joplinpicasso
User

Reviews 3
Approval 100%

Soundoffs 38
News Articles 6
Band Edits + Tags 0
Album Edits 11

Album Ratings 283
Objectivity 64%

Last Active 11-29-11 5:11 am
Joined 09-05-09

Review Comments 427

Average Rating: 3.77
Rating Variance: 0.39
Objectivity Score: 64%
(Fairly Balanced)

Chart.

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5.0 classic
Danny Elfman The Nightmare Before Christmas
Deerhunter Microcastle
Julius C Julius C Says
Koji Kondo The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time OST
Koji Kondo The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask OST
Nick Drake Pink Moon
Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral
Nine Inch Nails The Fragile
Radiohead OK Computer
Talk Talk Laughing Stock
Unwound Leaves Turn Inside You

4.5 superb
Aimee Mann Magnolia [OST]
Air Talkie Walkie
Alan Menken Beauty And The Beast OST
Very few times before or after this film had a Disney soundtrack (one scored by the formidable Menken, no less) conveyed so much economic, smart narrative within its songs and music.
Alice in Chains Jar Of Flies
Atlas Sound Parallax
Bradford Cox has never been one for compromises, in performance or on record. Every single release under the Atlas Sound moniker or in collaboration with his fellow Deerhunter bandmates has been a thorough representation of his tenacious artistic vision at the current time. Parallax, though in part an homage to the Neil Young and Patti Smith singer-songwriters of yore, is no exception to this trend, replete with Cox’s trademark creative guitar inventions, alien soundscapes, and queer punk attitude. Dealing with neglect, personal perception, and, yes, romance, the album shelters some of the catchiest (“Mona Lisa”), starkest (“Flagstaff”), and most intricate (“Amplifiers”) songs in Cox’s body of work thus far. It is this exact contrast of the candidly sweet with the unabashedly weird and unexpected – the analog noise with the controlled studio tinkering – that makes Parallax and Cox’s work in total the unique gift to modern music that it is.
Autolux Transit Transit
A mature step-up, keeping the most flavorful moments of their first album and adding minimalist textures.

Take a closer listen driving or taking the train at night to this one with headphones on, my friends, and you might have a change of heart. This shouldn't go unnoticed towards the end of the year.
Boards of Canada Geogaddi
Boards of Canada In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country
Cave In Jupiter
Converge You Fail Me
Converge Jane Doe
Deerhunter Cryptograms
Deerhunter Fluorescent Grey
Deerhunter Halcyon Digest
A heartfelt experience of fractured nostalgia and longing emotion, from start to finish. The Atlas Sound influence is apparent here, but this says Deerhunter written all over it. Yes - better than Microcastle.
Drive Like Jehu Yank Crime
Fiona Apple The Idler Wheel...
Each song and every lyric and vocal take from Apple cut exactly like the claustrophobic-yet-joyous big-band jazz closer's title; that is, to say, like a hot knife. Her best album yet.
Incubus (USA-CA) Morning View
John Coltrane A Love Supreme
John Williams Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
John Williams Star Wars, Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
John Williams Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Jonny Greenwood There Will Be Blood OST
June of 44 Anahata
June of 44 The Anatomy of Sharks
Maybe EP's always have a leg up on albums because less is often more to many (including me), but The Anatomy of Sharks may very well be June Of 44's most concise musical statement, and an aggressive, impressive one at that. JO44 take nautical lyrical metaphors they've danced around with before and head-on hit you over the head with them here; the three-song set opener, "Sharks & Sailors", is a jagged ride over dark waters, full with fast, math-y drumming, guitars that go from chugging riffs to high-sea melodies, and a climax that is the musical equivalent of a ship headed straight to a collision. "Boom" mixes tribal drumming and electronic loops with an impressive horn solo, the sound of being lost an a savage island. "Seemingly Endless Steamer" is a fast, dreamy, post-hardcore track, with very punk-like vocals. Though they put the funk and jazz experimentation on the back-burner here, it can be heard bleeding through some very cool rock and punk here.
Koji Kondo Star Fox 64 OST
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125
Miles Davis Kind of Blue
My Bloody Valentine Loveless
My Bloody Valentine Tremolo
Nine Inch Nails With Teeth
Nine Inch Nails Broken
Nine Inch Nails Still
Nine Inch Nails Hesitation Marks
Really a 4.2, and you shouldn't trust my NIN ratings anyway. That's because Trent Reznor is an artist who
consistently puts out music relevant to his true headspace at any given time, so I revere him and his work
religiously for that. With that said, I'm glad his headspace produced his most emotionally gripping music in
nearly a decade. Not too uplifting, not too melancholy. Funky, sexy, sonically aggressive, vocally and lyrically
dynamic, extremely thoughtful.
Opeth Heritage
Evil, contemplative progressive metal/rock, plain and simple. The clean singing fits, and the keyboards add atmosphere. I'm not that big of an Opeth fan yet, but I do love abrasive growls and screams, and I think this is some of the best stuff I've heard from them.
Pink Floyd The Dark Side Of The Moon
Polvo In Prism
Polvo This Eclipse
Totally (un)biased: one of the most inventive rock EPs I've ever heard. Polvo twist and contort their guitars, both lush and intimidating, with knife-like precision. "Bat Radar", "Bombs That Fall From Your Eyes," and "Title Track" are all essential songs from the Chapel Hill band, even though the EP functions manically as one complete composition.
Radiohead Kid A
Radiohead The King of Limbs
Real Estate Reality
Real Estate Days
An amazing, amazing sophomore album from the psychedelic, laid-back New Jersey rockers. The songwriting is tighter, the mood is more autumnal and mature, and the emotions behind Martin Courtney's delivery and lyrics are more subtly bittersweet than ever.Stream here: http://www.npr.org/2011/10/09/141076070/first-listen-real-estate-days?sc=tw&cc=twmp
Slint Spiderland
Sonic Youth Washing Machine
St. Vincent Strange Mercy
More personal, yet her most layered, buried, and fuzzed-out effort yet. The harmony on most songs is so much more gratifying than the already satisfying music she's created so far, and her lyric phrasing is a bit more unique this time around.
Talk Talk Spirit of Eden
The Beatles 1
The Who Live at Leeds
The Who Quadrophenia
The Who Who's Next
Thrice Major/Minor
Tool Lateralus
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross The Social Network OST
Who's that bozo with the 1? Completely ridiculous.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo OST
Mammoth and glacial, like the The Social Network soundtrack and NIN's Ghosts on crack.
Unwound New Plastic Ideas
Unwound Challenge For a Civilized Society
Unwound push their social commentary through an atmospheric siphon, throwing horns, groove-based drumming, bratty punk vocals, serpentine bass lines, and guitars hanging on the fringe of noise into a blender and crafting a near-perfect, concise post-hardcore album; things don't seem all that 'civilized' once you plunge in one way and come out the other. (I might have to write a proper review)

4.0 excellent
Alice in Chains Dirt
At the Drive-In Relationship of Command
Atlas Sound Logos
Autolux Future Perfect
Avenged Sevenfold City Of Evil
Bat For Lashes Two Suns
Boards of Canada The Campfire Headphase
Boards of Canada Trans Canada Highway
Cave In Tides of Tomorrow
Cave In White Silence
Converge No Heroes
Converge Axe to Fall
Takes the instrumentation on No Heroes and mixes it with the experimentation of You Fail Me. Epic.
Converge All We Love We Leave Behind
A faster You Fail Me? An Axe To Fall with more sneering punk tendencies? This album is
both of those things and so much more. Perhaps it will still take some more time to connect as emotionally
with the material here as with the quintessential Converge album Jane Doe (simply because there is
just an incredible amount of music to parse through here!), but All We Love We Leave Behind stands
as one of the band's best, most deranged, and ferocious records.

tl;dr: fucking ferocious and jam-packed more than ever.
Danny Elfman Edward Scissorhands
David Poe Love Is Red
Dead Letter Circus Dead Letter Circus
Deerhunter Weird Era Cont.
Deerhunter Rainwater Cassette Exchange
Deerhunter Monomania
Harsh digest. Macrocastle. I'm totally serious.
Django Reinhardt The Best of Django Reinhardt
Drive Like Jehu Drive Like Jehu
Fiona Apple Extraordinary Machine
Fiona Apple When The Pawn...
Gary Numan Telekon
Incubus (USA-CA) Make Yourself
Incubus (USA-CA) A Crow Left of the Murder...
Incubus's record with most character, in my opinion. When I think of Incubus, I may have Drive or Wish You Were Hear stuck in my ear sometimes, but Crow Left Of The Murder is truly them experimenting with confidence.
Incubus (USA-CA) Light Grenades
Fuck it. I went from a 3.5 to a 4 and don't feel guilty. It just has replay value up the wazoo more than Make Yourself or anything earlier, for me, and it always sounds fresh and light on its feet (no pun intended).
Jimi Hendrix Blues
John Mayer Continuum
John Mayer Trio Try!
John Williams Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
John Williams Jurassic Park
John Williams Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Jonathan Coulton Artificial Heart
Joni Mitchell Blue
June of 44 Four Great Points
I've always been partial to June Of 44's more dreamy, softer side - songs like "I Get My Kicks For You" and "Arms Over Arteries" immediately come to mind from past albums. However, once Four Great Points opens with "Of Information And Belief", their most contemplative guitar lines yet come oozing out. True, FGP is probably their 'softest' album - yet it is the better for this. The clash of ambient, experimental pieces like "Air #17", "Lifted Bells", and "Doomsday" work well with the artful rockers "Cut Your Face" and "Does Your Heart Beat Slower". The real standout, the track that the whole album seems to be building up towards, is the drum-less "Shadow Pugilist" (one of JO44's best songs). Overall, the drumming and chord changes get jazzier, the vocals become more pronounced, and the emphasis on soundscape is heavy. Lyrically, Sean Meadows and Jeff Mueller move their focus from sea to land, weaving stories of interstates, the belly of Texas, billboards, and 'black holes in the Midwest' together to much enjoyment.
June of 44 In the Fishtank 6
The spaced-out, trippy twin of Anahata; on their In The Fishtank session, recorded only months after in Europe, June Of 44 craft some of their most enjoyable music, mixing their funk leanings, electronic loops, and guitar soundscapes together to create a colorful melting pot of ideas and moods. "Pregenerate" has ebbs and tides of drum rolls and feedback; "Generate" plays like a smoother "Escape Of The Levitational Trapeze Artist" off Anahata, with optimistic lyrics (the only lyrical song here, so, similarly, it plays out like the EP's thesis); "Henry's Revenge" is a soulful, bouncy guitar showcase; "Modern Hereditary Dance Steps" is a Neu!-like, stomping rocker, with wah-wah bass, poly-rhythmic drums, and shoegazing guitar chords; "Every Free Day a Good Day" is a drum-and-bass showcase while the guitar squeal with harmonics and high-end major chords; "Degenerate" floats back into the ocean the way "Pregenerate" rolled in. This, like Anahata, oftentimes gets derided, but, taken as the jam session recording it is to truly know where the minds of the band were at the time, it's thoroughly enjoyable as Anahata's after-dinner funk-noise mint...
Justice †
Les Savy Fav Root For Ruin
Linkin Park Reanimation
Lotus Plaza Spooky Action At A Distance
Marriages Kitsune
As far as EPs go, this is an excellent space-rock release.
My Bloody Valentine You Made Me Realise
My Bloody Valentine m b v
Nick Drake Five Leaves Left
Nine Inch Nails And All That Could Have Been
Nine Inch Nails Beside You in Time
Nine Inch Nails Ghosts I-IV
No Age Nouns
No Joy Wait to Pleasure
No Joy evolves exquisitely beyond their debut LP and incorporates a more direct sound, almost besting My Bloody Valentine at their own "New You" game while still sounding dirtier.
Polvo Exploded Drawing
An unsung, flawed musical opus of the 90s. Polvo cram so many ideas into this double album, with strategic usage of dissonance, Eastern tones, blues guitar licks, and subtly zany lyrical passages in equal parts. How have you not heard this?
Polvo Siberia
'Siberia' is a direct descendant of Polvo's gorgeous 'In Prism,' but this time around, the band (admittedly) play to different strengths. More twisted and somber yet more loose and straightforward than on their previous 2009 LP, Polvo continually develop their post-'Shapes' sound: more grooves, longer songs, blurring the lines between prog-rock, math-rock, Eastern folk, and the blues. With both instant gems and enigmatic jam passages, so many parallels can connect these tracks and others found on earlier work such as 'Today's Active Lifestyles,' but Polvo have ultimately been refining their unique style all along.
Porcupine Tree Deadwing
Porcupine Tree Fear of a Blank Planet
Radiohead Amnesiac
Radiohead Hail to the Thief
Radiohead In Rainbows
Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine
Real Estate Real Estate
Saul Williams The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust
Shugo Tokumaru In Focus?
Wacky, diverse, and, yes, focused, and without much of the self-aware irony usually found dripping from chamber-pop releases such as this. 'In Focus?' might be Shugo's best yet.
Slipknot Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses
Sonic Youth Sister
Sonic Youth Sonic Nurse
St. Vincent Actor
Steven Wilson Grace for Drowning
Steven Wilson The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories)
Frantic and extremely fragile.
The Beatles Love
The Decemberists The Hazards of Love
The Sea And Cake Everybody
The Sea And Cake Oui
The Strokes Is This It
The Strokes Room on Fire
The Strokes Angles
The White Stripes White Blood Cells
The White Stripes Get Behind Me Satan
The White Stripes De Stijl
Tool Ænima
Tortoise TNT
Trippy, mellow, jazzy, warm, and, most importantly, beautiful. I discovered Tortoise via The Sea And Cake, and it really is their more absent-minded, meandering (in a great way) twin.
Unwound Repetition
Unwound The Future of What
Unwound Live Leaves
"And now the time has come for all the audience who don't know who you are to wish they did." ------ 'Live
Leaves' adds to the Unwound mythos exquisitely. The raw, largely unpolished, and hauntingly chaotic
recordings which make up this audio time capsule document the band's last stretch of performances as a
musical unit eleven years ago. This album, along with the band's newly formed online archive, is Unwound's
striking parting letter to the post-Internet culture, whispering and shouting, "We existed." Whether as an
introduction to the noisy and chilling hardcore/punk/however-they-make-you-feel band or as a home for
excellent versions of fan favorites, 'Live Leaves' is a treasure to music in 2012.
Zozobra Harmonic Tremors

3.5 great
Alice in Chains Black Gives Way to Blue
Alter Bridge Blackbird
Atlas Sound Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See...
Audioslave Out of Exile
Avenged Sevenfold Waking The Fallen
Bel Auburn Lullabies In A & C
Boards of Canada Music Has the Right to Children
Born Ruffians Red, Yellow and Blue
Bright Eyes I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
Cave In Antenna
Cave In Perfect Pitch Black
Cave In Planets of Old
Converge When Forever Comes Crashing
Converge Unloved and Weeded Out
Cursive Mama, I'm Swollen
Danny Elfman Batman
Death Cab for Cutie Narrow Stairs
Elf Power In A Cave
Eminem The Eminem Show
Fiona Apple Tidal
Foxboro Hot Tubs Stop Drop and Roll!!!
Gary Numan The Pleasure Principle
Hot Snakes Suicide Invoice
IAMX The Alternative
IAMX Kingdom of Welcome Addiction
Incubus (USA-CA) S.C.I.E.N.C.E.
Incubus (USA-CA) Enjoy Incubus
Japandroids Post-Nothing
Jay-Z The Black Album
John Coltrane Giant Steps
John Mayer The Village Sessions
John Williams Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope
John Williams Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Jonny Greenwood Bodysong
June of 44 Engine Takes to the Water
Picking up where Slint and Rodan left off, but in their own emotional, aggressive, thoughtful way, June Of 44 create a desperate, sneering atmosphere on their first album, with spoken/shouted/lowly-sung vocals, chugging math-rock drumming, funky bass lines, and spindly guitars; a less depressing and more progressive Spiderland, at times. The songs themselves are expansive, spreading out plenty of ideas throughout, with many impressive, different sounds present being refined on later albums: the soft, death jazz of "I Get My Kicks For You"; the whispered storytelling over fractured wasteland guitars in "Mooch"; the breakneck, funky post-punk of "June Miller". And tell me "Sink Is Busted" doesn't lay the groundwork down for what they would approach on Anahata.
June of 44 Tropics and Meridians
A step away from the Slint influence and more along the lines of jamming and post-punk, Tropics And Meridians is the sound of being trapped in an old wooden ship at sea, about to sink. The songs are a bit more thematic than June Of 44's debut, but one wonders if perhaps they couldn't have included one more track on this six-song set; but no matter... The music is more progressive, with no discernible traditional song structures, yet the songs themselves are a bit disjointed from one another; the high-end, soft guitar lines do sound more confidently written and played than those on Engine Takes To The Water, and the math-rock parts start sounding more like noisy funk (see the fantastic bridge of "Anisette", "June Leaf", and the metaphorical boat finally going down to the depths in "Sanctioned In A Birdcage"). Most telling, however, is "Arms Over Arteries" - the fragile guitar dissonance, rolling drums, and low-hum singing is expanded on in later albums.
Kanye West The College Dropout
Korn Life Is Peachy
Korn Follow the Leader
Ladytron Witching Hour
Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin IV
Limp Bizkit Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water
Limp Bizkit Three Dollar Bill Y'all
Linkin Park Hybrid Theory
Lotus Plaza The Floodlight Collective
Ludacris Word Of Mouf
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92
MF DOOM MM.. Food
Miles Davis Seven Steps to Heaven
My Bloody Valentine Isn't Anything
Nick Drake Bryter Layter
Nine Inch Nails Pretty Hate Machine
Nine Inch Nails Further Down the Spiral (US)
Nine Inch Nails Year Zero
Nine Inch Nails Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D
Nine Inch Nails The Slip
Old Man Gloom NO
Haven't heard it, but if this album is anything like their live show in Brooklyn last night, they'll be bringing the spacey sludge and bringing it HARD.rEDIT: And they fucking did! The album is dense while still slimmer than all of OMG's previous material, which is certainly a good thing. Definitely a "headspace"-type aggressive record.
Pitchfork Eucalyptus
Polvo Today's Active Lifestyles
Polvo Shapes
Polvo Celebrate the New Dark Age
Less spaced-out than Polvo's EP 'This Eclipse,' 'Celebrate...' attacks with bent strings, visions of Asian mountains, and biting sarcasm.
Portishead Third
Radiohead Airbag/How Am I Driving?
Rick Astley Whenever You Need Somebody
Sage Francis Human The Death Dance
Slipknot Iowa
Sonic Youth Rather Ripped
St. Vincent Marry Me
Storm Corrosion Storm Corrosion
Porcupeth Tree tries to recreate 'Laughing Stock'.
Tame Impala Lonerism
The Bees Every Step's a Yes
2.5? Get outta here - this is like Veckatimest Lite, and it's great!
The Flashbulb Soundtrack to a Vacant Life
The Horrors Primary Colours
The Sea And Cake The Moonlight Butterfly
The Sea And Cake Car Alarm
The Strokes Comedown Machine
The White Stripes Elephant
Tool Undertow
Tool 10,000 Days
Unwound Fake Train
Unwound Unwound

3.0 good
A Place to Bury Strangers A Place to Bury Strangers
Alter Bridge One Day Remains
Audioslave Audioslave
Audioslave Revelations
Cat Power Jukebox
Converge Petitioning the Empty Sky
David Poe The Late Album
Dead Letter Circus Next In Line
HEALTH Health
IAMX Kiss + Swallow
John Coltrane Interstellar Space
John Mayer Room for Squares
Kanye West Late Registration
Korn Korn
Korn Take a Look in the Mirror
Korn Issues
Korn Untouchables
Limp Bizkit The Unquestionable Truth - Part I
Limp Bizkit Results May Vary
Limp Bizkit Gold Cobra
Linkin Park Meteora
Ludacris Chicken-n-Beer
Mastodon The Hunter
Muse Black Holes & Revelations
Nine Inch Nails Things Falling Apart
Nine Inch Nails Purest Feeling
Polvo Cor-Crane Secret
Puddle of Mudd Come Clean
Radiohead The Bends
Rilo Kiley Under the Blacklight
Seal Seal IV
Slipknot Slipknot
The Black Keys Thickfreakness
The Helio Sequence Keep Your Eyes Ahead
The Strokes First Impressions of Earth
The Who Tommy
Tool Opiate

2.5 average
Avenged Sevenfold Sounding The Seventh Trumpet
Deerhunter Turn It Up Faggot
Deerhunter Carve Your Initials into the Walls of the Night
Although, "Three Dolphins Melting Into Orange Wax" is amazing.
Eminem Encore
Incubus (USA-CA) If Not Now, When?
John Williams Jaws II
Justice Audio, Video, Disco
Korn See You on the Other Side
Linkin Park Minutes to Midnight
Radiohead Pablo Honey

2.0 poor
Eminem Relapse
Kanye West Graduation

1.5 very poor
fun. Some Nights
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