conradtao
Emeritus

Reviews 60
Approval 98%

Soundoffs 39
News Articles 6
Band Edits + Tags 5
Album Edits 77

Album Ratings 517
Objectivity 66%

Last Active 09-22-12 5:03 am
Joined 11-24-09

Review Comments 2,090

Average Rating: 3.76
Rating Variance: 0.48
Objectivity Score: 66%
(Fairly Balanced)

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5.0 classic
Animal Collective Sung Tongs
Belle and Sebastian If You're Feeling Sinister
Bjork Homogenic
Bjork Vespertine
In the end, it's not really a surprise that minimal laptop techno never really reached the masses; although
frequently beautiful, it could sometimes sound cerebral and subsequently detached. Leave it to Bjork, then,
to inject some much-needed warmth into those microbeats and found sounds. Although Bjork herself calls
Vespertine a "winter" album, the heartbreaking "Pagan Poetry" and stunning "Unison" burst with life.
The wails and screams of her earlier material are not to be found here, but even when she's whispering,
Bjork conveys more emotion than virtually every other chanteuse out there. When her voice cracks as she
repeats "I love him" over and over again, you can feel something.. and even if you don't know what it
exactly is, by god it's there.
Burial Untrue
David Bowie Hunky Dory
Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Madonna The Immaculate Collection
Radiohead Kid A
*boom chh boom chhh* *drones* who's in a bunker who's in a bunkerr women and children fiiiiiirst and the children fiiiirst and the children
Robyn Robyn
Sigur Ros Agætis byrjun
Steve Reich Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint
Sufjan Stevens All Delighted People
The Avalanches Since I Left You
The Beatles The Beatles
The Knife Silent Shout
The Microphones The Glow Pt. 2
I find myself listening to this album with my head pressed up between the speakers, lost in its magnificent sonic world. You try to comprehend it, or you try to just figure it out, but that doesn't fucking MATTER. This is music to LIVE IN, to FEEL with your heart, with your soul, in your bones, inside and out, everywhere, all around your body. It is pretty much the most intensely human record I've ever heard, and that's where I'm left, with my head between the speakers. Crying, laughing, swept away by something beautiful and stunning and haunting and moving and pretty fucking amazing.

4.5 superb
Animal Collective Feels
Animal Collective Strawberry Jam
Animal Collective Fall Be Kind
Aphex Twin Richard D. James Album
Aphex Twin Windowlicker
Arcade Fire Funeral
Battles Mirrored
Beth Ditto EP
Beyonce Beyonce
Big Boi Sir Lucious Left Foot
Bjork Post
Bjork Medulla
Bjork Biophilia
No I'm not a fanboy at all why would you ever say that why
Bjork Vulnicura
Blue Hawaii Blooming Summer
Boards of Canada Music Has the Right to Children
Boredoms Vision Creation Newsun
Brian Wilson Smile
Broken Social Scene You Forgot It in People
Burial Burial
Burial and Four Tet Moth/Wolf Cub
Daft Punk Discovery
After the new millennium hit and good old George W. Bush was sitting on his fat ass in the White House, optimism seemed to be the hardest thing to come by, especially in the self-pitying music industry. That's where the robots of Daft Punk come in, with their superlative brand of cheesy, guilty-pleasure pop genius. Discovery might be moody in some parts, but the dominant emotion here is joy, and there's plenty of it to go around.
Daft Punk Alive 2007
Dance Gavin Dance Happiness
Death Grips The Money Store
Deerhoof Reveille
Deerhoof Deerhoof vs. Evil
Demdike Stare Tryptych
Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca
Dirty Projectors Swing Lo Magellan
DJ Sprinkles Midtown 120 Blues
Doldrums (CAN) Egypt
Doldrums (CAN) Lesser Evil
Drake Nothing Was the Same
Elliott Smith Either/Or
Emeralds Does It Look Like I'm Here?
Fiona Apple The Idler Wheel...
Flying Lotus Cosmogramma
Four Tet Rounds
Four Tet There is Love in You
Frank Ocean channel ORANGE
Gang Gang Dance Eye Contact
Gas Pop
Gatekeeper Exo
Grimes Visions
HEALTH Health//Disco
HEALTH Get Color
How to Dress Well Total Loss
Joanna Newsom The Milk-Eyed Mender
Joanna Newsom Ys
John Zorn The Circle Maker
Joni Mitchell Blue
Julia Holter Tragedy
Julia Holter Ekstasis
Kanye West Yeezus
Kate Bush 50 Words for Snow
Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden Jasmine
King Felix Spring
Laurel Halo Quarantine
LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver
Biting and humorous social critiques, seemingly effortless production, killer tunes, and addicting beats; what more could you ask for? The first five tracks are the best, ending with the quietly devastating "Someone Great" and dangerously catchy "All My Friends".
LCD Soundsystem This Is Happening
If your favorite LCD tracks are along the lines of "North American Scum" and "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House", there won't be much to love here. But if you fell in love with Sound Of Silver thanks to the rollicking slow build of "All My Friends" or the quiet heartbreak of "Someone Great", there's plenty of great stuff to be had here. There is not a single weak track here (even the slightly disappointing "Drunk Girls" works on record), and several of them are transcendental - the way the synths burst in at the three-minute mark in "Dance Yrself Clean" is incredible and the driving riff of "All I Want" gives the piano figure of "All My Friends" a run for its money.
Lightning Bolt Wonderful Rainbow
Los Campesinos! Hold On Now, Youngster...
Los Campesinos! Hello Sadness
you bitches are crazy that's right CRAZY. throwin' down here.
M.I.A. Kala
Less immediate but much more ambitious than Arular, Kala is a stunningly kaleidoscopic work that eschews funk for woozy, dubby tracks that are refreshingly unclassifiable. When M.I.A. spits out, "I put people on the map/that never seen a map," she could just as easily be talking about her listeners, because after listening to this record, you feel enlightened and exhilarated.
M.I.A. Piracy Funds Terrorism, Vol. 1
M.I.A. Maya
Madonna Like a Prayer
Matana Roberts COIN COIN Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile
Metro Area Metro Area
Miles Davis Bitches Brew
Mr Twin Sister In Heaven
Mr. Bungle California
of Montreal Paralytic Stalks
Like a less self-serious and more palatable Age of Adz. Awesome, in every sense of the word.
Oneohtrix Point Never Replica
OOIOO Armonico Hewa
La! Ooh! La! La! Ooh! La! Ooh! La! La! Ooh! La! La! Ooh! La! Ooh! La! La! Ooh! La! La! Ooh! La! Ooh! La!
Panda Bear Person Pitch
Panda Bear Tomboy
Pantha Du Prince This Bliss
Phantogram Eyelid Movies
PJ Harvey Let England Shake
Radiohead In Rainbows
Robyn Body Talk
Shabazz Palaces Black Up
Sleigh Bells Treats
Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians
Steve Reich Early Works
Sufjan Stevens Illinois
Sufjan Stevens The Age of Adz
The Books Thought For Food
The Field From Here We Go Sublime
The Knife Shaking the Habitual
The Postal Service Give Up
The xx xx
tUnE-yArDs w h o k i l l
William Basinski The Disintegration Loops I
Women Public Strain
Yamantaka // Sonic Titan YT//ST
Yellow Swans Going Places
Zammuto Zammuto
Zs New Slaves

4.0 excellent
2562 Fever
4minute Volume Up
Actress Splazsh
Air Talkie Walkie
Anamanaguchi Dawn Metropolis
Andy Stott Passed Me By
Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion
Annie Anniemal
Anohni and the Johnsons I Am A Bird Now
Anohni and the Johnsons The Crying Light
Aphex Twin Come to Daddy
Arca Stretch 2
ASAP Rocky Live.Love.A$AP.
Astor Piazzolla Libertango
Atlas Sound Logos
Azari & III Azari & III
Azealia Banks Fantasea
Bang On A Can All-Stars Renegade Heaven
Bat For Lashes Two Suns
Battles Gloss Drop
Beach House Teen Dream
Belle and Sebastian The Life Pursuit
Beyonce 4
Big K.R.I.T. 4Eva N A Day
Bjork Debut
Blood Diamonds Phone Sex
Blue Hawaii Untogether
Bon Iver Bon Iver, Bon Iver
One of the most straight-up lovely listens I've had all year. Highly recommended.
Born Gold Bodysongs
Braids Native Speaker
Brian Eno Ambient 1: Music For Airports
Britney Spears Blackout
Burial Kindred
Caribou Swim
Cass McCombs Wit's End
Chromatics Kill for Love
Colin Stetson New History Warfare Vol 2: Judges
Cults Cults
Listening to Cults, I'm reminded of Sleigh Bells' superb Treats - not because they're sonic relatives (although they both call summer to mind like few other bands) but because both records are filled with songs we've heard before. More than half of the tracks on this indie-pop outfit's proper debut record have been floating around the Internet for a while now, yet they sound so much better here than they ever did on their own. In a way, Cults is exactly what one might expect from the band, given what they've released thus far - the songs are still simple and delectably catchy slices of '60s-style indie pop bliss along the lines of their debut single, "Go Outside" - but that risks discounting the album's occasional sharp edges and, well, pure awesomeness.
Cut Copy Zonoscope
Das Racist Shut Up, Dude
Das Racist Sit Down, Man
Deadbeat Drawn and Quartered
Deerhoof The Runners Four
Deerhoof Apple O'
Deerhunter Microcastle
Deerhunter Halcyon Digest
Fucking fantastic. Not much more to say than that.rOh, fine. Brandon Cox sounds better than he ever has, the arrangements are pristine, the production is appealingly hazy, and the songs are arguably more exciting than those on Microcastle.
Destroyer Kaputt
Diplo Express Yourself
Dirty Projectors/Bjork Mount Wittenberg Orca
Disasterpeace Fez OST
Elliott Smith Figure 8
EMA Past Life Martyred Saints
Esperanza Spalding Chamber Music Society
Fall Out Boy From Under the Cork Tree
FaltyDL Endeavour
FaltyDL You Stand Uncertain
Farrah Abraham My Teenage Dream Ended
Fever Ray Fever Ray
Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues
Ford and Lopatin Channel Pressure
Fuck Buttons Tarot Sport
Fucked Up David Comes to Life
Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Gonjasufi A Sufi and a Killer
Grizzly Bear Yellow House
Grizzly Bear Veckatimest
Grouper A I A
Grum Heartbeats
HEALTH Max Payne 3
High Places High Places
Hospitality Hospitality
How to Dress Well Love Remains
Huoratron Cryptocracy
iamamiwhoami To Whom It May Concern
James Blake James Blake
James Blake's music isn't made up of sound, but rather of silence. It's the London producer's deft handling of negative space that makes his debut album so compelling and beautiful. The harmonies are lush but never suffocatingly so, and the melodies have an uncanny way of burrowing their way into your head and refusing to leave. Sublime.
James Ferraro Far Side Virtual
Janelle Monae Metropolis: The Chase Suite
Janelle Monae The ArchAndroid
Joanna Newsom Have One on Me
Julian Lynch Mare
Julianna Barwick The Magic Place
Justice †
Justin Bieber Believe
Karantamba Ndigal
Katy B On A Mission
Kelis Food
Kurt Vile Smoke Ring For My Halo
Laurie Anderson Homeland
Le1f Dark York
Lil B God's Father
Lone Emerald Fantasy Tracks
Los Campesinos! We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
M.I.A. Arular
Biting and incisive, Arular packs a wild punch. With a swagger that is rivaled by very few, Maya infuses her words with sarcasm and derision, and when she references the PLO in "Sunshowers" you can tell she's criticizing us for being the narrow xenophobes we are, naturally. She?s got the beats to make us bang, and bang we do.
M.I.A. VICKI LEEKX
M.I.A. Matangi
Madonna Ray of Light
Marnie Stern Marnie Stern
Max Roach, Charles Mingus, and Duke Ellington Money Jungle
Memory Tapes Player Piano
An unexpectedly beautiful, ambitious, and coherent work, Player Piano gets rid of some of the more unconvincing moments of cheese found on Seek Magic and replaces it with a comparatively simple elegance. A contender for album of the summer, it's a slightly darker-hued record, but it's also a more sonically multifaceted one. Absolutely recommended.
Meysell Quintana Miracle Of The Sun
Micachu and the Shapes Jewellery
Defiantly quirky without having to try too hard, Micachu is a bona fide musical maverick, and if her debut album is a bit inconsistent, it?s the trade-off for a sound that?s refreshingly unclassifiable. And hey, anyone who can take a vacuum cleaner and make it something akin to a pop hook deserves kudos.
Micachu and the Shapes Chopped and Screwed
Mount Kimbie Crooks & Lovers
Mount Moriah Mount Moriah
Mouse on Mars Parastrophics
mum Finally We Are No One
mum Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK
Nicolas Jaar Space Is Only Noise
of Montreal Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
Olga Bell Diamonite
Oneohtrix Point Never Returnal
oOoOO oOoOO
OST Invisible Ink For Sketching Ghosts
Owen Pallett Heartland
Parades Foreign Tapes
Patrick Wolf Lupercalia
Peaches The Teaches of Peaches
Peaking Lights 936
Pepe Deluxe Queen of the Wave
Pictureplane Thee Physical
Radiohead Amnesiac
Radiohead The Bends
Radiohead OK Computer
Ricardo Villalobos Alcachofa
Robyn Body Talk Pt. 1
Royksopp Melody A.M.
Royksopp Junior
Salem (US) King Night
Scissor Sisters Night Work
SebastiAn Total
Fuck, yes. Total is every bit the loud and narcotic burst of absolute awesome I was hoping it'd be, filled with blown-out house track after blown-out house track. If you're after nuance, look elsewhere. Everybody else - join the party.
Sepalcure Sepalcure
Sigur Ros ( )
Sigur Ros Takk...
Soundtrack (Video Game) Katamari Damacy soundtrack
SSION Bent
St. Vincent Actor
St. Vincent Strange Mercy
Sufjan Stevens Silver & Gold
Taylor Swift Red
Teebs Ardour
The 2 Bears Be Strong
The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Books Lost And Safe
The Books The Way Out
The Dodos No Color
The Field Looping State of Mind
The Knife Tomorrow, In a Year
The National High Violet
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart Belong
The Psychic Paramount II
The Rapture Echoes
ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, KICK THAT FUCKER OUT THE DOOR!
The Rapture In the Grace of Your Love
The Shins Chutes Too Narrow
The Smiles Hermosa EP
The Strokes Is This It
The Swell Season Once: Music From The Motion Picture
The Tallest Man on Earth The Wild Hunt
The Tallest Man on Earth Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird
The Trap's Jaw An Awful Lot of Wires
The Weeknd House of Balloons
The Weeknd Thursday
The xx Coexist
Todd Terje It's Album Time
Toro Y Moi Causers of This
tUnE-yArDs BiRd-BrAiNs
Tyme. x Tujiko GYU
Valerio Tricoli / Thomas Ankersmit Forma II
Virtual Boy Virtual Boy
Waka Flocka Flame Flockaveli
WU LYF Go Tell Fire to the Mountain
Yoko Ono Between My Head and The Sky
Young Galaxy Shapeshifting
Zahava Seewald and Michael Grebil From My Mother's House
Zola Jesus Valusia

3.5 great
2NE1 To Anyone
Active Child You Are All I See
Ahnnu Couch
Animal Collective ODDSAC
Anohni and the Johnsons Swanlights
Aphex Twin Donkey Rhubarb
Araabmuzik Electronic Dream
Arcade Fire Neon Bible
Arcade Fire The Suburbs
Atlas Sound Bedroom Databank, Vols. 1-4
Atlas Sound Parallax
Balam Acab Wander/Wonder
Baths Cerulean
Beach House Bloom
Don't listen to Sam, just listen to Lazuli over and over again
Bear in Heaven Beast Rest Forth Mouth
Bear in Heaven I Love You, It's Cool
Beirut The Rip Tide
Bjork Volta
Bjork Greatest Hits
Bjork Drawing Restraint 9
Bjork Telegram
Bjork Voltaic
Blondes Blondes
Boris Pink
Brian Eno Small Craft on a Milk Sea
Broken Social Scene Forgiveness Rock Record
Burial and Four Tet Ego/Mirror
Camille Le Fil
Camille Saint-Saens Danse macabre, Op.40
Charli XCX You're the One
Charli XCX Heartbreaks and Earthquakes Mixtape
Childish Gambino Camp
I'm a sucker for this sort of self-aware, clever-but-not-TOO-clever nonsense. Plus, the production is uniformly excellent. Yep.
Clams Casino Instrumental Mixtape
Cloud Nothings Attack on Memory
CocoRosie La Maison De Mon Reve
CocoRosie The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillbo
CocoRosie Grey Oceans
Crystal Castles Crystal Castles
Crystal Castles Crystal Castles II
CSS Cansei de Ser Sexy
Cults Cults 7"
Daft Punk Homework
Daft Punk Random Access Memories
Death In Vegas Trans-Love Energies
Deerhoof Friend Opportunity
Deerhoof Offend Maggie
Dirty Beaches Badlands
Dntel Life is Full of Possibilities
Dragonette Fixin to Thrill
Dum Dum Girls I Will Be
Dum Dum Girls He Gets Me High
Elite Gymnastics Ruin
Evian Christ Kings And Them
Fatima Al Qadiri Desert Strike
Feist The Reminder
Feist Metals
Flying Lotus Pattern+Grid World
Friendly Fires Friendly Fires
Friendly Fires Pala
Games That We Can Play
Gotye Making Mirrors
Grimes Halfaxa
GusGus Arabian Horse
Holy Other With U
HTRK Work (work, work)
HyunA Bubble Pop!
Jason Urick I Love You
Jay-Z and Kanye West Watch the Throne
jj jj n° 2
jj Kills
Jonsi Go
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu Moshi Moshi Harajuku
La Sera La Sera
Lady Gaga The Fame
Lady Gaga The Fame Monster
Lana Del Rey Born to Die
Lana Del Rey's whiskey-soaked, tear-stained "debut" LP is shallow, excessive, poorly prioritized, slightly scattershot, and occasionally imbued with some inspired artistic gusto. That is, Born To Die is quintessentially American, and all the better for it.
LCD Soundsystem 45:33
Lil B I'm Gay (I'm Happy)
Lykke Li Wounded Rhymes
M83 Saturdays=Youth
Madonna Confessions on a Dancefloor
Major Lazer Guns Dont Kill People... Lazers Do
Marnie Stern This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It...
Miryo MIRYO a.k.a JOHONEY
MNDR E.P.E.
Mr Twin Sister Color Your Life
Nicola Roberts Cinderella's Eyes
No Age Everything In Between
Nosaj Thing Drift
Omar Souleyman Jazeera Nights
Orcas Orcas
Phoenix (FRA) Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Phoenix is nothing if not a great singles band ? songs like ?1901? and ?Lisztomania? have an undeniable appeal of their own ? but Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix fails to coalesce into a true album. There?s little sense of flow here; often I found myself feeling as if I was listening to a greatest hits compilation. There?s one crucial difference, however: on a greatest hits compilation every song would be as fabulous as ?Lisztomania?. And that?s not the case.
Ponytail Do Whatever You Want All The Time
Purity Ring Shrines
Rash Purpleimage
Rihanna Loud
Rihanna Unapologetic
Robyn Body Talk Pt. 2
Rufus Wainwright Poses
Santigold Master of My Make-Believe
SBTRKT SBTRKT
SebastiAn Ross Ross Ross
Secret Beach Secret Beach
Sigur Ros Valtari
Siriusmo Mosaik
Sky Ferreira Ghost
Sleigh Bells Sleigh Bells
Sleigh Bells Reign of Terror
More dreamy and less punchy, Reign of Terror is a nice evolution from Sleigh Bells' visceral debut. It's also a bit less fun.
St. Vincent Marry Me
Stars Set Yourself On Fire
Sufjan Stevens Songs For Christmas
Sun Glitters Everything Could Be Fine
Tame Impala Innerspeaker
Tanlines Mixed Emotions
Teen Daze My Bedroom Floor
Teengirl Fantasy Tracer
Telepathe Dance Mother
Tennis Cape Dory
The Depreciation Guild Spirit Youth
The Dodos Visiter
The Sugarcubes Life's Too Good
Thom Yorke The Eraser
TOKiMONSTA Midnight Menu
Toro Y Moi Underneath The Pine
TV Girl TV Girl EP
TV on the Radio Dear Science
Yuck Yuck
It's funny. Garage indie rock, once a symbol of rebellion and burning adolescence, now feels like a rthrowback to a more carefree time (read: pre-2000). With the recent rise of artists like Baths and oOoOO rmaking music that's almost painfully intimate, the sheer extroversion of bands like Teenage Fanclub or even rthe Strokes practically feels like a relic. So at this point, Yuck, a young four-piece (and sometimes five-rpiece) outfit with members from London, New Jersey, and Hiroshima, sound positively retro. Their debut is rfairly straightforward, often repetitive, and brutally effective, striking an uncanny balance between uplift and rfrustration. Yuck is inviting, immediately accessible, and flat-out rocks.
Zola Jesus Stridulum II

3.0 good
2NE1 2NE1
Adele 21
AlunaGeorge Body Music
Amy Winehouse Lioness: Hidden Treasures
Aphex Twin Digeridoo
Avey Tare Down There
Best Coast Crazy For You
Bjork Selmasongs
Bjork Family Tree
Bjork Live Box
Charlotte Gainsbourg IRM
Charlotte Gainsbourg's latest is kaleidoscopic and often beautiful, but it suffers from hosting too much filler. There is a truly great album in here, but terrible songs such as "Greenwich Mean Time" muddle it.
Daft Punk Musique Vol. 1 (1993-2005)
Daft Punk Tron: Legacy
Death Cab for Cutie Codes and Keys
This is what I know about Death Cab For Cutie - they released a pretty good album in 2003, their lyrics have a tendency to induce vomit, and they occupy the "niche" of indie rock and pop that consists of cute flourishes like honky-tonk piano and playfully strumming guitar - which on paper reads like a parody of what indie pop means in this day and age. With all this in mind, Codes and Keys is a surprisingly enjoyable album - more of the same resolutely unremarkable stuff that you might hear in Urban Outfitters, sure, but at least this time, I don't need earplugs. Or, as Ben Gibbard might sing, "Boys like me write lyrics so rotten / that make you stuff your ears with cotton." Wow, that was so easy!
Dinosaur Feathers Fantasy Memorial
Explosions in the Sky The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place
Fang Island Fang Island
Girl Talk Night Ripper
Girls Album
Gold Panda Lucky Shiner
Grimes Geidi Primes
Holy Fuck Latin
Keepaway Baby Style
Lady Gaga Born This Way
Born This Way is actually shockingly bad, so bad that I find it incredibly hard to believe that it isn't meant to be an elaborate prank.
M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
Madonna MDNA
Well, I mean.. it could be worse. "Gang Bang" is actually pretty good.
Margot and the Nuclear So and So's Buzzard
Nicki Minaj Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded
Pantha Du Prince Black Noise
Gorgeous textures and enjoyable tracks, but ultimately something's missing.
Passion Pit Manners
Perfume Genius Put Your Back N 2 It
Pictureplane Dark Rift
Porcelain Raft Strange Weekend
Radiohead The King of Limbs
Regina Spektor Far
Rihanna Talk That Talk
Savages Silence Yourself
Smith Westerns Dye It Blonde
Sufjan Stevens The BQE
Sugarcult Lights Out
Tamaryn The Waves
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
The Strokes Angles
Yeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz!
Zola Jesus Stridulum
Zomby Dedication

2.5 average
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti Before Today
Belle and Sebastian Write About Love
In which Belle and Sebastian write about mediocrity and bring Norah Jones onboard to add a sheen of cheap furniture polish.
Boris New Album
Coldplay Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
Color me surprised that these perpetually inoffensive Brits had it in them to deliver a legitimately good album. It?s not the "edgy" political statement that it was made out to be, but the melodies are solid and the production, courtesy of Brian Eno, is consistently beautiful. Sure, the lyrics are still awful, but kudos to all hands involved for making ?I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing, roman cavalry choirs a-singing? something close to a catchy hook.
Crystal Castles Crystal Castles III
Duffy Rockferry
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Up From Below
Gorillaz The Fall
iamamiwhoami Kin
Kesha Cannibal
The first half of Cannibal is absolutely brilliant, loaded with fantastic beats and hooks, but the EP falters in its second portion, descending into cheap jokes like "Grow a Pear" that would be more suited alongside the excrement of Katy Perry. "Blow", however, is one of the best pop singles in recent memory.
La Roux La Roux
Laurel Halo Hour Logic
Mac Miller Blue Slide Park
Memory Tapes Seek Magic
Nicki Minaj Pink Friday
Rihanna Rated R
Rihanna is to be commended for her bravery in the face of public humiliation, but that doesn't make songs like "Stupid In Love" or "Te Amo" any less pedestrian and soggy. And can somebody please euthanize Will Dot I Dot Am already?
Rufus Wainwright All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu
She and Him Volume Two
She and Him A Very She & Him Christmas
Small Black New Chain
TV on the Radio Nine Types of Light
Is there a reason why Tunde and Co. sound completely euthanized throughout almost the entirety of Nine Types of Light?
Tyler, the Creator Goblin
Vampire Weekend Contra
Could somebody remind me again what the fuss about Vampire Weekend was about? Not the praise, mind you, that was warranted (if overzealous). But I fail to understand why people felt so offended by these guys' insistent braininess. Yeah, "California English" is pretty fucking obnoxious, and the autotune is terribly employed, and Contra may burst at the seams with largely incoherent globetrotting references, but the musical sensibility at the heart of this hugely fun album trumps any overly fussy ideas at play.
Washed Out Within and Without
Wavves King of the Beach

2.0 poor
Britney Spears Femme Fatale
Britney Spears' new album is hell of a lot better than the steaming shitpile that was Circus, which may be the result of pop wizard Max Martin being back in charge of the whole shebang, but it never reaches the heights of 2007's Blackout, Spears' best effort to date. At times, Femme Fatale seems to be trying desperately to sound "edgy" or - and this is even worse - weird, as in the atrocious "How I Roll", which opens with some legitimately interesting cut-and-paste electronics that wouldn't sound out of place on Body Talk, but proceeds to go absolutely nowhere, laying on FruityLoops presets and vocal effects frantically to cover up for the lack of, y'know, actual songwriting. Towards the end of the record, Spears sings, "This love isn't rational / it's physical". "Disposable" might be a better word, as it fits better with Femme Fatale as a whole - twelve cuts, none of them particularly memorable, filled with immortal gems of wisdom like "you could be my fuck tonight". Charming.
fun. Aim and Ignite
Girl Talk All Day
High Places High Places vs. Mankind
Jason Mraz We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things
jj jj n° 3
Keane Night Train
Lmfao Sorry For Party Rocking
MGMT Oracular Spectacular
MGMT Congratulations
Mr. Oizo Stade 2
Red Hot Chili Peppers Stadium Arcadium
They're on a mission to put us all to sleep, right?

1.5 very poor
Britney Spears Circus
Celine Dion A New Day Has Come
Justice Audio, Video, Disco
Katy Perry Teenage Dream
Kesha Animal
Sugarcult Start Static
The Black Eyed Peas The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies)

1.0 awful
Simple Plan No Pads, No Helmets... Just Balls
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