| *shels Plains Of The Purple Buffalo | 4.0 |
| If I wanted to actually critically analyze this, I'd call it unoriginal, predictable, and perhaps even lugubrious. But sometimes, music should just do what you expect it to and be gorgeous. |
| 65daysofstatic We Were Exploding Anyway | 4.0 |
| 65daysofstatic The Fall of Math | 4.5 |
| A Perfect Circle eMOTIVe | 1.0 |
| A Perfect Circle Thirteenth Step | 3.5 |
| A Perfect Circle Mer de Noms | 4.0 |
| Adebisi Shank This is the Second Album | 4.0 |
| Aereogramme Seclusion | 4.0 |
| Aereogramme My Heart Has a Wish That You Would Not Go | 4.0 |
| It's strange that something as tragic as vocalist Craig B's throat infection created something so beautiful. With his inability to sing his heavier vocals, stuck to his clean, high pitched singing, Aereogramme needed to find a way to accomodate. They did so by creating an album full of beautiful strings, piano, and clean guitar that rises and falls as if they've been utilizing this formula for years. The precision by which Aereogramme made this album is stellar and it makes for one of the best albums of 2007 thus far. |
| Ahmad Jamal The Awakening | 4.0 |
| All the Empires of the World ...Will Be Laid To Waste | 3.0 |
| Amadou and Mariam Welcome to Mali | 4.0 |
| Amplive Rainydayz Remixes | 3.5 |
| Anberlin New Surrender | 3.5 |
| Andrew Bird Armchair Apocrypha | 4.0 |
| Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion | 4.5 |
| Araabmuzik Electronic Dream | 3.5 |
| Arcade Fire Neon Bible | 3.5 |
| Arcade Fire The Suburbs | 4.0 |
| Arcade Fire Funeral | 5.0 |
| Architecture In Helsinki Places Like This | 2.5 |
| Arms and Sleepers Black Paris 86 | 4.0 |
| ASAP Rocky Live.Love.A$AP. | 4.0 |
| At the Drive-In Relationship of Command | 3.0 |
| Avenged Sevenfold Sounding the Seventh Trumpet | 2.5 |
| Avenged Sevenfold Waking the Fallen | 3.5 |
| Avenged Sevenfold City of Evil | 3.5 |
| Balam Acab Wander/Wonder | 3.5 |
| Balmorhea Balmorhea | 3.5 |
| Battle Break the Banks | 4.0 |
| Bedouin Soundclash Street Gospels | 3.0 |
| Beirut Lon Gisland | 3.0 |
| Bell Orchestre Recording A Tape The Colour Of The Light | 4.0 |
| Recording A Tape... is a post-rock album that incorporates more brass than any other post-rock band around. Drawing from The Arcade Fire's horn section and other prominent Canadian musicians, Bell Orchestre creates a medley of grandiose, folk-inspired epics. Each song on the album has it's own special qualities, whether it be a groove or the prominent voicing of a certain instrument, and it allows the album to never tire. Throw It On A Fire could be played in a random barn on the countryside, while Nuevo saves itself for the aristocratic balls of the Victorian era. |
| Belle and Sebastian Dear Catastrophe Waitress | 4.0 |
| Ben Harper Lifeline | 3.0 |
| Benoit Pioulard Precis | 4.5 |
| Bersarin Quartett Bersarin Quartett | 4.0 |
| Best Coast Crazy For You | 2.5 |
| Between the Buried and Me Colors | 4.5 |
| Big Boi Sir Lucious Left Foot | 4.0 |
| Bjork Volta | 4.0 |
| Black Mountain In the Future | 3.0 |
| Blackalicious Blazing Arrow | 4.5 |
| Blonde Redhead 23 | 4.0 |
| Blue Sky Black Death Jean Grae: The Evil Jeanius | 3.5 |
| Blue Sky Black Death Late Night Cinema | 4.5 |
| Bob Dylan Highway 61 Revisited | 5.0 |
| Bon Iver Bon Iver, Bon Iver | 4.5 |
| Botch We Are the Romans | 4.0 |
| Boysetsfire After The Eulogy | 4.0 |
| Boysetsfire The Misery Index: Notes From The Plague | 4.0 |
| BoySetsFire recently broke up, but this album shows no signs of a band ready to end. It is fiery and emotional, with lead singer Nathan Gray writing political lyrics he truly believes; it is conveyed through his voice. Although their previous albums were more punk/post-hardcore oriented, this album's best songs lie in midtempo hard rock. Requiem and Empire both sound like the best singles the radio could possibly muster, with excellent guitar harmonies and interplay with great, climatic choruses. They still stick to their roots with songs like Final Communique and So Long...and Thanks for the Crutches. |
| Brand New The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me | 4.0 |
| Breaking Benjamin We Are Not Alone | 2.5 |
| Bright Eyes Letting Off the Happiness | 2.5 |
| Bright Eyes The People's Key | 3.5 |
| Bright Eyes I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning | 4.0 |
| Bright Eyes Four Winds | 4.0 |
| Bright Eyes Cassadaga | 4.0 |
| Britney Spears Femme Fatale | 3.5 |
| Buraka Som Sistema Komba | 3.0 |
| Buraka Som Sistema Black Diamond | 4.0 |
| Burst Lazarus Bird | 4.0 |
| Caina Mourner | 4.0 |
| Cam Butler See (Symphony #1) | 3.5 |
| Canyons of Static The Disappearance | 2.5 |
| Caspian You Are The Conductor | 3.5 |
| Caspian The Four Trees | 4.0 |
| Cave In Antenna | 3.5 |
| Chamillionaire Ultimate Victory | 3.5 |
| Chancha Via Circuito Rio Arriba | 4.0 |
| Chris Walla Field Manual | 3.0 |
| Circa Survive Juturna | 2.5 |
| Circle Takes the Square As the Roots Undo | 4.5 |
| Codeseven Dancing Echoes / Dead Sounds | 3.5 |
| Coheed and Cambria From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness | 4.0 |
| Coldplay Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends | 4.0 |
| Something was up when Coldplay titled their album Viva La Vida. It's just not the same as Parachutes or X&Y. Tack on the or Death and All His Friends, and you've got quite a different outlook on Coldplay. With Brian Eno producing and the slightly edgier (not necessarily edgy for anyone else but Coldplay) album title, I was actually excited for the album. Even in my excitement, however, this album blew me away. From the one of catchiest songs featuring strings since "Eleanor Rigby" in "Viva La Vida" and the enhanced spaced out effects in "Life in Technicolor" and "Lovers in Japan", Coldplay expands beyond the soft rock ballads. Perhaps it won't be so gay to like Coldplay anymore. |
| Conor Oberst Conor Oberst | 3.5 |
| Converge Jane Doe | 4.5 |
| Cornelius Sensuous | 4.0 |
| Cougar Patriot | 4.5 |
| Cymbals Eat Guitars Lenses Alien | 3.0 |
| Cynic Traced in Air | 4.0 |
| Daedelus Exquisite Corpse | 4.0 |
| Damien Rice B-Sides | 4.0 |
| Damien Rice 9 | 4.0 |
| Damien Rice O | 4.5 |
| Daniel Bjarnason Processions | 4.5 |
| Danielson Ships | 3.0 |
| Dark Time Sunshine Vessel | 4.5 |
| Das Racist Relax | 4.0 |
| Daughtry Daughtry | 2.0 |
| Day One Symphony Aviciouscircle | 3.5 |
| To describe Day One Symphony with strong adjectives is pretty hard. The EP, all in all, is nice, without much more to describe it. Title track and opener "Aviciouscircle" sounds menacing enough and grooves with tribal rhythms and spacey guitar, and as singer David Knight wails "This is what's to come," it seems like a great segway into what could have been a huge success for the band. However, the rest delves off into a much different world, something more aquatic with synthesizers and vocal effects. While they pull off both sounds well, neither really break any ground. I'd rather listen to dredg, but this is a nice alternative. |
| Dead Kennedys Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables | 4.5 |
| Death Cab for Cutie We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes | 3.0 |
| Deftones Ohms | 5.0 |
| Denali The Instinct | 3.5 |
| Depswa Two Angels and a Dream | 1.5 |
| Dinosaur Jr. Beyond | 3.5 |
| Dizzy Gillespie Afro | 4.0 |
| DJ Shadow Live! In Tune and On Time | 4.0 |
| DJ Shadow Endtroducing..... | 5.0 |
| Dntel Life is Full of Possibilities | 4.0 |
| Do Make Say Think Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn | 3.5 |
| Donna Summer Crayons | 2.5 |
| dredg Chuckles and Mr. Squeezy | 1.0 |
| The worst album I've heard by any band this year. Probably last year too. |
| dredg Orph | 2.5 |
| dredg Live at The Fillmore | 4.0 |
| dredg Leitmotif | 4.5 |
| dredg Catch Without Arms | 4.5 |
| Has there ever been a more beautiful mix of pop sensibility and intricate, driving, and soulful music in recent memory? Probably not. Dredg's third release, Catch Without Arms, finds another new sound for the band, a long way from the edgy and raw Leitmotif. Catch Without Arms became dredg's album that allowed the band to quietly sneak in the doors of the mainstream, but they still maintained a musical integrity that few current bands can contend with. The album has a typical sound, but that sound never gets old. With the immense sound that guitarist Mark Engles conjures, relying on chorus and delay effects and the unpredictable but always fitting basslines of Drew Roulette, the music hardly needs anything else. But Dino Campanella adds some of the most solid drumming around and Gavin Hayes soars overtop with amazing melodies. Catch Without Arms is a fantastic listen for anybody. Anybody. |
| dredg The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion | 4.5 |
| dredg El Cielo | 5.0 |
| With El Cielo, dredg creates a soundscape of music unparalleled by anything around in the modern music scene. The album revolves around the concepts of sleep paralysis, lucid dreaming, and change. Taking a page out of Dali's book, many songs on the album refer to one of his paintings, Dream Caused By The Flight Of A Bumblebee Around A Pomegrante One Second Before Awakening. The music creates lush backgrounds for vocalist Gavin Hayes to float on top with beautiful melodies. Bassist Drew Roulette plays subterranean basslines while guitarist Mark Engles plays sparse guitar lines, often relying on delay effects. Dino Campanella, drummer and pianist, relys completely on the feel and plays just enough to drive the song, and stands out when needed in songs like Canyon Behind Her. Stand out tracks include Same Ol' Road, Of the Room, and It Only Took A Day. |
| Dustin Kensrue Please Come Home | 2.5 |
| Eddie Vedder Into the Wild | 3.5 |
| Efterklang Magic Chairs | 3.5 |
| Eksperimentoj Eksperimentoj | 3.0 |
| El Ten Eleven These Promises Are Being Videotaped | 2.5 |
| Elliott Smith New Moon | 3.5 |
| Elliott Smith XO | 5.0 |
| Eluvium An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death | 3.0 |
| Eluvium Similes | 3.0 |
| Eluvium When I Live by the Garden and the Sea | 3.5 |
| Eluvium Talk Amongst the Trees | 4.0 |
| Much like Brian Eno's Music for Airports, this is not exactly an album to sit down and listen to intensely. Matthew Cooper, the mastermind behind Eluvium, creates an aquatic world of lazy electronic drones and subtle melodies and inflections. Some songs only play for under a minute while others stretch for over ten. All the same, this album will put the listener into a trance that few artists can force a listener into. |
| Eluvium Copia | 4.5 |
| Elvis Costello My Aim Is True | 5.0 |
| Emancipator Safe In The Steep Cliffs | 4.0 |
| Emery We Do What We Want | 3.0 |
| Emperor In the Nightside Eclipse | 3.0 |
| Equus Transmissions | 3.5 |
| Eric Whitacre Light and Gold | 4.5 |
| Erykah Badu New Amerykah Pt. One: 4th World War | 3.5 |
| Esmerine Aurora | 4.5 |
| Failure Fantastic Planet | 4.0 |
| Fall Out Boy From Under the Cork Tree | 2.0 |
| Final Fantasy He Poos Clouds | 3.5 |
| Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes | 3.0 |
| Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues | 5.0 |
| Flying Lotus Los Angeles | 3.5 |
| Fridge The Sun | 3.5 |
| Fugazi In on the Kill Taker | 2.5 |
| Funkadelic Standing on the Verge of Getting It On | 3.0 |
| Funkadelic One Nation Under a Groove | 4.0 |
| Ghastly City Sleep Ghastly City Sleep | 4.0 |
| Ghost (JPN) In Stormy Nights | 3.5 |
| Girl Talk Feed the Animals | 4.0 |
| Glassjaw Coloring Book | 4.0 |
| Aside from the last minute of "Stations of the New Cross", this rules pretty hard. Here's to hoping that they're on a roll and ready to keep going down this path. |
| Glenn Branca Symphony No. 3 (Gloria) | 3.0 |
| Glenn Branca The Ascension | 5.0 |
| Gnarls Barkley The Odd Couple | 3.0 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven | 4.5 |
| Good Charlotte The Young And The Hopeless | 2.0 |
| Good Charlotte The Chronicles of Life and Death | 2.5 |
| Good Old War Good Old War | 3.5 |
| Gordon Goodwins Big Phat Band XXL | 4.5 |
| Grails Doomsdayer's Holiday | 3.5 |
| Green Day American Idiot | 3.0 |
| Green Day Dookie | 3.5 |
| Grouper Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill | 4.0 |
| Hammock Maybe They Will Sing for Us Tomorrow | 4.0 |
| Hammock Chasing After Shadows...Living with the Ghosts | 4.0 |
| Hammock Raising Your Voice... Trying to Stop an Echo | 4.5 |
| Harvey Milk Life... The Best Game in Town | 3.5 |
| Have a Nice Life Deathconsciousness | 4.5 |
| Her Name Is Calla The Heritage | 3.0 |
| Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions Bavarian Fruit Bread | 4.0 |
| I Hear Sirens I Hear Sirens EP | 3.0 |
| Imogen Heap Speak For Yourself | 4.0 |
| Imogen Heap's sophomore album falls into no slump. This woman's vocal power is astounding, but the music accompanying her provides extra warmth to create some of the most enjoyable pop music in a long time. The entire album is accessible and enjoyable at first listen, but it gets better through time. Highlights include the stunning Hide and Seek, where Imogen uses a vocoder and creates some of the most beautiful music on the album with just her voice, and the dramatic closer The Moment I Said It, which grows from pizzicato strings to operatic chords and Imogen's wailing voice. This album is for fans of Regina Spektor and other brilliant pop artists. |
| Incubus (USA-CA) A Crow Left of the Murder... | 3.0 |
| Incubus (USA-CA) Morning View | 3.5 |
| Incubus (USA-CA) Light Grenades | 3.5 |
| Incubus (USA-CA) Make Yourself | 4.0 |
| Interpol Our Love to Admire | 3.0 |
| Interpol Antics | 3.5 |
| Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights | 4.0 |
| Iron And Wine Our Endless Numbered Days | 4.0 |
| J. Cole Cole World: The Sideline Story | 3.5 |
| Jack Johnson Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for Curious George | 3.0 |
| Jaco Pastorius Jaco Pastorius | 3.0 |
| Jaga Jazzist The Stix | 3.5 |
| Jaga Jazzist Magazine | 3.5 |
| Jaga Jazzist One-Armed Bandit | 4.0 |
| Jaga Jazzist A Livingroom Hush | 4.5 |
| Jaga Jazzist What We Must | 5.0 |
| Do you like jazz? Rock? Electronica? Do you like music at all? Then What We Must is for you. Jaga Jazzist's third major album finds them taking their music to a whole new level and redefining their sound with a much more band oriented sound. Guitars take promience over the horns, leaving them to set countermelody and atmosphere. From the stellar "All I Know Is Tonight" to the epic, emotional "Swedenborgske Rom" to the late-night drive visions of "I Have A Ghost, Now What?" Jaga Jazzist spins stories that words cannot express. |
| Jakob Dylan Seeing Things | 3.5 |
| James Blake James Blake | 4.5 |
| I Never Learnt to Share rules. Everything else is pretty good. |
| James Blunt All the Lost Souls | 1.5 |
| Janelle Monae The ArchAndroid | 4.5 |
| Jardin de la Croix Pomeroy | 3.5 |
| Jay-Z and Kanye West Watch the Throne | 3.5 |
| Jens Lekman Night Falls Over Kortedala | 3.0 |
| Jets to Brazil Perfecting Loneliness | 4.0 |
| Jimmy Eat World Stay on My Side Tonight | 3.0 |
| Jimmy Eat World Invented | 3.5 |
| Jimmy Eat World Futures | 4.0 |
| Jimmy Eat World Chase This Light | 4.0 |
| John Cage and Sun Ra John Cage Meets Sun Ra | 4.0 |
| John Frusciante Inside of Emptiness | 3.0 |
| John Mayer The Village Sessions | 3.0 |
| Johnny Cash American V: A Hundred Highways | 4.0 |
| The final release from Cash, A Hundred Highways is frighteningly morbid, with Cash seeming okay with the fact that his death was approaching fast. Just as the rest of his American albums, Cash does remakes of a number of his originals as well as many covers. Here, he covers the likes of Bruce Springsteen and Frank Sinatra, but the standout track is a traditional folk song entitled God's Gonna Cut You Down. Cash is found in a new setting, a much more industrial setting. He still goes back to where he's comfortable, simple acoustic country songs and he does it better than anyone, even near death. |
| Johnny Cash American III: Solitary Man | 4.0 |
| Johnny Cash American IV: The Man Comes Around | 4.5 |
| Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison | 4.5 |
| Jonny Greenwood Bodysong | 4.0 |
| Jose Gonzalez In Our Nature | 3.0 |
| Jukebox the Ghost Jukebox the Ghost | 3.5 |
| Justin Timberlake FutureSex/LoveSounds | 3.5 |
| k-os Joyful Rebellion | 4.5 |
| Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy | 4.5 |
| Kashiwa Daisuke Program Music I | 5.0 |
| Kayo Dot Blue Lambency Downward | 2.5 |
| Ken Andrews Secrets of the Lost Satellite | 4.0 |
| Ken Andrews, the mastermind of 90s space rock, returns with another post-Failure release, the first under his own name. With two different versions of each song playing at the same time (one Andrews' own electronica compositions and a live band's version), there is so much to listen to in each song, but it never gets too boggled down because of the superb production done by Andrews himself. Not many will hear about this album, but it stands beside many, more popular strong releases of the year. His songwriting is some of the best of his career, with "In Your Way", "Write Your Story", and "Without" standing out. |
| Kendrick Lamar Section.80 | 4.5 |
| Khoma The Second Wave | 3.5 |
| Kidcrash Jokes | 4.0 |
| Kids and Explosions Shit Computer | 4.5 |
| KT Tunstall Drastic Fantastic | 4.0 |
| Lights Out Asia Eyes Like Brontide | 3.5 |
| Lil Wayne Tha Carter IV | 3.0 |
| Lil Wayne Dedication 2 | 4.5 |
| Limp Bizkit Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water | 1.0 |
| Lindsey Boullt Composition | 4.5 |
| Linkin Park Meteora | 2.5 |
| Linkin Park Reanimation | 2.5 |
| Linkin Park Hybrid Theory | 3.0 |
| LITE Phantasia | 4.0 |
| It's technical in a math rock sense, cathartic in a post rock sense, and dancey in a Minus the Bear-sense. What makes Phantasia such an incredible album is its ability to show off talent while still maintaining a fun and playful sense about the album. Still, songs like "Solitude" have so much substance to them that there is more to discover besides the album's inherent groove. Unlike many artists enveloped in their own technicality, LITE knows how to make a melody sing and how to pick their moments. One of the best instrumental achievements of the year. |
| Local Natives Gorilla Manor | 4.0 |
| Lone Wolf The Devil and I | 4.0 |
| Loose Fur Loose Fur | 3.0 |
| M. Ward Post-War | 4.0 |
| Post-War is not nearly as political nor as angry as the title might imply. It is really a great folk album that, even with the use of modern electric instruments, sounds as though it might be from the 40s or 50s. Ward cleverly weaves his lyrics like old story folk songs as he pulls in a full band for the first time in his solo career. Everything from a jazzy Rhodes piano to a Western slide guitar finds their way onto this album. Ward draws many comparisons to Johnny Cash in his singing style, his humility, and his true Western sense of life. But he is no replica. Post-War is surely a standout in modern folk music--accessible and still original. |
| M. Ward Transistor Radio | 4.5 |
| M.I.A. Maya | 2.5 |
| M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming | 4.5 |
| The kind of album that made me fall in love with post-rock way back when, but it's not post-rock, and it's actually good. |
| Mae Singularity | 3.0 |
| Magyar Posse Random Avenger | 4.5 |
| Mahavishnu Orchestra The Lost Trident Sessions | 3.5 |
| Mahavishnu Orchestra Birds of Fire | 4.5 |
| Maps and Atlases You and Me and the Mountain | 4.0 |
| Maps and Atlases Beware and Be Grateful | 4.0 |
| Marmaduke Duke The Magnificent Duke | 4.0 |
| Maserati Inventions for the New Season | 3.5 |
| Max Richter Infra | 4.0 |
| Meanwhile, Back in Communist Russia Indian Ink | 3.5 |
| I heard about this band through the grapevine as an extremely original and creative post-rock band. I got Indian Ink and found them to be a different band than I expected. They played typical of the genre, with simple guitar riffs, atmospheric keyboard and a sense of building throughout to a climax. They use a woman's voice to speak monologues over their music, which creates an eerie effect at some times, especially in the song Now I Am Lifting. She whispers her words over an ambient background, almost playing out of a horror movie. Overall, I found the band very talented. They played just about every typical post-rock sound on the album, ranging from an ambient soother to an epic riff-heavy builder, but they pull it off under 5 minutes per song. They are extremely accessible and a good introduction to many different sounds in the genre. |
| Meet Me in St. Louis And With The Right Kind Of Eyes... | 4.0 |
| I do not possess much knowledge about post-hardcore, so my finding this excellent may not appeal to the time-tested fans of the genre, but I cannot stop listening to this debut EP. Its full title And with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark - the place where the wave finally broke and rolled back, along with the lengthy song titles hint at something pretentious and stuck-up, but the band simply rocks. Their energy and cohesiveness are a rare sight in young bands today. The songwriting rules too, with all kinds of math-rock influence showing left and right. From the catchy opening riff of the album to the climatic end of "The Kid Who Had His Ear Slapped by the Druggist", the band shows a powerful sense of where everything is going. Nothing gets repetitive yet everything feels connected, despite the constantly shifting tempo and meter. Check this one out. |
| Metaform Standing on the Shoulders of Giants | 4.0 |
| Mew Frengers | 4.0 |
| Michael Jackson Thriller | 4.0 |
| Midlake The Courage Of Others | 2.5 |
| Midlake The Trials of Van Occupanther | 3.5 |
| Miles Davis Miles Smiles | 4.0 |
| Miles Davis Sketches of Spain | 4.0 |
| Miles Davis Jack Johnson | 4.0 |
| Miles Davis Filles de Kilimanjaro | 4.5 |
| Miles Davis Kind of Blue | 5.0 |
| Minus the Bear Acoustics | 3.5 |
| Minus the Bear Omni | 3.5 |
| Minus the Bear They Make Beer Commercials Like This | 4.0 |
| Minus the Bear Planet of Ice | 4.5 |
| Modest Mouse The Fruit That Ate Itself | 2.0 |
| Mogwai Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait OST | 2.5 |
| Mogwai The Hawk Is Howling | 3.0 |
| Mojib Whimsical Lifestyle | 4.0 |
| Morcheeba Charango | 3.5 |
| Motorpsycho And Jaga Jazzist Horns In the Fishtank Vol. 10 | 4.0 |
| Mouth Of The Architect Quietly | 3.5 |
| Muse Showbiz | 3.5 |
| Muse Absolution | 4.5 |
| Muse Black Holes & Revelations | 4.5 |
| Black Holes and Revelations shows a musical evolution in Muse's sound. Gone are huge piano epics (Apocalypse Please, Space Dementia) and in are Spanish flamenco guitar, U2 synth melodies, and dance-rock singles. Some see this as a downgrade, but it shows the many possibilities Muse have to go with their sound. Songs like Knights of Cydonia and City of Delusion sound truly epic, and certainly more epic than anything Muse has done up to this point. It truly is amazing what Muse creates with only three members. In their 4 album history, Muse has managed to create dance-rock singles to piano-based powerhouses to huge, chunky guitar-driven rock songs. |
| Muse Origin of Symmetry | 5.0 |
| Mutyumu Il y a | 3.0 |
| My Chemical Romance I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love | 2.0 |
| My Chemical Romance Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge | 2.5 |
| My Education Bad Vibrations | 4.0 |
| Neil Young Unplugged | 4.0 |
| Nick Drake Pink Moon | 4.5 |
| Nick Drake Five Leaves Left | 5.0 |
| Nickelback Silver Side Up | 2.0 |
| Nicolas Jaar Space Is Only Noise | 4.0 |
| Norah Jones Not Too Late | 3.5 |
| Norma Jean The Anti Mother | 2.0 |
| Oasis (What's the Story) Morning Glory? | 3.0 |
| Oceansize Everyone Into Position | 3.5 |
| Oceansize Frames | 4.0 |
| Oceansize Effloresce | 4.5 |
| Off Minor Some Blood | 3.5 |
| Ohana Dead Beat | 4.0 |
| Olafur Arnalds ...And They Have Escaped The Weight Of Darkness | 4.0 |
| Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Se Dice Bisonte, No Búfalo | 3.0 |
| On Shifting Skin | 3.5 |
| One Day as a Lion One Day as a Lion | 3.0 |
| Onry Ozzborn Hold On for Dear Life | 4.0 |
| Opeth Still Life | 4.5 |
| Opeth My Arms, Your Hearse | 4.5 |
| Orphaned Land Mabool (The Story of the Three Sons...) | 5.0 |
| Ours Mercy (Dancing for the Death of an Imaginary Enemy | 3.5 |
| Pain of Salvation Be | 2.0 |
| Parliament Mothership Connection | 4.5 |
| Patrick Wolf The Magic Position | 4.0 |
| Paul Marshall Vultures | 4.5 |
| Easily the best debut album of the year, Paul Marshall's Vultures presents some of the best quiet folk in a long time. Immediately, he conjures images of Nick Drake, except instead of playing for a corner in the wall, he?s playing to a quiet venue full of avid listeners. Unlike other recent vocal artists, who sacrifice their control for emotional catharsis, Marshall remains under control throughout the entire album, his guitar technique and voice always perfect. Overall brilliance. |
| Paul McCartney Memory Almost Full | 4.0 |
| Pelican City of Echoes | 2.5 |
| Pete Yorn Nightcrawler | 4.0 |
| It must be nice being a solo artist. Pete Yorn has no obligations to include anyone, yet he still has no limits as to how many people or instruments he can include. This allows for grand pop songs with tons of melody and also allows for stripped down beauty. Yorn has a perfect voice for his settings, melancholic and slurred, while he turns out some fantastic catchy lyrics. Variety makes this album all the better, from the electronic Georgia Boy to the epic grower Ice Age. He has the potential to break out onto the scene at any moment. |
| Peter Broderick Home | 4.0 |
| pg.99 Document #7 | 4.0 |
| pg.lost It's Not Me, It's You! | 4.0 |
| Philip Selway Familial | 3.0 |
| Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon | 3.0 |
| Port Blue The Airship | 4.0 |
| Protest the Hero Kezia | 3.5 |
| PSY/OPSogist Suffused With Static | 3.5 |
| Radiohead The Bends | 4.0 |
| Radiohead In Rainbows | 4.0 |
| Radiohead Kid A | 4.5 |
| Radiohead OK Computer | 5.0 |
| Raekwon Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang | 4.0 |
| Ray Charles Ray Original Soundtrack | 4.5 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers Blood Sugar Sex Magik | 3.5 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers By the Way | 4.0 |
| Regina Spektor Begin To Hope | 4.0 |
| Regina Spektor 11:11 | 4.0 |
| Regina Spektor Soviet Kitsch | 4.5 |
| Rise Against The Sufferer and the Witness | 4.0 |
| Rival Schools United By Fate | 3.5 |
| RJD2 The Third Hand | 3.5 |
| Robert Glasper In My Element | 4.0 |
| Robert Miles and Trilok Gurtu Miles_Gurtu | 4.0 |
| Robyn Body Talk | 4.0 |
| Rodrigo y Gabriela Rodrigo y Gabriela | 3.5 |
| Russian Circles Enter | 4.0 |
| S. Carey All We Grow | 4.0 |
| Saxon Shore The Exquisite Death of Saxon Shore | 3.0 |
| Scuba Triangulation | 4.0 |
| Sean Lennon Friendly Fire | 2.5 |
| Sepalcure Sepalcure | 4.0 |
| September Malevolence After This Darkness, There's a Next | 3.0 |
| sgt. Stylus Fantasticus | 4.0 |
| Shabazz Palaces Black Up | 4.5 |
| Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings I Learned the Hard Way | 4.0 |
| Shearwater Rook | 4.0 |
| Shearwater The Golden Archipelago | 4.0 |
| Shugo Tokumaru Port Entropy | 4.0 |
| Sigur Ros Med Sud i Eyrum vid Spilum Endalaust | 4.0 |
| Sigur Ros ( ) | 4.5 |
| Silverchair Frogstomp | 3.5 |
| Silverchair Young Modern | 3.5 |
| Silverchair Diorama | 4.0 |
| Silversun Pickups Pikul | 3.5 |
| Simple Plan No Pads, No Helmets... Just Balls | 1.0 |
| Skalpel Konfusion | 3.5 |
| Sleigh Bells Treats | 4.0 |
| Slint Spiderland | 5.0 |
| Slow Six Tomorrow Becomes You | 4.0 |
| Snowman The Horse, the Rat and the Swan | 3.5 |
| Sol Invictus Sol Veritas Lux | 3.5 |
| Sol Invictus In the Rain | 5.0 |
| Sondre Lerche Two Way Monologue | 4.0 |
| Sondre Lerche Phantom Punch | 4.0 |
| Sons of Noel and Adrian Sons of Noel and Adrian | 2.5 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Across the Universe | 4.0 |
| Space (AUS) Exit Strategies | 3.5 |
| Sparklehorse Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain | 3.5 |
| Sparrows Swarm and Sing O' Shenandoah, Mighty Death Will Find Me | 2.5 |
| Sparta Threes | 3.0 |
| Spokes Everyone I Ever Met | 3.5 |
| Spokes People Like People Like You | 4.0 |
| St. Vincent Strange Mercy | 4.0 |
| YO CHEERLEADER THO??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? |
| Streetlight Manifesto Everything Goes Numb | 3.5 |
| Streetlight Manifesto Somewhere in the Between | 3.5 |
| Subtle ExitingARM | 3.0 |
| Sufjan Stevens Seven Swans | 4.0 |
| Sufjan Stevens All Delighted People | 4.0 |
| Sun Kil Moon Admiral Fell Promises | 3.5 |
| Sun Kil Moon Ghosts of the Great Highway | 5.0 |
| Supertramp Breakfast in America | 3.0 |
| Switchfoot Oh! Gravity. | 3.5 |
| It's funny that I call myself a music reviewer. I am so detatched from everyday pop culture that I have no clue what the #1 song is right now. I've probably never heard it. But there's certain bands that reach my ears and I like what I hear. Switchfoot is one of those bands. Oh! Gravity. came as a big surprise to me. I expected an album of mediocre to good pop rock songs with a few that really stood out. What I got was about half an album of those and then another half with Switchfoot trying all kinds of new sounds and feels. With songs ranging from an odd-metered blues to a beautiful string-aided rock song, Switchfoot put all their effort into this and they come out shining. |
| Talk Talk Laughing Stock | 5.0 |
| Tegan and Sara The Con | 3.5 |
| Telescreen The Solar Sea EP | 4.0 |
| Terence Blanchard A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina) | 4.0 |
| Finally, the artistic response to Hurricane Katrina has arrived, and how fitting that a New Orleans jazz musician composed it. The idea for the album came after Blanchard composed the soundtrack for Spike Lee's documentary on the hurricane, and some of the music appears on the album. Combining Blanchard's penchant for symphonic orchestra and his jazz background, this requiem covers all bases of the Katrina issue, ranging from the most personal "Dear Mom" to the furthest-reaching "Levees." The Ghost segments of the album serve as retrospectives to the heyday of New Orleans with energetic jazz numbers that anyone might have heard on Bourbon St. Blanchard's trumpet-playing is intensely emotional and musical, and his compositions back up the improvisational aspect of jazz. |
| The Acorn Glory Hope Mountain | 4.0 |
| The Afghan Whigs Gentlemen | 3.5 |
| The American Dollar A Memory Stream | 4.0 |
| The Bronx The Bronx (II) | 4.0 |
| A brilliant punk album, The Bronx tear apart the sound barriers with a hard-hitting, fast blend of hardcore music. The riffs are fantastic and catchy, with a great singer who actually sings, but maintains a raspiness and intensity throughout the entire album. Even on Dirty Leaves, the album's "ballad", there is a brewing intensity throughout. Although it gets slightly repetitive, each song is fun to listen to and you will want to scream at the top of your lungs to these songs. |
| The Cinematic Orchestra Every Day | 4.0 |
| The Cinematic Orchestra Ma Fleur | 4.0 |
| The Decemberists The King Is Dead | 2.5 |
| The Decemberists The Hazards of Love | 4.0 |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Option Paralysis | 4.5 |
| The Dodos No Color | 4.5 |
| The Field From Here We Go Sublime | 2.5 |
| The Flashbulb Soundtrack to a Vacant Life | 4.5 |
| The Heritage Orchestra The Heritage Orchestra | 4.5 |
| The Horrors Skying | 3.5 |
| The Hylozoists La Fin Du Monde | 2.0 |
| The Mars Volta Frances the Mute | 4.0 |
| The Mars Volta The Bedlam in Goliath | 4.0 |
| The National High Violet | 4.5 |
| Honestly, I don't even want to listen to Boxer anymore. |
| The National Bank The National Bank | 4.0 |
| The Nightwatchman One Man Revolution | 2.0 |
| The Ocean Precambrian | 3.5 |
| The Pax Cecilia Blessed Are The Bonds | 4.0 |
| The Roots How I Got Over | 4.0 |
How I Got Over is a cohesive, focused, and timely riff on current events. The group's job on Jimmy Fallon
has encouraged interesting collaborations and fostered a tighter group than ever before, making How I Got
Over the smoothest album of the summer. The progression of the album, a rise out of the darkness,
perfectly encapsulates the hope captured in the new decade of America. Let's hope The Roots have
predicted the future by "rising out of the flames like a phoenix," as Black Thought asserts on "Doin' It
Again." With more projects on the way, The Roots may just be reaching their prime, just in time to bring
society with them. |
| The Samuel Jackson Five Goodbye Melody Mountain | 4.0 |
| The Six Parts Seven Casually Smashed to Pieces | 2.5 |
| The Strokes Angles | 4.0 |
| The Tallest Man on Earth Shallow Grave | 4.0 |
| The Tallest Man on Earth Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird | 4.0 |
| The Tallest Man on Earth The Wild Hunt | 5.0 |
| The Weeknd House of Balloons | 4.0 |
| The Weeknd Thursday | 4.5 |
| The World on Higher Downs Land Patterns | 4.0 |
| Unlike most ambient artists, The World on Higher Downs is a collaborative effort of four members, Troy Schafer, Eric Bray, Nathaniel Ritter, and Vincent Wachowiak. Together, they form a luscious blend of shoegaze guitar, keyboards, electronic drums, soulful violin, and varying bass patterns. Each instrument can singlehandedly change the atmosphere of a song. They all have equal influence on the sound and the overall effect is something that one person could not achieve. At all times, multiple ideas swirl around each other, intertwining while still acting as their own entity. "Euclid" is very repetitive at its base, but different melodies from a violin that just barely sings out of its context to an overpowering bassline that ends in a double stopped chord keep the song interesting. The band makes use of repetitive song structures by simply changing the texture and melody constantly. An ever flowing, relentless style emanates from this compositional style. |
| The-Dream Love King | 4.0 |
| Thievery Corporation The Richest Man in Babylon | 3.5 |
| Thirty Seconds to Mars 30 Seconds To Mars | 2.5 |
| Thirty Seconds to Mars A Beautiful Lie | 2.5 |
| This Will Destroy You This Will Destroy You | 2.5 |
| This Will Destroy You Young Mountain | 3.5 |
| Young Mountain is proof that post-rock isn't quite dead yet. The band does not invent any sort of new sound or make any true advancements in the genre, they simply have the most refined and perfected post-rock sound of anyone around. Each member of the band plays with a confidence that very few bands can boast. They contrast beautiful quiet melodies and a huge wall of sound akin to Godspeed You! Black Emperor, but they are a much more cohesive unit. |
| Thrice Beggars | 4.0 |
| Thrice Vheissu | 4.5 |
| Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II | 4.5 |
| Tim Hecker Ravedeath, 1972 | 4.0 |
| Tool 10,000 Days | 3.5 |
| Tool Lateralus | 4.5 |
| Tor Lundvall Empty City | 4.5 |
| Tor Lundvall, primarily a painter, releases Empty City as the most accessible yet still deep and enticing electronica albums of the year. The songs are at a typical pop song length, never stretching over 4 and a half minutes. However, the album flows so well that it doesn't feel that way. The album envisions just as the title describes, an empty city. When thinking about walking through an empty city at night, Empty City sounds nearly perfect. It is quiet and brooding, yet still intricate enough to hold interest for countless listens. |
| Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra Boulevard de L'independance | 4.5 |
| Tower of Power Tower of Power | 4.0 |
| Trenchmouth Vs. The Light of the Sun | 3.5 |
| Trilok Gurtu and the Frikyiwa Family Farakala | 4.5 |
| Tristeza A Colores | 3.5 |
| Tunturia Maps | 3.5 |
Tunturia's Maps is too confusing to guide any listener through any path. Its nearly hour length and meandering focus only hints at coming full circle in the middle with the "Sputnik" sequence: "October 4, 1957" (the satellite Sputnik's launch date) and "Satellites." Otherwise, however, no concept flows throughout the album, despite the album's seamless sonic structure. Anyone with the slightest post rock experience knows how this sounds, beginning with unimposing guitar melodies that dramatically crescendo into huge, chugging chords. Luckily, they're one of those bands that do it well.
Production wise, the album is very interesting. The band loaded it with vocal samples, including one that satirizes the entire post rock genre in a conversation between an old man and a young man recording ambient sound at the end of "Panic Attack." By the end, however, this technique goes on overload, especially when most of the samples are not understandable. "Satellites" reaches a climax only to turn down the master volume five notches to generate "dynamic effect." It sounds more like a last second attempt to make things more interesting.
Either way, Tunturia's Maps is a great listen, especially the uptempo "Panic Attack."
|
| TV on the Radio Dear Science | 4.0 |
| Tyler, the Creator Goblin | 4.0 |
| Ulver Bergtatt - Et eeventyr i 5 capitler | 4.5 |
| Underoath Lost in the Sound of Separation | 3.5 |
| United Nations Never Mind the Bombings, Here's Your Six Figures | 4.0 |
| Usher Raymond v. Raymond | 2.5 |
| Venetian Snares Detrimentalist | 3.5 |
| Venetian Snares Meathole | 4.0 |
| Venetian Snares Winnipeg Is A Frozen Shithole | 4.0 |
| Vessels White Fields and Open Devices | 4.0 |
| Via Audio saysomethingsaysomethingsaysomething | 4.0 |
| Wayne Shorter Native Dancer | 4.0 |
| We All Inherit the Moon We All Inherit the Moon | 3.5 |
| Weather Report Heavy Weather | 3.5 |
| Wes Willenbring Somewhere Someone Else | 4.0 |
| Windmills By the Ocean Windmills By the Ocean | 3.5 |
| Wynton Marsalis From the Plantation to the Penitentiary | 3.5 |
| Yellowcard Paper Walls | 3.0 |
| Yellowcard Ocean Avenue | 3.5 |
| Yndi Halda Enjoy Eternal Bliss | 4.5 |
| Yusef Lateef Eastern Sounds | 4.5 |
