| 2009 |
| Tyler, the Creator Bastard | 2.5 |
| Gucci Mane The State vs. Radric Davis | 1.5 |
| Clipse Til the Casket Drops | 2.5 |
| Animal Collective Fall Be Kind | 3.5 |
| Felt (USA-MN) Felt 3: A Tribute to Rosie Perez | 2.5 |
| Devin Townsend Project Addicted | 3.5 |
| Slayer World Painted Blood | 2.5 |
| Say Anything Say Anything | 2.5 |
| Weezer Raditude | 1.5 |
| Shrinebuilder Shrinebuilder | 2.5 |
| The Red Chord Fed Through the Teeth Machine | 3.0 |
| Portable Payback Portable Payback | 3.0 |
| Between the Buried and Me The Great Misdirect | 3.5 |
| Atlas Sound Logos | 3.5 |
| Have a Nice Life Voids | 3.5 |
| The demos are sort of interesting to say the least, but the real meat here lies within the second disk of Deathconciousness b-sides. |
| Massive Attack Splitting the Atom | 2.0 |
| Thrice Beggars | 3.0 |
| A natural, straightforward progression from The Alchemy Index with more focus on strong songwriting and less on experimentation. Pretty boring, to be honest. |
| Sole and the Skyrider Band Plastique | 3.0 |
| Sub Focus Sub Focus | 2.5 |
| The Fall of Troy In the Unlikely Event | 2.5 |
| HORSE the band Desperate Living | 3.0 |
| No Age Losing Feeling | 3.0 |
| Orphans of Cush White Noize | 3.5 |
| Untold Gonna Work Out Fine | 2.5 |
| Converge Axe to Fall | 3.5 |
| Why? Eskimo Snow | 2.0 |
| Deadmau5 For Lack of a Better Name | 2.0 |
| Brother Ali Us | 2.5 |
| Basement Jaxx Scars | 3.0 |
| Brand New Daisy | 3.5 |
| I was never that big of a Brand New fan, but this album really stands out to me in ways that their other albums didn't. |
| Porcupine Tree The Incident | 2.5 |
A rather predictable release from Porcupine Tree. You probably have a pretty good idea of what this album sounds
like without actually having to listen to it.
Don't get me wrong, there are a number of really solid songs here, but none of them are particularly fresh or
interesting. |
| A City Safe From Sea Throw Me Through Walls | 3.5 |
| Asking Alexandria Stand Up and Scream | 1.5 |
| New Boyz Skinny Jeans and a Mic | 1.5 |
| The Black Dahlia Murder Deflorate | 2.5 |
| Muse The Resistance | 2.0 |
| Jay-Z The Blueprint 3 | 2.0 |
| Om God Is Good | 3.0 |
| Raekwon Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt II | 3.0 |
| Infected Mushroom Legend Of The Black Shawarma | 3.0 |
| Weekend Nachos Unforgivable | 3.5 |
| BATS Red In Tooth and Claw | 3.5 |
| Washed Out Life of Leisure | 3.0 |
| fun. Aim and Ignite | 3.5 |
| Municipal Waste Massive Aggressive | 3.5 |
| Mew No More Stories | 4.0 |
| The Bloody Beetroots Romborama | 2.0 |
| Arctic Monkeys Humbug | 3.0 |
| As Tall As Lions You Can't Take It With You | 3.0 |
| The xx xx | 2.5 |
| Sol.Illaquists Of Sound No More Heroes | 3.0 |
| Xihilisk The Black Square | 2.5 |
| Eyedea and Abilities By the Throat | 2.5 |
Rhymesayers-based hip-hop duo Eyedea & Abilities return after a 5 year hiatus with somewhat mixed results.
They've mostly left behind the aggressive, battle-centric lyrics and turntablism that were present on E&A in favor of a
more indie rock/electronic type sound.
Eyedea's short stint as the vocalist for rock band Carbon Carousel is pretty apparent here, and many of the songs
feature him crooning along to dull and uninspired guitar lines that were obviously intended for the aforementioned
band. Eyedea isn't a particularly good singer either, and the tracks that forgo actual rapping in favor of singing are
generally the more successful ones.
A strong second half makes up for an abysmal first, with solid tracks like Sky Diver, Junk, This Story and Smile.
Another thing worth noting is the apparent lack of DJ Abilities. He still makes a few appearances here and there with
some scratching, but his contributions are seemingly minimal compared to the first two albums. This can be
explained by the complete change in direction sound-wise, but it is still pretty disappointing, considering Abilities
used to be an integral part of the E&A sound. |
| Portugal. The Man The Satanic Satanist | 3.0 |
| Cave In Planets of Old | 3.0 |
| Owl City Ocean Eyes | 1.5 |
| August Burns Red Constellations | 2.5 |
| YOB The Great Cessation | 3.5 |
| Mouse On The Keys An Anxious Object | 3.5 |
| Lmfao Party Rock | 1.0 |
| Job for a Cowboy Ruination | 2.5 |
| A huge improvement over their last album. This band has serious potential and I hope they continue to grow and refine their sound |
| Poison the Well The Tropic Rot | 3.5 |
| We Were Promised Jetpacks These Four Walls | 3.5 |
| Admiral Angry Buster | 3.0 |
| Atmosphere Leak At Will | 2.5 |
| Zomby One Foot Ahead Of The Other | 2.5 |
| Wilco Wilco (The Album) | 2.5 |
| Sleep In Raining Glass | 3.0 |
| The Mars Volta Octahedron | 2.5 |
A really laid back album full of mid/slow tempo "ballad" type songs. The only exception to this is Cotopaxi (a pretty decent song in its own right), which sticks out like a sore thumb and feels incredibly out of place.
It's not like The Mars Volta haven't done a number of mellow songs before, but when you have an entire album full of them, it just sort of starts to drag along. There is a lot of meaningless ambience here, and I can't help but wonder how the album would've turned out without it. |
| The Dear Hunter Act III: Life and Death | 2.5 |
| Dinosaur Jr. Farm | 3.0 |
| Bibio Ambivalence Avenue | 3.5 |
| Clubroot Clubroot | 3.0 |
| Drudkh Microcosmos | 3.5 |
| Gorod Process of a New Decline | 3.0 |
| Initial listen has left me somewhat underwhelmed. |
| Enter Shikari Common Dreads | 2.5 |
| Pendulum Live at Brixton Academy | 3.0 |
| Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca | 2.5 |
| Joan of Arc Flowers | 2.5 |
| Sonic Youth The Eternal | 3.0 |
| Mos Def The Ecstatic | 3.0 |
| dredg The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion | 3.5 |
After hearing various snippets of the album from live performances on youtube, I had begun to worry that dredg had
lost everything that made them interesting in the first place.
I can say with confidence that my fears have (mostly) been laid to rest. dredg has managed to craft an album that
mixes some of the experimental tendencies of Leitmotif and El Cielo with the accessibility of Catch Without Arms.
There are a couple of tracks that drag the album down, but as a whole, it's quite solid. |
| Coalesce OX | 3.5 |
| FaltyDL Love Is A Liability | 3.0 |
| Taking Back Sunday New Again | 2.5 |
| Sink Into Me is probably one of the better songs TBS has written. The rest of this is kind of forgettable though. |
| Iwrestledabearonce It's All Happening | 2.5 |
| 311 Uplifter | 3.0 |
A predictable but solid release. It's definitely a step up from their last few albums, which often ranged from average
to just plain bad.
I don't feel compelled to give this anything higher than a 3 though, because the band really does nothing new here
and they've done it all better before anyways. |
| Eels Hombre Lobo | 3.0 |
| Black Moth Super Rainbow Eating Us | 3.0 |
| An inferior carbon copy of what this band has already been doing for the past several years. |
| Grizzly Bear Veckatimest | 3.5 |
| Phoenix (FRA) Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix | 3.0 |
| Devin Townsend Project Ki | 3.5 |
| mewithoutYou It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All A Dream! It's Alright! | 3.0 |
| Au Revoir Simone Still Night, Still Light | 3.0 |
| Passion Pit Manners | 3.0 |
| IAMX Kingdom of Welcome Addiction | 3.5 |
| Eminem Relapse | 1.5 |
| Green Day 21st Century Breakdown | 2.0 |
Boring, uninspired, and it's too fucking long.
But honestly, were you really expecting otherwise? |
| maudlin of the Well Part the Second | 3.5 |
| Animal Collective Animal Crack Box | 2.0 |
I feel bad for anyone who actually spends money on this.
Then again, the people who do will most likely enjoy it, assuming that they realize what they're in store for. |
| Ducktails Ducktails | 2.5 |
| El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez Cryptomnesia | 1.5 |
| The Gathering The West Pole | 3.0 |
| Closure in Moscow First Temple | 3.0 |
| Dert CMYK | 4.0 |
| Nadja When I See The Sun Always Shines on TV | 2.5 |
| Bob Dylan Together Through Life | 2.5 |
| Osees Help | 2.5 |
| Japandroids Post-Nothing | 3.0 |
| Woods Songs of Shame | 2.5 |
| ISIS Wavering Radiant | 2.5 |
| Seventh Void Heaven is Gone | 2.5 |
| As Cities Burn Hell or High Water | 3.0 |
| Manchester Orchestra Mean Everything to Nothing | 3.0 |
| Martyn Great Lengths | 3.5 |
| Silversun Pickups Swoon | 2.5 |
| Bat For Lashes Two Suns | 3.0 |
| Snowing Fuck Your Emotional Bullshit | 2.5 |
| UGK UGK 4 Life | 2.5 |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Black Cascade | 3.5 |
| Pulling Teeth Paranoid Delusions/Paradise Illusions | 3.5 |
| Mono Hymn to the Immortal Wind | 2.0 |
| The Decemberists The Hazards of Love | 2.5 |
| MF DOOM Born Like This | 3.0 |
| Not unlike Doom's other work, except not as good. And something's missing. Meh. |
| Prince LOtUSFLOW3R | 3.0 |
| Prince MPLSoUND | 3.0 |
| Dan Deacon Bromst | 3.5 |
| Has been described to me as "Merriweather Post Pavilion, except not shitty." |
| Mastodon Crack the Skye | 3.5 |
| Royksopp Junior | 2.5 |
| MSTRKRFT Fist of God | 1.5 |
| Kylesa Static Tensions | 3.0 |
| Sleaze The Ocarina of Rhyme | 3.0 |
| El-B The Roots of El-B | 3.5 |
| Borgore Gorestep Vol. 1 | 1.5 |
| Chris Cornell Scream | 1.0 |
| Cursive Mama, I'm Swollen | 2.5 |
| Propagandhi Supporting Caste | 3.0 |
| Yeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz! | 3.0 |
| The Number Twelve Looks Like You Worse Than Alone | 3.0 |
| The Antlers Hospice | 2.5 |
| Blut Aus Nord Memoria Vetusta II - Dialogue With The Stars | 3.5 |
| Plushgun Pins & Panzers | 2.0 |
| Thursday Common Existence | 2.5 |
| The Envy split got me all excited. Fuck this, I'm done with this band. |
| The Appleseed Cast Sagarmatha | 3.0 |
| Irepress Sol Eye Sea I | 3.0 |
| Beirut March of the Zapotec/Holland | 2.0 |
| Absu Absu | 3.5 |
| The Lonely Island Incredibad | 1.5 |
| Wavves Wavvves | 2.0 |
| An unremarkable album made worse by the addition of a shitload of delay and fuzz effects. This whole "lo-fi/noise rock" trend is getting pretty fucking lame. Thanks, Pitchfork. |
| Cannibal Corpse Evisceration Plague | 2.5 |
| P.O.S Never Better | 3.0 |
| The Pains of Being Pure at Heart The Pains of Being Pure at Heart | 3.0 |
| A pretty amazing album if you're not familiar with the bands they're ripping off. |
| The Qemists Join the Q | 2.5 |
| Catchy, melodic, rock-infused drum & bass. A few tracks (Stompbox, Lost Weekend, Drop Audio, When Ur Lonely) stand out from an otherwise mediocre album. Mike Patton makes a cool guest appearance. |
| N.A.S.A. The Spirit of Apollo | 2.5 |
| Cymbals Eat Guitars Why There Are Mountains | 2.5 |
| White Apple Tree Taste the Celebration | 2.5 |
| Afterlives A Ticking Clock I Couldn't Stop | 3.0 |
| Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion | 3.5 |
| This is a fine record, despite being a bit too uniform and repetitive. |
| Team Teamwork The Ocarina of Rhyme | 2.0 |
| Amesoeurs Amesoeurs | 3.0 |
| Dert Talk Strange: A Beat Tape Inspired by Björk | 3.0 |
| Joy Orbison Hyph Mngo/Wet Look | 3.0 |
| Shackleton Three EPs | 3.0 |
| Towers Full Circle | 4.0 |
| 2008 |
| Caverns (DC) Kittens! | 3.0 |
| Fall Out Boy Folie a Deux | 2.5 |
| Justice A Cross the Universe | 2.5 |
| Break Symmetry | 4.0 |
| The Fall of Troy Phantom on the Horizon | 3.0 |
| The Fall of Troy's last studio album was kind of an odd misstep for the band. They made some big changes to their overall sound, and there was a negative reaction from those who wanted something more along the lines of their previous album, Doppelg?er. And while I can understand Thomas Erak not wanting to write the same album over and over again, Manipulator really seemed (to me) like it was a huge step in the wrong direction. That's why I was a little hesitant when I found out the band had released a completed version of the Ghostship Demos they had recorded so long ago. The first initial listen has left me quite impressed. The production is a huge step up from Manipulator, Thomas' vocals have improved quite a bit, and a lot of the pointless genre experimentation that was present on Manipulator is now gone. I'm also picking up a strong De-Loused In The Commatorium type vibe as well. If this is what we can expect from The Fall of Troy's forthcoming studio album, color me excited. |
| Steven Wilson Insurgentes | 4.0 |
| Kanye West 808s and Heartbreak | 2.5 |
| Guns N' Roses Chinese Democracy | 2.0 |
| Attack Attack! Someday Came Suddenly | 1.0 |
| Taylor Swift Fearless | 1.5 |
| The Faceless Planetary Duality | 2.0 |
| Butch Walker Sycamore Meadows | 3.5 |
| Lady Gaga The Fame | 2.0 |
| Cynic Traced in Air | 2.5 |
| Fear Before Fear Before | 2.5 |
| An instrumentally interesting album with laughably bad lyrics and mediocre vocals. |
| The Knux Remind Me In Three Days | 2.5 |
| Black Milk Tronic | 3.0 |
| Deerhunter Weird Era Cont. | 3.0 |
| brokeNCYDE BC 13 | 1.0 |
| Electric Six Flashy | 2.0 |
| of Montreal Skeletal Lamping | 2.5 |
| Super Extra Bonus Party Appetite For Reconstruction | 3.0 |
| Annuals Such Fun | 2.5 |
A real step back from their previous album. It seems to have lost a lot of its energy and charm, which I enjoy more
compared to the tired and unoriginal songwriting found here. |
| Department of Eagles In Ear Park | 3.0 |
| Innerpartysystem Innerpartysystem | 2.5 |
| Kings of Leon Only By The Night | 1.5 |
| Mogwai The Hawk Is Howling | 2.5 |
| Mogwai was previously one of the leading innovators in the post-rock movement. What the hell happened? This is about as mediocre as post-rock gets. |
| TV on the Radio Dear Science | 3.5 |
| The Drones Havilah | 3.5 |
| Sunn O))) Dømkirke | 3.5 |
| Intronaut Prehistoricisms | 3.5 |
| North What You Were | 3.0 |
| Metallica Death Magnetic | 2.0 |
| Adebisi Shank This is the Album | 3.0 |
| United Nations United Nations | 3.0 |
| The Sound of Animals Fighting The Ocean and the Sun | 3.5 |
| Dela Changes of Atmosphere | 3.5 |
| Hollywood Undead Swan Songs | 1.0 |
| Underoath Lost in the Sound of Separation | 3.0 |
| Brian Wilson That Lucky Old Sun | 3.0 |
| DragonForce Ultra Beatdown | 1.5 |
| Slipknot All Hope Is Gone | 2.0 |
| GZA Pro Tools | 2.5 |
| Don Caballero Punkgasm | 2.5 |
| Deerhunter Microcastle | 3.5 |
| Exotic Animal Petting Zoo I Have Made My Bed in Darkness | 3.5 |
| Brian Eno and David Byrne Everything that Happens Will Happen Today | 3.0 |
| Jonas Brothers A Little Bit Longer | 1.0 |
| Protest the Hero Sequoia Throne: Remixed | 1.0 |
| Helms Alee Night Terror | 3.0 |
| Mesa Verde The Old Road | 3.5 |
Mesa Verde, originally hailing from Glasgow, Scotland, is another up-and-coming act from the hardcore/screamo
scene. They released two solid EPs over the course of 2005 and 2006, and have finally returned this year with their
first full-length LP.
Their post-rock driven style of screamo (influenced by bands like City of Caterpillar, no doubt) is just chalk-full of
raw emotion, with harsh, biting vocals delivered upon layers of clean and distorted guitars and monstrous drum fills.
Anybody who is familiar with some of the more underground screamo bands probably knows what to expect here.
Moments of absolute chaos are broken up by slow, calm instrumental segments that inevitably transition into more
distorted guitars and passionate screaming.
And while Mesa Verde doesn't really push any of the genre's boundaries forward, they do what they do well. Very well
in fact, and that's good enough for me. |
| Fat Jon The Ample Soul Physician Repaint Tomorrow | 3.0 |
| Nahvalr Nahvalr | 3.0 |
| One Day as a Lion One Day as a Lion | 3.0 |
| Dr. Dog Fate | 3.0 |
| Maps and Atlases You and Me and the Mountain | 3.0 |
| Nas Untitled | 2.5 |
| Sunset The Glowing City | 3.0 |
| 3OH!3 Want | 1.0 |
| Whitechapel This Is Exile | 1.5 |
| Cryptopsy The Unspoken King | 1.0 |
| Sigur Ros Med Sud i Eyrum vid Spilum Endalaust | 3.0 |
| Girl Talk Feed the Animals | 2.0 |
| Katy Perry One of the Boys | 1.0 |
| Ponytail Ice Cream Spiritual | 2.0 |
| The Offspring Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace | 2.5 |
| Lil Wayne Tha Carter III | 2.0 |
| My Morning Jacket Evil Urges | 3.0 |
| Priscilla Ahn A Good Day | 3.0 |
| Flying Lotus Los Angeles | 3.5 |
| Grouper Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill | 3.5 |
| Pentemple O))) Presents... Pentemple | 3.5 |
| If hell existed, I'm pretty sure this is what it would sound like. |
| Weezer The Red Album | 1.5 |
| Opeth Watershed | 3.0 |
| Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes | 3.5 |
| Harvey Milk Life... The Best Game in Town | 3.5 |
| Pendulum In Silico | 2.5 |
| An eclectic mix of rock, drum and bass, and some other subgenres of electronic music. Drum and bass purists will scoff at it, but I still think it's a relatively enjoyable album. |
| Death Cab for Cutie Narrow Stairs | 3.0 |
| No Age Nouns | 2.5 |
| Prolyphic & Reanimator The Ugly Truth | 3.0 |
| Kayo Dot Blue Lambency Downward | 3.5 |
| Extra Life Secular Works | 3.5 |
| Nine Inch Nails The Slip | 3.0 |
| Millionaires Bling Bling Bling! | 1.0 |
| America Addio Plat of Zion | 3.0 |
| Sombres Forets Royaume De Glace | 3.5 |
| Portishead Third | 2.5 |
| Santigold Santogold | 2.5 |
| Blue Sky Black Death Late Night Cinema | 3.0 |
| Algernon Cadwallader Some Kind Of Cadwallader | 3.5 |
| Minus half a point for sounding nearly indistinguishable from Cap'n Jazz. |
| Tokyo Police Club Elephant Shell | 2.0 |
| Atmosphere When Life Gives You Lemons... | 3.0 |
| Flight of the Conchords Flight of the Conchords | 3.5 |
| Armin van Buuren Imagine | 2.5 |
| Arsis We Are the Nightmare | 2.0 |
| Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV | 3.5 |
| M83 Saturdays=Youth | 3.0 |
| Cut Copy In Ghost Colours | 3.0 |
| Clinic Do it! | 3.0 |
| Sun Kil Moon April | 3.0 |
| The Black Keys Attack & Release | 3.0 |
| Bryan Scary Flight of the Knife | 3.5 |
An explosive psychedelic pop album reminiscent of many popular 60s and 70s acts such as The Beatles, ELO, Queen,
The Beach Boys, David Bowie, and The Zombies.
Many of the songs are surprisingly piano-driven, however there is quite an assortment of different instruments to be
found; there are just layers upon layers of sound here. And while each of the songs have their own distinctive
qualities, they all share a certain ubiquitous energy that is hard to come across these days.
It's an incredibly strange and fun album that combines elements of everything you've already heard before and turns
it into something unique and refreshing. One of the best albums I've heard all year. |
| Pocahaunted Island Diamonds | 4.0 |
| Guilty Simpson Ode to the Ghetto | 2.5 |
| Sunset Bright Blue Dream | 3.0 |
| Does It Offend You, Yeah? You Have No Idea... | 2.0 |
| Crystal Castles Crystal Castles | 2.0 |
| Snoop Dogg Ego Trippin' | 2.0 |
| Meshuggah obZen | 3.0 |
| Cursed III: Architects of Troubled Sleep | 3.5 |
| The Ruby Suns Sea Lion | 3.0 |
| Arghoslent Hornets of the Pogrom | 3.5 |
| Atlas Sound Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See... | 2.5 |
| Genghis Tron Board Up the House | 3.5 |
| Je Suis Animal Self-Taught Magic From a Book | 2.5 |
| Porcupine Tree We Lost the Skyline | 3.0 |
| Porcupine Tree Nil Recurring | 4.0 |
| Hot Chip Made in the Dark | 3.0 |
| Protest the Hero Fortress | 2.5 |
| The Flashbulb Soundtrack to a Vacant Life | 2.5 |
| The Mars Volta The Bedlam in Goliath | 3.0 |
| Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend | 3.0 |
| Earth The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull | 4.0 |
| Have a Nice Life Deathconsciousness | 4.0 |
| Black Mountain In the Future | 3.0 |
| Atmosphere Strictly Leakage | 3.0 |
| Audio To The Edge Of Reason | 3.0 |
| SebastiAn Motor | 3.0 |
| Off Minor Some Blood | 3.5 |
