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by Kara Zelinskas
O&B Columnist
Debut albums hit the shelves
With the new semester started, Kim has moved from newspaper to theater - so for the time being I'll write the column alone. Sorry, no more bickering.
Anyway, getting on with it. With spring approaching and so many artists releasing new albums it seems fitting to review a couple of CDs. That way, you'll know what to spend your precious money on... and what not to.
I listened to Vertical Horizon's and Eifel 65's debut albums. Vertical Horizon's release was great, but Eifel 65's left more to be desired.
Vertical Horizon has that awesome combination of the soft rock lyrics and that more intense music. As soon as I heard the whole CD, I was hooked. I haven't heard a debut album with this much quality in a long time. The songs just grab you attention so much so that it is hard to find a song that you don't like. And that is definitely something to look for when buying a CD, especially when they cost $18.00!
Eifel 65 was a different story. This album is cool to begin with, but after you hit ... oh let's see... about song number two, it gets monotonous. The songs all sound exactly the same, and I found about two that I actually liked. For all the people that like "Blue", that was one of the songs I liked, that is the first thousand times I heard it. That is what the whole album is like, repetition and more repetition.
As for the videos of both artists, I like both "Blue" and "Everything You Want". They are both of good quality compared to debut music videos that I have seen in the past. I don't like the flashing words that you see in Vertical Horizon's video, but the rest is awfully interesting. As for "Blue", that is definitely a complex video! I really like it. However, their CD is still not worth buying.
So there you have it; if you want a great CD, buy Vertical Horizon's debut, but don't waste the time or energy it would require to go to the store and buy Eifel 65's release. It is most definitely not worth it.

Ratings:
*Keep your precious money
**clean your bathroom instead
***toss a coin
****You have to buy it
*****buy it, or you're an idiot

Eifel 65:
*

Vertical Horizon:
*****

Updated 2/20/00 by Mike Bowser