(EDIT: We apologise that this has only been released some many months after our review… we appear to have experienced a glitch in the system that prevented this from being published at the “future date” it was originally set for.)
This review is for the music lovers out there. I recently came across a subscription box that compiles various music cd’s into your chosen genre. The boxes can also include band stickers, flyers, download cards and more.
It’s a great way to have up and coming musicians introduced to you each month. You can choose from a $5 envelope, $12 Box (what I have received) or a $15 Bundle (which includes both the box and the envelope).
The next step is choosing your fave genre (unless you’ve chosen the envelope option): Pop-Rock; Alt/Indie (which I chose here); Rock; Metal; Country or “Surprise Me”
Then choose whether you’d like to subscribe Month to Month (meaning you can skip a month here or there); 3 Month Prepay or 6 Month Prepay.
I like the option of being able to subscribe month by month (although, obviously the subscriptions include discounts if you choose to go with a 3 or 6 month subscription). You can also purchase multiple subscriptions for various genres (just be aware that a CD or two may be doubled up in the boxes/bundles).
Now for the fun part – the review!
First up we have “Five Times August” – I actually received two CD’s by Five Times August, so I’ll review each separately.
Five Times August – Life As a Song: I really enjoyed listening to this album, I was already getting into it by the first song, and the rest of the album didn’t disappoint. I’d call this more of a fusion of pop-rock/indie-rock. It’s an album that’s easy to listen too, so would appeal to a lot of people. What I find interesting is that in researching more about this album, I discovered that it actually started out as a kickstarter project with fans invited to pre-order the album, with different rewards levels offered per successful funding. The goal was $20,000USD and was successfully achieved with nine hours to go back in 2009 – it was the first project on kickstarter to raise that amount of money AND be successful – not bad! (Source) The album is really worth checking out too – absolutely love the design of the CD case as well.
Five Times August – Acoustic Sessions (Bonus Disc): Another album I really enjoyed, it reminds me of Sunday Sessions hanging with friends listening to live bands play as we ate lunch brunch/lunch – good times! Discovered I’m now a fan of Five Times August, I can see myself playing both albums at home, and on the mobile when I’m out and need to get into my chill zone (in fact, “Life As a Song” was background music whilst writing this review). Safe to say that I’m pretty damn happy with these two albums being in this month’s box!
That Noise – The way we are: This album is somewhat closer to what I would have expected to receive in an Alt/Indie Rock music compilation. Five Times August is a softer version (hence, more fitted to pop-rock – although I still really enjoyed it) – but That Noise is definitely louder and sits comfortably in the genre of Alternative Rock. Another band I hadn’t heard of previously, so it was great to be introduced to them as well. Quite enjoyed listening to the album.
FIN – Treehouse: I received a Download Card from cdbaby – unfortunately, the site didn’t work properly for me, so I never actually got to download/play the “Treehouse” LP by FIN via the site. I did however find their website and was able to listen to a few of the tunes on there (I’m not sure whether that was the full album that I had the download card for or not, so not able to ‘fully’ review them based on that). If you’d like to know more about them though, be sure to check them out here – you can purchase various songs on the site. What I have heard though I liked a lot. It’s another album that reminds of the kind of tunes I’d listen to at live sessions in the park or one the pub scene, very easy to chill out too.
There were a few other bits and pieces included in the box, such as a key ring, band stickers, and a couple of flyers. Overall, for the cost of the box, I found it well worth the value – I essentially received 3 full albums, plus a download card (so essentially 4 albums) and was introduced to a variety of bands I hadn’t heard of before (and found I actually LIKED them too – it wasn’t crappy music by any standards!)
To find out more about The Music Box, be sure to check out their site, do note, that if you’re buying various genres with your subscription, you may actually encounter double ups of some of the cds (due to their being able to cross over into a couple of different genres) – so you may want to try out one box one month, another box the next (or simply give away any seconds you may get – they do try not to double stuff up, but sometimes it happens when a band covers more than one area with their music).
If you do purchase or subscribe to The Music Box, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the boxes/envelopes you receive!
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