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  1. Originally posted by LikeASong:I assume it can get boring at times, specially if your ear is used to more lyrical, standard compositions; the repetitive sections and the mostly uniform sound and style. But as a fan of this band in particular and the genre in general, I obviously enjoyed this musical journey. A shorter album without some of the fillers would have been even better, but it was fine anyway
    This is more or less my assessment of the album. I wouldn't stretch as far as "boring", because it's not, particularly. It's a pleasant sounding album, with many reflective songs which is to be expected of an album titled Departure Songs, but I did feel like it dragged on a bit too long. I did sit down to listen to this album, I took it for a walk, but nothing ever really stood out or fully made me feel something for the track. I was hoping the next song would jump out and hit me, but it never did. I just felt myself thinking "Oh, this is nice." as each track came and went. The album mostly blended together into a collection of similar sounding tracks, so the tracks containing vocals were very much welcomed, and if I were to name a top three tracks, it would contain those.

    I think a shorter album consisting of its more variant parts would have done nicely. It's probably not something I'll revisit again in full as it was almost a challenge to listen through the full two hours.
  2. Originally posted by iTim:Updated the running order for 2016 in the second post as follows:

    2016
    Week: February 21-27
    User: Welsh_Edge
    Album: Hammock - Departure songs

    Week: February 28 - March 5
    User: Alvin
    Album:

    Week: March 6-12
    User: LikeASong
    Album:

    Week: March 13-19
    User: thefly108
    Album:

    Week: March 20-26
    User: patou2
    Album:

    Week: March 27 - April 2
    User: NeonTiger64
    Album:

    Week: April 3-9
    User: iTim
    Album:
  3. Originally posted by iTim:[..]
    ...
    I think a shorter album consisting of its more variant parts would have done nicely. It's probably not something I'll revisit again in full as it was almost a challenge to listen through the full two hours.

    My thoughts too... might be good for fans of thr genre, but to me it's too long for this type of music. I'm not really fan of this style, but I like Sigur Ros - especially their last album Kveikur. But it has more heavy sound and for example I can't listen to previous SR album Valtari... it's too boring to me.

    But back to Hammock: it's not bad and as background music works perfect. But after I finished the album, I could't remember any song, any melody... ok, maybe one and Sergio knows me, so yes it's that song
    But lots of the songs sounds too similar and someimes is even hard to recognize where another song starts to play...
  4. OK! Let's try to get my review in now!

    I don’t think it’s likely I can do a proper song by song review of this album due to length and style so I will try my best to review the album as a whole but I will probably gloss over large sections of it.

    First let me start off by saying ambient music is something I can really appreciate in the right mood. I'm not a super fan of the genre or anything and my ear is probably not fit to judge an album like this, but I was happy to give the album a shot. There was nothing about the album that I would consider bad or any songs I felt the need to skip. Each song flowed smoothly into the next, to the point where like others said, I couldn’t tell when songs ended or when they began. Each song averages out to something like 6 minutes, which in the context of the song is acceptable or even welcome, but it made the album a chore to listen to in one sitting.

    It may be because I don’t have an ear for heavy ambience but I felt like a lot of the songs followed a formula of slow intro that swelled into an orchestra of ambience. There were times I felt like the strings or subtle “ahhhs” were self-aggrandizing. Adding those more organic sounds seemed a little sappy in the same way a lot of American Christian rock’s mellow trebly vocals are when added to their equally as sappy and trebly music. Now, that’s not necessarily an insult but I think my opinion toward Christian Rock is a good parallel to my feeling toward this album. For instance, if I’m flipping through the radio stations and happen to stop on one of the channels that play Christian Rock I never think outwardly “this song is bad”, but it really does lack a certain grit or attitude to the songs that balances out the overly feely aesthetic. The same applies here, give me something a little more solid because this is so smooth it's not hard enough to leave an impression.

    The song with the vocals, “(Let’s Kiss) While All The Stars Are Falling Down”, sticks out to me most because it was finally a song that picked up the tempo a bit and added a more punchy feel… until unfortunately the vocals started! I think the trade-off of vocals I dislike for a quicker paced song is worth it though and it is definitely the stand out track although maybe not the best. It would be hard for me to name any other top tracks outside of that one, I think you’ll get the same experience out of most of them anyway.

    Not a bad experience overall. It is soothing inoffensive background music that I think would work well as a soundtrack to some other media like a movie or video game, and it would work better than an album. It would be hard to rate this album on a 1-5 scale, and I think my words describe my feelings better than a number anyway, but if a score was absolutely necessary this album would probably get a 2 or 2½ out of 5 from me.
  5. Nice review, Tiger!

    Keep them coming, still a weekend to go until we close this first round and Alvin brings us some industrial hard rock or something
  6. Oh! I nearly forgot about this. I'll give a very brief review. I listened through the whole thing, and I have to say, it wasn't at all bad. However, it wasn't easy to listen to the whole nearly two hours. The tracks with vocals and occasional drums were the ones I enjoyed most. I remember one specific track, Artificial Paradises, because it was my favorite. The rest honestly bled together as one for the most part. That being said, it was still a great album! Something nice to have as background music or to work to. And Paul, I added it to my family's Amazon Prime library
  7. Originally posted by LikeASong:Nice review, Tiger!

    Keep them coming, still a weekend to go until we close this first round and Alvin brings us some industrial hard rock or something
    Don't worry, it will be just some industrial death metal hardcore
  8. Ok, my turn.
    I don't feel like doing song by song review, because - as I've said before, a lot of songs have the same feel and sound really similar.

    I'm not a big fan of post-rock, but usually it is nice and not complicated listening. I like Sigur Ros ecpecially because of Kveikur album, but it's totally different story
    So going through this whole album was nice experience and when I will be in the mood, I can come back for it. It's nice background music and there are a few songs that I could listen to separately ( (Tonight) We Burn Like Stars That Never Die or (Let's Kiss) While All the Stars Are Falling Down).

    So in the end: not bad music, but really hard to rate it... maybe 6 or 6,5/10. And - as was already said - it's too long for this type of music. 50-60 mins of music would do it better.

    Best songs:
    (Tonight) We Burn Like Stars That Never Die
    (Let's Kiss) While All the Stars Are Falling Down
  9. no one else?
  10. That's everyone aside from Paul and Pato. Feel free to announce your album while we wait

    I'll go and grab some painkillers
  12. Well, I must first apologise for choosing a double album. Sorry!

    Anyway, I chose this album because I think it's fantastic. I'm a fan of post-rock as well as a massive fan of ambient so this suits me down to the ground. I can see why some of you found this a little bit boring but I thought that this would be a good starting point for those new to Hammock! I considered choosing the Sleepover Series Pt.1/2, if you didn't like some of the more ambient tracks on Departure Songs then you wouldn't have liked The Sleepover Series Pt.1/2. (great ambient albums btw, two of my favourites from Hammock)

    I must admit I prefer the second half of the album. The first half is good but the second half is great. Fantastic stuff in my opinion.

    My Top Tracks (in no particular order)

    Dark Circles
    (Let's Kiss) While All The Stars Are Falling Down
    Artificial Paradises
    (Tonight) We Burn Like Stars That Never Die
    Hiding But Nobody Missed You
    Mute Angels
    Ten Thousand Years Won't Save Your Life
    (Leaving) The House Where We Grew Up
    Tornado Warning
    All Is Dream And Everything Is Real

    Thanks for listening everyone! Looking forward to what Alvin has in store for us.