Review of Neon Trees’ ‘Picture Show’

I don’t like backtracking as much as the next reviewer, but in the case of Neon Trees, I kind of have to. I stated in the music section of our Looking Forward To section earlier this month that their music would fill in the electric-alternative hole that The Killers left for us a couple of years ago. And yeah, their first single “Animal” still gets plenty of air time on some radio stations (and it had PLENTY when it was the commercial song for Las Vegas), but it didn’t catapult the band into the band that The Killers is – and technically still are.

But the biggest difference between The Killers and Neon Trees is the consistency of The Killers. After one song fizzled out, they had a song in their back pockets that they can throw out there and be as, if not more, accepted than the last. For Neon Trees, it wasn’t exactly public knowledge that “1983″ was released as the second single off of Habits. Instead, people just kept playing “Animal” until it got imprinted into our subconscious. Luckily, with their newest release Picture Show, they put out a single this year that should eclipse it’s predecessors. [Read more...]

HST Winter: Great Songs For The Holidays

When I was younger, my family and I would sit around our Christmas tree, open up presents, and listen to some of the most classic Christmas songs of yesteryear. Some Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Brenda Lee, and a little bit of Nat “King” Cole made my Christmas mornings incredibly memorable. However, as I grow older and my musical tastes change, I pushed some of those classics to the side and started finding some more recent holiday songs to start filling my December with new memories. [Read more...]