Lackluster, and I'm a big fan.
356325
After the magnificent Ultraviolence, filled with excellent songs, she released her worst CD that contains only 1 good song. Very disappointed and I'm a huge fan of hers. She keeps repeating "it's our swan song" the entire song (for example) and it's the same way with most songs. She should make sure the quality of her work is at least decent. It seems like they rushed into recording a new CD while she is still the "it" girl...but the material is lackluster.
1679893
I don't have Unbreakable but This is Us was a real disappointment.
Aside from some autotuning/electronic-type sounds in the music (seriously, artists need to stop doing this crap it's annoying) for In a World Like This, the album was definitely better than TiU. I want to give it 3.5 stars. I'm rounding it to 4 because I like it enough to keep listening to it. It doesn't give me a headache like TiU.

1. In a World Like This: I loved this when I first heard it a few weeks ago, and I still love it. It's clean, it's what I'd expect from adult BSB.

2. Permanent Stain: Some of the parts are a bit awkward. In the beginning; the words don't match the lyrics very well.

3. Breathe: The very beginning of this song sounded odd. I thought I'd hate it. But it's a very sweet melody and I truly enjoyed it.

4. Madeleine: I hate songs of people's names. But the tune made this catchy, and island-like. I'm not too sure how I feel about it but I don't hate it.

5 Show 'Em (What You're Made of): This sounds like a slower tune of "My Confession" on Nick's solo album. It's not the best, but I think it's one of the better ones.

6. Make Believe: The lyrics aren't bad but the music has too much tinkering done to it. I feel "meh" about it.

7. Try: Unlike a previous reviewer, I didn't like this! From the start I was thinking "what the heck is this?!" And then it sounded like NYSNC. Bah!

8. Trust Me: This is the opposite - the music is catchy but I feel like the lyrics and the song in general is 'just okay.'

9. Love Somebody: I like the song, but I'm not feeling the techno/autotune stuff.

10. One Phone Call: This didn't impress me at all. It started out bad, the music wasn't great and the lyrics were only so-so.

11. Feels Like Home: Again, aside from some of the music, I enjoyed this! I couldn't stop laughing.

12. Soldier: If this song was facebook, I'd "like" it. This is what I'd consider "real" BSB. The lyrics and the music drew me in.
267719
I wanted to love this based on the premise and I don't like giving such low-star reviews, but because of the hype and my overreaching hope of falling in love with a brand new world, I think it made my disappointment that much more. I realise books need hype to get in front of eyes, but sometimes the buildup sets a reader up for a bigger let-down. Schwab can clearly write and has an army of fans, but I'm afraid this just wasn't for me. I was never sure if it was meant to be YA or adult, as it leaned more toward YA as far as some of the more ... derivative elements, and character development (or lack thereof, until at least 2/3 of the way through the book). As I say, she's an excellent writer, but this was just not for me. I grew bored at various stages and when I find myself skimming, with a towering TBR pile of books on my nightstand, it's time to finish it and move on. Sorry to say, I'm not one of the legions of fans!
4826557
I enjoyed this book enough, but was really was hoping for something else.
This was both my first taste of the author and the publisher, who have gotten their fare share of fanfare in the horror fiction universe, and while it was a slight letdown, I would give both a second chance.
Maybe it's because I was coming off a Glenn Rolfe novella, whose work reads smoothly and film-like or maybe it's because my expectations were astronomically high...the premise was just so enthralling...but this one just kinda left me hanging. Very strong buildup to just a few short pages of a rushed feeling payoff.

Needless to say, Emma, is an enthralling main character, in fact, both main characters keep you interested in how the whole thing plays out. Very well written, with strong prose and atmosphere. It's just HOW it plays out that left me underwhelmed, I guess.

Also included in the book are a few short stories by the author which range from good to middling, this is a neat little package to introduce one to the work of the writer.

While I was underwhelmed, I'll give more from the author/publisher a try in the future. Give it a spin, you may enjoy it more than I did.
1833748
Sorry, I have to go against the general consensus here. Meanwhile...Back At The Lab is mediocre at best.

I hate even having to type out that statement, Slightly Stoopid has been one of my favorite in the reggae scene since they came on the scene (hell, Bradley from Sublime signed them right before he died). They have produced album after album of GOLD. However, I am starting to feel that they aren't putting their all into things anymore. With this and their last album, I am not feeling that their heart is in it anymore. Obviously it seems like reviewers here are loving the album, so I don't know what I am missing, this just isn't an interesting album. It is boring.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad album, it is just a bad Slightly Stoopid album. Songs like 'This Version,' 'Time Won't Wait,' 'Guns In Paradise,' 'Come Around,' 'Life Rolls On' and 'What Your Friends Say' are fantastic tracks that clearly show off that classic Stoopid sound. These are tracks that you can fire one up and get lost in the groove, just like proper Stoopid is. Problem is, these are 6 tracks on an album filled with 14 songs, so you can see where it doesn't add up to anywhere near 5 stars like everybody is handing out. The rest of the album is a lot more poppy than previous albums and I do not dig that at all.

I am sorry, but this album is disappointing for me (and my wife; after multiple listens we both concluded that this album is pretty boring overall). I will still see Stoopid live and I still fully support them, but with this and Top Of The World, I am not liking the direction my reggae heroes are headed. This is a album with a handful of classics that are surrounded by mediocrity.
4716189
I am sad to say, this is not my new favorite album. I enjoy it, but unlike the previous three albums, I was only "grabbed" by a couple songs on this one. I enjoy the sound and variety, but a couple tracks felt a little bland for Seether and the lyrics are just a little repetitive from song to song. Don't get me wrong, I still really enjoyed the album, but I've been in LOVE with the last three, so it was just a little disappointing that their new direction wasn't one I'm crazy about. I still eagerly await more albums and I'm sure more songs will grow on me as time goes by. There just weren't a lot of chills given this time or flat out audiogasms like in previous works.
986117
I am neurotic. I really want to give this less than three stars but above two-and-a-half. I don't mean to nitpick, but something about this album makes it worthy, and on the other hand doesn't make it worthy. Of course I review this album objectively. Personally I don't care for it much (although I still like it enough to keep it around). If you've seen the way I do other reviews you know I cover all albums by a band in one review (saves tons of time and really there is no need to do otherwise). But concerning this particular band, I have only heard "Salvation" all the way through. I never waste my time reviewing something I hate (pretty much anything on the radio)because the fans of maroon five will be fans no matter what-and that's fine. But I chose to review this band so the potential buyer knows it's not quite worth the hype. I do this because COL have been getting a lot of press (underground of course) in magazines, etc. Now obviously since reading about this band, you know to expect something different, melodic, and experimental (but you also know it's heavy b/c the band has had huge articles/interviews in metal mags). So you know you're not getting some death metal album. My guess is you're thinking Radiohead meets heavy metal. Sounds sweet right? Well, I think in putting the band in this category of something new and experimental (even though Neurosis was doing similar things earlier), they lose some musical credibility. When, listening to COL you expect to hear a lot of soundscapes, effetcs, programming and just overall interesting sound engineering. Maybe something like Incubus's new stuff. But the thing is, Mike Eizenger can pull it off and make it innovative (cuz he's a [...]). They have two guitar players, keyboard player, and a guy who just does like programming/samples and stuff like that. They hardly use any of these members for anything worthwhile. The slow, supposedly innovative, experimental side of their music is extremely simplistic and lethargic in it's approach. It's redundant and abuses its time extension. The heavy side is doom-ladden and repetitive. The production is clear, but the eq and effects makes the guitars and aural soundscapes somewhat dirty and buried under mirk. It's almost is if they tried to make that album I mentioned but fell a bit short. However the heavy parts are catchy and the eq makes it interesting. I find Isis more interesting as something similar musically. Good, but not worth all the new attention.
2306824
I will start by saying that while I do like this series, I am not in love with it as many fans out there. I found the first three books to be good and often found myself laughing at the hilarious interactions between some of the characters (Oliver and Andre). I enjoy how pure and at the same time how intense the romance is in this series, yet this fourth tome was a letdown for me.
I felt like this book was pretty much empty pages. There is absolutely no purpose to this novel, it seems like the author is simply forcibly trying to extract as many volumes as she can from this one idea, when her creative juices are clearly running out. The whole book deals with Andre and Gabrielle running and escaping from the variety of enemies that hunt them. The devil, like usual, makes his presence known and plays a key role in the story. While reading this book I kept expecting the rising action, or at least for something relevant to happen. When it finally did, bam! The book is over in a couple of pages. This left me thoroughly disappointed. I felt like the relevant events that took place during this book could have been part of a great final tome rather that the central conflict of their own novel.
Since Thalassa's writing is good I was never bored while reading the story, but I did feel like things were sort of dragging on at certain points. When I finished the book I felt cheated, or like I had been chasing a lion the whole time only to find out is was actually a house cat. The ending of this book is enthralling and definitely left me wanting more, but I still felt like everything that took place throughout about 3/4 of the book could have been taken out and it would have made no significant difference in the overall story. Hopefully the next volume in this series is a little more crucial to the story and actually advances the plot, rather than focusing so much on frivolous details that make absolutely no difference in the story.
3036422
I hate to be the one to draw the line in the sand and criticize this album, but I cannot bring myself to enjoy this as much as the other reviewers seem to. I cannot really even pinpoint what the definitive problem is. The entire album is listenable and for the most part, enjoyable. The songs are all slickened synth tracks that fit into the synthpop genre like a glove on a hand. Their record label is the wonderful 'A different Drum' label( IRIS, anyone? ) and the voices of these German vocalists are certainly pleasant enough. With that as only the tip of the iceberg for this band's shining features I certainly wouldn't blame you if you ignored this review and dismissed me as simply lacking in taste. So why only 3 stars? For something that is being touted by other reviewers as something absolutely wonderful( and comparable to that of the magnificent De/Vision?!?! ) I found myself somewhat underwhelmed. All the pleasant vocals, lyrics, beats, and melodies somehow add up to some tiresome and uninspired mediocre synthpop. Iris, De/Vision, Cosmicity, Wolfsheim, etc, all had some distinguishing quality( whether that happened to be the vocals, synths, lyrics, or all of the above ) that made them special. T.O.Y is not a bad band by any means, nor is this album a total waste of money for the synthpop fan but if you're looking for something that is going to simply blow you away as stated in other reviews, then you may be disappointed. Pleasant enough, but a little borning and very uninspired. There is no special distinguishing feature present to make this album really interesting.

This probably won't be my last experience with T.O.Y. I'm going to check out some of their material from when they were still "Evil". Maybe then I'll find out what's missing.
4084987
This is basically a fan's retrospective about a band he loves. Nothing wrong with that, except I didn't find myself especially enlightened about why the lesser albums of the Incredible String Band are worth my time. It was more hectoring than that, along the lines of, "O you foolish critics who dismiss NO RUINOUS FEUD and HARD ROPE AND SILKEN TWINE, don't you know there are gems within?" Well, I love the ISB, but I've never been able to get a charge out of the two aforementioned recordings, and Mr. Wade doesn't really give me a coherent rationale for changing my mind. The writing about the albums which he and I do agree are good is similarly  bland. I like that he likes what I like, but he doesn't get me pumped about it.

Recommended mainly if you're already in the ISB orbit.
2308356
This is the third Miyavi album that I've received and it's too "pop" for me, ranking it at the bottom of my little collection. My preference is more to hear his virtuosity and glorious abilities with the guitar (acoustic OR electric). While the lyrics are (completely?) in English, the whole sound of it doesn't really present anything very interesting or notably distinguished, IMHO. I do believe he's a tremendous artist (as well as a really nice guy) and plan to keep watching for new developments.
625246
Meh. I think if I was a fan or listened to his show I would feel differently, but it is just kind of boring. He is not that great of a writer, and I found myself skipping a lot of it because the first person descriptions of everything didn't really hold my attention.
3397595
Bummed that I got sucked into buying this by these over rated, bloated reviews.
I'm in my 40's & have been listening to guitar oriented music for years, including
all the musicians listed in above reviews, as well as several others. Based on these reviews,
I thought checking this show out was a no-brainer for me. Wrong. Landau is definitely talented,
but, at least as far as this show is concerned, a bit of a dull composer. I'm not one of those guys
who needs every song to be a 100 mph. jam fest (although I do like those), and I appreciate a well
composed, tastefully  played piece tremendously, but , I have to say, this show was pretty dull.
Half the tunes are instrumental, and half have some pretty sub-par vocals, and, with the dubious
exception of 3 or 4 tracks, all have a very similar, slow, plodding tempo when they finally do get
going, with a small taste of a Landau solo ending almost before it begins somewhere in the middle.
Almost all tracks sound like nothing more than a very long, quite, gentle intro to what you think is going to be the actual song, then, there's a bit of a solo (usually pretty tonaly intersesting, once in awhile a little agressive), and you realize this IS the song. Same long, quite, softly struck notes and sounds makes for the long outro, and, you're on to the next track. Couple tracks try to be "jams", like "I'm Buzzed", and "Born in the Rain" but, they're too few and far between, and you have to stay awake long enough to get to them. Born in the Rain sounds almost like a much slowed down rip of Jeff beck's Big Block,as a lot of Landau's soloing seems to sound like he's trying for the post 90"s Beck sound, only being not nearly as exciting as Beck. One reviewer claims he goes to this disc more than those of the older masters he listenens to- I am the complete opposite. If I want to hear tones/solos like Beck, Trower, Marino, Morse, etc., I'll take the originals over this guy every time.
2844401
Big Tesla fan from the beginning, but admittedly haven't really liked much of their studio stuff since Bust a Nut.  I just think it's generally lost the trademark in-your-face swagger and the hooks are much weaker.

Simplicity has been touted as a "return to roots" sort of album, and I sincerely hoped that meant a return to the style of their first 3-4 albums.  Sadly, this doesn't do that.  As much as I wanted to love this album (and believe me, I've tried), it just isn't clicking for me.

After listening to the entire album, I find that I can barely remember any of them.  No real Tesla rockers and plenty of laid-back, forgettable songs.  The guitars lack aggression, the vocals are getting unbearably rough, and the lyrics are just generally bad.

It seems that a lot of other fans are really digging this one, but I honestly don't get it.  This CD does little for me and will likely be re-played very rarely, if ever.

This would be a 4-star effort from many other bands, but Tesla should be better than this.  I consider their first 3 albums to be 5-stars, but this is nowhere near that good.
809972
I am a HUGE fan of The Expanse series. I've loved every book in the series, and while I also enjoyed this one, I will admit I feel it is the weakest in the series. It just felt rushed, and like the author(s) didn't put much effort into it, using the same phrases and metaphors over and over. I would need more hands just to count how many times they mentioned "the metallic taste of fear in his/her mouth". So while it is good, and any fan of the series will enjoy this, it's not the caliber we've come to expect from Corey.
201201
Eh.. Loved mistborn and this felt a little lackluster. Like it was trying a bit hard to be cool
1941849
Much better than good, but still lower quality than I expected.