Tegan and Sara - Sainthood (2009)

Heard the leak and it's pretty good. A bit more energetic than their last few albums. Some of their songs are so catchy that I can forgive the mediocre lyrics and abrasive vocal pitch. LISTEN

Converge - Axe to Fall (2009)

Axe to Fall is their seventh studio album and I think it’s a step up from their excellent 2006 album No Heroes. Musically, this is a bit more diverse than anything they’ve done, and it doesn’t sacrifice that intense catharsis for which they are known. Everything about this band is heavy, the vocals aren’t just screamed, they’re screamed in such a way that the human throat should not be capable of. The slower dirges are really powerful too. The drums are frantic and intricate, as are the guitars which play some really awesome riffs here. My favorite tracks are “Dark Horse” which has a delightful guitar riff, and “Cruel Bloom” which has some cool vocal parts. If you don’t like heavy music, stay away, but if you do, this band makes the some of the most intense music on this planet.

A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head (2009)

As with many shoegaze/dream pop albums, it isn’t hard to hear some pretty standard pop motifs here, whether they be a guitar riff or melody or vocal hook. The difference, of course, is the hazy guitar sound that turns this into something else altogether. The drums and vocals are very low in the mix so you hear the wailing guitars, and what drums and vocals there are seem to be coming up from beneath something chaotic. This chaos is an illusion though, because if you listen close, which you should be if you decide you like this, you’ll hear that this isn’t very well disguised pop music. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but when you take away the haze, you might think you’re hearing a Cure cover band, so those guitars really are necessary. Overall, this is pretty good, but I find that it’s better background music when I’m in the mood for something a bit challenging and abstract. It is being a bit overhyped, but I’ve given it a fair amount of time, and it is a solid release, I think. (Record label won't let me share this with you)

Lightning Bolt - Earthly Delights (2009)

A heavy noise album, although it isn't as chaotic as one might expect noise to be. Instead, it's pretty musical, oftentimes taking a bass-heavy riff and just sort of running with it for a while, as the occasional random noise seeps in and out. It's pretty interesting. LISTEN

Jurassic 5 - Power in Numbers (2002)

Another type of music I don't normally listen to. This is intelligent hip-hop that has a really good flow to it, and lacks the posturing and cliche of so much other rap music. I still very rarely listen to hip-hop, but I think this might be my favorite album of the genre. LISTEN

John Zorn - O'o (2009)

Got some catching up to do. This is a really good jazz album. Even if you don't normally listen to jazz, you might find this a pleasant listen. LISTEN

Elliott Smith - XO (1998)

Some of Elliott Smith’s most tuneful songs are on “XO” which makes his poetic lyrics, relevant song themes, and pleasant singing voice that much more pleasant. All Music Guide describes the record by saying it’s easy to get lost in the beautiful melodies and not realize what he’s singing about. The words are as beautiful and the guitar playing. My favorites: “Waltz #2 (XO)”, “Baby Britain”, “Independence Day”, “Bottle Up and Explode!” LISTEN

TRACKLIST

1. Sweet Adeline – 3:15
2. Tomorrow Tomorrow – 3:07
3. Waltz #2 (XO) – 4:40
4. Baby Britain – 3:13
5. Pitseleh – 3:22
6. Independence Day – 3:04
7. Bled White – 3:22
8. Waltz #1 – 3:22
9. Amity – 2:20
10. Oh Well, Okay – 2:33
11. Bottle Up and Explode! – 2:58
12. A Question Mark – 2:41
13. Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands – 4:25
14. I Didn't Understand – 2:17

Arab Strap - Monday at the Hug and Pint (2003)

Arab Strap was a Scottish duo known for their very sad, downtempo indie pop songs featuring heavy doses of sarcasm, self-deprecation, and even perversity. By all accounts, their output was unwaveringly depressing until “Monday at the Hug and Pint,” their fifth album which has songs of varying tempos. I think this album is more interesting that their others for that reason, because none of the songs sound too much like the ones before them. Drum machines, strings, and acoustic guitars are constantly present, with a few surprises (horns) thrown in. Singer Aidan Moffat’s heavily-accented voice is a constant, as is the generally somber mood. He constantly sings about relationships that haven’t gone very well, and the music behind his lyrics fits the theme perfectly. LISTEN

TRACKLIST
1. The Shy Retirer – 4:21
2. Meanwhile, at the Bar, a Drunkard Muses – 2:25
3. Fucking Little Bastards – 6:15
4. Peep Peep – 3:10
5. Flirt – 3:22
6. Who Named the Days? – 4:22
7. Loch Leven (Intro) – 2:28
8. Loch Leven – 3:17
9. Glue – 3:12
10. Act of War – 4:10
11. Serenade – 3:50
12. The Week Never Starts Round Here – 2:17
13. Pica Luna – 2:56

Belle and Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister (1996)

Belle and Sebastian’s If You’re Feeling Sinister seems to be their most appreciated album, and that makes sense because it’s filler-free, intelligent, humorous, whimsical, catchy, inviting, warm, friendly, (can't think of any more appropriate adjectives, but that's enough). LISTEN

TRACKLIST

1. The Stars of Track and Field (4:48)

2. Seeing Other People (3:48)

3. Me and the Major (3:51)

4. Like Dylan in the Movies (4:14)

5. The Fox in the Snow (4:11)

6. Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying (3:25)

7. If You're Feeling Sinister (5:21)

8. Mayfly (3:42)

9. The Boy Done Wrong Again (4:17)

10. Judy and the Dream of Horses (3:40)

Sleepercar - West Texas (2008)

Sleepercar is a folk-influenced pop/rock group led by Jim Ward (from At the Drive-In and Sparta). His voice has always been his most noteworthy trait, and it lends itself quite well to this type of music. There's a lot of anguish in it, and although his other projects required a lot of screaming and howling, it always conveyed a lot of emotion. Some songs come from a more pop/rock place, such as "Wasting My Time" and "Kings & Compromises." The bulk of this borrows from more rural genres, with steel guitar and gentle acoustic guitars throughout. Some songs embody that rustic feel especially well ("Heavy Weights"). According to wikipedia, this was influenced by Wilco, Ryan Adams, Tom Petty, and Bob Dylan. That sounds about right. LISTEN

TRACKLIST

1. A Broken Promise (2:58)
2. Wasting My Time (2:57)
3. Fences Down (3:53)
4. Wednesday Nights (4:04)
5. Kings and Compromises (4:52)
6. Heavy Weights (4:42)
7. Sound the Alarm (4:19)
8. End of a Year (3:36)
9. You Should Run (4:20)
10. All Will End Well (1:22)
11. Stumble In (2:57)

Monster of Folk - Monsters of Folk (2009)

Monsters of Folk is a "supergroup" consisting of Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis (of Bright Eyes), M. Ward, and Jim James (My Morning Jacket). This doesn't meet my astronomically high expectations, and is merely very good. I think the reason for this is that the members were so excited to work with each other that they were content to explore their bandmates' sounds. Instead of really great collaborations between these four, we have songs that sound like M. Ward songs ("Whole Lotta Losin," "Goodway"), songs that sound like MMJ songs ("Dear God," "Losin Yo Head") and songs that would fit on a recent Bright Eyes album ("Ahead of the Curve," "Man Named Truth"). Even though most of these songs feature the entire band's voices, they wind up sounding more like one of the artists. Jim James' backing vocals contribute nicely to "Map of the World" but it still sounds like a b-side from Bright Eyes' "Cassadaga." Mike Mogis was that guy who stayed on the stage during Bright Eyes shows when everyone except Conor and some other guy left the stage; when I saw them this was to play "When the Brakeman Turns My Way." The songs Mike leads are good enough to justifiably be put alongside the other ones here. "Magic Marker" is his, and though his bandmates provide nice vocal harmonies, it suggests that a Mike Mogis solo album would be worth tracking down. "Baby Boomer" is probably the closest thing to what I'd expected from this album, since it at least seems to have all four singing equally. This is a very, very good folk album. It captures the aesthetic perfectly, but if you like any of these artists' previous work, you will no doubt be expecting more. This is unfortunate, since this is very good. LISTEN

TRACKLIST

1. Dear God (sincerely M.O.F.) (5:07)
2. Say Please (2:48)
3. Whole Lotta Losin' (2:45)
4. Temazcal (3:49)
5. The Right Place (3:48)
6. Baby Boomer (2:53)
7. Man Named Truth (3:51)
8. Goodway (2:01)
9. Ahead of the Curve (3:40)
10. Slow Down Jo (3:21)
11. Losin' Yo' Head (4:37)
12. Magic Marker (3:20)
13. Map of the World (4:24)
14. The Sandman, the Brakeman and Me (3:23)
15. His Master's Voice (4:50)

Caspian - Tertia (2009)

Caspian are a five-piece post-rock group from Massachusetts. “Tertia” is their second full-length album, and like their debut, it’s pretty standard fare for this type of music. To be honest, it does not really deliver what I look for in the genre, but is a fine album nonetheless. Very few post-rock bands turn their instruments into truly communicative devices. Mogwai did it on their best work. Explosions in the Sky and Sigur Ros do so without fail, crafting music that might as well be spoken in plain English because of the wealth of thoughts and images it conjures to go along with the sheer beauty of the songs. “Tertia” doesn’t really do that. It does create a mood, but the mood is often very created in a very rudimentary, obvious sort of way. The guitars swirl in a dissonant sort of way, often with the rhythm section and keys thundering behind it. The image created by this is a simple one. Many post-rock bands can do this in their sleep—give the illusion of tension building and then subsiding, like a storm approaching and then giving way. The best songs of this genre make it more convincing though. They do it in a “show, don’t tell” sort of way. Caspian do a fine job of imitating the basics of post-rock, but this album isn’t a very powerful listen. Then again, when I want a good instrumental album, sometimes it’s enough for it to just rock for forty minutes. I can put Caspian on and listen without feeling like time was wasted, but nothing about them will drop your jaw. LISTEN

Tracklist
01. Mie (4:12)
02. La Cerva (5:00)
03. Ghost of the Garden City (7:32)
04. Malacoda (5:02)
05. Epochs in DMaj (5:03)
06. Of Foam and Wave (6:16)
07. Concrescence (4:22)
08. The Raven (6:59)
09. Vienna (6:12)
10. Sycamore (9:00)

Mogwai - Young Team (1997)

This is one of my favorite post-rock albums. There isn't a sound on this album that isn't damn near perfect. Everything works together to create the most emotive, energenic, captivating music possible using just guitar, bass, drums, and occasionally piano and a couple other things. It just feels so organic and real, and the music is constantly shifting, never grows stagnant or gets into a rut, but the music seems to follow a fairly logical progression with nothing feelings arbitrary or out of place. Mogwai's best moments were the 16 that make up "Mogwai Fear Satan" which grows more and more intense and choatic before giving way to a beautiful flute section. It might be the most communicative instrumental song I've ever heard. LISTEN

1. Yes! I Am a Long Way from Home (5:57)
2. Like Herod (11:41)
3. Katrien (5:24)
4. Radar Maker (1:35)
5. Tracy (7:19)
6. Summer (Priority version) (3:28)
7. With Portfolio (3:10)
8. R U Still in 2 It (7:20)
9. A Cheery Wave from Stranded Youngsters (2:18)
10. Mogwai Fear Satan (16:19)

Sufjan Stevens - The BQE (2009)

I'm sure a lot of people are searching for it, so here it is but it's not that good. I guess to be fair, I should just say I don't like it. I don't like Sufjan Stevens. I spent a lot of time listening to some of his albums, especially "Illinois" which had some good songs, but then he did too many smug interviews in which his pretentiousness turned me off. The highlight was one where he described "Chicago" as appealing to the lowest common denominator. His obnoxiousness made albums where every other song is a twenty-second burst of orchestral noise or a train whistle, far less enticing. Should I sit for an hour to hear the twenty minutes of exciting folk-pop, or just get it elsewhere, where the music is more focused, and spends less time trying to be art (becoming ever more artistic by that fact alone)?

Now, Stevie really isn't doing anything all too special here. He's heard some adventurous music, and some pretty music, and some Christian music, and he regurgitates it all on his albums. This isn't original, it's sometimes pretty, but it isn't special enough for me to get over the fact that I don't like him and don't want to support his work. I hope the big guy up there is impressed (look straight up hard enough and you'll either see him, or pass out, or both) because I'm not. Some things are more important than credibility, after all.

This album is not terrible, sometimes it's pretty, sometimes the sounds he creates are actually artistically interesting. Maybe if I'd gone to art school, I'd "get it". Good for him, he's done something decent here, but it isn't done so well as to make me forget who wrote it. I don't need another modern-classical avante-electronic album that badly.

Once in a while, there will be albums here I don't like (see Muse "The Resistance"). Sometimes I'm curious about new releases I don't expect to enjoy. Sometimes albums I've been anticipating turn out to be a dissappointment. Sorry for the negativity. LISTEN

Tracks:
1. Prelude On The Esplanade — 2:56
2. Introductory Fanfare For The Hooper Heroes — 1:07
3. Movement I: In The Countenance Of Kings — 5:19
4. Movement II: Sleeping Invader — 4:34
5. Interlude I: Dream Sequence In Subi Circumnavigation — 3:33
6. Movement III: Linear Tableau With Intersecting Suprise — 4:09
7. Movement IV: Traffic Shock — 3:24
8. Movement V: Self-Organizing Emergent Patterns — 3:45
9. Interlude II: Subi Power Waltz — 0:28
10. Interlude III: Invisible Accidents — 0:54
11. Movement VI: Isorhythmic Night Dance With Interchanges — 3:17
12. Movement VII (Finale): The Emperor Of Centrifuge — 3:51
13. Postlude: Critical Mass — 2:59