| Simple Plan No Pads, No Helmets... Just Balls | 1.0 |
| Minus the Bear Acoustics | 2.5 |
| Bloc Party Intimacy | 2.5 |
| Iron And Wine The Shepherd's Dog | 4.0 |
| If you were an Iron and Wine fan and knew nothing about this album, you would probably except a typical Sam Beam with an acoustic guitar and his hushed voice whispering cryptic, but beautiful stories to soft, folk-pop melodies. Within the first few seconds of the first song though, it's obvious The Shepard's Dog is different: multiple instruments, regular percussion, and little bit of electronic experimentation. The beauty of this album is that rather than having these added elements completely ruin the classic Iron & Wine sound we know and love, they complement it perfectly. Sam Beam manages to create a new sound while still sounding like himself. |
| Architecture In Helsinki Places Like This | 2.5 |
| Animal Collective Strawberry Jam | 3.0 |
| Neutral Milk Hotel In the Aeroplane Over the Sea | 4.0 |
| For me, true art is something that refuses to reveal it's true meaning on its first view/listen. Magnum's lyrics, though slightly bizarre, tell stories of love, death, existence, loneliness, and despair, but are written in a way that doesn't explicitly tell of its details. Though the vocals are certainly not the most talented (and are dislikd by many), I felt that Magnum's vocal style was genuine in its own sense, conveying the emotions of the songs without being too over the top. Definitely a strange album, but worth checking out. |
| Sammy Hagar Red Voodoo | 1.5 |
| AM Syndicate Liberation | 3.0 |
| Radiohead Amnesiac | 3.5 |
| Aesop Rock Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives | 3.5 |
| Aesop Rock Labor Days | 4.0 |
| Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II | 2.0 |
| Streetlight Manifesto Somewhere in the Between | 4.0 |
| When a band debut's with an album as good as Everything Went Numb, they are usually haunted by it's success, forever being compared to "their old stuff." A lot of people were worried after a pretty disappointed re-release of Catch 22's Keasbey Nights, but Streetlight bounced back hard with this new release. This album is pretty typical Streetlight Manifesto: catchy tunes, anthemic lyrics, and impressive musicianship. Rather than duplicating the sound of Everything Went Numb though, Somewhere In Between has it's own original sound. Though still focusing on themes of betrayal, frustrated rebellion, and tough times, the album generally has a much more hopeful outlook compared to some pretty bleak lyrics in Everything Went Numb. While I feel that none of the songs on this album can't compare to older songs like Point/Counterpoint, there isn't a bad track on this album. |
| Beirut The Flying Club Cup | 3.5 |
| Two Gallants The Throes | 3.5 |
| Soulja Boy Souljaboytellem.com | 1.0 |
| Aesop Rock Bazooka Tooth | 2.5 |
| The Smiths Meat Is Murder | 3.0 |
| The Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness | 3.5 |
| Nas STILLmatic | 4.0 |
| The Velvet Teen Out of the Fierce Parade | 3.0 |
| The Velvet Teen Cum Laude | 4.0 |
| Neutral Milk Hotel On Avery Island | 3.0 |
| Minus the Bear Planet of Ice | 4.0 |
| I was a little surprised to see the track-listing for Planet of Ice had no silly song titles like older gems such as "Hey! Is that a Ninja up There?" or "Monkey!!! Knife!!! Fight!!!" The song titles weren't the only thing that had changed about Minus the Bear. The album's sound is noticeably more solemn, mature, and (dare I say) cold compared to it's older, more playful stuff. Planet of Ice really is the perfect way to describe the new sound. The opening track [Burying Luck] starts the album off with a song about watching as some guy takes his luck, his money, and his girl and the hopelessness of the situation. Most of the album follows this sort of theme throughout: the shock of realizing your best years are gone (cross the border man), replaced by a cold, patterned existence. Though much different, and much more solemn, I feel it is a much more developed sound musically. Planet of Ice seems to trade it's signature upbeat tunes with its unique tapping style guitars for much more developed, somewhat progressive, sounds. The heavier emphasis on the synthesizer and keyboards opens up many new doors musically for the band, and the result is some of the best song-writing they've ever produced. I would have to say this is already my favorite Minus the Bear album. |
| The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground & Nico | 3.5 |
| Radiohead In Rainbows | 4.5 |
It's pretty hard for me to believe Radiohead can come out with anything that can top OK Computer, but they certainly don't disappoint with this new release. After returning a little to their rock roots with Hail to the Thief, In Rainbows bounces back to their darker-sounding, electronically fueled sounds with a result that is somewhere in between Kid A and Amnesiac with its own unique twist. Although its hard to describe a "typical" Radiohead sound, as usual In Rainbows is filled with dark lyrics behind a veil of catchy pop tunes.
The album starts strong with the opening track 15 Step sporting a pretty twisted electronic drum beat that slowly filters to clean guitar riff with a much more mellow sound, building to the song's climax with the original electronic beat. It remains pretty solid throughout with songs like Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, All I Need, and Jigsaw Falling Into Place standing out. I wasn't really impressed with the final song Videotape, but only because I feel there are much better songs on the album. Really though, there is no bad song. This album is definitely worth buying. |
| Radiohead Kid A | 4.5 |
| Radiohead The Bends | 3.5 |
| Radiohead Pablo Honey | 3.0 |
| The Decemberists Picaresque | 3.5 |
| Against Me! As the Eternal Cowboy | 3.5 |
| Zao The Funeral of God | 2.5 |
| Youth Brigade (CA) Out of Print | 1.5 |
| Weezer Weezer | 5.0 |
| Weezer The Green Album | 3.0 |
| Voodoo Glow Skulls Firme | 2.5 |
| The Vandals Internet Dating Superstuds | 2.5 |
| Van Halen Van Halen | 4.0 |
| Unearth The Oncoming Storm | 4.0 |
| These Arms Are Snakes Oxeneers or the Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home | 3.0 |
| Tenacious D Tenacious D | 3.0 |
| System of a Down Toxicity | 3.5 |
| The Suicide Machines Destruction By Definition | 3.5 |
| Sufjan Stevens Illinois | 3.5 |
| Sonic Youth Sonic Nurse | 4.0 |
| Sonic Youth Goo | 2.0 |
| The Slackers International War Criminal | 1.5 |
| Sevendust Animosity | 2.0 |
| The Shins Chutes Too Narrow | 4.0 |
| The Shins Wincing the Night Away | 3.5 |
| R.E.M. In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 | 4.0 |
| R.E.M. Automatic for the People | 3.5 |
| Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon | 4.5 |
| Pink Floyd Obscured by Clouds | 2.5 |
| Pantera Cowboys from Hell | 3.5 |
| Pantera Far Beyond Driven | 3.0 |
| Pantera Vulgar Display of Power | 4.0 |
| Operation Ivy Energy | 5.0 |
| The Offspring Conspiracy of One | 2.5 |
| The Offspring Americana | 3.5 |
| The Notwist Neon Golden | 5.0 |
| This has become one of my favorite Albums of all time. I can legitimately say there really isn't a bad song on the album. Great music, great vocals, and the album itself flows so well. What makes this album a 5 though is the way they convey emotion. Today's prototype of 'emo' tends to be a pop-punk type band with overly-dramatic lyrics about a breakup with very similar vocal styles. The whole sound has not only become cliche, but in my opinion is not even an accurate depiction of the emotion conveyed in those songs. The Notwist, on the other hand, perfectly portrays a wide range of emotions without being too cheesy, dramatic, or boring. The happy songs are soft, content, and nostalgic; the sad songs are melancholy, numb, and a little detached; and many of the songs cover multiple emotions. "One Step Inside..." for example starts out with a confident sense of independence, but slowly transitions to a vague sense of loneliness. The bottom line is that this album has a crisp, original sound backed with genuine emotion. Buy this album as soon as you can. |
| NOFX The Decline | 4.5 |
| NOFX White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean | 3.0 |
| Muse Showbiz | 2.5 |
| Muse Absolution | 4.5 |
| Minus the Bear Highly Refined Pirates | 4.0 |
| Minus the Bear They Make Beer Commercials Like This | 4.0 |
| The Mars Volta Amputechture | 2.5 |
| The Mars Volta Tremulant | 3.0 |
| The Mars Volta Frances the Mute | 4.0 |
| The Mars Volta De-Loused in the Comatorium | 4.5 |
| Louis XIV The Best Little Secrets Are Kept | 1.0 |
| I bought this album because Finding Out True Love is Blind was a pretty catchy song, and I figured this band would have a couple songs that would be at that level. Needless to say based on my rating, I was severely disappointed. The two or three beats played over and over again to the same themes get old very fast. The overtly sexual lyrics in every song have no depth, and the nasaly vocals are anything but appealing. The only positive thing about this album is that it has one beat that will make you dance a little the first few times you hear it. Don't waste your money. |
| Lamb of God Ashes of the Wake | 4.0 |
| Jimi Hendrix Experience Hendrix: The Best of Hendrix | 4.0 |
| Jet Get Born | 2.5 |
| Incubus (USA-CA) A Crow Left of the Murder... | 3.5 |
| Incubus (USA-CA) Make Yourself | 4.0 |
| A Global Threat Until We Die | 3.5 |
| Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand | 2.5 |
| Flogging Molly Drunken Lullabies | 3.5 |
| The Fall of Troy The Fall of Troy | 4.0 |
| The Fall of Troy Doppelganger | 4.5 |
| Face to Face Face to Face | 3.5 |
| Eric Clapton Pilgrim | 2.0 |
| Eagles Hell Freezes Over | 3.5 |
| Dropkick Murphys Do or Die | 3.0 |
| Drive Like Jehu Yank Crime | 4.0 |
| The Doors The Doors | 4.0 |
| Do Make Say Think Goodbye Enemy Airship the Landlord is Dead | 4.0 |
| The Decemberists The Crane Wife | 4.5 |
| Dead Kennedys Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables | 5.0 |
| Dead Kennedys Bedtime for Democracy | 2.5 |
| Dead Kennedys Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death | 4.0 |
| Dead Kennedys Frankenchrist | 3.5 |
| Dead Kennedys Plastic Surgery Disasters | 3.5 |
| Coldplay X&Y | 2.5 |
| Coldplay Parachutes | 3.0 |
| The Clash London Calling: Legacy Edition | 4.0 |
| The Clash Combat Rock | 4.0 |
| Circle Jerks Wild in the Streets | 2.5 |
| Catch 22 Keasbey Nights | 5.0 |
| Boston Third Stage | 2.5 |
| Boston Don't Look Back | 3.0 |
| Boston Boston | 3.5 |
| Bob Marley and The Wailers Legend | 5.0 |
| Bob Dylan The Essential Bob Dylan | 4.5 |
| The Blood Brothers Crimes | 4.0 |
| The Blood Brothers ...Burn, Piano Island, Burn | 4.5 |
| The Bled Pass the Flask | 4.0 |
| Black Sabbath Paranoid | 3.5 |
| Anti-Flag Die For the Government | 3.5 |
| Anti-Flag A New Kind of Army | 3.5 |
| Anti-Flag Mobilize | 3.0 |
| ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead Worlds Apart | 2.5 |
| ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead Source Tags and Codes | 4.5 |
| Against Me! Reinventing Axl Rose | 4.5 |
| The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour | 4.0 |
| The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | 5.0 |
| Bad Religion The Process of Belief | 2.5 |
| Avenged Sevenfold Waking the Fallen | 3.0 |
| At the Drive-In This Station Is Non-Operational | 3.5 |
| At the Drive-In Relationship of Command | 4.5 |
| Arcade Fire Neon Bible | 4.0 |
| It's hard to follow up a full-length debut like Funeral, but the Arcade Fire sure got close, and arguably succeeded with Neon Bible. I was pretty disappointed with the album at first; the undeniably catchy tunes that made up a large portion of Funeral were pretty absent in this album with the exception of a few songs. After a few listens though, I began to appreciate how good this album really is. What the album lacks in catchiness, it makes up with beautiful orchestration, poweful lyrics about genuine struggles, and more mature sound. Win's voice really mellows out in this album, and the musical talent of the band really begins to show itself. Whether or not this album is better than Funeral will basically depend on individual tastes in music, but it will be interesting to see if the Arcade Fire will be able to consistently put out albums this good. |
| Arcade Fire Funeral | 4.5 |
| Agent Orange Living in Darkness | 3.5 |
| Streetlight Manifesto Keasbey Nights | 3.0 |
| The Fall of Troy Manipulator | 2.0 |
| Tom Erak is an incredible guitarist. The bands sound revolves almost entirely around his erratic shredding, and Maniuplator shows some of his and the rest of the bands best musicianship. The album itself though is not fun to listen to at all. A big part of FOT's appeal is their progressive style, but most of the album lacks any focus as they refuse to stay on a single riff or progression for more than a few measures. In some places it's hard to tell when one song stops and another starts. Variation is nice, but this album severely lacks instantly catchy songs like "I Just Got This Symphony Goin," "What Sound Does a Mastadon Make," or "FCP," which are certainly not cliche or unoriginal. It's great to listen to good musicians play incredibly technical music every once and a while, but it gets old fast. |
| AC/DC If You Want Blood You've Got It | 4.0 |
| AC/DC Back In Black | 3.0 |
| A Perfect Circle eMOTIVe | 2.0 |
| Streetlight Manifesto Everything Goes Numb | 4.5 |
| Radiohead OK Computer | 5.0 |
