| Fleet Foxes Sun Giant | 4.0 |
| Bright Eyes I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning | 4.0 |
| Circa Survive Blue Sky Noise | 4.5 |
| The Fratellis The Flathead EP | 3.5 |
| The Fratellis The Fratellis EP | 3.0 |
| The Fratellis Here We Stand | 2.0 |
| The Fratellis Costello Music | 3.0 |
| Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes | 3.5 |
| Crossfade Falling Away | 2.0 |
| Crossfade Crossfade | 2.0 |
| Coheed and Cambria Year of the Black Rainbow | 3.0 |
| Coheed and Cambria The Second Stage Turbine Blade | 3.0 |
| Coheed and Cambria In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 | 2.5 |
| Coheed and Cambria No World for Tomorrow | 2.5 |
| Coheed and Cambria From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness | 2.0 |
| Alexisonfire Old Crows / Young Cardinals | 3.5 |
| Alexisonfire Crisis | 3.0 |
| Alexisonfire Watch Out! | 3.5 |
| Alexisonfire Alexisonfire | 3.5 |
| City and Colour The MySpace Transmissions | 4.0 |
| The Bravery Stir The Blood | 2.0 |
| Major Lazer Guns Dont Kill People... Lazers Do | 3.5 |
| Fugazi The Argument | 4.5 |
| Fugazi End Hits | 4.0 |
| Fugazi Red Medicine | 3.5 |
| Fugazi In on the Kill Taker | 3.0 |
| Fugazi Steady Diet of Nothing | 3.0 |
| Fugazi Repeater | 4.0 |
| Fugazi 13 Songs | 4.0 |
| Thursday Common Existence | 2.5 |
| Thursday A City By the Light Divided | 2.0 |
| Thursday War All the Time | 4.0 |
| Thursday Full Collapse | 4.0 |
| Thursday Waiting | 3.5 |
| The Black Keys Chulahoma | 4.0 |
| The Black Keys Magic Potion | 3.0 |
| The Black Keys Brothers | 3.5 |
| The Black Keys Rubber Factory | 4.5 |
| The Black Keys Thickfreakness | 4.5 |
| The Black Keys The Big Come Up | 3.5 |
| Asobi Seksu Asobi Seksu | 3.5 |
| Asobi Seksu Hush | 3.0 |
| Asobi Seksu Rewolf | 4.0 |
| Arctic Monkeys Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not | 3.0 |
| Arctic Monkeys Humbug | 2.5 |
| Arctic Monkeys Favourite Worst Nightmare | 2.5 |
| The Almost Southern Weather | 3.0 |
| Senses Fail Still Searching (Deluxe Edition) | 3.0 |
| Senses Fail Life Is Not a Waiting Room | 2.0 |
| Senses Fail Let It Enfold You (Deluxe Edition) | 3.5 |
| Senses Fail Still Searching | 3.0 |
| Green Day Nimrod | 2.0 |
| Green Day American Idiot | 2.5 |
| Green Day 21st Century Breakdown | 1.5 |
| Sugarcult Lights Out | 2.5 |
| Sugarcult Start Static | 3.0 |
| Sugarcult Palm Trees And Power Lines | 3.0 |
| Tegan and Sara Under Feet Like Ours | 3.0 |
| Tegan and Sara This Business of Art | 2.5 |
| Tegan and Sara If It Was You | 3.0 |
| Tegan and Sara So Jealous | 3.5 |
| Tegan and Sara Sainthood | 3.5 |
| Tegan and Sara The Con | 4.0 |
| Otep The_Ascension | 1.5 |
| Slipknot All Hope Is Gone | 3.5 |
| Slipknot Vol.3: The Subliminal Verses [Reissue] | 3.0 |
| Slipknot Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses | 3.5 |
| Slipknot Iowa | 2.0 |
| Slipknot Slipknot | 3.0 |
| Slipknot Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. | 2.5 |
| Shakira Fijacion Oral Vol. 1 | 3.5 |
| Shakira Oral Fixation Vol. 2 | 3.0 |
| Shakira Oral Fixation Vol. 2 [Bonus Tracks] | 5.0 |
| Kill Hannah For Never & Ever | 3.0 |
| Kill Hannah American Jet Set | 2.5 |
| Kill Hannah Until Theres Nothing Left Of Us | 3.0 |
| Kaiser Chiefs Off With Their Heads | 1.5 |
| Kaiser Chiefs Yours Truly, Angry Mob | 2.0 |
| Kaiser Chiefs Employment | 2.5 |
| Klaxons Myths of the Near Future | 3.0 |
| Foals Total Life Forever | 4.0 |
| Foals Antidotes | 4.0 |
| Blaqk Audio CexCells | 3.5 |
| Meshuggah Catch Thirtythree | 3.0 |
| Meshuggah Nothing | 3.5 |
| Meshuggah Chaosphere | 2.5 |
| Meshuggah Destroy Erase Improve | 3.5 |
| Meshuggah Contradictions Collapse | 3.0 |
| Meshuggah obZen | 3.5 |
| Meshuggah Nothing (Re-Release) | 3.5 |
| Against Me! White Crosses | 2.0 |
| Against Me! New Wave | 3.0 |
| Against Me! Searching for a Former Clarity | 3.0 |
| Against Me! Reinventing Axl Rose | 4.0 |
| Against Me! As the Eternal Cowboy | 4.0 |
| Slayer World Painted Blood | 2.5 |
| Slayer Christ Illusion | 3.0 |
| Slayer God Hates Us All | 2.5 |
| Slayer Divine Intervention | 3.0 |
| Slayer Seasons in the Abyss | 4.0 |
| Slayer South of Heaven | 3.5 |
| Slayer Reign in Blood | 4.5 |
| Slayer Hell Awaits | 4.0 |
| Slayer Diabolus in Musica | 2.0 |
| Slayer Undisputed Attitude | 2.0 |
| Slayer Show No Mercy | 3.5 |
| Apocalyptica Plays Metallica by Four Cellos | 2.5 |
| Apocalyptica The Best Of Apocalyptica | 4.5 |
| Apocalyptica Amplified: A Decade Of Reinventing The Cello | 3.5 |
| Apocalyptica Apocalyptica | 3.5 |
| Armor For Sleep Smile For Them | 2.0 |
| Armor For Sleep What To Do When You Are Dead | 3.5 |
| Armor For Sleep Dream To Make Believe | 3.5 |
| Audioslave Audioslave | 3.0 |
| Audioslave Revelations | 3.5 |
| Audioslave Out of Exile | 2.5 |
| Avenged Sevenfold Avenged Sevenfold | 1.5 |
| Avenged Sevenfold City of Evil | 2.5 |
| Avenged Sevenfold Waking the Fallen | 3.0 |
| Avenged Sevenfold Sounding the Seventh Trumpet | 3.0 |
| Sonic Youth The Eternal | 2.5 |
| Sonic Youth Rather Ripped | 4.0 |
| Sonic Youth Sonic Nurse | 3.0 |
| Sonic Youth Murray Street | 4.0 |
| Sonic Youth NYC Ghosts & Flowers | 2.5 |
| Stone Sour Come What(ever) May | 3.0 |
| Stone Sour Stone Sour | 3.0 |
| VHS or Beta Night on Fire | 3.0 |
| Death Cab for Cutie The Photo Album | 3.5 |
| Death Cab for Cutie Narrow Stairs | 2.5 |
| Death Cab for Cutie Transatlanticism | 3.5 |
| Death Cab for Cutie Plans | 3.0 |
| Rilo Kiley Under the Blacklight | 3.5 |
| Rilo Kiley Take-Offs and Landings | 3.0 |
| Rilo Kiley The Execution of All Things | 3.5 |
| Rilo Kiley More Adventurous | 3.5 |
| Iron And Wine Our Endless Numbered Days | 3.5 |
| Iron And Wine The Shepherd's Dog | 4.5 |
| Peter Bjorn and John Falling Down | 2.5 |
| Peter Bjorn and John Writer's Block | 3.5 |
| Flight of the Conchords Flight of the Conchords | 4.0 |
| Flight of the Conchords The Distant Future | 4.0 |
| Flyleaf Memento Mori | 2.5 |
| Flyleaf Much Like Falling | 4.0 |
| Flyleaf Flyleaf | 3.5 |
| Broken Social Scene Feel Good Lost | 3.5 |
| Broken Social Scene Forgiveness Rock Record | 4.0 |
| Mastodon Remission | 4.0 |
| Train Save Me San Francisco | 2.0 |
| Owl City Maybe I'm Dreaming | 2.0 |
| Owl City Ocean Eyes | 2.0 |
| Rihanna Rated R | 2.5 |
| Eminem The Slim Shady LP | 4.0 |
| Eminem Recovery | 2.5 |
| Stars Heart | 3.0 |
| Stars The Five Ghosts | 3.5 |
| Stars In Our Bedroom After The War | 3.0 |
| Stars Set Yourself On Fire | 4.0 |
| AFI Sing the Sorrow | 3.5 |
| AFI Crash Love | 2.0 |
| AFI Decemberunderground | 2.0 |
| AFI Black Sails in the Sunset | 4.0 |
| AFI The Art of Drowning | 3.5 |
| Thirty Seconds to Mars A Beautiful Lie | 3.0 |
| Rob Zombie Hellbilly Deluxe | 3.5 |
| The Wombats A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation | 3.0 |
| Sufjan Stevens Michigan | 4.0 |
| Sufjan Stevens Illinois | 5.0 |
| The Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness | 4.5 |
| Silverstein A Shipwreck in the Sand | 2.5 |
| Silverstein Discovering the Waterfront | 3.5 |
| Scary Kids Scaring Kids Scary Kids Scaring Kids | 3.5 |
| Scary Kids Scaring Kids The City Sleeps In Flames | 3.0 |
| Saosin In Search Of Solid Ground | 1.0 |
| Saosin Saosin | 2.5 |
| Rogue Wave Asleep at Heaven's Gate | 2.5 |
| Rogue Wave Permalight | 3.0 |
| Rogue Wave Descended Like Vultures | 3.5 |
| Rise Against The Unraveling | 3.0 |
| Rise Against Revolutions per Minute | 3.5 |
| Rise Against Siren Song of the Counter Culture | 4.0 |
| Rise Against Appeal to Reason | 2.5 |
| Rise Against The Sufferer and the Witness | 4.0 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers Stadium Arcadium | 2.0 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers By the Way | 2.5 |
| The Mars Volta Octahedron | 4.0 |
| The Mars Volta The Bedlam in Goliath | 3.0 |
| The Mars Volta Amputechture | 3.0 |
| The Mars Volta De-Loused in the Comatorium | 4.5 |
| The Mars Volta Frances the Mute | 4.0 |
| The Kooks Konk | 2.5 |
| The Kooks Inside In/Inside Out | 3.0 |
| The Kills Midnight Boom | 4.0 |
| Jack Johnson To the Sea | 2.5 |
| Jack Johnson In Between Dreams | 2.5 |
| Gogol Bordello Trans-Continental Hustle | 3.5 |
| Gogol Bordello Super Taranta | 4.0 |
| Taking Back Sunday Louder Now | 3.0 |
| Taking Back Sunday Tell All Your Friends | 4.0 |
| Envy On The Coast Lowcountry | 4.0 |
| Envy On The Coast Lucy Gray | 4.0 |
| The Decemberists The Crane Wife | 4.0 |
| The Decemberists Picaresque | 4.0 |
| I Set My Friends On Fire You Can't Spell Slaughter Without Laughter | 3.0 |
| Dance Gavin Dance Downtown Battle Mountain | 4.0 |
| The Strokes Room on Fire | 3.0 |
| The Strokes Is This It | 4.0 |
| Modest Mouse Good News for People Who Love Bad News | 4.0 |
| Modest Mouse The Moon & Antarctica | 4.5 |
| Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Clap Your Hands Say Yeah | 3.5 |
| The Black Keys Attack & Release | 3.5 |
| Radiohead The Bends | 3.0 |
| Radiohead Hail to the Thief | 3.0 |
| Radiohead Amnesiac | 2.5 |
| Radiohead Kid A | 3.5 |
| Radiohead In Rainbows | 3.0 |
| Radiohead Pablo Honey | 3.0 |
| Panic! at the Disco A Fever You Can't Sweat Out | 3.0 |
| Sunny Day Real Estate How It Feels To Be Something On | 4.0 |
| Sunny Day Real Estate Sunny Day Real Estate | 3.0 |
| Sunny Day Real Estate Diary | 4.5 |
| The Hush Sound Goodbye Blues | 3.5 |
| The Hush Sound Like Vines | 3.5 |
| Gorillaz Plastic Beach | 3.0 |
| Gorillaz Demon Days | 4.0 |
| Godsmack Faceless | 3.0 |
| Godsmack Godsmack | 4.0 |
| Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand | 3.5 |
| The Faint Danse Macabre | 4.5 |
| The Faint Fasciinatiion | 3.0 |
| Emarosa This Is Your Way Out | 3.5 |
| The Doors Waiting for the Sun | 3.5 |
| The Doors The Doors | 3.5 |
| Deerhoof The Runners Four | 3.5 |
| Dead Kennedys Plastic Surgery Disasters | 5.0 |
| Dead Kennedys Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death | 4.5 |
| Copeland Beneath Medicine Tree | 3.0 |
| Copeland In Motion | 3.5 |
| Copeland You Are My Sunshine | 4.0 |
| Copeland Eat, Sleep, Repeat | 3.0 |
| Chevelle Vena Sera | 3.0 |
| The Black Eyed Peas Monkey Business | 3.0 |
| The Black Eyed Peas The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies) | 2.0 |
| Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion | 3.0 |
| Animal Collective Water Curses | 3.5 |
| Animal Collective Strawberry Jam | 4.0 |
| Be Your Own Pet Get Awkward | 3.5 |
| Be Your Own Pet Be Your Own Pet | 3.5 |
| Billy Talent Billy Talent II | 3.5 |
| Billy Talent Billy Talent | 3.0 |
| Black Tide Light From Above | 2.5 |
| Boy Kill Boy Civilian | 3.0 |
| The Bravery The Sun and the Moon | 2.5 |
| The Bravery The Bravery | 3.0 |
| Dirty Pretty Things Waterloo to Anywhere | 3.5 |
| Lady Gaga The Fame | 3.0 |
| Simple Plan Simple Plan | 1.5 |
| Simple Plan No Pads, No Helmets... Just Balls | 1.5 |
| Good Charlotte Good Morning Revival | 2.0 |
| Good Charlotte The Chronicles of Life and Death | 2.0 |
| Good Charlotte Good Charlotte | 2.5 |
| Good Charlotte The Young And The Hopeless | 2.0 |
| Band Marino The Sea & The Beast | 3.5 |
| Cake Fashion Nugget | 4.0 |
| Cake Wheels | 3.5 |
| Cake Comfort Eagle | 4.5 |
| Flogging Molly Float | 4.0 |
| Flogging Molly Swagger | 4.0 |
| The Good, The Bad and The Queen The Good, The Bad & The Queen | 3.5 |
| Guillemots From the Cliffs | 4.0 |
| Guillemots Through the Windowpane | 4.5 |
| The Unicorns Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? | 4.5 |
| Islands Return To The Sea | 4.0 |
| Kings of Leon Because Of The Times | 3.5 |
| The Killers Hot Fuss | 3.5 |
| The Killers Day & Age | 3.5 |
| The Killers Sam's Town | 3.5 |
| Lady Gaga The Fame Monster | 3.0 |
| Wolf Parade At Mount Zoomer | 3.5 |
| Wolf Parade Apologies to the Queen Mary | 4.5 |
| The White Stripes Icky Thump | 4.0 |
| Interpol Our Love to Admire | 3.5 |
| Interpol Antics | 3.5 |
| Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights | 4.5 |
| stellastarr* stellastarr* | 3.0 |
| stellastarr* Harmonies for the Haunted | 3.5 |
| Snow Patrol Eyes Open | 3.0 |
| Snow Patrol A Hundred Million Suns | 3.0 |
| Silversun Pickups Carnavas | 4.5 |
| Silversun Pickups Pikul | 3.5 |
| The Shins Oh, Inverted World | 4.5 |
| The Shins Chutes Too Narrow | 4.0 |
| The Shins Wincing the Night Away | 4.0 |
| She Wants Revenge She Wants Revenge | 2.5 |
| The Raveonettes Lust Lust Lust | 3.5 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Songs for the Deaf | 4.5 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Era Vulgaris | 3.5 |
| Portugal. The Man Censored Colors | 3.5 |
| Portugal. The Man The Satanic Satanist | 4.0 |
| of Montreal Skeletal Lamping | 3.5 |
| of Montreal Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? | 4.0 |
| Nine Inch Nails With Teeth | 3.5 |
| Nada Surf Let Go | 3.5 |
| Muse Black Holes & Revelations | 3.5 |
| Muse Absolution | 3.0 |
| Muse Origin of Symmetry | 4.5 |
| Motion City Soundtrack Even If It Kills Me | 3.5 |
| Motion City Soundtrack Commit This To Memory (Deluxe Edition) | 4.0 |
| Motion City Soundtrack I Am the Movie | 3.0 |
| CSS Donkey | 3.0 |
| Explosions in the Sky The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place | 4.0 |
| Elefant Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid | 3.5 |
| Elefant Black Magic Show | 3.0 |
| Editors The Back Room | 3.0 |
| Editors An End Has A Start | 3.5 |
| The Avalanches Since I Left You | 5.0 |
| Coldplay Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends | 4.0 |
| Coldplay X&Y | 2.0 |
| Coldplay Parachutes | 3.0 |
| Cold War Kids Loyalty to Loyalty | 3.5 |
| Cold War Kids Robbers and Cowards | 4.5 |
| Anthony Green Avalon | 5.0 |
| Circa Survive On Letting Go | 3.5 |
| Circa Survive Juturna | 3.0 |
| Butthole Surfers Independent Worm Saloon | 3.5 |
| Butthole Surfers Electriclarryland | 3.0 |
| Brand New Daisy | 2.5 |
| Brand New The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me | 3.0 |
| Brand New Deja Entendu | 3.0 |
| Brand New Your Favorite Weapon | 2.5 |
| Bloc Party Silent Alarm | 3.0 |
| Blonde Redhead Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons | 4.0 |
| Blonde Redhead 23 | 5.0 |
| Mastodon Crack the Skye | 3.0 |
| Mastodon Blood Mountain | 3.5 |
| Mastodon Leviathan | 2.5 |
| Marilyn Manson Lest We Forget | 5.0 |
| Marilyn Manson Mechanical Animals | 3.0 |
| Marilyn Manson Antichrist Superstar | 4.0 |
| Spoon Gimme Fiction | 4.0 |
| Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga | 3.5 |
| Beck Modern Guilt | 3.0 |
| Beck Sea Change | 3.5 |
| Beck Guero | 3.0 |
| Sunset Rubdown Shut Up I Am Dreaming | 5.0 |
| Conor Oberst Conor Oberst | 5.0 |
| Beirut Gulag Orkestar | 5.0 |
| Beirut Lon Gisland | 4.5 |
| Beirut The Flying Club Cup | 4.5 |
| Phoenix (FRA) Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix | 4.0 |
| City and Colour Bring Me Your Love | 3.0 |
| Underoath The Changing of Times | 3.0 |
| Underoath Lost in the Sound of Separation | 3.5 |
| Underoath Define the Great Line | 3.0 |
| Underoath They're Only Chasing Safety | 5.0 |
| Broken Social Scene You Forgot It in People | 5.0 |
| Broken Social Scene Broken Social Scene | 5.0 |
| Santigold Santogold | 5.0 |
| TV on the Radio Return to Cookie Mountain | 5.0 |
| TV on the Radio Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes | 4.5 |
| TV on the Radio Dear Science | 4.0 |
| Cat Power Jukebox | 5.0 |
| Vampire Weekend Contra | 3.5 |
| Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend | 4.0 |
| Wild Sweet Orange We Have Cause To Be Uneasy | 5.0 |
| Tokyo Police Club A Lesson in Crime | 3.5 |
| Tokyo Police Club Elephant Shell | 4.5 |
| Yeah Yeah Yeahs Show Your Bones | 3.0 |
| Yeah Yeah Yeahs Fever To Tell | 3.5 |
| Yeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz! | 5.0 |
| Phantom Planet Raise The Dead | 4.0 |
| Asobi Seksu Citrus | 3.5 |
| Neutral Milk Hotel In the Aeroplane Over the Sea | 5.0 |
| MGMT Oracular Spectacular | 4.0 |
| Missy Elliott Supa Dupa Fly | 3.0 |
| Missy Elliott The Cookbook | 3.5 |
| Shiny Toy Guns We Are Pilots | 3.0 |
| Shiny Toy Guns Season of Poison | 3.5 |
| Manchester Orchestra Mean Everything to Nothing | 3.0 |
| Manchester Orchestra I'm Like a Virgin Losing a Child | 4.5 |
| Arcade Fire Neon Bible | 4.0 |
| Arcade Fire Funeral | 3.0 |
| Bright Eyes Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground | 3.0 |
| Bright Eyes Fevers & Mirrors | 3.5 |
| Bright Eyes Digital Ash in a Digital Urn | 3.0 |
| Bright Eyes Cassadaga | 5.0 |
| M.I.A. Maya | 5.0 |
I didn't "love" Arular; I adored Kala, but I'm obsessed with Maya. In my opinion, this is M.I.A. in her most potent form - stripped of the multicultural influences that "softened" the music of her two previous albums. In Maya, M.I.A. is raw and powerful; her exotic charm and airy beats seen in Kala are replaced by a grungier, more dystopic, seemingly more condensed tone in Maya, where the air is filled with the sounds of ear-splitting drills and conspiracy theories run wild. Anyone expecting another LP of ethnic beat potpourri are going to get, well, culture shock, more or less. Although her style is essentially still the same, this drastic excision of her multicultural undertones seems to be a deliberate attempt to both scare off mainstream "Paper Plane"-ers and to say "Hey, I don't need beats from India or influence from the Caribbean - my music is MY music." However, it may have worked too well, as I have personally seen this album scare off quite a few ardent fans from the Arular days.
All in all, this is a great album, if not one of the best albums of the year. It's harder, rougher, and more condensed than Arular or Kala. Maybe that's why she named it after herself - it's something like an autobiography or self portrait. |
| M.I.A. Kala | 3.5 |
