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LA band Carbon 9's new CD The Bull is being released today, so I thought it only fitting to give you, our readers a review of this remarkable new release and with an urging as strong as I can muster through the typed word, GO GET IT!!  I promise you that you will not be sorry for adding this CD to your collection, in fact I think you will be sorry if you don't.

I will warn you up front, that this review is not going to be your conventional CD review, but then, I never claimed to be conventional.  As I sat with headphones on and notebook in hand, I began to envision how this article would shape up and began to get excited.  As each song would play, I would write the title and then would write feverishly, becuase as I would listen, words, phrases and sentences  would pour through my mind as each song filled not just my ears, but my emotions.  But I'm jumping ahead of myself.  Where I really want to start is with the music, NOT the lyrics.

Music can take you through the many realms of emotion.  It can be translated with a melodic piano line, a forceful bass undertone, or a shredding guitar riff.  C9 takes you there with all of these and then some.  Each song is a unique story musically and lyrically within itself and will leave you on the edge of your seat waiting for the next song, full of anticipation.  And when you reach the end, you want to go right back to track 1 and start all over again, hopeful of what you will get out of each song the second time around.  There are only so many adjectives that you can use to describe the music, the playing, the musicians, and they are used quite frequently about several different artists.  You hear the terms "ground breaking", "innovating", "cutting edge" and the like and while they definatly pertain to C9, there is only one word that is coming to my mind as I replay The Bull through my mind and that is PASSION.  From one layer of sound to the next, from Darwin's guitar to the drums, from Omar's bass to the piano and back to Stacey's vocals, from a soothing melodic line to a hard face smashing power chord, C9 drips with passion.  Passion for music and passion for life.  And when you listen between the lines, and hear each individaul instrument, each individual voice and allow it permiate your senses and then listen again to the collective whole, you hear passion on two different levels, that of each individual musician and that of the band as a single entity. The music itself takes you on it's own journey as at times it's beautifuly simplistic while at others forcefully complex, but always uniquely C9's own.  It is difficult to put into words the complexity of music.  Sometimes you just have to hear it for yourself.

That brings us to the songs, and with the songs, the lyrics.  Just as the music itself tells a story of its own and stirs our emotions, lyrics do the same, but on a different level.  Music is the foundation and the platform on which the lyrics stand and then ring forth allowing us to draw forth our own interpretations and conclusions, allowing us to adopt the words into our lives with the meanings that they have for us as individuals. This is what happened as I was listening to The Bull.  The foundation was laid, the lyrics rang forth, and as I absorbed them, I couldn't help but put pen to paper as to the personal revelations that the lyrics stirred within me.  Sometimes it was just a couple of words, sometimes a lot more, but each song did not fail to stir somthing within me and cause me to evaluate ME, to evaluate my LIFE as an individual, as a writer, as a wife, as a mother.

As my interpretations are my own, and do not reflect in any way what the band's interprtations are, rather than giving them to you here I have reflected on them in my blog to share with you the reader what I drew forth from each of the tracks.  To offer you what this remarkable CD has given to me, and I'm sure that each time that I play it, I will draw more and hear more, just as you will if you allow the music to reach not just your ears, but penetrate to the core of who you are.

On a final note, the single My Friend has reached a rating of 8.5 out of 10 on AOL music making it a huge hit before the CD even hit shelves, a video for Mother has been released, and a tour is in preparation.  Not only is the music origianl and unique, the artwork for The Bull is as well, as C9 created all of the artwork, stimulating not just your sense of hearing, but that of your vision as well.  See it, hear it, buy it, reflect on it.

The Bull:

1 .  What Is It We're Made Of
2.   Crawling Over Me
3.   My Friend
4.   Somebody Like Me
5.   The Bull
6.   Mother
7.   Butterflies In My Head
8.   For You
9.   This Life
10.  Mary Mannequin
11.  I'm Not Broken
12.  Loving You
13.  I'm On My Own
14 . Lonely In Love
15.  Tongues