| Echelons | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Studio album by | |
| Released | 1987 |
| Label | Independent Project |
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide |  [2] |
Echelons is the debut studio album by American post-punk band For Against, released in 1987 by Independent Project Records. [3] [4]
The album was nominated for a 1988 Grammy award for Best Album Package - Incl. Album Cover, Graphic Arts, Photography. It was designed by Bruce Licher of Savage Republic.
AllMusic called the album "a spectacular listen" and "one of the most important releases of its time." [1] PopMatters declared it "a fine debut, and a must have for anyone interested in the best of American college rock from the 1980s." [5]
Britpop is a mid-1990s British-based music genre and culture movement that emphasised Britishness. It produced brighter, catchier alternative rock, partly in reaction to the popularity of the darker lyrical themes of the US-led grunge music and to the UK's own shoegaze music scene. The movement brought British alternative rock into the mainstream and formed the backbone of a larger British popular cultural movement, Cool Britannia, which evoked the Swinging Sixties and the British guitar pop of that decade.
Synth-pop is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic, art rock, disco, and particularly the Krautrock of bands like Kraftwerk. It arose as a distinct genre in Japan and the United Kingdom in the post-punk era as part of the new wave movement of the late 1970s to the mid-1980s.
Gang of Four are an English post-punk band, formed in 1976 in Leeds. The original members were singer Jon King, guitarist Andy Gill, bass guitarist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham. There have been many different line-ups including, among other notable musicians, Sara Lee, Gail Ann Dorsey, and Mark Heaney. After a brief lull in the 1980s, different constellations of the band recorded two studio albums in the 1990s. Between 2004 and 2006 the original line-up was reunited; Gill toured using the name between 2012 and his death in 2020. In 2021, the band announced that King, Burnham, and Lee would be reuniting for a tour in 2022 with David Pajo on guitar.
The Cars were an American rock band formed in Boston in 1976. Emerging from the new wave scene in the late 1970s, it consisted of Elliot Easton, Greg Hawkes (keyboards), Ric Ocasek, Benjamin Orr, and David Robinson (drums). Ocasek and Orr shared lead vocals, and Ocasek was the band's principal songwriter.
Dream pop is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such as reverb, echo, tremolo, and chorus. It often overlaps with the related genre of shoegaze, and the two genre terms have at times been used interchangeably.
Billion Dollar Babies is the sixth studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released on February 25, 1973 by Warner Bros. Records. The album became the best selling Alice Cooper record at the time of its release, hit number one on the album charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and went on to be certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album has been retrospectively praised by such critics as Robert Christgau, Greg Prato of AllMusic, and Jason Thompson of PopMatters, but The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) gave the album only two and a half stars.
Pop-punk is a rock music genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop. It is defined for its emphasis on classic pop songcraft, as well as adolescent and anti-suburbia themes, and is distinguished from other punk-variant genres by drawing more heavily from 1960s bands such as the Beatles, the Kinks, and the Beach Boys. The genre has evolved throughout its history, absorbing elements from new wave, college rock, ska, rap, emo, and boy bands. It is sometimes considered interchangeable with power pop and skate punk.
Rap rock is a fusion genre that fuses vocal and instrumental elements of hip hop with various forms of rock. Rap rock's most popular subgenres include rap metal and rapcore, which include heavy metal and hardcore punk-oriented influences, respectively.
Arctic Monkeys are an English rock band formed in Sheffield in 2002. The group consists of Alex Turner, Jamie Cook, Nick O'Malley, and Matt Helders. Former band member Andy Nicholson left the band in 2006 shortly after their debut album was released.
Syd Matters is a French band fronted by composer Jonathan Morali. The other band members are Jean-Yves Lozac'h, Olivier Marguerit, Remi Alexandre and Clement Carle. The name Syd Matters comes from the slight modification of the names of two Pink Floyd members: Syd Barrett and Roger Waters.
"I Will Dare" is a song by American alternative rock band The Replacements, written by Paul Westerberg. The song's pop stylings were a departure from the band's punk origins and its lyrics reflected the band's willingness to "dare to do anything." The track also features guitar performed by Peter Buck of R.E.M.
William James McAuley III, best known by his performing name, Bleu, is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He has written and produced songs for Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, John Oates, Michelle Branch, Hey Violet, Big Freedia, and the Jonas Brothers, and has won multiple Independent Music Awards for his work with Air Traffic Controller.
For Against is an American post-punk/dream pop band from Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. Despite numerous lineup shuffles and some periods of dormancy, the band has produced material steadily since 1984.
Fun is an American pop rock band based in New York City. The band consists of Nate Ruess, Andrew Dost, and Jack Antonoff.
"Dance This Mess Around" is a song by American new wave band The B-52's. It was released in 1979, as the third and final single from their self-titled debut album. The song features Cindy Wilson on lead vocals, as well as Fred Schneider and Kate Pierson, and has become a live favorite, even 40 years after its release. It was heard once in Alex Strangelove.
Transference is the seventh studio album by the American indie rock band Spoon. It was released on January 18, 2010 in Europe and on January 19 in North America. In Australia, it was released on January 15 through Spunk Records.
Broken Frames is the third studio album by American rock band Eyes Set to Kill. The album was released on June 8, 2010 by Break Silence Records. The album consists of 12 songs and DVD of their interviews and music videos from Reach to Deadly Weapons. It is the only album to feature unclean vocalist Justin Denson, who only remained in the band throughout the duration of 2010 before departing.
Imagine Dragons is an American pop rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada, consisting of lead singer Dan Reynolds, guitarist Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee and drummer Daniel Platzman. The band first gained exposure with the release of their single "It's Time", followed by their award-winning debut studio album Night Visions (2012), which resulted in the chart-topping singles "Radioactive" and "Demons". Rolling Stone named "Radioactive", which held the record for most weeks charted on the Billboard Hot 100, the "biggest rock hit of the year". MTV called them "the year's biggest breakout band", and Billboard named them their "Breakthrough Band of 2013" and "Biggest Band of 2017", and placed them at the top of their "Year in Rock" rankings for 2013, 2017, and 2018. Imagine Dragons topped the Billboard Year-End "Top Artists – Duo/Group" category in 2018.
Bloodstone is the first studio album by the Australian singer-songwriter Russell Morris. It was released in September 1971 and peaked at number 12 on the Australian Go-Set chart.
This article describes trends in popular music in the 2020s.
