| 4 excellent |
| Aesop Rock Daylight |
| Agalloch Pale Folklore |
| Amorphis Tuonela |
| As Tall As Lions You Can't Take It With You |
| Battles Mirrored |
| Big Business Head for the Shallow |
| Black Milk Tronic |
| Brand New The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me |
| Burst Origo |
| Camel Mirage |
| Cave In Planets of Old |
| Cave In Antenna |
| Charles Mingus Pithecanthropus Erectus |
| Charles Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus |
| Converge Jane Doe |
| Cult of Luna Salvation |
| CunninLynguists Dirty Acres |
| Cynic Focus |
| David Bowie The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust... |
| De La Soul Are You In? |
| Death Symbolic |
| Decapitated Winds of Creation |
| Del The Funky Homosapien Both Sides of the Brain |
| Depeche Mode Black Celebration |
| Depeche Mode Music for the Masses |
| Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca |
| Right now, this is the best album of the year. Almost every tune is crafted precisely and beautifully. Excellent musicians, interesting lyrics, and my girlfriend likes this. Any album my girlfriend likes is usually the next internet indie smash hit. |
| Disillusion Back To Times Of Splendor |
| Dream Theater Live Scenes From New York |
| dredg Leitmotif |
| Elzhi The Preface |
| Eminem The Slim Shady LP |
| EPMD Strictly Business |
| Ernie Watts Reaching Up |
| Ernie Watts To The Point |
| Estradasphere Palace Of Mirrors |
| Fair To Midland Fables From a Mayfly |
| Finale A Pipe Dream and a Promise |
| Georgia Anne Muldrow Umsindo |
| Ghostface Killah Ironman |
| Ghostface Killah Supreme Clientele |
| God Is An Astronaut All Is Violent, All Is Bright |
| God Is An Astronaut Far From Refuge |
| Gospel The Moon is A Dead World |
| HUM You'd Prefer An Astronaut |
| In Pieces Lions Write History |
| Isis Oceanic |
| Isis Wavering Radiant |
| Island Orakel |
| J Dilla Donuts |
| J Dilla The Shining |
| J Dilla Dillanthology |
| Jake One White Van Music |
| Probably one of the most overlooked releases this year, Jake One tears it up on White Van Music and is easily one of the best producers in hip hop today. With an all star guest list, more than half the tracks (of a 20+ track release) are bangers. While not a progressive production genius, he is a brilliant composer, and Rhymesayers made a great move by putting this on their label. |
| Jay-Z The Blueprint |
| Jaylib Champion Sound |
| John Zorn Naked City |
| Kamelot The Black Halo |
| Kashiwa Daisuke Program Music I |
| Kenna New Sacred Cow |
| Keyshia Cole Just Like You |
| King Crimson Red |
| M. Ward Post-War |
| M. Ward Transistor Radio |
| M. Ward Transfiguration of Vincent |
| Madlib Shades of Blue |
| Madlib Beat Konducta Vol 1-2: Movie Scenes |
| Mastodon Leviathan |
| Mew Frengers |
| Minus The Bear Planet Of Ice |
| Mono Hymn To The Immortal Wind |
| Mos Def The Ecstatic |
| Mr. Bungle California |
| Napalm Death From Enslavement To Obliteration |
| Nas Illmatic |
| Neurosis Through Silver in Blood |
| Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral |
| Nine Inch Nails The Fragile |
| O.S.I. Office of Strategic Influence |
| Off Minor The Heat Death of the Universe |
| Oh No Dr. No's Oxperiment |
| Oh No Exodus Into Unheard Rhythms |
| Opeth Damnation |
| Opeth My Arms, Your Hearse |
| Ornette Coleman The Shape of Jazz to Come |
| Orphans of Cush White Noize |
| P.O.S. Never Better |
| Pain Of Salvation The Perfect Element Part One |
| Pelican The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon... |
| Pharoahe Monch Desire |
| Pharoahe Monch Internal Affairs |
| Platinum Pied Pipers Abundance |
| By now, the consonant "D" undoubtedly inspires euphoria in underground hip-hop heads: unemployment drives its stake deeper into the D daily, yet through this hardship and pain therein lies true beauty and revolution. From the layman rhymes of Guilty Simpson's Ode To The Ghetto, to the break-out release of Elzhi's The Preface, and closing out the year in grand style with Black Milk's epic Tronic... Detroit is the hip-hop epicenter of the millenium. If Waajeed and Saadiq's Platinum Pied Pipers project promises anything, it's that the D isn't done; Abundance kicks off 2009 and the new regime with no ifs or maybes. |
| Porcupine Tree Lightbulb Sun |
| Portugal. The Man Waiter, \"You Vultures!\" |
| Pulse Ultra Headspace |
| Quasimoto The Further Adventures of Lord Quas |
| Radiohead OK Computer |
| Rage Against the Machine Evil Empire |
| Rage Against the Machine The Battle Of Los Angeles |
| Raphael Saadiq The Way I See It |
| Red Sparowes At The Soundless Dawn |
| Rise Against The Sufferer and the Witness |
| Royce da 5'9 Death is Certain |
| Rush Exit...Stage Left |
| Rush Moving Pictures |
| Rush Hemispheres |
| Rush 2112 |
| Scarface The Fix |
| Scarface Emeritus |
| Scarface Mr. Scarface Is Back |
| Secret Chiefs 3 Book M |
| Secret Chiefs 3 Xaphan |
| Secret Chiefs 3 Traditionalists |
Out of the ashes of circus-metal pioneers Mr. Bungle, Trey Spruance took something unique and wonderful, steeped it in a pressure cooker of middle eastern lore and scales, and morphed it into his own entity. Being only one of the dimensions introduced on the Book of Horizons record, this is a welcome explanation of the "Traditionalists" tracks it presented. Heavily Morricone, spaghetti western, and general bombast-influenced, the Secret Chiefs 3 give their interpretation of the cinematic soundtrack genre with an epic theme deconstructed and reanimated over the course of 33 tracks. Don't let the high track count discourage you, this is meant to be a continuous listen, likely only separated out for the sake of listener sanity (or lack thereof). Traditionalists calls life, love, suspense, and chaos to the fore in any given section with dissonant chimes, lush horns and violin, and ominous Italian guitar atmospheres. A very strong (and eccentric) attempt at a soundtrack, the combining factor remains Spruance's trademark surf-rock tendencies and noise experimentation - a boon when implemented properly, these techniques have evolved much from SC3's early Grand Constitution days. Initially immature and largely directionless in their chaotic meanderings, it's very refreshing to see a group grow and come full circle artistically in such grand fashion. Traditionalists is a challenging journey and will not find constant rotation as such - just know that it's a ride well worth the effort.
Here's to further expansion of the Book of Horizons personalities; with five chapters remaining, Secret Chiefs 3 have a bright future ahead of them. |
| Sholi Sholi |
| Sol.Illaquists Of Sound No More Heroes |
| shiiiit's tiiiight son |
| Sole and the Skyrider Band Sole and the Skyrider Band |
| Spires Flowers and Fireworks |
| Kind of similar to the Mesa Verde record from last year, but heavier. John Hanson says this is skramz isis. this will definitely be on my year end top 10. |
| T.I. Paper Trail |
| Team Sleep Team Sleep |
| Textures Drawing Circles |
| Textures Polars |
| The Beatles Revolver |
| The Decemberists The Crane Wife |
| The Mars Volta Frances the Mute |
| The Poor Nobodys The Poor Nobodys [EP] |
| The Roots Game Theory |
| The Roots Phrenology |
| The Roots Illadelph Halflife |
| The Samuel Jackson Five Goodbye Melody Mountain |
| Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. III and IV... |
| Thrice Vheissu |
| TV on the Radio Dear Science |
| TV On The Radio strays from alchemical-mixture pseudo-science with a perfect array of solutes. Strong components of electronic-soaked hiphop and rock yield an accessible, danceable, genius solution. Never cliched in its indie-pop-rock sensibilities, Dear Science achieves its own unique concoction... and is easily one of the best albums of 2008. This is one reviewer that absolutely never expected this. |
| Young Widows Old Wounds |
| 3.5 great |
| 2Pac Me Against the World |
| 311 Music |
| 311 Grassroots |
| 50 Cent Get Rich or Die Tryin' |
| 65daysofstatic The Fall of Math |
| Aesop Rock None Shall Pass |
| Aesop Rock Labor Days |
| Agalloch The Mantle |
| Alice in Chains Dirt |
| Alice in Chains Black Gives Way to Blue |
| Amanda Palmer Who Killed Amanda Palmer? |
| Amesoeurs Amesoeurs |
| Amorphis Elegy |
| Amorphis Tales From the Thousand Lakes |
| Amplifier Amplifier |
| Anaal Nathrakh In the Constellation of the Black Widow |
| Corpses raping animals then fighting other reanimated corpses after being burned alive by fire rain and death angels. Destruction on a colossal scale. |
| Anberlin New Surrender |
| Antigua y Barbuda Try Future |
| Asobi Seksu Citrus |
| Atomship The Crash of `47 |
| Baroness Red Album |
| Between The Buried And Me Colors |
| Between The Buried And Me The Silent Circus |
| Black Milk Popular Demand |
| Black Mountain In the Future |
| Blu and Exile Below the Heavens |
| Blu and Mainframe Johnson and Jonson |
| Blue Sky Black Death Late Night Cinema |
| Blue Sky Black Death Jean Grae: The Evil Jeanius |
| Britney Spears Circus |
| Brother Ali Shadows On The Sun |
| Brother/Ghost Black Ice |
| Buried Inside Spoils Of Failure |
| Cage [Hip-Hop] Hell's Winter |
| Cam'ron Purple Haze |
| Cave In Tides of Tomorrow |
| Charles Mingus Blues & Roots |
| Circle Takes The Square As The Roots Undo |
| Clipse Hell Hath No Fury |
| Coheed and Cambria Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV... |
| Common One Day It'll All Make Sense |
| Common Resurrection |
| Common Like Water for Chocolate |
| Crooked I Mr. Pig Face Weapon Waist |
| Cynic Traced In Air |
| Dalek Absence |
| Dalek Deadverse Massive Vol. 1: Dälek Rarities 1999-2006 |
| Dan Deacon Bromst |
| Deftones Around The Fur |
| Dela Changes of Atmosphere |
| Denali The Instinct |
| Depeche Mode Playing The Angel |
| Depeche Mode Songs of Faith and Devotion |
| Devin Townsend Accelerated Evolution |
| Devin Townsend Ocean Machine |
| DJ Muggs Vs GZA Grandmasters |
| DJ Sprinkles Midtown 120 Blues |
| Dog Fashion Disco Anarchists of Good Taste |
| Dog Fashion Disco Committed to a Bright Future |
| DOOM MM ... Food |
| DOOM Born Like This |
| Dr. Dre The Chronic |
| Dream Theater Awake |
| dredg The Pariah, the Parrot, the Delusion |
People are sucking this off way too much here. It's definitely great, probably a 3.7 even. But still, just because it doesn't suck like we thought it would, doesn't mean we need to worship it.
Sound-wise, it's like if they tried to be even more poppy/mainstream than CWA, but reverted back to the epic-come-concept ideas of El Cielo. If you're a dredg fan, you'll like this. If you're a butt rock fan, you might like this. Overall, I'm really surprised; their new tracks sucked so bad live (cough Ireland cough), but in the context of the album, they work so much better.
This will probably make my year end list, but near the bottom definitely. |
| dredg Catch Without Arms |
| Dynospectrum Dynospectrum |
| El-P Weareallgoingtoburninhell Megamixx 2 |
Awesome material from El-P as usual... One of the main highlights here is the last track, beginning with a unique El-P reinterpretation of Jay-Z's "99 Problems" and segueing into a nearly industrial remix of The Mars Volta's "The Widow". This mixtape is available for free from defjux.
I will follow up with a complete review eventually, as this is a newer release, but almost a couple months old. |
| Eminem The Eminem Show |
| EPMD Unfinished Business |
| EPMD Business as Usual |
| EPMD Business Never Personal |
| EPMD We Mean Business |
| Estradasphere Quadropus |
| Explosions In The Sky The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place |
| Explosions In The Sky Those Who Tell the Truth... |
| Eyedea & Abilities E & A |
| Faith No More King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime |
| Faith No More The Real Thing |
| Fantomas Fantomas |
| Felt Felt 3: A Tribute to Rosie Perez |
| Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes |
| Gallows Grey Britain |
| Ghostface Killah Fishscale |
| Glassjaw El Mark EP |
| God Is An Astronaut The End of the Beginning |
| Gojira From Mars To Sirius |
| Gordian Knot Gordian Knot |
| Grizzly Bear Veckatimest |
| GZA Legend Of The Liquid Sword |
| Have A Nice Life Deathconsciousness |
| Heaven and Hell The Devil You Know |
| Pretty good for a bunch of really old people. Not that old folks can't rock; I'm just surprised. Dio still sounds like Dio, and Sabbath is still Sabbath... but this is more novelty for me than anything. |
| Ill Bill The Hour of Reprisal |
| Immortal Technique Revolutionary Volume 2 |
| Incubus Morning View |
| Incubus S.C.I.E.N.C.E. |
| Into Eternity Buried In Oblivion |
| Isis In the Absence of Truth |
| J Dilla Jay Stay Paid |
| Jay-Z American Gangster |
| Jedi Mind Tricks Violent By Design |
| Jerry Cantrell Degradation Trip |
| John Zorn Moonchild |
| I highly reccommend this to any fan of Mike Patton or John Zorn... the premise is that Zorn wrote this for Patton and a couple others (Trevor Dunn is on bass I think). There are no lyrics; it is nearly a more structured Fantomas. |
| John Zorn Six Litanies for Heliogabalus |
| John Zorn The Crucible |
| Karnivool Themata |
| Keyshia Cole The Way It Is |
| King Crimson The Power To Believe |
| King Crimson The ConstruKction of Light |
| King Crimson Three of a Perfect Pair |
| King Crimson Islands |
| King Crimson In the Court of the Crimson King |
| Kreng L'Autopsie Phenomenale De Dieu |
| Kylesa Static Tensions |
| Lily Allen It's Not Me, It's You |
| Long Distance Calling Avoid The Light |
| Lupe Fiasco Food & Liquor |
| Madlib Sujinho |
| Always consistent, madlib put out an interesting album in 2008 that largely flew under everyone's radar. Collaborating with Mamao Conti (the drummer of Brazillian jazz group Azymuth), Sujinho is an energetic romp into redefinition of classic Brazillian standards. |
| Madlib Beat Konucta Vol. 6: Dil Withers Suite |
| Madlib Beat Konducta Vol. 5: Dil Cosby Suite |
| Madvillain Madvillainy 2: The Madlib Remix |
| Magrudergrind Magrudergrind |
| Manchester Orchestra Mean Everything To Nothing |
| Maps and Atlases You and Me and the Mountain |
| Maps and Atlases Tree, Swallows, Houses |
| Mastodon Remission |
| Maybeshewill Sing The Word Hope In Four-Part Harmony |
| Mesa Verde The Old Road |
| Minus The Bear Highly Refined Pirates |
| Minus The Bear Menos El Oso |
| Minus The Bear They Make Beer Commercials Like This |
| Modern Life Is War Midnight in America |
| Mute Math Mute Math |
| My Vitriol Finelines |
| Napalm Death Scum |
| Napalm Death Time Waits For No Slave |
| Napalm Death The Code Is Red... Long Live The Code |
| Nappy Roots The Humdinger |
| Nas STILLmatic |
| Ne-Yo Year of the Gentleman |
| Neurosis Given to the Rising |
| Neurosis Enemy of the Sun |
| Neurosis Times of Grace |
| Oceansize Frames |
| Off Minor Some Blood |
| Okkervil River The Stand Ins |
| Opeth Deliverance |
| Opeth Lamentations (Live at Shepherd's Bush Em |
| Outkast Idlewild |
| Pain Of Salvation Remedy Lane |
| Pax and Pry A Day Off |
| Pelican March into the Sea EP |
| Pelican Australasia |
| Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here |
| Pink Floyd Animals |
| Poison The Well The Opposite Of December |
| Poison The Well You Come Before You |
| Porcupine Tree Signify |
| Porcupine Tree Nil Recurring |
| Porcupine Tree Deadwing |
| Protest the Hero Kezia |
| Pure Reason Revolution The Dark Third |
| Queensryche Operation: Mindcrime |
| Radiohead In Rainbows |
| Radiohead The Bends |
| Red Sparowes Every Red Heart Shines Toward The Red... |
| Reef The Lost Cauze A Vicious Cycle |
| RJD2 Deadringer |
| Royce da 5'9 The Album |
| One of the most talent Detroit MCs for years, Royce da 5'9" puts forth a solid, well produced effort on 'The Album'. Fuck Ice Cube, this is a real pyroclastic flow. Detroit is inarguably the hotbed of 21st centry hip-hop... look out for his scheduled March 2009 release. |
| Rush Grace Under Pressure |
| Rush Signals |
| Rush Permanent Waves |
| Rush Rush |
| Russian Circles Enter |
| Rx Bandits Mandala |
| Sa-Ra Nuclear Evolution: The Age of Love |
| Saosin Translating The Name (Death Do Us Part) |
| Saxon Shore The Exquisite Death Of Saxon Shore |
| Scarface The World Is Yours |
| Scarface Made |
| Secret Chiefs 3 Second Grand Constitution and Bylaws |
| She and Him Volume One |
| Shugo Tokumaru Exit |
| Sinch Clearing the Channel |
| Sufjan Stevens Illinois |
| Talib Kweli Quality |
| The Bad Plus Prog |
| The Decemberists Picaresque |
| The Dodos Visiter |
| The Drones Havilah |
| The Eastern Wave All Covet, All Lose |
| The Fall Of Troy Doppelganger |
| The Foreign Exchange Leave It All Behind |
| The Mars Volta The Bedlam In Goliath |
| The Ocean Aeolian |
| The Roots Rising Down |
| The Roots Organix |
| The Velvet Teen Elysium |
| This Will Destroy You Young Mountain |
| Thrice The Alchemy Index: Vols. I and II... |
| Thrice The Illusion of Safety |
| Thrice Beggars |
| Tobacco Fucked Up Friends |
| One of the few interesting anticon projects. Tobacco makes an electronic come industrial trip-hop atmosphere on Fucked Up Friends. Beautiful at times, mediocre at others, it almost feels as if most of this has been done before. This sneaking suspicion keeps FUF from getting a 4, whereas Aesop Rock's verses on "Dirt" solidy its 3.5. Definitely recommended. |
| Toe New Sentimentality [EP] |
| Tomahawk Tomahawk |
| Tomahawk Mit Gas |
| Tool Aenima |
| Tortoise TNT |
| UGK UGK 4 Life |
| United Nations United Nations |
| Volcano Choir Unmap |
Well, this is better than For Emma after half a listen. Really interesting record that combines the intricacies of post-rock and math with Vernon's standard folk fare; he turns out to be an excellent indie rockstar/frontman. Some might call this "mindless experimentation", but a more accurate descriptor would be "highly dynamic math rock". Much of the more eccentric passages are placed well throughout - doing wonders for the album's pacing; half an hour goes by, yet it feels like merely minutes passed, leaving one with something new each time. This is an excellent outing for Vernon and company that will unfortunately go unnoticed due to Bon Iver fans feeling betrayed. Read: this is not for those that like their music vanilla. Strikey is crazy.
Coincidentally, my lady and I decided that Bon Iver's "Creature Fear" will be our first dance as a married couple. Sue me, that song rules. |
| Wale Attention Deficit |
| World's End Girlfriend Hurtbreak Wonderland |
| Wu-Tang Clan Wu-Tang Forever |
| Zero Hour The Towers of Avarice |
| Zoroaster The Voice of Saturn |
| Zu Carboniferous |
| 3 good |
| ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead The Century of Self |
| 30 Seconds to Mars 30 Seconds to Mars |
| 311 311 |
| 311 Transistor |
| 311 Soundsystem |
| 50 Cent War Angel LP |
| 50 Cent Before I Self Destruct |
| A Perfect Circle Mer de Noms |
| A Tribe Called Quest The Low End Theory |
| Adebisi Shank This Is The Album Of A Band Called Adebisi Shank |
| Air Love 2 |
| Akron/Family Set em Wild, Set em Free |
| Andromeda Extension of the Wish |
| Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion |
| Antipop Consortium Fluorescent Black |
| Arghoslent Hornets of the Pogrom |
| As I Lay Dying An Ocean Between Us |
| Atmosphere When Life Gives You Lemons, You... |
| Atmosphere Lucy Ford |
| Atmosphere God Loves Ugly |
| Avenged Sevenfold Waking the Fallen |
| Baroness Blue Record |
| Ok so I finally decided that this isn't as good as the Red Album. I don't know, maybe it's "more mainstream", but Blue Album nearly sheds all sense of identity developed on its forebear. |
| Bat For Lashes Two Suns |
| BATS Red In Tooth & Claw |
| Believer Gabriel |
| Between The Buried And Me The Anatomy Of |
| Between The Buried And Me Alaska |
| Black Mountain Black Mountain |
| Bloody Beetroots Romborama |
| Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago |
| Brand New Deja Entendu |
| Britney Spears Greatest Hits: My Prerogative |
| Brother Ali The Undisputed Truth |
| Brother Ali The Truth Is Here |
| Burial Untrue |
| Burst Lazarus Bird |
| Cage [Hip-Hop] Depart From Me |
this is what it would sound like if cage performed the Queen of the Damned soundtrack.
aaliyah RIP |
| Cam'ron Crime Pays |
| Camera Obscura My Maudlin Career |
| Cave In Perfect Pitch Black |
| Circa Survive Juturna |
| Circa Survive On Letting Go |
| Clipse Lord Willin' |
| Closure in Moscow First Temple |
| cLOUDDEAD cLOUDDEAD |
| Coheed and Cambria Second Stage Turbine Blade |
| Coheed and Cambria Good Apollo...No World For Tomorrow |
| Common Electric Circus |
| Common Be |
| Common Market Tobacco Road |
| Converge Axe To Fall |
There are some really solid tunes here, but unfortunately way too much filler. Sorry dudes.
Better than No More Heroes for sure and a step in the right direction. |
| Cursive Mama, I'm Swollen |
| Dalek Abandoned Language |
| Deerhunter Microcastle |
| An interesting exercise in atmospheric indie-rock, Deerhunter attempts to maintain a creative focus on Microcastle. At times they are truly genuine, yet this also seems to conceal the simplistic nature of their compositions. While not glaringly obvious, Deerhunter would be better for maturation of a creative process. Make no mistake, there is potential for greatness here; it only needs proper channeling. |
| Deftones Adrenaline |
| Del The Funky Homosapien Funk Man (The Stimulus Package) |
| Devin Townsend Synchestra |
| Devin Townsend Terria |
| Devin Townsend Infinity |
| DOOM Operation Doomsday |
| Doomtree Doomtree |
| Dr. Dre 2001 |
| Dream Theater Octavarium |
| Dream Theater Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence |
| Dream Theater Falling Into Infinity |
| Dream Theater A Change of Seasons |
| Dream Theater Images and Words |
| El-P Weareallgoingtoburninhell Megamix |
| Eminem Encore |
| Eminem Relapse |
| EPMD Back in Business |
| Ernie Watts Unity |
| Explosions In The Sky How Strange, Innocence |
| Explosions In The Sky The Rescue |
| Eyedea & Abilities First Born |
| Failure Comfort |
| Faith No More Album Of The Year |
| Fantomas Suspended Animation |
| Felt Felt 2: A Tribute to Lisa Bonet |
| Fort Minor The Rising Tied |
| Gaza He Is Never Coming Back |
| Ghostface Killah The Big Doe Rehab |
| Ghostface Killah Ghostdini: The Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City |
Tony Starks likes two things, or so it seems according to the subject matter of his rhymes: bitches and blow. Abandoning the latter for a whole record (seriously), he dedicates his trademark crazed flow entirely to the fairer sex with mixed results. Not completely a club-oriented record, The Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City dons a multi-faceted mantle of sentimentality, jealousy, and sorrow; this emotional gamut really doesn't click in certain situations (namely the off-target affair that is "Baby"), but there are some incredibly catchy moments here. When the record was initially announced as Ghostface's foray into R&B, it was greeted with disdain and an overall air of negativity - and while fears of 90s radio-soul surmounted, this reaction is largely unwarranted with modern production standards and a collection of excellent featured vocalists. "Not Your Average Girl" and "Do Over" kick things off brilliantly with catchy hooks from Shareefa and Raheem DeVaughn, respectively. Quickly setting Ghost's intended tone amidst updated, soul-laden beats, this one-two punch unfortunately sets the bar quite high for the remainder. Follow-up "Baby" was seemingly written for an audience of peers and not a younger crowd with sappy generalizations for parents to be. As is typical of Mr. Starks, each and every track is mired in the misogynist musings of a man that loves "running trains" and "threesomes every other weekend"; "Stapleton Sex" runs these assertions to a head in what could possibly be a recording of the Wizard actually fornicating. TMI Ghostface, TMI.
Ghostdeini is at his absolute best on the more modern iterations on the radio soul/rap formula, especially on the John Legend assisted "Let's Stop Playing" and a killer trio of album closers. The crooning tenor of Lloyd over a clinic on funk in "Goner" stands out with a particularly absorbing chorus; as a good measuring stick, many ladies in this household have been caught recently with their heads bobbing. Interestingly enough, the two closing bonus tracks are some of the best - Ne-yo and Kanye collabo "Back Like That" may be familiar to some, and the heavily dynamic, autotune-tastic "She's a Killah" brings a unique spin to your typical club tune.
While difficult to expect another killer Wu joint immediately following the brilliant Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt II, The Wizard of Poetry is definitely enjoyable even if it is sporadic in its appeal. It's hard not to inflate the rating of a record with some truly incredible joints, yet it's difficult to ignore the two-thirds filler combined with Ghostface's least complicated rhymes in years. Nice try Tony, but let's shoot for a Supreme Clientele II next time around. |
| God Is An Astronaut God Is An Astronaut |
| Gojira The Link |
| Gojira The Way Of All Flesh |
| Gordian Knot Emergent |
| GZA Pro Tools |
| Ice Cube Raw Footage |
The only thing that keeps this album above average are Ice Cube's pyroclastic flows, obviously. On a more serious note, although his anti-ghetto preachiness does become frustrating at times... Ice Cube remains a bastion of lyrical honor in the hip hop game. The beats are very average, but his flow makes up for that.
Most likely reviewing this soon. |
| If These Trees Could Talk Above the Earth, Below the Sky |
| Incubus Enjoy Incubus E.P |
| Incubus Make Yourself |
| Intronaut Void |
| Jaga Jazzist The Stix |
| Japandroids Post-Nothing |
| Jay-Z The Blueprint 3 |
| Not even as cool as American Gangster, let alone the original Blueprint |
| Jedi Mind Tricks Legacy of Blood |
| Jedi Mind Tricks Servants In Heaven, Kings In Hell |
| Jerry Cantrell Boggy Depot |
| John Zorn Astronome |
| Jubala Jubala |
| Jurassic 5 Power In Numbers |
| K'naan The Dusty Foot Philosopher |
| K. The Responsive Chord |
| Kanye West The College Dropout |
| Kanye West Late Registration |
| Kanye West Graduation |
| Kanye West 808s And Heartbreak |
| Karnivool Sound Awake |
| Khoma The Second Wave |
| KiD CuDi Man On The Moon: The End Of Day |
| Kidz in the Hall The In Crowd |
| Kings of Leon Only By The Night |
| Ludacris Theater of the Mind |
| Lupe Fiasco The Cool |
| M. Ward Hold Time |
| Mastodon Blood Mountain |
| Mastodon Call Of The Mastodon |
| Mercenary The Hours That Remain |
| Messiah J & The Expert From The Word Go |
| Mew No More Stories |
| Mighty Joseph Empire State |
| An intriguing, yet ultimately unbalanced effort. Although one of the most unique rappers of the 2000s, Vast Aire is unable to save the album from the mediocre production over a majority of its length. Regardless, "The Uprising" is one of the best tracks of 2008; it's a tragedy the rest of the album doesn't live up to this standard. |
| Mos Def True Magic |
| Mr. Lif I Heard It Today |
| Murs Murs 3:16: the 9th Edition |
| My Chemical Romance The Black Parade |
| My Chemical Romance Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge |
| Napalm Death Smear Campaign |
| Napalm Death Noise For Music's Sake |
| Napalm Death Harmony Corruption |
| Napalm Death Enemy Of The Music Business |
| Napalm Death Order of the Leech |
| Nas Untitled |
| Neurosis Souls At Zero |
| Nine Inch Nails Pretty Hate Machine |
| Nine Inch Nails Year Zero |
| O.S.I. Free |
| Oceans of Sadness The Arrogance Of Ignorance |
| Oceansize Everyone Into Position |
| Oceansize Music for Nurses |
| Opeth Ghost Reveries |
| Opeth Orchid |
| Outkast Stankonia |
| Oysterhead The Grand Pecking Order |
| P.O.S. Audition |
| Pain Of Salvation One Hour by the Concrete Lake |
| Pain Of Salvation Entropia |
| Pax and Pry A Day at the Office |
| Peeping Tom Peeping Tom |
| Pelican City of Echoes |
| Pepper In With The Old |
| Poison The Well The Tropic Rot |
| Polkadot Cadaver Purgatory Dance Party |
| Porcupine Tree Up The Downstair |
| Porcupine Tree Fear Of A Blank Planet |
| Porcupine Tree The Incident |
| Portugal. The Man Church Mouth |
| Prolyphic & Reanimator The Ugly Truth |
| Pure Reason Revolution Amor Vincit Omnia |
| Ra From One |
| Royce da 5'9 The Revival EP |
| Royce da 5'9 Street Hop |
| Rush Roll the Bones |
| Rush Presto |
| Rush Hold Your Fire |
| Rush Power Windows |
| Rush Caress Of Steel |
| Russian Circles Station |
| Russian Circles Geneva |
it's like this:
.........---------^^^^^CRASH BOOM CRASH^^^^^----------......... |
| Sabac Red Ritual |
| At his best, Sabac Red is merely serviceable; at his worst, his content is pseudo-intelligent, oozing with lame inspiration and socio-political generalities. The production here is extremely hit or miss... Skammadix is terrible, but Blue Sky Black Death and Sick Nature pull off some swell beats. Ill Bill has an uninspired guest appearance that's barely worth even noting in this sentence. |
| Scarface The Untouchable |
| Secret Chiefs 3 First Grand Constitution and Bylaws |
| Sinch Sinch |
| Sleep Dopesmoker |
| Snowgoons Black Snow |
This is German hiphop production-team Snowgoons' second album, featuring a ton of talent in or associated with the Army of the Pharoahs. The beats are unique from the underground flavor most typified by that Philadelphia scene; that is, the serious/apocalyptic flavor is still there, yet with a distinct European surface coating. Make no mistake, this isn't fluffy electropop; this is full-fledged hiphop that leaves the listener thirsty for more.
It would be interesting to hear a different set up of less aggressive MCs next time around... One can only take so much anger over the course of a 22 track album. |
| Steven Wilson Insurgentes |
| Sufjan Stevens Greetings From Michigan : The Great Lake |
| Sun Kil Moon April |
| Talib Kweli Eardrum |
| The Antlers Hospice |
| The Appleseed Cast Sagarmatha |
| The Dear Hunter Act II: The Meaning of... |
| This is far too long to maintain any shred of interest I had in this album. Builds at far too slow of a pace... and not in an interesting, dynamic fashion. It would be okay if the music was revolutionary, but it's more-so just lame acoustic doodling surrounded by punk-tinged arena c*ck rock. |
| The Exies Inertia |
| The Fall Of Troy Phantom on the Horizon |
| The Game LAX |
| The Human Abstract Nocturne |
| The Knux Remind Me In Three Days |
| The Mars Volta Octahedron |
| Okay it's a Mars Volta record. They need to break up and form 2 new bands with one of the bands playing generic prog rock and the other one playing experimental insect noises. That would shake things up. |
| The Postmarks Memoirs At The End Of The World |
| Some truly remarkable songs, but unfortunately a lot of filler too. What a grand opener... I love the movie soundtrack/ spaghetti western qualities here. |
| The Roots The Tipping Point |
| Thrice The Artist In The Ambulance |
| Thursday Full Collapse |
| Thursday War All The Time |
| Thursday Common Existence |
| Tomahawk Anonymous |
| Tool Lateralus |
| Tool Opiate |
| Torae and Marco Polo Double Barrel |
| Torche Meanderthal |
| Tortoise Standards |
| Trophy Scars Bad Luck |
| Tusk The Resisting Dreamer |
| VAST NUDE |
| Wale Mixtape About Nothing |
| Wale Back To The Feature |
| i'm going to stick to my guns here and say "9th wonder is pretty stale" |
| Wu-Tang Clan The W |
| Zechs Marquise Our Delicate Stranded Nightmare |
Earth to the Rodriguez-Lopez family: you're 35 years too late.
It's a commonplace occurrence these days: guy finds guitar, guy discovers 70s prog, guy imitates said prog. More and more frequently, this process flow delineates the creative process of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, friends, family, and affiliates; if Cryptomnesia, Octahedron, and other recent pursuits weren't enough, here comes the extended jam interpretation a-la Zechs Marquise's Our Delicate Stranded Nightmare. With an all-too-familiar formula mixing equal parts funk, fuzzed out rock, and just enough atmospheric experimentation, one would be hard pressed to find a more faithful era-specific recreation. Blistering instrumental work keeps the group out of the realm of mediocrity; this is definitely a piece made by musicians, for musicians. A certain haphazard flair presents guitar-work analogous to a certain Rodriguez-Lopez brood compatriot - and while obviously not as much of a technician, there is just enough variety to maintain some kind of individual identity. However, the cardinal difference between Zechs Marquise and Omar's solo work lies within the carefully orchestrated ambient passages; they lack the random noodling of Cryptomnesia, the oft-overbearing noisy textures of A Manual Dexterity, and are even reminiscent of Mars Volta atmospherics on a good day. The whirling synths and feedback amalgamate into a kind of darkness that works as an acceptable juxtaposition with the more traditional rock sections.
While derivative to an extent, the Zechs Marquise sub-collective is successful in their aim of contrasting sounds. With more focus, this could be the side-project Mars Volta fans have been expecting - of which Omar has yet to deliver. |
| 2.5 average |
| 311 From Chaos |
| 50 Cent Curtis |
| A Perfect Circle Thirteenth Step |
| Abstract Rude Rejuvenation |
| All That Remains The Fall of Ideals |
| Andromeda II=I |
| As Cities Burn Hell Or High Water |
| As I Lay Dying Shadows are Security |
| Asobi Seksu Hush |
| Atmosphere You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're... |
| Atmosphere Seven's Travels |
| August Burns Red Constellations |
| Avenged Sevenfold City of Evil |
| B Real Smoke N Mirrors |
| Becoming the Archetype Dichotomy |
| Brand New Daisy |
| Brand New, Thrice, these names can do no wrong here, predictably. This is probably slightly above average, and all this ridiculous praise is just as unwarranted as that for Beggars. |
| Brother Ali Us |
| Cave In Until Your Heart Stops |
| Chevelle Sci-Fi Crimes |
| Coheed and Cambria In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 |
| Dalek Gutter Tactics |
| Scientifically, the Dalek/Oktopus experiment can now (officially) be considered a failure. If you like hipster-hop, you might like this - brimming with kitsch and novelty, Gutter Tactics is oversaturated with noise that goes absolutely nowhere, nearly exhibiting a colossal misunderstanding of dynamics and composition. Initially intriguing, there really isn't much substance here, and this is better off ignored. Absence was fairly groundbreaking, but Dalek's pedestrian rapping is grating, to say the least, 2 albums later. As referenced by their early works compilation, these verses are decidedly dead. |
| Deftones Deftones |
| Depeche Mode Ultra |
| Devin Townsend Physicist |
| Dream Theater Train of Thought |
| Dream Theater When Dream And Day Unite |
| EPMD Out of Business |
| Ernie Watts Classic Moods |
| Esham KKKill the Fetus |
| Evergreen Terrace Wolfbiker |
| Felt A Tribute to Christina Ricci |
| Full Devil Jacket Full Devil Jacket |
| Gnarls Barkley St. Elsewhere |
| Gutta Heads Will Roll |
| Gym Class Heroes The Quilt |
| Heltah Skeltah D.I.R.T. (Da Incredible Rap Team) |
Basically, everyone is gay except Sean Price.
Seriously, sexism, homophobia, and a ton of other gangsta cliches galore... this is pretty unnecessary in 2008. Regardless, Jesus Price rocks the mic, and the beats are cool at times (less often than they should be). Roc is really just a bad rapper. |
| Immortal Technique Revolutionary Volume 1 |
| Immortal Technique The 3rd World |
| Incubus Light Grenades |
| Incubus When Incubus Attacks, Vol. I |
| Insane Clown Posse Riddle Box |
| Into Eternity The Scattering of Ashes |
| Jay-Z Kingdom Come |
| Jay-Z The Blueprint²: The Gift & the Curse |
| Jedi Mind Tricks Visions of Gandhi |
| John Robinson Who Is This Man? |
Dear John Robinson, stop imitating Nas.
Dear MF Doom, release a new album already.
Seriously, this comes off as a phoned-in waste of time on Doom's part... thoroughly decent, but never excellent. Dude needs to stop sending impersonators to shows and pick up the mic. |
| Jurassic 5 Quality Control |
| Kashiwa Daisuke 5 Dec. |
| Mastodon Crack the Skye |
| Imagine if Mastodon continued in the direction of Blood Mountain, with a completely worthless concept, Dream Theater posturing, and a sound that completely lacks cohesion. There are at least 3 sludge/ post metal albums from March you could be listening to instead (namely Zoroaster, Kylesa, and Buried Inside). This is seriously mediocre, lacks a truly heavy punch, and is a complete disappointment coming all the way from Leviathan. |
| Method Man and Redman Blackout! 2 |
| Mew And the Glass Handed Kites |
| mewithoutYou It's all crazy! It's all false! It's all |
| Mike Jones Who Is Mike Jones? |
| Monsters of Folk Monsters of Folk |
| Murs Murs For President |
| My Chemical Romance I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought... |
| Napalm Death Utopia Banished |
| Napalm Death Fear Emptiness Despair |
| Napalm Death Diatribes |
| Necro The Sexorcist |
| Neurosis Neurosis and Jarboe |
| Nine Inch Nails With Teeth |
| Noah and the Whale The First Days of Spring |
| O.S.I. Blood |
| Opeth Morningrise |
| Opeth Watershed |
| Outkast Speakerboxxx/The Love Below |
| P.O.S. Ipecac Neat |
| Pain Of Salvation Be |
| Passion Pit Manners |
| Pelican What We All Come To Need |
| Planes Mistaken For Stars Mercy |
| Porcupine Tree Stupid Dream |
| Portugal. The Man Censored Colors |
| Prefuse 73 Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian |
| Propagandhi Supporting Caste |
| Protest the Hero Fortress |
| Ra Duality |
| Radiohead Pablo Honey |
| Radiohead Hail To The Thief |
| Radiohead Kid A |
| Regina Spektor Far |
| Her next album I will definitively be able to describe as "more overrated psuedo-intellectual pop". |
| RJD2 The Third Hand |
| RPWL World Through My Eyes |
| Rush Vapor Trails |
| Rush Test for Echo |
| Sage Francis Personal Journals |
| Sarah Fimm White Birds |
| Sax Ruins Yawiquo |
| Scarface My Homies |
| Scarface The Last Of A Dying Breed |
| Slaughterhouse Slaughterhouse |
| This is not very good. |
| stellastarr* Civilized |
| Sufjan Stevens Seven Swans |
| Taking Back Sunday Tell All Your Friends |
| The Alchemist Chemical Warfare |
| The Devil Wears Prada With Roots Above and Branches Below |
| The Flaming Lips Embryonic |
| This record is so stupid. |
| The Mars Volta Amputechture |
| The Sound of Animals Fighting The Ocean and the Sun |
| The Streets Original Pirate Material |
| This Will Destroy You This Will Destroy You |
| Thrice Identity Crisis |
| Tool 10,000 Days |
| Tool Undertow |
| Tyondai Braxton Central Market |
| Vast Aire Dueces Wild |
| Wolfmother Wolfmother |
| Wu-Tang Clan Iron Flag |
| Wu-Tang Clan 8 Diagrams |
| Yonlu A Society In Which No Tear is Shed... |
| Young Widows Settle Down City |
| 1.5 very poor |
| 9th Prince Prince Of New York |
| Copy GZA's flow to a tee, the subdued production style of Pro Tools, then rap about dumb sh*t. Hey look, you're 9th Prince. |
| Amorphis Eclipse |
| Asher Roth Asleep In The Bread Aisle |
| Mario Kart, munchies, Madden, suburbs, Sublime-posturing, pre-pubescent socio-political musings… Asleep in the Bread Aisle has all the ingredients for anthemic frat-party bro-hop. Raised in the suburbs (the far-outlying suburbs to be precise) of Philadelphia, Asher Roth paints a picture one would expect from homogeneous experiences and a biblically allusive name. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, especially when delving into the metaphysical or even the mildly interesting. Even then, some artists excel at making light, care-free party music – see pre-808’s/ Louis Vitton Kanye for a good example. The thing is, Roth tries to do both here – but is by no means a renaissance man; instead, he recreates the very essence of Wonderbread through music. |
| Common Universal Mind Control |
| Depeche Mode Speak And Spell |
| Devin Townsend Ziltoid the Omniscient |
| Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand |
| Green City Brand New Money |
This isn't the absolute worst album ever; there are maybe 20 albums below this benchmark on the craptacular scale. Mixing equal parts southern cliches and mainstream hiphop yields Green City. All of the lyrics are contrived and sound as if they looked up "gangster" (yes, with the "er") on wikipedia and copied what they saw. Even then, half of the lyrics don't even make sense. The beats are digustingly repetitive, redefining the term unimaginative, and include plenty of high BPM closed-hi-hat passages typical of the genre. Stay away from this album; it's horrible, and the .5 extra points above 1.0 are only given for Scarface's introduction. Speaking of Scarface, he should be quite ashamed to associate his name with presenting this record.
A more in depth review to come, just using this as a forum for my thoughts at work. |
| Hurt Goodbye To The Machine |
| In Every Breath Distrust |
| Incubus A Crow Left Of The Murder |
| Insane Clown Posse The Great Milenko |
| Insane Clown Posse The Amazing Jeckel Brothers |
| Insane Clown Posse Bizaar |
| Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights |
| Kevin Rudolf In The City |
| Terribly generic dance rock. I don't know how this album has anything to do with being "In The City", except that it has Nas and Weezy on it. Don't even bother. |
| R. Kelly Trapped in the Closet (Chapters 1-12) |
| Sonata Arctica Ecliptica |
| Spiral Architect A Sceptic's Universe |
This album sounds like this:
blibble blib blib doodle doodle blib blib blib blib crack crack boom bloob bloob. |
| The Receiving End of Sirens Between the Heart and the Synapse |
| Trapt Trapt |
