soaring chorus or two; the former is a reminiscence though, of “five years ago and three-thousand miles away”, while the latter is a joyous, romantic celebration of right now (“holy cow I love your eyes”) that gathers, swells, and unfolds over six anthemic minutes.
The creative peaks of The Seldom Seen Kid are numerous; the chiming delicacy, gentle swell and gorgeous touches of piano through ‘Mirrorball’ (“we kiss like we invented it”); the monstrous riff and subsequent bass-run that tear through the middle of ‘Grounds for Divorce’; the ethereal harmonies of ‘Some Riot’. If one was pushed to choose an absolute highlight it might just be the driftingly beautiful ‘Weather To Fly’; touched with elegiac horns and beautiful lyrics, its plaintive melody circling itself around and around, always finding its own beginning.
Angrier politically and more contended emotionally than before, Elbow are no less beautiful and imaginative. A more evenly-distributed record than Leaders Of The Free World, which accentuated its internal dynamics by vacillating wildly from maximalist stomps to sparse elegies, the achievement of The Seldom Seen Kid is that Elbow manage to be both incredibly consistent and perpetually improving. It’s an easy phrase to utter, but Elbow are one of the finest bands in the world right now.
- drowndedinsound.com
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Epic post-rock tinged emotional indie stalwarts Elbow release their fourth album 'The Seldom Seen Kid', another staunchand anthemic collection of songs. The tense and emotional sound of previous records remains, but with a distinctly morecommercial riff-based template, particularly on lead single'Grounds For Divorce'. The band produced the record themselves, as with previous records, lending it a homespun qualitythat would be out of synch with any external influence. Revered by their peers as a reliably independent act, Elbow have created a subtly innovative extension of their sound and scope with 'The Seldom Seen Kid'.
- amazon.co.uk
source: drownedinsound.com
Artist: Elbow
Album: The Seldom Seen Kid
Date Of Release: 2008
Genre: Indie Rock

1.In the Crossfire 2.Counterfeit Life 3.In My Blood 4.Faith Hope Love 5.I Don't Know 6.Way Back Home 7.Keep Us Together 8.Get Out While You Can 9.This Time 10.White Light 11.Jeremiah 12.Empty Streets (Bonus Track)

Franz Ferdinand第三张专辑《Tonight: Franz Ferdinand》整整在录音室酝酿了一年多的时间，其主要原因是他们想尝试全新的音乐风格，希望能在这张专辑中吸收更多的音乐元素，所以这是Franz Ferdinand非常用功的作品，值得细细品味。
Tonight: Franz Ferdinand》就像专辑名字一样，给人的第一感觉有一些40、50年代夜总会的味道，专辑中很多歌曲都受吸收了舞池音乐的精华，显得格外的享乐主义，其中也不乏受到一些非洲音乐元素的影响，会让人有一种跟着节奏摇摆的冲动，富有激情，让人心跳加速，犹如酒精在血液中一样让人兴奋，甚至是亢奋。不光如此，最后一首“Katherine Kiss Me”也算是个180度的大转弯，清新的吉他，深情的男生独唱，给人一种别样的冲击力，完美收场。

又是一张接近满分的专辑，The Rifles英国新军，2003年组建于伦敦。又是4名年轻的小伙子，活力无穷。这是他们的首张专辑，光是专辑的开篇曲She's Got Standards，就绝对有魅力吸引你的听觉。专辑的风格新浪潮的表现，车库味道。与现在英国的流行趋势一样，年轻的小伙子都这样，前面介绍的乐队如此的，实在已经数不过来了，要说与那个相似的，应该就是Razorlight，Arctic Monkeys，The Kooks，还有前面刚介绍过的Milburn。受到90年代的英伦Britpop影响，这张专辑还会有几首很原形的传统英伦的歌。像Spend Lifetime，木吉他的旋律贯穿着歌曲前后。还有最后的压轴曲Narrow Minded Social Club+Bon，7分中的长度，前2分半都是Britpop的表现。而She's Got Standards做为The Rifles刚发行不久的单曲，在发行几天后，登陆了UK榜单的前40名，位于32名。Repeated Offender和One Night Stand显得轻快些，有些让人肢体随着摆动的感觉。Peace & Quiet则是带了些新浪潮的英伦歌曲，还有不得不提的就是She's The Only One，一首这张编曲十分吸引我的歌曲。歌曲的演唱部分也较为满意，很流畅。整张专辑可以说每首歌曲都很精彩，一张瑕疵很少的专辑，你完全可以从头到尾的去欣赏。

对于英国独立厂牌4AD而言，当年三藩市乐队Red House Painters 加盟在旗下所带来的最大意义，是他们为公司开创了[另类民歌/另类乡谣]的门户，替其后出现的Tarnation及Liquorice开路。但在出版过95年的Ocean Beach专辑后，Red House Painters便跟4AD分道扬镳，现在手执着这张4AD为他们发表的精选专辑，忽然令人对这支乐队泛起缅怀的心情。
自当天4AD主脑Ivo Watts-Russell收到American Music Club的Mark Eitzel送来那盒Red House Painters的Demo盒带后，他们的声音已注定是被列入多愁善感，苍凉幽悒的声音范畴。不爱接受采访，也对于站在台上演出 感到不自在的主音歌手Mark Kozelek,他笔下的哀伤作品亦令他们被称之为[新悲惨主意]（New Miserabilism).乐队的每张唱片都是弥漫着一份像乌云密布的气氛，流露出是一种黑暗的美丽。
在Retrospective里我们可以重温Grace Cathedral Park这首他们最美妙的Folk Pop作品，New Jersey有着宛如美洲公路电影的无拘无束但气氛萧条之感。Medicine Bottle里还残留着Post-Punk/Gothic的低调精髓，改编自Kiss作品的Shock Me 奏出了一种源自Velet Underground的无力感地下摇滚气息，当然，Kate Song，Summer Dress和Evil都是令人听得心酸的低回苦涩声音，一曲Michael比The Smiths的I Know It's Over更惹人怜悯，而在淡淡的钢琴伴奏下Mark似乎清唱的Mistress那份惨白是他们忧郁至极点的时候。Mark的歌声 每每唱得像楚楚哀求般，即使是San Geronimo此曲能表达出三藩市的美丽风光，但天空仍是灰白色的。

Apocalyptica这支94年成立于芬兰的乐队，毕业于芬兰西贝流士音乐学院(Sibelius Academy)的四位大提琴手，每每提到他们，大家的第一反映都是那个翻Metallica的，Apocalyptica也确实是通过1996年发行的第一张专辑《Plays Metallica By Four Cellos》被大家所认识，同时也给大家带来了不少惊喜，但是总是称呼其为翻Metallica的，未免有欠公道。因为乐队无论从旋律的演奏上还是情感的和音乐的融合上都有其自己的特点。因此第一张专集发行后，得到大量好评的同时，乐队也意识到了翻唱的缺点，随后的几张“原版”专集充分展示了他们的实力。
今天我们来聊聊这张将Apocalyptica推向“前台”的《Plays Metallica By Four Cellos》。细腻中不乏粗犷、温柔间不少强劲，这是我对这张专集的整体感觉。虽然翻的都是M~~比较经典的曲目，这些曲目的M~~~版已经很熟悉了，但是记得当时第一次听到A~~~版也着实吓了一下，特别是Master of Puppets这首，中间的那段本应是吉他SOLO，但是大提琴质感给我一种有过之而无不及的感觉，实际也确实是这样，在局部的细腻和旋律柔和化上，大提琴是略胜一畴。整体上，四个人的配合也给我留下了很深的印象，层次感很强，显然经过长期的磨合，分工非常明确，一个或者两个演奏主旋律，另外两个配合营造气氛。虽然没有M~~~那么强劲有冲击力，但是他们用他们出色的大提琴技巧还是模仿出不少吉他半失真、solo和贝司低沉的效果。看过他们的现场版，除了一个短发外，其他均是披肩长发，黑衣着装，演奏时的甩头，确实金属味十足，并且对我这个大提琴盲来说，演奏时出现了很多非常规演奏方式，例如敲击、拍打、手指的直接钩弦。虽然没有演唱，没有歌词的陪衬，没有吉他、贝司和鼓的冲劲，但是Apocalyptica这单纯的旋律也一样可以玩弄你的神经。

Madonna's first album in three years. Includes the title track for the controversial video, 'American Life', as well as 'Die Another Day' from the MGM motion picture of the same name. 11 tracks plus enhanced material (Madonna extras). Produced by Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzai. Maverick. 2003.

來自冰島樂隊的第二張大賣大碟。不食人間煙火、令人流淚的音樂。

MSI's music is a hybrid of Atari driven electronics with a venomous splash of ADD punk rock. There are three different versions of this release: a 10 track explicit version with a video for "You'll Rebel To Anything", an 11 track clean version with a video of "Diabolical", and an 11 track extra heavy double vinyl version. The clean and vinyl formats have two entirely different bonus tracks and all three have their own individual artwork, so true collectors will think nothing of owning them all. "MSI are, to me, how punk rock should sound in the 21st century: abrasive, brilliant, and sounding like no one else"--Rhys Fulber (Front Line Assembly). "...one of the most creative and genre-swirling outfits on the scene"--Serj Tankian (System Of A Down).

Taken from the 2001 album, 'Melody A.M.'. Three non-LP tracks, 'Sparks' (Edit), 'Don't Go', & 'So Easy' (So B.H.Q. Remix By Derrick Carter). Wall Of Sound. 2003.

Danish single off the Norwegian dance act's 2001 album, 'Melody A.M.'. The Original version is backed with Royksopp's Remix & Jakatta Radio Mix. 2002.

“世界上能动能静并且最激动人心的乐队”当下非CYRSTAL CASTLES 莫属了。这支来自加拿大多伦多的电子乐队为一男一女两人阵容，ETHAN KATH 和 ALICE GLASS，做的是如今最时髦的8 BIT THRASH，他们的音乐被认为是非常具有创新意识的。CRYSTAL CASTLES 能象现在这样有超高人气不仅仅是因为乐队自身的才华和团员自身的努力，同样也因ENTHAN KATH 之前将BLOC PARTY 等众多著名大派乐队的歌曲做了出色的混音版本。
Crystal Castles成立于2003年，可谓是迅速崛起。在过去的两年里面他们成功的在美国，澳洲以及欧洲各地举办了无数演出。后来在各大杂志网站的访谈中CC说到其实他们刚开始的时候并没有心去做一个乐队，他们只是按照自己的兴趣喜好去把各种声音混合起来。第一张单曲 “ALICE PRACTICE”的制作发行完全也只是一个巧合，ALICE 当时是在为一个话筒做SOUND TEST。直到后来把这首歌放到MYSPACE上以后他们才意识到自己当时自己的这个无意行为如今对广大乐迷多么具有威慑力了。后来便有许多家唱片公司陆续找上门。
到今天为止，CC在西方国家的火暴程度无人能比。他们在MYSPACE上的网页已经有将近2800000的访问率。他们现在已经开始不知道第几伦的美国巡演了。我本人在去年9月看过CC 与 METRIC的共同专场，没有见过比CC更出色的乐队，哪怕是如今已经成为摇滚明星的METRIC，在与其相比之下也显逊色。

英国双人电子流行乐队Mono的首张也是唯一一张专辑《Formica Blues》的确是天才的初试啼声——以‘Life in Mono’、‘Silicone’‘The Outsider’几首旋律流行优美的歌曲铺陈出一片伤感低迷的氛围，逐渐过渡到‘Disney Town’、‘High Life’这种情绪上似乎很轻快的作品，虽然歌词上有一种不和谐的反差，主音Siobhan De Mare的音乐影响部分来自Hooverphonic，她常能以一种漠不关心的甜美声音表达近似愤怒和黑暗的情绪。不过这张专辑的前面部分比较流行并不是很耐听；相反的，后面一些不会一听就吸引你的歌曲反而更经得起时间的考验：例如‘Playboys’中不断进化的旋律和节奏；‘Penguin Freud’中的采样和小号的运用；‘Hello, Cleverland’一首纯器乐作品，怪异中透着灵动，给这张专辑增加一些试验色彩，结尾的Life in Mono Remix版本反而更喜欢一些，不同于第一首过于流畅的缺乏挑战性的旋律（也可能听得太多了）。
在发表了这张专辑之后，Siobhan De Mare就收到了来自Robin Guthrie的邀请，共同组成了新的乐队‘Violet Indiana’，签约在解体后的Cocteau Twins的独立厂牌下，对于这样一个乐队，只发表了一张专辑多少有些遗憾。