I stumbled across the music portion of download.com and have been enjoying the free (and legal) mp3s of bands I've never heard of. I thought I'd share my thoughts on some of these bands/artists here.
Some of you may have heard this artist before as he is credited with over 500 performances at renaissance festivals as part of The Brobdingnagian Bards. He has 4 songs available for download, 2 of which are forgettable. I find that especially disappointing of Buttercup's Lament, since I'm a fan of II]The Princess Bridge[/I].
I enjoyed Middle Earth Bragging Song, where he sings from the point of view of several races (and Tom Bombadil). It's billed as satire but I didn't think it was particularly humorous. Fans of LotR should get a kick out of it.
Killiecrankie is by far my favorite of the 4 available for download. It can be challenging to understand the lyrics it's an infectious and driven piece. I'm not sure driven if the correct word for it, but I lack any deep knowledge of musical performance/composition. All I know is I can't stop listening to it.
If you liked this brief review, are familiar with the artist or actually download the music yourself after reading this, please post and share your opinions. I'd like to turn this into something of a series, but I'll only do that if others are interested.
Posted by Fitz (Member # 4803) on :
Cool site. I recommend checking out some Hayden. He's a great Canadian folk singer. Unfortunately, they only have one of his songs. Fortunately, it's a pretty good one from his latest album.
Posted by LTC DuBois (Member # 7661) on :
Underwhelming response, but I'll forge ahead anyhow.
This group uses professional child singers for soloists, which gives their songs a different sound that most celtic folk bands.
Come By the Hills A hauntingly beautiful duet that I love. The best of the mp3s on the site.
I'll Tell My Ma I've also seen this song titled The Belle of Belfast City. Anyone remember the Asimov robot story where the machine invents interstellar travel but the human travelers go through a bizzare "death." I wish I could describe it more accurately because I feel like this song should have been playing at that moment. It involves 2 soloists with the rest of the band chiming in for the chorus. It feels like 3 seperate performances that happen to overlap like some sort of Flaming Lips experiment. Still, I'll keep listening to it until my Dubliners cd arrives.
Poor Wayfaring Stranger
This song starts with a male solo and appears to be child-free. I like this song mostly because I sang it in choir my freshman year. This rendition sounds a bit like it belongs in the musical Hair.
I can't really recommend any of the other songs they have for download. Overall, I'd say they have an interesting sound that doesn't always work.
Posted by Miro (Member # 1178) on :
You can also download music for free (legally) at amazon.com here. I've found some pretty cool stuff there.
Posted by chel (Member # 7674) on :
How do you tell which sites are legal to download from? Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
Well, it's illegal to say that you are offering legal music downloads when you aren't. So stay away from sites that don't specifically say that their downloads are legal. In other words, if their downloads are not legal, they are forbidden by law to say that they are legal, because that would be misleading and dishonest.
Got that? Posted by chel (Member # 7674) on :
Yuppers thanks! Posted by Miro (Member # 1178) on :
I just assumed amazon.com is legal because it's amazon.com. The company would have to be pretty stupid to offer illegal downloads on their site.
Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
I was mostly being snarky, BTW. If you wanted reliable advice from me you'd have to be a robot.
![[Confused]](confused.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
If you wanted reliable advice from me you'd have to be a robot.