| 5 classic |
| Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago |
| Damien Rice O |
| This album is as close to a classic is any singer/songwriter has written in recent history. Damien Rice has a gift, and that gift is writing some of the most lovely and hearfelt music that can be found. Songs like "The Blower's Daughter", "Cannonball", "Older Chests", and "I Remember" are hard to listen to without shedding at least a single tear from the eye. This isn't just music to listen to, this is music to get lost in, music to become, music to let filter into your soul and carry it with you for all of time. |
| Regina Spektor Soviet Kitsch |
| 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 The Execution of All Things |
| Ryan Adams Love is Hell |
| Sigur Ros Heima |
| The Gathering How to Measure a Planet? |
| The Gathering A Noise Severe |
| The National Boxer |
| Trespassers William Different Stars |
| 4.5 superb |
| 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 |
| Gojira From Mars To Sirius |
| Heartless Bastards All This Time |
| Iron And Wine Our Endless Numbered Days |
| Iron And 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 |
| Rilo Kiley Take-Offs & Landings |
| Rilo Kiley Under the Blacklight |
| Shearwater Rook |
| Sigur Ros ( ) |
| 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 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 and IV... |
| Tom Waits Bone Machine |
| Tom Waits Rain Dogs |
| Trespassers William Having |
| 4 excellent |
| 3 The End is Begun |
| Aereogramme My Heart Has a Wish That You Would Not Go |
| Aereogramme Sleep and Release |
| Against Me! The Acoustic EP |
| 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 Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon |
| Devendra Banhart Nino Rojo |
| Dresden Dolls The Dresden Dolls |
| Dresden Dolls Yes Virginia |
| Elbow The Seldom Seen Kid |
| Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton What Is Free To A Good Home? |
| Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton Knives Don't Have Your Back |
| Feist The Reminder |
| Fiona Apple Extraordinary Machine |
| Fiona Apple Tidal |
| Goldfrapp Seventh Tree |
| Grand Archives The Grand Archives |
| Heartless Bastards The Mountain |
| 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 And Wine In The Reins (feat. Calexico) [EP] |
| Japandroids Post-Nothing |
| Jenny Lewis Acid Tongue |
| 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 |
| Porcupine Tree Deadwing |
| Queens Of The Stone Age Songs For The Deaf |
| Radiohead In Rainbows |
| Regina Spektor Begin To Hope [EP] |
| Rilo Kiley More Adventurous |
| Rosie Thomas These Friends of Mine |
| Ryan Adams 29 |
| Ryan Adams Heartbreaker |
| Ryan Adams Follow The Lights |
| Sage Francis A Healthy Distrust |
| Scale The Summit Carving Desert Canyons |
| Shawn McDonald Ripen |
| Shels Sea of the Dying Dhow |
| 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 með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust |
| Sonic Youth The Eternal |
| Sonic Youth Daydream Nation (Deluxe Edition) |
| Sonic Youth Washing Machine |
| Soundgarden Superunknown |
| St. Vincent Marry Me |
| Stars Set Yourself On Fire |
| 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 Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots |
| The Gathering If_Then_Else |
| The Gathering Sleepy Buildings: A Semi-Acoustic Evening |
| The Gathering Souvenirs |
| The Kills Keep On Your Mean Side |
| The National Alligator |
| The National Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers |
| The Notwist Neon Golden |
| The Swell Season The Swell Season |
| The Velvet Underground The Best of the Velvet Underground: Word |
| 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 Sky Blue Sky |
| Wilco Being There |
| William Fitzsimmons Until When We Are Ghosts |
| William Fitzsimmons The Sparrow and the Crow |
| Within Temptation The Heart of Everything |
| Yakuza Transmutations |
| Yeah Yeah Yeahs Show Your Bones |
| Yo La Tengo Popular Songs |
| 3.5 great |
| 13 & God 13 & God |
| A Fine Frenzy One Cell in the Sea |
| Against Me! New Wave |
| Against Me! Searching for a Former Clarity |
| Against Me! Reinventing Axl Rose |
| 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 The Greatest |
| Cat Power You Are Free |
| Cherry Ghost Thirst For Romance |
| Coldplay Parachutes |
| Coldplay A Rush Of Blood To The Head |
| Coldplay Viva La Vida |
| Cult of Luna Somewhere Along The Highway |
| Cult of Luna Salvation |
| Damien Rice 9 |
| Dark Tranquillity Character |
| Death Cab For Cutie Narrow Stairs |
| 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 |
| Great Lake Swimmers Ongiara |
| Heathers Here, Not There |
| Howling Bells s/t |
| Ida Lovers Prayer |
| Idaho Hearts of Palm |
| In Flames Come Clarity |
| In Flames Clayman |
| Ingrid Michaelson Be OK |
| Jeff Buckley Grace (Legacy Edition) |
| Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins Rabbit Fur Coat |
| Kate Nash Made of Bricks |
| Kevin Devine Circle Gets the Square |
| Korpiklaani Voice Of Wilderness |
| KT Tunstall Drastic Fantastic |
| Lacuna Coil In A Reverie |
| Los Campesinos! Hold On Now, Youngster... |
| Lovedrug Pretend You're Alive |
| Matchbook Romance Voices |
| Matt Sweeney and Bonnie Prince Billy Superwolf |
| 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 Lucky |
| Nada Surf The Weight Is a Gift |
| Nellie McKay Pretty Little Head |
| Nightwish Dark Passion Play |
| Nightwish Century Child |
| Nightwish Wishmaster |
| Nightwish Oceanborn |
| Norah Jones Come Away with Me |
| Norah Jones Feels Like Home |
| Norah Jones Not Too Late |
| Oceansize Effloresce |
| Octavia Sperati Grace Submerged |
| Opeth The Roundhouse Tapes |
| Opeth Deliverance |
| Opeth My Arms, Your Hearse |
| Paramore Riot! |
| Pati Yang Silent Treatment |
| Peter Bjorn and John Writer's Block |
| Porcupine Tree Fear Of A Blank Planet |
| Radiohead OK Computer |
| 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 Hail To The Thief |
| Regina Spektor Songs |
| Regina Spektor 11:11 |
| Russian Circles Enter |
| Ryan Adams Jacksonville City Nights |
| Ryan Adams Cold Roses |
| Ryan Adams Gold |
| Ryan Adams Cardinology |
| Sage Francis Human The Death Dance |
| Sarah McLachlan Surfacing |
| Sigur Ros Hvarf-Heim |
| Sigur Ros Ágætis Byrjun |
| 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 The Beatles |
| The Beatles Please Please Me |
| The Cardigans Super Extra Gravity |
| 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 Midnight Boom |
| The Kills No Wow |
| The Mars Volta Frances the Mute |
| The National Cherry Tree |
| The Submarines Honeysuckle Weeks |
| The Submarines Declare A New State |
| The Subways All or Nothing |
| The Weepies Say I Am You |
| This Will Destroy You This Will Destroy You |
| This Will Destroy You Young Mountain |
| Thrice The Alchemy Index: Vols. I and II... |
| Thrice Beggars |
| Thrice Come All You Weary EP (iTunes) |
| Thrice The Illusion of Safety |
| 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 Dear Science |
| TV on the Radio Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes |
| 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 Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass |
| Yo La Tengo I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One |
| Zero 7 Simple Things |
