Atmosphere - "When Life Gives You Lemons, Paint That Shit Gold"
-I'm not a big fan of hip-hop, not by any means. But...damn. This is an absolutely amazing album. Incredible beats, solid rhymes and a great story throughout the album.
****1/4 out of *****
Favorite Tracks: "Puppets", "Dreamer", "Guarantees", "Wild Wild Horses", "The Waitress", "In Her Music Box"
Least Favorite Track: "Your Glasshouse"
Coldplay - "Viva la Vida (or: Death And All His Friends)"
-This...this is a great album, from beginning to end. If you're turned off from this because maybe you heard "Clocks" or "The Speed of Sound" too many times (and trust me, that could easily describe me), I encourage you to pick this up. I wasn't sold on the bonus track included in the copy I had, "The Escapist", but besides that, this is a solid pick-up to make if you like Coldplay. Or liked them, before radio killed them, because really, I can't see any song from this being as radio friendly as "Clocks" or "Speed of Sound".
****1/2 out of ***** (Bonus Track Version: ****1/4 out of *****)
Favorite Tracks: "Lost", "42", "Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love", "Viva la Vida", "Strawberry Swing", "Death And All His Friends"
Least Favorite Tracks: "Life in Technicolor", "The Escapist" (Bonus Track Version Only)
Fleet Foxes - "Fleet Foxes"
-I was recommended this album by a good number of people, and I must say; I'm not as sold on it as they are. A folky indie-rock style that lends itself to slower, more calm songs, and in general didn't really stick with me. A few stand-out tracks, but nothing awful.
***3/4 out of *****
Favorite Tracks: "Ragged Wood", "Your Protector"
Least Favorite Tracks: "Sun It Rises", "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song", "He Doesn't Know Why", "Meadowlarks"
Girl Talk - "Feed The Animals"
-Wow. Just...wow. An old favorite album of mine is a mash-up using the lyrics from Jay-Z's "The Black Album" and various Weezer songs. This is that, but turned up to eleven. Girl Talk is, simply put, some of the best mash-up music that can be made, and "Feed The Animals" does it in spades, with a metric ton of tracks anyone who has listened to pop music in the last 15 years can recognize. The best part is it, for the most part, sounds so natural. The only downside of the album is the parts that don't come off as naturally just sound odd and thrown together. But at no point does it veer into unsalvageable territory.
****1/4 out of *****
Favorite Tracks: "Can't You See?", "First Time", "Aftermath", "Well Known Fact", "Tragedy", "Watch What You Do", "Make It Better"
Least Favorite Tracks: "Coast Without Me", "Worth It", "Rockin"
The Mars Volta - "The Bedlam in Goliath"
-On a lark once I picked up a lot of At The Drive-In. They were good, then they split into two bands. One went more low-key but still closer to traditional rock, and they were Sparta. The other, including lead singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala, formed the experimental prog-rock band The Mars Volta. I had not been a fan of their previous work, which had mostly consisted of four-part suites that bordered on the 15 minute mark, but this goes in a slightly different direction. The songs are still long, one or two stretching past the eight-minute mark, but there's an energy that's reminiscent of ATDI, which should make the people that were fans of them happy. I found myself pleasantly surprised by the album, but the second half fell flat for me.
**** out of *****
Favorite Tracks: "Metatron", "Goliath"
Least Favorite Tracks: "Askepios", "Soothsayer", "Conjugal Burns"
Tokyo Police Club - "Elephant Shell"
-TPC is exactly the kind of band I can immediately fall in love with; straight up pop-rock with nothing special attached to it. An incredibly solid album, one that I couldn't actually find anything wrong with, but not as spectacular as other albums I'll probably document in the future.
****1/4 out of *****
Favorite Tracks: "Graves", "Tessellate", "Listen to the Math"
Least Favorite Tracks: None
Less Than Jake - "GNV FLA"
-This is my new kick; bands with ska influence, or just bands that use a brass section for effect. LTJ is a ska/punk/rock band from Gainesville, FL, and they've put together a fantastic album here, that I would say is probably slightly better than the Tokyo Police Club album I just mentioned. The only "downpoint" on the album is "The Life of the Party Has Left the Building", which is only forty-one seconds long.
****1/4 out of *****
Favorite Tracks: "The State of Florida", "Summon Monsters", "Settling Son", "Malachi Richter's Liquor's Quicker", "The Space They Can't Touch", "Devil In My DNA"
Least Favorite Track: "The Life of the Party Has Left the Building"
Does It Offend You, Yeah? - "You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into"
-Wow...like Fleet Foxes, another band I picked up on high approval of others, and I was left extremely disappointed. The beginning of the album starts so out there I couldn't begin to get into it. The second half is only slightly better, but by far the worst of the albums I've gotten.
***1/2 out of *****
Favorite Track: "Let's Make Out"
Least Favorite Tracks: "Battle Royale", "With A Heavy Heart (I Regret to Inform You...)", "We Are Rockstars", "Attack of the 60ft Lesbian Octopus", "Weird Science"
Jason Mraz - "We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things"
-I picked up on Jason Mraz when Mr. A-Z came out, and found that it started really strong, but then seemed to lose all of its steam. I was afraid about the same thing happening to this album when "Details in the Fabric" dragged through its nearly six-minute runtime. But the album rebounded, and finished just as strong as it started.
out of *****
Favorite Tracks: "Make It Mine", "I'm Yours", "Live High", "Coyotes", "The Dynamo of Volition", "If It Kills Me"
Least Favorite Tracks: "Details In The Fabric"
(Jordan Phillips &)The Four Kicks - EP
-I picked this one up at 527 Friday night after seeing them play (on one hour's notice, no less!). An incredible act live, with blistering guitar solos and clean live lyrics, which can be hard to come by. The album cuts down on the solos, but keeps the same charm the band has live. It's available on iTunes, if you can't make it to a show of theirs to buy it, though I recommend seeing them live.
****3/4 of *****
Favorite Tracks: "Waiting For The Fire", "Chain", "Don't Fall In Love", "Believe In What You See", "February Something"
Least Favorite Tracks:
In short, this is going to be a regular deal for me, since it's something I can write about easily. I might do other review posts, but I'm not sure yet.
