The perfect phone app….”It Sounds Like”
I was cruising around the Apple App Store the other day (sorry Android people) and discovered the coolest app I’ve ever seen. “It Sounds Like” is totally free, and its basically a built-in music review creator….allowing anybody to punch in an album title or artist name, and it’ll automatically spit out usable quotes. So whether you’re a professional critic or just simply a blogger with time on your hands, this tool helps you put together an intelligent and meaningful review. It’s probably best if I give you a few examples so you can get what I’m talking about it.
So…for example….Ray Wylie Hubbard’s latest album:
“He switches from acoustic ballads to Stones–ish rock, where his voice turns craggy and stubbly.”
Here’s another one I tried out on the latest single from Jason Mraz:
“The song grimly implies we’re all destined to be reduced to airborne particles, its helium-high hook and spirited shuffle suggests a corner-busker version of the Flaming Lips.”
How cool it that? No more thumbing through magazines or crawling through the web (sorry Kyla). Forget those Amazon customer reviews…you can do it all yourself. Like me, I’m sure you’ve all been amazed at how music reviewers are able to come up with those great comparisons, or the “it sounds like” lines. With this app it doesn’t matter what you know or don’t know…technology handles it all.
“Americana” from Neil Young:
“There’s a little more digital burble coursing underneath the guitar haze this time out.”
On Todd Snider’s ode to Jerry Jeff:
“He shows admirable range and control, from wispy voicings of cotton-candy melodies to Run DMC-style yelling.”
And an album that’s gotten a lot of attention in the press…the Beach Boys reunion:
“Their ballads now get choked up over bygone glory days, while their Gary Glitter and Bryan Adams riffs sound re-purposed for sports and strip bars.”
This app is worth every single penny I didin’t have to pay for it, and more. I can see it improving my writing skills and it will especially help out with some of the younger bands and artists I really aren’t all that familiar with. And get this…it also works with reissues, tribute records and soundtracks.
Just for the heck of it, here’s what it spit out for the latest Woody Guthrie box set celebrating his 100th birthday:
“Woody generally sticks to a low-key, unemotional delivery that makes me think of REM.”
You can’t go wrong with “It Sounds Like”…more fun than Angry Birds.