| 4.5 superb |
| Arcade Fire The Suburbs |
| Blonde Redhead 23 |
| Bob Dylan Nashville Skyline |
| Dear Reader Replace why with funny |
| Death Cab for Cutie Transatlanticism |
| Drive-by Truckers Brighter Than Creation's Dark |
| Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros Up From Below |
| Gojira From Mars To Sirius |
| Heartless Bastards All This Time |
| Iron & Wine Our Endless Numbered Days |
| Iron & Wine The Creek Drank the Cradle |
| Isis Panopticon |
| Kayo Dot Choirs of the Eye |
| Logh Every Time A Bell Rings an Angel Gets His Wings |
| This is one of the most beautiful and overlooked albums of the decade. I'm actually rather shocked this band hasn't gotten more attention from the Sputnik community, as they have consistently released down-tempo modern rock/post rock for nearly a decade now. |
| Low Things We Lost in the Fire |
| Moonspell Night Eternal |
| Neko Case Furnace Room Lullaby |
| Neko Case Middle Cyclone |
| Opeth Damnation |
| Phosphorescent Pride |
| Porcupine Tree In Absentia |
| Porcupine Tree The Incident |
| Portishead Third |
| Rachael Yamagata Elephants... Teeth Sinking Into Heart |
| Regina Spektor Begin To Hope |
| Regina Spektor Mary Ann Meets the Gravediggers |
| Regina Spektor Far |
| It's everything I had hoped for, and then some. It's the perfect balance of beauty and the quirky pop she's always been known for. My only gripe is the recorded version of "One More Time With Feeling" got a more upbeat twist to it, when I thought the sultry and sad version she played live was much more emotional and suiting. But overall it's better than "Begin to Hope" and about at the level of "Soviet Kitsch". She's done it again! |
| Rilo Kiley Take-Offs & Landings |
| Rilo Kiley Under the Blacklight |
| Sara Bareilles Kaleidoscope Heart |
| Shearwater Rook |
| Sigur Ros ( ) |
| Silversun Pickups Pikul |
| Stars of the Lid And Their Refinement Of The Decline |
| Sufjan Stevens Illinois |
| The Cardigans Long Gone Before Daylight |
| The Gathering Nighttime Birds |
| The Gathering The West Pole |
After I heard of the departure of Anneke, I was a tad bit devastated. I thought there was no way the band could possibly go on without their front-woman of the past decade... I thought it was the end of the Gathering as I knew them.
I was right, it was. But it wasn't so much and end as it was a dramatic rebirth. Silje Wergeland is the worthiest replacement they could have possibly found. Her voice, while more conventional than that of Anneke, fits the style of the album. While the first few tracks are a return to IF_THEN_ELSE territory, with a more guitar oriented hard rock sound, the album really picks up with "The West Pole", a dreamy, slow-paced atmospheric track. And then with "No Bird Call", the band returns to a sound similar to HTMAP, with dreamy snyth, distant drowned out drumming, haunting vocals, and a dramatic buildup into string swelling climax with swooning vocals not far off from something you'd hear from Sigur Ros.
In fact, from that point on the album contains some of the best material they've ever written. The beautifully crafted beauty "Capitol of Nowhere", the beautiful piano ballad "You Promised me a Symphony", and the bass driven progressive masterpiece "Pale Traces". I thought the Gathering had peaked...turns out I have no idea just where the roof is on the potential of this incredible band. |
| The Jezabels Dark Storm |
| The Middle East The Recordings of the Middle East |
| The National High Violet |
| The Pax Cecilia Blessed Are The Bonds |
| The Swell Season Once: Music From The Motion Picture |
| The Swell Season Strict Joy |
| The Tallest Man on Earth Shallow Grave |
| Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV |
| Tom Waits Rain Dogs |
| Tom Waits Bone Machine |
| Trespassers William Having |
| 4.0 excellent |
| *shels Sea of the Dying Dhow |
| 3 The End is Begun |
| Aereogramme My Heart Has a Wish That You Would Not Go |
| Aereogramme Sleep and Release |
| Against Me! Against Me! |
| Agua de Annique Air |
| Alice in Chains Black Gives Way to Blue |
| VERY surprised at how good this is. I'd put this ahead of the self-titled album, and maybe even their debut. William Duvall never tries too hard to sound like Layne, and brings his own vocal stylings to the table, while Jerry Cantrell's vocal performance gives it that classic AIC sound. And, some of the riffs on this album are the heaviest you'll find in the AIC discography. Cantrell really brought his A game, and this album proves to be one of the few instances where a band can lose an iconic vocalist and not miss a step in the process. |
| Antimatter Leaving Eden |
| Bat For Lashes Two Suns |
| Battle of Mice A Day Of Nights |
| Black Mountain In the Future |
| Bon Iver Myspace Transmissions |
| Caspian The Four Trees |
| Cat Power Moon Pix |
| Dark Tranquillity Fiction |
| Death Cab for Cutie Something About Airplanes |
| Devendra Banhart Rejoicing in the Hands |
| Devendra Banhart Nino Rojo |
| Devendra Banhart Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon |
| Elbow The Seldom Seen Kid |
| Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton Knives Don't Have Your Back |
| Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton What Is Free To A Good Home? |
| Feist The Reminder |
| Fiona Apple Extraordinary Machine |
| Fiona Apple Tidal |
| Freelance Whales Weathervanes |
| Goldfrapp Supernature |
| Goldfrapp Felt Mountain |
| Goldfrapp Seventh Tree |
| Grand Archives The Grand Archives |
| Great Northern Trading Twilight for Daylight |
| Heartless Bastards The Mountain |
| Horse Feathers House With No Home |
| Horse Feathers Words Are Dead |
| Ida Maria Fortress Round My Heart |
| In Mourning Shrouded Divine |
| In This Moment The Dream |
| Ingrid Michaelson Girls And Boys |
| Insomnium Above the Weeping World |
| Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights |
| Iron & Wine In The Reins (feat. Calexico) |
| Japandroids Post-Nothing |
| Jenny Lewis Acid Tongue |
| Jessica Lea Mayfield Tell Me |
| Joseph Arthur Redemption's Son |
| Katatonia The Great Cold Distance |
| Kate Havnevik Melankton |
| Kelly Clarkson Breakaway |
| Lacuna Coil Unleashed Memories |
| This album was Lacuna Coil at their finest, and an essential album to any gothic metal fan's collection. The opening three songs alone are enough to warrant a purchase. The beauty of Christina Scabbia's vocals coupled with the harshness of Andrea's and the simple yet effective guitar attack, haunting atmospheres, and catchy melodicism. Truly an album that brought Lacuna Coil to the forefront of the gothic rock scene. |
| Laura Gibson Beasts of Seasons |
| Lily Allen Alright, Still |
| Lisa Hannigan Sea Sew |
| Liz Durrett Outside Our Gates |
| Logh North |
| Logh A Sunset Panorama |
| Lovedrug Everything Starts Where It Ends |
| Low The Great Destroyer |
| M.I.A. Kala |
| Mastodon Blood Mountain |
| Metric Fantasies |
| Moving Mountains Pneuma |
| Muse Absolution |
| Neko Case Fox Confessor Brings The Flood |
| Neko Case Blacklisted |
| Nick Drake Pink Moon |
| Noah and the Whale The First Days of Spring |
| Norah Jones The Fall |
| Oceansize Frames |
| Opeth Blackwater Park |
| Opeth Watershed |
| Our Broken Garden When Your Blackening Shows |
| Paramore Brand New Eyes |
| Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson Break Up |
| Peter Broderick Float |
| Peter Broderick Home |
| Peter Wolf Crier Inter-Be |
| Porcupine Tree Deadwing |
| Queens of the Stone Age Songs for the Deaf |
| Radiohead In Rainbows |
| Regina Spektor Begin To Hope |
| Rilo Kiley More Adventurous |
| Rosie Thomas These Friends of Mine |
| Ryan Adams Heartbreaker |
| Ryan Adams 29 |
| Ryan Adams Follow The Lights |
| Sage Francis A Healthy Distrust |
| Scale The Summit Carving Desert Canyons |
| Shawn McDonald Ripen |
| Sia Colour the Small One |
| Sigur Ros Takk... |
| If beauty itself, in it's most pure form, were to take shape as a music, this is what it would sound like. Sigur Ros have a way of taking my breath away, and now with a return to a more string-oriented sound with "Takk", the cascading strings and simple yet gorgeous guitar make for one of the most remarkable mellow music experiences you can find these days. A truly great album. |
| Sigur Ros med sud i eyrum vio spilum endalaust |
| Silversun Pickups Swoon |
| Sonic Youth Daydream Nation |
| Sonic Youth Washing Machine |
| Sonic Youth The Eternal |
| Soundgarden Superunknown |
| St. Vincent Marry Me |
| Stars Set Yourself On Fire |
| Stars The Five Ghosts |
| Sufjan Stevens Seven Swans |
| Swallow The Sun Hope |
| Tegan and Sara So Jealous |
| Tegan and Sara Sainthood |
| The Album Leaf In a Safe Place |
| The Antlers In the Attic of the Universe |
| The Besnard Lakes The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night |
| The Dodos No Color |
| The Dresden Dolls The Dresden Dolls |
| The Dresden Dolls Yes, Virginia... |
| The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots |
| The Gathering If_Then_Else |
| The Gathering Souvenirs |
| The Gathering Sleepy Buildings:A Semi-Acoustic Evening |
| The Kills Keep On Your Mean Side |
| The Kills Blood Pressures |
| The National Alligator |
| The National Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers |
| The New Pornographers Challengers |
| The Notwist Neon Golden |
| The Swell Season The Swell Season |
| The Velvet Underground The Best of the Velvet Underground |
| Thrice Vheissu |
| Tom Waits Swordfishtrombones |
| Travis The Boy With No Name |
| Uncle Tupelo No Depression |
| Unexpect In a Flesh Aquarium |
| Whiskeytown Stranger's Almanac |
| Wilco Being There |
| Wilco Sky Blue Sky |
| William Fitzsimmons Until When We Are Ghosts |
| William Fitzsimmons The Sparrow and the Crow |
| Within Temptation The Heart of Everything |
| Wye Oak If Children |
| Wye Oak Civilian |
| Yakuza Transmutations |
| Yeah Yeah Yeahs Show Your Bones |
| Yo La Tengo Popular Songs |
| 3.5 great |
| 13 and God 13 & God |
| A Fine Frenzy One Cell in the Sea |
| Against Me! Reinventing Axl Rose |
| Against Me! Searching for a Former Clarity |
| Against Me! New Wave |
| Alexi Murdoch Time Without Consequence |
| Amanda Palmer Who Killed Amanda Palmer? |
| Amy Winehouse Back To Black |
| An Horse Rearrange Beds |
| Aqualung Strange and Beautiful |
| As I Lay Dying Shadows Are Security |
| Avenged Sevenfold Waking the Fallen |
| Bat For Lashes Fur and Gold |
| Black Mountain Black Mountain |
| Bon Iver Blood Bank |
| Cat Power You Are Free |
| Cat Power The Greatest |
| Cherry Ghost Thirst For Romance |
| Coldplay A Rush of Blood to the Head |
| Coldplay Parachutes |
| Coldplay Viva La Vida |
| Cult of Luna Salvation |
| Cult of Luna Somewhere Along the Highway |
| Damien Rice 9 |
| Dark Tranquillity Character |
| Death Cab for Cutie Narrow Stairs |
| Death Cab for Cutie Codes and Keys |
| Pssh, this is so much better than Narrow Stairs, and moderately better than Plans. I played this album not expecting it to really grab my attention and was supposed to serve merely as some mundane but relaxing background music, and yet I found it actually making me take notice on numerous occasions. And now I've grown quite fond of it. It's a very solid album, even if doesn't really bring anything new to the table. |
| Dethklok The Dethalbum |
| Devendra Banhart Cripple Crow |
| Drive-by Truckers A Blessing and a Curse |
| Dustin Kensrue Please Come Home |
| Elbow Leaders of the Free World |
| Evanescence Fallen |
| Explosions in the Sky The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place |
| Feist Let It Die |
| Finch Say Hello to Sunshine |
| Fionn Regan The End of History |
| Found Dead Hanging Dulling Occam's Razor |
| Ghastly City Sleep Ghastly City Sleep |
| Ghost Mice Debt of the Dead |
| Goldfrapp Black Cherry |
| Goldfrapp Head First |
| Great Lake Swimmers Ongiara |
| Heathers Here, Not There |
| Howling Bells s/t |
| Ida Lovers Prayer |
| Idaho Hearts of Palm |
| In Flames Clayman |
| In Flames Come Clarity |
| Ingrid Michaelson Be OK |
| Jeff Buckley Grace (Legacy Edition) |
| Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins Rabbit Fur Coat |
| Kate Nash Made of Bricks |
| Kate Nash My Best Friend Is You |
| Kevin Devine Circle Gets the Square |
| Korpiklaani Voice Of Wilderness |
| KT Tunstall Drastic Fantastic |
| Lacuna Coil In A Reverie |
| Lady Gaga The Fame Monster |
| Los Campesinos! Hold On Now, Youngster... |
| Lovedrug Pretend You're Alive |
| Low C'Mon |
| One thing you have to admire about this band, is that they consistently put out solid albums every few years, and largely...it will go almost completely unnoticed. But they've done exactly what anyone could hope they could do. They've kept the same fanbase intact, and they've kept them pleased for the last 20 years. This album is no exception. It might not rank up there with their best, but it's still very good. |
| Matchbook Romance Voices |
| Matt Sweeney and Bonnie Prince Billy Superwolf |
| MGMT Oracular Spectacular |
| Mors Principium Est The Unborn |
| Murder by Death Who Will Survive and What Will Be Left of Them? |
| Murder by Death Like the Exorcist, but More Breakdancing |
| My Morning Jacket Z |
| My Morning Jacket Evil Urges |
| Nada Surf The Weight Is a Gift |
| Nada Surf Lucky |
| Nellie McKay Pretty Little Head |
| Nightwish Century Child |
| Nightwish Wishmaster |
| Nightwish Oceanborn |
| Nightwish Dark Passion Play |
| Norah Jones Come Away with Me |
| Norah Jones Feels Like Home |
| Norah Jones Not Too Late |
| Oceansize Effloresce |
| Octavia Sperati Grace Submerged |
| Opeth Deliverance |
| Opeth My Arms, Your Hearse |
| Opeth The Roundhouse Tapes |
| Paramore Riot! |
| Pati Yang Silent Treatment |
| Peter Bjorn and John Writer's Block |
| Porcupine Tree Fear of a Blank Planet |
| Radiohead Kid A |
| Radiohead's trance-inducing transformation from the masterpiece that is "Ok Computer" to "Kid A" is quite remarkable. Stripping their music to the bone, then adding layers of ambience, drump loops, and electronics...and giving the music a much darker feel in the process. The beauty of a band like Radiohead is they can pull off change all while keeping the same general core sound intact. Deep at the core this is still Radiohead. It's generally Radiohead progressing, transforming, trying new things. A lot of bands are generally afraid of trying something new for fear of losing their fan base, but thankfully Radiohead is one that likes to expand their musical horizons. While this album doesn't quite match up to the epic beauty of Ok Computer, the new sound still holds its own and is an enjoyable listen, especially on a long nighttime drive. |
| Radiohead OK Computer |
| Radiohead Hail to the Thief |
| Regina Spektor Songs |
| Regina Spektor 11:11 |
| Russian Circles Enter |
| Ryan Adams Gold |
| Ryan Adams Cold Roses |
| Ryan Adams Jacksonville City Nights |
| Ryan Adams Cardinology |
| Sage Francis Human The Death Dance |
| Sarah McLachlan Surfacing |
| Sigur Ros Ágætis Byrjun |
| Sigur Ros Hvarf/Heim |
| Silversun Pickups Carnavas |
| Snow Patrol Eyes Open |
| Soundgarden A-Sides |
| St. Vincent Actor |
| Stars In Our Bedroom After The War |
| Still Remains Of Love And Lunacy |
| Stolen Babies There Be Squabbles Ahead |
| Stream Of Passion Embrace The Storm |
| Sufjan Stevens A Sun Came |
| Sun Kil Moon Tiny Cities |
| Sun Kil Moon April |
| The Antlers Hospice |
| The Beatles Please Please Me |
| The Beatles The Beatles |
| The Dead Weather Sea of Cowards |
| The Duke Spirit Neptune |
| The Flaming Lips Embryonic |
| The Format Dog Problems |
| The Fray How to Save a Life |
| The Gathering Home |
| The Gathering Mandylion |
| The Kills No Wow |
| The Kills Midnight Boom |
| The Mars Volta Frances the Mute |
| The National Cherry Tree |
| The National The Virginia EP |
| The Submarines Declare A New State |
| The Submarines Honeysuckle Weeks |
| The Subways All or Nothing |
| The Weepies Say I Am You |
| This Will Destroy You Young Mountain |
| This Will Destroy You This Will Destroy You |
| Thrice The Illusion Of Safety |
| Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II |
| Thrice Come All You Weary |
| Thrice Beggars |
| Tiny Vipers Life on Earth |
| Tom Waits Orphans |
| Tool 10,000 Days |
| The amount of hype and acclaim this album has gotten is insane, but it's what to expect from a Tool album. Personally, I don't see it as a big step up from Lateralus, and in fact may be a bit of a step back for the band. Tracks like Jambi and Rosetta Stoned are horrible in representing Tool as a band, and are just not very enjoyable. Right In Two is an awesome song but sounds more like something A Perfect Circle would write rather than Tool. However, dissappointments aside, Wings For Marie Part 1 and 2 are alone worth the purchase of the album, for they are two of the greatest songs ever written by the band and take a step further for the band, it's a shame the rest of the album is a step back. That being said, it's still leagues above most other bands out there, and surely Tool will keep their cult following...and will still hold my interest until the next album. |
| Trespassers William The Natural Order of Things |
| TV on the Radio Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes |
| TV on the Radio Dear Science |
| Why? Alopecia |
| Wilco A Ghost is Born |
| William Elliott Whitmore Animals in the Dark |
| William Fitzsimmons Goodnight |
| Witchbreed Heretic Rapture |
| Yael Naim Yael Naim |
| Yeah Yeah Yeahs Fever To Tell |
| Yeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz! |
| Yo La Tengo I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One |
| Yo La Tengo I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass |
| Zero 7 Simple Things |
