Average Rating: 3.39 Rating Variance: 0.60 Objectivity Score: 80% (Well Balanced)
Sort by: Rating | Release Date | Rating Date | Name2010 Sara Bareilles Kaleidoscope Heart4.0Minus the Bear Omni2.5Lórien The Missing Collection3.0Lorien The Missing Collection3.0Usher Raymond v. Raymond3.0Paper Tongues Paper Tongues1.5Ludacris Battle of the Sexes2.0Shearwater The Golden Archipelago4.0Shearwater closes out a musical trilogy with grace and import. The beauty of Shearwater's The Golden Archipelago can be likened to a majestic landscape under destruction of catastrophe. There is a palpable sadness that is engaging and yet distant, as if the view is of someplace far away. With cohesion and understatement Jonathan Meiburg creates the perfect follow-up to 2008's Rook. A more seamless outing than its predecessor, The Golden Archipelago is prone to stretches of increased subtlety, where the memorable moments are a bit faint. Lacking some of the punch and climax that gave Rook a more stately posture, Shearwater's third album in the assumed trilogy, doesn't have the same backdrop with which to play on its nuances. This leaves it feeling a little pale and muted on occasion. While The Golden Archipelago will reward listeners as they soak in its waves, it only ebbs in comparison to its predecessor. Had Rook not already accomplished that by which The Golden Archipelago abides, it would no doubt be a groundbreaking triumph. In the stunning anticipation felt through "Castaways", to the jubilation of "Black Eyes", and the sincere moments of dark beauty found in "Missing Islands", Shearwater provide a remarkable conclusion to this sonic odyssey. -Jonathan Kroening www.itsjustmusic.netSade Soldier Of Love3.0Lil Wayne Rebirth1.0Corinne Bailey Rae The Sea2.52009 Rihanna Rated R3.5Switchfoot Hello Hurricane3.0Fuck Buttons Tarot Sport4.0The Flaming Lips Embryonic2.5Paramore Brand New Eyes4.0The Avett Brothers I and Love and You3.5Girls Album2.0Muse The Resistance3.5Jay-Z The Blueprint 33.5The xx xx4.0Wild Beasts Two Dancers4.5Florence and the Machine Lungs4.5The Mars Volta Octahedron3.0Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca3.5Grizzly Bear Veckatimest4.5Electrik Red How To Be A Lady: Volume 13.0Phoenix (FRA) Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix3.5St. Vincent Actor4.0Fever Ray Fever Ray2.5Judging this solo debut as an individual work reveals its incidental nature. Having never heard any music from electronic duo The Knife, it's difficult to know where Fever Ray's Karin Dreijer is coming from. Most discussions and critiques of her long-awaited solo album, Fever Ray, center on the anticipation for what she would produce apart from The Knife. It seems most pundits find her eponymous debut to be quite similar to the endeavors of the duo. Be as it may, I find this to be one of the least compelling albums of 2009's top 20. A rather abstract electronic landscape smattered with Dreijer's loose vocal can be hypnotic and is, without a doubt, unique. Yet the idiosyncrasies of the ambient tunes lack memorable repetition. Sure, there are recurrent blips and buzzes within the IDM physique, but there is a want for more convincing melodic repetition. The lack thereof doesn't render Fever Ray an awful record, but it doesn't feel like I'm missing something by discarding it. A rather unconvincing listen, I am left wondering if critics, and those "in-the-know", too easily get caught up in the hype of a highly anticipated solo album. Analyzing Fever Ray's debut record leaves this critic thinking that based on its merit alone -- not in relation to The Knife's discography -- Fever Ray is largely nonessential. 2.5 / 5 stars -Jonathan Kroening www.itsjustmusic.netYeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz!3.5U2 No Line on the Horizon2.5Neko Case Middle Cyclone3.0Lórien Esque4.0Lorien Esque4.0Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion4.02008 Fall Out Boy Folie a Deux4.0Paramore The Final Riot!2.5TV on the Radio Dear Science4.5Coldplay Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends4.0Shearwater Rook4.0Usher Here I Stand2.0P.O.D. When Angels and Serpents Dance3.0The Mars Volta The Bedlam in Goliath4.02007 Radiohead In Rainbows4.5Paramore Riot!4.0Maroon 5 It Won't Be Soon Before Long4.0Timbaland Timbaland Presents Shock Value3.0Fall Out Boy Infinity on High3.52006 Switchfoot Oh! Gravity.2.5Incubus (USA-CA) Light Grenades3.0Damien Rice 92.5Mutemath Mutemath4.0John Mayer Continuum4.0Justin Timberlake FutureSex/LoveSounds4.0The Mars Volta Amputechture3.5Muse Black Holes & Revelations3.5P.O.D. Testify4.02005 P.O.D. The Warriors EP Vol. 23.0The Mars Volta Scab Dates2.0Switchfoot Nothing is Sound3.5Paramore All We Know Is Falling3.0Coldplay X&Y4.0Fall Out Boy From Under the Cork Tree3.5The Mars Volta Frances the Mute4.52004 Incubus (USA-CA) A Crow Left of the Murder...3.02003 P.O.D. Payable on Death3.0Muse Absolution4.0The Mars Volta De-Loused in the Comatorium4.5Radiohead Hail to the Thief3.5Switchfoot The Beautiful Letdown4.02002 Justin Timberlake Justified3.0Coldplay A Rush of Blood to the Head3.52001 Radiohead I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings3.0Incubus (USA-CA) Morning View4.0P.O.D. Satellite3.0Radiohead Amnesiac2.5Muse Origin of Symmetry3.52000 Radiohead Kid A5.0Switchfoot Learning To Breathe3.5Coldplay Parachutes4.01999 Incubus (USA-CA) Make Yourself4.5Muse Showbiz3.0Switchfoot New Way to Be Human2.5P.O.D. Fundamental Elements of Southtown4.01998 P.O.D. The Warriors EP3.01997 Incubus (USA-CA) S.C.I.E.N.C.E.3.5Radiohead OK Computer5.0Switchfoot Legend of Chin3.01996 P.O.D. Brown4.01995 Radiohead The Bends4.01994 P.O.D. Snuff the Punk2.01993 Radiohead Pablo Honey2.5
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