| Bjork Vulnicura | 4.5 |
| Kelis Food | 4.0 |
| Todd Terje It's Album Time | 4.0 |
| Dance Gavin Dance Happiness | 4.5 |
| Beyonce Beyonce | 4.5 |
| Matana Roberts COIN COIN Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile | 4.5 |
| M.I.A. Matangi | 4.0 |
| Drake Nothing Was the Same | 4.5 |
| Zahava Seewald and Michael Grebil From My Mother's House | 4.0 |
| AlunaGeorge Body Music | 3.0 |
| Kanye West Yeezus | 4.5 |
| Doldrums (CAN) Lesser Evil | 4.5 |
| Daft Punk Random Access Memories | 3.5 |
| Savages Silence Yourself | 3.0 |
| The Knife Shaking the Habitual | 4.5 |
| Arca Stretch 2 | 4.0 |
| Blue Hawaii Untogether | 4.0 |
| Farrah Abraham My Teenage Dream Ended | 4.0 |
| Fatima Al Qadiri Desert Strike | 3.5 |
| Doldrums (CAN) Egypt | 4.5 |
| Rihanna Unapologetic | 3.5 |
| Crystal Castles Crystal Castles III | 2.5 |
| Sufjan Stevens Silver & Gold | 4.0 |
| Charli XCX Heartbreaks and Earthquakes Mixtape | 3.5 |
| Charli XCX You're the One | 3.5 |
| HEALTH Health//Disco | 4.5 |
| HEALTH Get Color | 4.5 |
| HEALTH Max Payne 3 | 4.0 |
| Pictureplane Dark Rift | 3.0 |
| Teengirl Fantasy Tracer | 3.5 |
| Taylor Swift Red | 4.0 |
| Sky Ferreira Ghost | 3.5 |
| King Felix Spring | 4.5 |
| Blood Diamonds Phone Sex | 4.0 |
| Yamantaka // Sonic Titan YT//ST | 4.5 |
| How to Dress Well Total Loss | 4.5 |
| The xx Coexist | 4.0 |
| Pictureplane Thee Physical | 4.0 |
| Diplo Express Yourself | 4.0 |
| Le1f Dark York | 4.0 |
| Purity Ring Shrines | 3.5 |
| Azealia Banks Fantasea | 4.0 |
| Frank Ocean channel ORANGE | 4.5 |
| Dirty Projectors Swing Lo Magellan | 4.5 |
| Gatekeeper Exo | 4.5 |
| The Trap's Jaw An Awful Lot of Wires | 4.0 |
| Fiona Apple The Idler Wheel... | 4.5 |
| 4minute Volume Up | 4.0 |
| Justin Bieber Believe | 4.0 |
| iamamiwhoami Kin | 2.5 |
| Laurel Halo Hour Logic | 2.5 |
| Laurel Halo Quarantine | 4.5 |
| Peaking Lights 936 | 4.0 |
| Disasterpeace Fez OST | 4.0 |
| Santigold Master of My Make-Believe | 3.5 |
| Deerhoof Reveille | 4.5 |
| Deerhoof The Runners Four | 4.0 |
| Death Grips The Money Store | 4.5 |
| Sigur Ros Valtari | 3.5 |
| Chromatics Kill for Love | 4.0 |
| Miryo MIRYO a.k.a JOHONEY | 3.5 |
| Kyary Pamyu Pamyu Moshi Moshi Harajuku | 3.5 |
| Nicki Minaj Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded | 3.0 |
| OST Invisible Ink For Sketching Ghosts | 4.0 |
| Astor Piazzolla Libertango | 4.0 |
| Julia Holter Ekstasis | 4.5 |
| Mouse on Mars Parastrophics | 4.0 |
| Julia Holter Tragedy | 4.5 |
| Tanlines Mixed Emotions | 3.5 |
| Jason Urick I Love You | 3.5 |
| Ahnnu Couch | 3.5 |
| Beach House Bloom | 3.5 |
| Don't listen to Sam, just listen to Lazuli over and over again |
| Zammuto Zammuto | 4.5 |
| Rash Purpleimage | 3.5 |
| Bear in Heaven I Love You, It's Cool | 3.5 |
| Orcas Orcas | 3.5 |
| Blondes Blondes | 3.5 |
| Meysell Quintana Miracle Of The Sun | 4.0 |
| Karantamba Ndigal | 4.0 |
| Huoratron Cryptocracy | 4.0 |
| Madonna MDNA | 3.0 |
| Well, I mean.. it could be worse. "Gang Bang" is actually pretty good. |
| Lil B God's Father | 4.0 |
| Esperanza Spalding Chamber Music Society | 4.0 |
| Big K.R.I.T. 4Eva N A Day | 4.0 |
| Hospitality Hospitality | 4.0 |
| Sun Glitters Everything Could Be Fine | 3.5 |
| Virtual Boy Virtual Boy | 4.0 |
| James Ferraro Far Side Virtual | 4.0 |
| The 2 Bears Be Strong | 4.0 |
| Tyme. x Tujiko GYU | 4.0 |
| Madonna Like a Prayer | 4.5 |
| Madonna Ray of Light | 4.0 |
| Sleigh Bells Reign of Terror | 3.5 |
| More dreamy and less punchy, Reign of Terror is a nice evolution from Sleigh Bells' visceral debut. It's also a bit less fun. |
| Burial and Four Tet Moth/Wolf Cub | 4.5 |
| Burial Burial | 4.5 |
| Burial Kindred | 4.0 |
| Deadbeat Drawn and Quartered | 4.0 |
| Pepe Deluxe Queen of the Wave | 4.0 |
| The Shins Chutes Too Narrow | 4.0 |
| 2NE1 2NE1 | 3.0 |
| CSS Cansei de Ser Sexy | 3.5 |
| Air Talkie Walkie | 4.0 |
| Evian Christ Kings And Them | 3.5 |
| 2NE1 To Anyone | 3.5 |
| HyunA Bubble Pop! | 3.5 |
| of Montreal Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? | 4.0 |
| Born Gold Bodysongs | 4.0 |
| Perfume Genius Put Your Back N 2 It | 3.0 |
| Lana Del Rey Born to Die | 3.5 |
| Lana Del Rey's whiskey-soaked, tear-stained "debut" LP is shallow, excessive, poorly prioritized, slightly scattershot, and occasionally imbued with some inspired artistic gusto. That is, Born To Die is quintessentially American, and all the better for it. |
| Porcelain Raft Strange Weekend | 3.0 |
| Bjork Voltaic | 3.5 |
| HTRK Work (work, work) | 3.5 |
| of Montreal Paralytic Stalks | 4.5 |
| Like a less self-serious and more palatable Age of Adz. Awesome, in every sense of the word. |
| Elite Gymnastics Ruin | 3.5 |
| Adele 21 | 3.0 |
| Cloud Nothings Attack on Memory | 3.5 |
| Grimes Visions | 4.5 |
| Grimes Halfaxa | 3.5 |
| Grimes Geidi Primes | 3.0 |
| Dragonette Fixin to Thrill | 3.5 |
| SSION Bent | 4.0 |
| Sepalcure Sepalcure | 4.0 |
| Amy Winehouse Lioness: Hidden Treasures | 3.0 |
| Death In Vegas Trans-Love Energies | 3.5 |
| Kate Bush 50 Words for Snow | 4.5 |
| Mr. Oizo Stade 2 | 2.0 |
| She and Him A Very She & Him Christmas | 2.5 |
| ASAP Rocky Live.Love.A$AP. | 4.0 |
| Mac Miller Blue Slide Park | 2.5 |
| Rihanna Talk That Talk | 3.0 |
| Childish Gambino Camp | 3.5 |
| I'm a sucker for this sort of self-aware, clever-but-not-TOO-clever nonsense. Plus, the production is uniformly excellent. Yep. |
| Atlas Sound Parallax | 3.5 |
| Fall Out Boy From Under the Cork Tree | 4.0 |
| Los Campesinos! Hello Sadness | 4.5 |
| you bitches are crazy that's right CRAZY. throwin' down here. |
| Feist Metals | 3.5 |
| Justice Audio, Video, Disco | 1.5 |
| Los Campesinos! We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed | 4.0 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Returnal | 4.0 |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Replica | 4.5 |
| M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming | 3.0 |
| Nicola Roberts Cinderella's Eyes | 3.5 |
| Azari & III Azari & III | 4.0 |
| Mr Twin Sister In Heaven | 4.5 |
| Bjork Biophilia | 4.5 |
| No I'm not a fanboy at all why would you ever say that why |
| Gotye Making Mirrors | 3.5 |
| St. Vincent Strange Mercy | 4.0 |
| Active Child You Are All I See | 3.5 |
| Siriusmo Mosaik | 3.5 |
| The Weeknd Thursday | 4.0 |
| M.I.A. Piracy Funds Terrorism, Vol. 1 | 4.5 |
| Waka Flocka Flame Flockaveli | 4.0 |
| Balam Acab Wander/Wonder | 3.5 |
| The Rapture In the Grace of Your Love | 4.0 |
| The Field Looping State of Mind | 4.0 |
| SBTRKT SBTRKT | 3.5 |
| Jay-Z and Kanye West Watch the Throne | 3.5 |
| Lmfao Sorry For Party Rocking | 2.0 |
| Zomby Dedication | 3.0 |
| Beth Ditto EP | 4.5 |
| Mount Kimbie Crooks & Lovers | 4.0 |
| Shabazz Palaces Black Up | 4.5 |
| Lil B I'm Gay (I'm Happy) | 3.5 |
| Beirut The Rip Tide | 3.5 |
| Major Lazer Guns Dont Kill People... Lazers Do | 3.5 |
| Grum Heartbeats | 4.0 |
| The Swell Season Once: Music From The Motion Picture | 4.0 |
| Memory Tapes Player Piano | 4.0 |
| An unexpectedly beautiful, ambitious, and coherent work, Player Piano gets rid of some of the more unconvincing moments of cheese found on Seek Magic and replaces it with a comparatively simple elegance. A contender for album of the summer, it's a slightly darker-hued record, but it's also a more sonically multifaceted one. Absolutely recommended. |
| Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden Jasmine | 4.5 |
| GusGus Arabian Horse | 3.5 |
| Araabmuzik Electronic Dream | 3.5 |
| Mount Moriah Mount Moriah | 4.0 |
| Washed Out Within and Without | 2.5 |
| Patrick Wolf Lupercalia | 4.0 |
| Holy Other With U | 3.5 |
| Andy Stott Passed Me By | 4.0 |
| WU LYF Go Tell Fire to the Mountain | 4.0 |
| Olga Bell Diamonite | 4.0 |
| Fucked Up David Comes to Life | 4.0 |
| Beyonce 4 | 4.0 |
| Ford and Lopatin Channel Pressure | 4.0 |
| Teebs Ardour | 4.0 |
| Brian Wilson Smile | 4.5 |
| Cults Cults | 4.0 |
| Listening to Cults, I'm reminded of Sleigh Bells' superb Treats - not because they're sonic relatives (although they both call summer to mind like few other bands) but because both records are filled with songs we've heard before. More than half of the tracks on this indie-pop outfit's proper debut record have been floating around the Internet for a while now, yet they sound so much better here than they ever did on their own. In a way, Cults is exactly what one might expect from the band, given what they've released thus far - the songs are still simple and delectably catchy slices of '60s-style indie pop bliss along the lines of their debut single, "Go Outside" - but that risks discounting the album's occasional sharp edges and, well, pure awesomeness. |
| Valerio Tricoli / Thomas Ankersmit Forma II | 4.0 |
| Madonna Confessions on a Dancefloor | 3.5 |
| Death Cab for Cutie Codes and Keys | 3.0 |
| This is what I know about Death Cab For Cutie - they released a pretty good album in 2003, their lyrics have a tendency to induce vomit, and they occupy the "niche" of indie rock and pop that consists of cute flourishes like honky-tonk piano and playfully strumming guitar - which on paper reads like a parody of what indie pop means in this day and age. With all this in mind, Codes and Keys is a surprisingly enjoyable album - more of the same resolutely unremarkable stuff that you might hear in Urban Outfitters, sure, but at least this time, I don't need earplugs. Or, as Ben Gibbard might sing, "Boys like me write lyrics so rotten / that make you stuff your ears with cotton." Wow, that was so easy! |
| 2562 Fever | 4.0 |
| Bon Iver Bon Iver, Bon Iver | 4.0 |
| One of the most straight-up lovely listens I've had all year. Highly recommended. |
| Lady Gaga Born This Way | 3.0 |
| Born This Way is actually shockingly bad, so bad that I find it incredibly hard to believe that it isn't meant to be an elaborate prank. |
| iamamiwhoami To Whom It May Concern | 4.0 |
| SebastiAn Total | 4.0 |
| Fuck, yes. Total is every bit the loud and narcotic burst of absolute awesome I was hoping it'd be, filled with blown-out house track after blown-out house track. If you're after nuance, look elsewhere. Everybody else - join the party. |
| Friendly Fires Friendly Fires | 3.5 |
| Friendly Fires Pala | 3.5 |
| Clams Casino Instrumental Mixtape | 3.5 |
| Cut Copy Zonoscope | 4.0 |
| Tyler, the Creator Goblin | 2.5 |
| Katy B On A Mission | 4.0 |
| Omar Souleyman Jazeera Nights | 3.5 |
| EMA Past Life Martyred Saints | 4.0 |
| Cass McCombs Wit's End | 4.0 |
| Burial Untrue | 5.0 |
| Madonna The Immaculate Collection | 5.0 |
| The Psychic Paramount II | 4.0 |
| Nicolas Jaar Space Is Only Noise | 4.0 |
| Janelle Monae Metropolis: The Chase Suite | 4.0 |
| Grouper A I A | 4.0 |
| Ponytail Do Whatever You Want All The Time | 3.5 |
| Gang Gang Dance Eye Contact | 4.5 |
| Battles Gloss Drop | 4.0 |
| Sugarcult Lights Out | 3.0 |
| Sugarcult Start Static | 1.5 |
| Camille Le Fil | 3.5 |
| Dirty Beaches Badlands | 3.5 |
| Panda Bear Tomboy | 4.5 |
| Micachu and the Shapes Chopped and Screwed | 4.0 |
| Kesha Cannibal | 2.5 |
| The first half of Cannibal is absolutely brilliant, loaded with fantastic beats and hooks, but the EP falters in its second portion, descending into cheap jokes like "Grow a Pear" that would be more suited alongside the excrement of Katy Perry. "Blow", however, is one of the best pop singles in recent memory. |
| TV on the Radio Nine Types of Light | 2.5 |
| Is there a reason why Tunde and Co. sound completely euthanized throughout almost the entirety of Nine Types of Light? |
| Young Galaxy Shapeshifting | 4.0 |
| Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Up From Below | 2.5 |
| Peaches The Teaches of Peaches | 4.0 |
| Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues | 4.0 |
| Smith Westerns Dye It Blonde | 3.0 |
| The Pains of Being Pure at Heart Belong | 4.0 |
| Burial and Four Tet Ego/Mirror | 3.5 |
| La Sera La Sera | 3.5 |
| Kurt Vile Smoke Ring For My Halo | 4.0 |
| tUnE-yArDs w h o k i l l | 4.5 |
| Parades Foreign Tapes | 4.0 |
| The Weeknd House of Balloons | 4.0 |
| Colin Stetson New History Warfare Vol 2: Judges | 4.0 |
| FaltyDL You Stand Uncertain | 4.0 |
| DJ Sprinkles Midtown 120 Blues | 4.5 |
| Boris New Album | 2.5 |
| The Strokes Angles | 3.0 |
| Boris Pink | 3.5 |
| Britney Spears Femme Fatale | 2.0 |
| Britney Spears' new album is hell of a lot better than the steaming shitpile that was Circus, which may be the result of pop wizard Max Martin being back in charge of the whole shebang, but it never reaches the heights of 2007's Blackout, Spears' best effort to date. At times, Femme Fatale seems to be trying desperately to sound "edgy" or - and this is even worse - weird, as in the atrocious "How I Roll", which opens with some legitimately interesting cut-and-paste electronics that wouldn't sound out of place on Body Talk, but proceeds to go absolutely nowhere, laying on FruityLoops presets and vocal effects frantically to cover up for the lack of, y'know, actual songwriting. Towards the end of the record, Spears sings, "This love isn't rational / it's physical". "Disposable" might be a better word, as it fits better with Femme Fatale as a whole - twelve cuts, none of them particularly memorable, filled with immortal gems of wisdom like "you could be my fuck tonight". Charming. |
| The Dodos No Color | 4.0 |
| Deerhoof Apple O' | 4.0 |
| John Zorn The Circle Maker | 4.5 |
| Yoko Ono Between My Head and The Sky | 4.0 |
| Sleigh Bells Sleigh Bells | 3.5 |
| Julianna Barwick The Magic Place | 4.0 |
| Dum Dum Girls He Gets Me High | 3.5 |
| Lykke Li Wounded Rhymes | 3.5 |
| SebastiAn Ross Ross Ross | 3.5 |
| FaltyDL Endeavour | 4.0 |
| Actress Splazsh | 4.0 |
| Radiohead The King of Limbs | 3.0 |
| TV on the Radio Dear Science | 3.5 |
| Zs New Slaves | 4.5 |
| PJ Harvey Let England Shake | 4.5 |
| Teen Daze My Bedroom Floor | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Video Game) Katamari Damacy soundtrack | 4.0 |
| Toro Y Moi Underneath The Pine | 3.5 |
| Das Racist Shut Up, Dude | 4.0 |
| Toro Y Moi Causers of This | 4.0 |
| Dum Dum Girls I Will Be | 3.5 |
| Blue Hawaii Blooming Summer | 4.5 |
| M83 Saturdays=Youth | 3.5 |
| tUnE-yArDs BiRd-BrAiNs | 4.0 |
| Demdike Stare Tryptych | 4.5 |
| Girl Talk All Day | 2.0 |
| Deerhoof Offend Maggie | 3.5 |
| Games That We Can Play | 3.5 |
| High Places High Places | 4.0 |
| High Places High Places vs. Mankind | 2.0 |
| The Sugarcubes Life's Too Good | 3.5 |
| Joni Mitchell Blue | 4.5 |
| Deerhoof Friend Opportunity | 3.5 |
| Braids Native Speaker | 4.0 |
| Nosaj Thing Drift | 3.5 |
| Kesha Animal | 1.5 |
| Katy Perry Teenage Dream | 1.5 |
| Nicki Minaj Pink Friday | 2.5 |
| Rihanna Loud | 3.5 |
| Aphex Twin Richard D. James Album | 4.5 |
| Atlas Sound Bedroom Databank, Vols. 1-4 | 3.5 |
| Lone Emerald Fantasy Tracks | 4.0 |
| Deerhoof Deerhoof vs. Evil | 4.5 |
| Aphex Twin Digeridoo | 3.0 |
| Aphex Twin Donkey Rhubarb | 3.5 |
| David Bowie Hunky Dory | 5.0 |
| CocoRosie La Maison De Mon Reve | 3.5 |
| CocoRosie The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillbo | 3.5 |
| Tennis Cape Dory | 3.5 |
| Yuck Yuck | 3.5 |
| It's funny. Garage indie rock, once a symbol of rebellion and burning adolescence, now feels like a rthrowback to a more carefree time (read: pre-2000). With the recent rise of artists like Baths and oOoOO rmaking music that's almost painfully intimate, the sheer extroversion of bands like Teenage Fanclub or even rthe Strokes practically feels like a relic. So at this point, Yuck, a young four-piece (and sometimes five-rpiece) outfit with members from London, New Jersey, and Hiroshima, sound positively retro. Their debut is rfairly straightforward, often repetitive, and brutally effective, striking an uncanny balance between uplift and rfrustration. Yuck is inviting, immediately accessible, and flat-out rocks. |
| Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti Before Today | 2.5 |
| M.I.A. VICKI LEEKX | 4.0 |
| MNDR E.P.E. | 3.5 |
| Tamaryn The Waves | 3.0 |
| Destroyer Kaputt | 4.0 |
| Camille Saint-Saens Danse macabre, Op.40 | 3.5 |
| jj jj n° 3 | 2.0 |
| jj jj n° 2 | 3.5 |
| jj Kills | 3.5 |
| Gorillaz The Fall | 2.5 |
| James Blake James Blake | 4.0 |
| James Blake's music isn't made up of sound, but rather of silence. It's the London producer's deft handling of negative space that makes his debut album so compelling and beautiful. The harmonies are lush but never suffocatingly so, and the melodies have an uncanny way of burrowing their way into your head and refusing to leave. Sublime. |
| Secret Beach Secret Beach | 3.5 |
| Mr Twin Sister Color Your Life | 3.5 |
| Salem (US) King Night | 4.0 |
| Miles Davis Bitches Brew | 4.5 |
| Rufus Wainwright All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu | 2.5 |
| Ricardo Villalobos Alcachofa | 4.0 |
| Daft Punk Tron: Legacy | 3.0 |
| The Books Thought For Food | 4.5 |
| The Books Lost And Safe | 4.0 |
| Sufjan Stevens Songs For Christmas | 3.5 |
| oOoOO oOoOO | 4.0 |
| Girl Talk Night Ripper | 3.0 |
| Royksopp Junior | 4.0 |
| Royksopp Melody A.M. | 4.0 |
| Scissor Sisters Night Work | 4.0 |
| Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy | 5.0 |
| The Rapture Echoes | 4.0 |
| ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, KICK THAT FUCKER OUT THE DOOR! |
| Robyn Body Talk | 4.5 |
| Broken Social Scene Forgiveness Rock Record | 3.5 |
| Los Campesinos! Hold On Now, Youngster... | 4.5 |
| Daft Punk Musique Vol. 1 (1993-2005) | 3.0 |
| Daft Punk Alive 2007 | 4.5 |
| Daft Punk Homework | 3.5 |
| mum Finally We Are No One | 4.0 |
| The Field From Here We Go Sublime | 4.5 |
| The Microphones The Glow Pt. 2 | 5.0 |
| I find myself listening to this album with my head pressed up between the speakers, lost in its magnificent sonic world. You try to comprehend it, or you try to just figure it out, but that doesn't fucking MATTER. This is music to LIVE IN, to FEEL with your heart, with your soul, in your bones, inside and out, everywhere, all around your body. It is pretty much the most intensely human record I've ever heard, and that's where I'm left, with my head between the speakers. Crying, laughing, swept away by something beautiful and stunning and haunting and moving and pretty fucking amazing. |
| Aphex Twin Come to Daddy | 4.0 |
| TV Girl TV Girl EP | 3.5 |
| The Smiles Hermosa EP | 4.0 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers Stadium Arcadium | 2.0 |
| They're on a mission to put us all to sleep, right? |
| Max Roach, Charles Mingus, and Duke Ellington Money Jungle | 4.0 |
| Tame Impala Innerspeaker | 3.5 |
| Grizzly Bear Yellow House | 4.0 |
| Brian Eno Small Craft on a Milk Sea | 3.5 |
| Metro Area Metro Area | 4.5 |
| Steve Reich Early Works | 4.5 |
| Steve Reich Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint | 5.0 |
| Dinosaur Feathers Fantasy Memorial | 3.0 |
| Baths Cerulean | 3.5 |
| The Depreciation Guild Spirit Youth | 3.5 |
| Small Black New Chain | 2.5 |
| TOKiMONSTA Midnight Menu | 3.5 |
| Das Racist Sit Down, Man | 4.0 |
| Big Boi Sir Lucious Left Foot | 4.5 |
| Avey Tare Down There | 3.0 |
| Gonjasufi A Sufi and a Killer | 4.0 |
| Mr. Bungle California | 4.5 |
| Dntel Life is Full of Possibilities | 3.5 |
| Passion Pit Manners | 3.0 |
| No Age Everything In Between | 3.5 |
| Memory Tapes Seek Magic | 2.5 |
| Elliott Smith Either/Or | 4.5 |
| Aphex Twin Windowlicker | 4.5 |
| Women Public Strain | 4.5 |
| Zola Jesus Valusia | 4.0 |
| Zola Jesus Stridulum II | 3.5 |
| She and Him Volume Two | 2.5 |
| CocoRosie Grey Oceans | 3.5 |
| Gold Panda Lucky Shiner | 3.0 |
| Gas Pop | 4.5 |
| Lightning Bolt Wonderful Rainbow | 4.5 |
| OOIOO Armonico Hewa | 4.5 |
| La! Ooh! La! La! Ooh! La! Ooh! La! La! Ooh! La! La! Ooh! La! Ooh! La! La! Ooh! La! La! Ooh! La! Ooh! La! |
| Belle and Sebastian The Life Pursuit | 4.0 |
| Pantha Du Prince This Bliss | 4.5 |
| Battles Mirrored | 4.5 |
| William Basinski The Disintegration Loops I | 4.5 |
| Sufjan Stevens The BQE | 3.0 |
| Sufjan Stevens The Age of Adz | 4.5 |
| How to Dress Well Love Remains | 4.0 |
| Deerhunter Microcastle | 4.0 |
| Flying Lotus Pattern+Grid World | 3.5 |
| Dirty Projectors/Bjork Mount Wittenberg Orca | 4.0 |
| Belle and Sebastian Write About Love | 2.5 |
| In which Belle and Sebastian write about mediocrity and bring Norah Jones onboard to add a sheen of cheap furniture polish. |
| Anohni and the Johnsons Swanlights | 3.5 |
| Margot and the Nuclear So and So's Buzzard | 3.0 |
| The Tallest Man on Earth Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird | 4.0 |
| The Tallest Man on Earth The Wild Hunt | 4.0 |
| Marnie Stern Marnie Stern | 4.0 |
| Deerhunter Halcyon Digest | 4.0 |
| Fucking fantastic. Not much more to say than that.rOh, fine. Brandon Cox sounds better than he ever has, the arrangements are pristine, the production is appealingly hazy, and the songs are arguably more exciting than those on Microcastle. |
| Animal Collective Sung Tongs | 5.0 |
| Regina Spektor Far | 3.0 |
| Laurie Anderson Homeland | 4.0 |
| Simple Plan No Pads, No Helmets... Just Balls | 1.0 |
| Bear in Heaven Beast Rest Forth Mouth | 3.5 |
| Anamanaguchi Dawn Metropolis | 4.0 |
| Bang On A Can All-Stars Renegade Heaven | 4.0 |
| Cults Cults 7" | 3.5 |
| Jason Mraz We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things | 2.0 |
| The Strokes Is This It | 4.0 |
| fun. Aim and Ignite | 2.0 |
| Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians | 4.5 |
| St. Vincent Marry Me | 3.5 |
| Radiohead OK Computer | 4.0 |
| Marnie Stern This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It... | 3.5 |
| Justice † | 4.0 |
| Holy Fuck Latin | 3.0 |
| Four Tet Rounds | 4.5 |
| The Dodos Visiter | 3.5 |
| Belle and Sebastian If You're Feeling Sinister | 5.0 |
| Sufjan Stevens All Delighted People | 5.0 |
| Animal Collective ODDSAC | 3.5 |
| Atlas Sound Logos | 4.0 |
| Zola Jesus Stridulum | 3.0 |
| Phantogram Eyelid Movies | 4.5 |
| Robyn Body Talk Pt. 2 | 3.5 |
| Julian Lynch Mare | 4.0 |
| Arcade Fire The Suburbs | 3.5 |
| The Books The Way Out | 4.0 |
| Yellow Swans Going Places | 4.5 |
| The Knife Tomorrow, In a Year | 4.0 |
| Wavves King of the Beach | 2.5 |
| Best Coast Crazy For You | 3.0 |
| Boredoms Vision Creation Newsun | 4.5 |
| M.I.A. Maya | 4.5 |
| Elliott Smith Figure 8 | 4.0 |
| The National High Violet | 4.0 |
| Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes | 4.0 |
| Panda Bear Person Pitch | 4.5 |
| Stars Set Yourself On Fire | 3.5 |
| Arcade Fire Neon Bible | 3.5 |
| Telepathe Dance Mother | 3.5 |
| Emeralds Does It Look Like I'm Here? | 4.5 |
| Robyn Body Talk Pt. 1 | 4.0 |
| Janelle Monae The ArchAndroid | 4.0 |
| Keane Night Train | 2.0 |
| Robyn Robyn | 5.0 |
| Sleigh Bells Treats | 4.5 |
| Flying Lotus Cosmogramma | 4.5 |
| Girls Album | 3.0 |
| Fang Island Fang Island | 3.0 |
| The Avalanches Since I Left You | 5.0 |
| Rufus Wainwright Poses | 3.5 |
| Sigur Ros Takk... | 4.0 |
| Caribou Swim | 4.0 |
| Keepaway Baby Style | 3.0 |
| Jonsi Go | 3.5 |
| Boards of Canada Music Has the Right to Children | 4.5 |
| Joanna Newsom The Milk-Eyed Mender | 4.5 |
| Crystal Castles Crystal Castles II | 3.5 |
| Crystal Castles Crystal Castles | 3.5 |
| Thom Yorke The Eraser | 3.5 |
| Beach House Teen Dream | 4.0 |
| Owen Pallett Heartland | 4.0 |
| MGMT Oracular Spectacular | 2.0 |
| La Roux La Roux | 2.5 |
| Phoenix (FRA) Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix | 3.5 |
| Phoenix is nothing if not a great singles band ? songs like ?1901? and ?Lisztomania? have an undeniable appeal of their own ? but Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix fails to coalesce into a true album. There?s little sense of flow here; often I found myself feeling as if I was listening to a greatest hits compilation. There?s one crucial difference, however: on a greatest hits compilation every song would be as fabulous as ?Lisztomania?. And that?s not the case. |
| LCD Soundsystem 45:33 | 3.5 |
| The Pains of Being Pure at Heart The Pains of Being Pure at Heart | 3.0 |
| Brian Eno Ambient 1: Music For Airports | 4.0 |
| LCD Soundsystem This Is Happening | 4.5 |
| If your favorite LCD tracks are along the lines of "North American Scum" and "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House", there won't be much to love here. But if you fell in love with Sound Of Silver thanks to the rollicking slow build of "All My Friends" or the quiet heartbreak of "Someone Great", there's plenty of great stuff to be had here. There is not a single weak track here (even the slightly disappointing "Drunk Girls" works on record), and several of them are transcendental - the way the synths burst in at the three-minute mark in "Dance Yrself Clean" is incredible and the driving riff of "All I Want" gives the piano figure of "All My Friends" a run for its money. |
| Bjork Family Tree | 3.0 |
| Bjork Live Box | 3.0 |
| Yeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz! | 3.0 |
| The Beatles The Beatles | 5.0 |
| The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | 4.0 |
| Feist The Reminder | 3.5 |
| Explosions in the Sky The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place | 3.0 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven | 4.0 |
| MGMT Congratulations | 2.0 |
| Pantha Du Prince Black Noise | 3.0 |
| Gorgeous textures and enjoyable tracks, but ultimately something's missing. |
| Four Tet There is Love in You | 4.5 |
| Bjork Telegram | 3.5 |
| Sigur Ros ( ) | 4.0 |
| Joanna Newsom Have One on Me | 4.0 |
| M.I.A. Arular | 4.0 |
| Biting and incisive, Arular packs a wild punch. With a swagger that is rivaled by very few, Maya infuses her words with sarcasm and derision, and when she references the PLO in "Sunshowers" you can tell she's criticizing us for being the narrow xenophobes we are, naturally. She?s got the beats to make us bang, and bang we do. |
| St. Vincent Actor | 4.0 |
| Broken Social Scene You Forgot It in People | 4.5 |
| Animal Collective Feels | 4.5 |
| Animal Collective Strawberry Jam | 4.5 |
| The Postal Service Give Up | 4.5 |
| Fuck Buttons Tarot Sport | 4.0 |
| Grizzly Bear Veckatimest | 4.0 |
| Anohni and the Johnsons I Am A Bird Now | 4.0 |
| Anohni and the Johnsons The Crying Light | 4.0 |
| The Knife Silent Shout | 5.0 |
| Annie Anniemal | 4.0 |
| Britney Spears Blackout | 4.0 |
| Britney Spears Circus | 1.5 |
| Lady Gaga The Fame | 3.5 |
| Lady Gaga The Fame Monster | 3.5 |
| Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca | 4.5 |
| Bat For Lashes Two Suns | 4.0 |
| Fever Ray Fever Ray | 4.0 |
| Celine Dion A New Day Has Come | 1.5 |
| Coldplay Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends | 2.5 |
| Color me surprised that these perpetually inoffensive Brits had it in them to deliver a legitimately good album. It?s not the "edgy" political statement that it was made out to be, but the melodies are solid and the production, courtesy of Brian Eno, is consistently beautiful. Sure, the lyrics are still awful, but kudos to all hands involved for making ?I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing, roman cavalry choirs a-singing? something close to a catchy hook. |
| Sufjan Stevens Illinois | 4.5 |
| Radiohead The Bends | 4.0 |
| Radiohead Kid A | 5.0 |
| *boom chh boom chhh* *drones* who's in a bunker who's in a bunkerr women and children fiiiiiirst and the children fiiiirst and the children |
| Radiohead Amnesiac | 4.0 |
| Radiohead In Rainbows | 4.5 |
| mum Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK | 4.0 |
| Daft Punk Discovery | 4.5 |
| After the new millennium hit and good old George W. Bush was sitting on his fat ass in the White House, optimism seemed to be the hardest thing to come by, especially in the self-pitying music industry. That's where the robots of Daft Punk come in, with their superlative brand of cheesy, guilty-pleasure pop genius. Discovery might be moody in some parts, but the dominant emotion here is joy, and there's plenty of it to go around. |
| Charlotte Gainsbourg IRM | 3.0 |
| Charlotte Gainsbourg's latest is kaleidoscopic and often beautiful, but it suffers from hosting too much filler. There is a truly great album in here, but terrible songs such as "Greenwich Mean Time" muddle it. |
| Micachu and the Shapes Jewellery | 4.0 |
| Defiantly quirky without having to try too hard, Micachu is a bona fide musical maverick, and if her debut album is a bit inconsistent, it?s the trade-off for a sound that?s refreshingly unclassifiable. And hey, anyone who can take a vacuum cleaner and make it something akin to a pop hook deserves kudos. |
| The xx xx | 4.5 |
| Vampire Weekend Contra | 2.5 |
| Could somebody remind me again what the fuss about Vampire Weekend was about? Not the praise, mind you, that was warranted (if overzealous). But I fail to understand why people felt so offended by these guys' insistent braininess. Yeah, "California English" is pretty fucking obnoxious, and the autotune is terribly employed, and Contra may burst at the seams with largely incoherent globetrotting references, but the musical sensibility at the heart of this hugely fun album trumps any overly fussy ideas at play. |
| Arcade Fire Funeral | 4.5 |
| Joanna Newsom Ys | 4.5 |
| The Black Eyed Peas The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies) | 1.5 |
| Rihanna Rated R | 2.5 |
| Rihanna is to be commended for her bravery in the face of public humiliation, but that doesn't make songs like "Stupid In Love" or "Te Amo" any less pedestrian and soggy. And can somebody please euthanize Will Dot I Dot Am already? |
| Duffy Rockferry | 2.5 |
| Animal Collective Fall Be Kind | 4.5 |
| Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion | 4.0 |
| Sigur Ros Agætis byrjun | 5.0 |
| Bjork Debut | 4.0 |
| Bjork Post | 4.5 |
| Bjork Homogenic | 5.0 |
| Bjork Selmasongs | 3.0 |
| Bjork Vespertine | 5.0 |
In the end, it's not really a surprise that minimal laptop techno never really reached the masses; although
frequently beautiful, it could sometimes sound cerebral and subsequently detached. Leave it to Bjork, then,
to inject some much-needed warmth into those microbeats and found sounds. Although Bjork herself calls
Vespertine a "winter" album, the heartbreaking "Pagan Poetry" and stunning "Unison" burst with life.
The wails and screams of her earlier material are not to be found here, but even when she's whispering,
Bjork conveys more emotion than virtually every other chanteuse out there. When her voice cracks as she
repeats "I love him" over and over again, you can feel something.. and even if you don't know what it
exactly is, by god it's there. |
| Bjork Greatest Hits | 3.5 |
| Bjork Medulla | 4.5 |
| Bjork Drawing Restraint 9 | 3.5 |
| Bjork Volta | 3.5 |
| M.I.A. Kala | 4.5 |
| Less immediate but much more ambitious than Arular, Kala is a stunningly kaleidoscopic work that eschews funk for woozy, dubby tracks that are refreshingly unclassifiable. When M.I.A. spits out, "I put people on the map/that never seen a map," she could just as easily be talking about her listeners, because after listening to this record, you feel enlightened and exhilarated. |
| LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver | 4.5 |
| Biting and humorous social critiques, seemingly effortless production, killer tunes, and addicting beats; what more could you ask for? The first five tracks are the best, ending with the quietly devastating "Someone Great" and dangerously catchy "All My Friends". |
