Hmmm....maybe I should give that Walkmen album a chance. Other than the song Louisiana though, I haven't really dug anything by them since their debut which I loved. I agree though that they are a band to root for. I hear little things that I like in every Walkmen album, the things I like just don't usually coalesce into songs that really do anything for me.

Sheeeeeeee. I guess for a single but for me, "Tangerine" kills it. Stripper Anthem of the year.

But, yeah, agree with the rest of your assessment. Great album. Deserved WAY more hype than it got.

Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

Though I've listened to every Deerhunter and Bradford Cox-related release at some point, I've never taken the time to thoroughly enjoy, delve into and attempt to review any. As one of the most praised bands of the last few years, Deerhunter always sort of remained on the fringes for me. I've tried (albeit not too hard) to get into the band, but most of their releases just leave me sort of indifferent. The music harkens back to some of the great bands of the 90s, and there was enough sonic feedback to blast, but if you were to ask me to name a single Deerhunter song or hum its tune, I would look at you dumbfounded.

So with "Halcyon Digest" I actually wanted to take the time to try to actually listen to the band, to feel an opinion one way or the other, something strong enough to write about. I wanted to be able to differentiate the songs, remember what I was listening to, be able to sing along.

And after a week and over a dozen listens...it sort of worked. But I'll go ahead and tell you straight off: I still don't really understand all the praise.

There has been a lot of talk about how this might be the most subdued and/or focused Deerhunter album yet, or the album where Cox and Pundt begin to understand the importance of actually writing songs as opposed to creating a barrage of awesome sounds. This might be true, the songwriting and the lyrics might actually be stronger on this album than the last few, but I wouldn't be the one to tell you. Even after all these listens, I can't recall a single lyric save for a few choruses and those are on the more upbeat, Strokes-like tracks ("Desire Lines", "Coronado", etc.). These are the songs I enjoy more. I realize Deerhunter splits their time between dreamy, echo-laden stuff and noisy rock jaunts, but what is really surprising about this record is the pop music inherent in many of the tracks. The aforementioned tracks are a lot of fun, "Basement Scene" sounds like an early Oh Sees track and though all these tracks are dreamy, the noticeable choruses or harmonies (or in the case of "Helicopter" the huge instrumental backing at the chorus) really makes some of these songs memorable. The downbeat songs still aren't cutting it for me, but a couple of these more pop-leaning songs are among some of the best stuff I've heard all year.

I still don't think Deerhunter is a band that really deserves all the praise they've received, but maybe I'm not the right guy for the band. Their lyrics might be the key to them, but as someone who is attracted more to the feeling of the music, they just often leave me a bit cold - or well, still indifferent. They're getting there and definitely improving with each release, but I'm still not ready to fawn over anything they do.

In Summary: I could live without this album and not know any different, but I'm glad that there are at least a few memorable songs on this release.

No Age - Everything In Between

No Age is a band that you want to root for. Two young dudes playing the hell out of their instruments, looping bizarre samples and making music that is equally influenced by the loud, tranquil sounds of late-era My Bloody Valentine and the loud, no-holds barred sounds of SST bands like Hüsker Du. They straddle the line between pretentious noise-rock and awesome punk rock as good as anyone and they're fun. I mean, it's really fun to rock out to them.

But on "Everything In Between", a bit of the fun has been removed. Not everything is rapid-fire, 200 miles per hour and loud as fuck, with random drone tracks throne in to show off. Now, they've slowed it down here and there, getting a bit more of a early 90s Sonic Youth vibe from their songs, and I don't really like that vibe very much.

"Weirdo Rippers" was pretty cool when it came out because it was a time when noise and drone music was on the upswing again, when all sorts of experimental bands were popping up and blowing our speakers. It was lo-fi and crazy, but there was evidence of some pretty decent songs under all that fuzz, if we could only here them. "Nouns" was great because it was like basically a mall-punk record where you couldn't sing along to the lyrics. You still wanted to bob up and down and run around crazy, because the record was fun and super loud - but there was a certain artfulness to it. It wasn't just noise for the sake of being noise, it was thoughtful, it added to the songs. And the drone tracks were great, I mean really beautiful moments that came before they were shattered into huge punk rock songs.

"Everything In Between" has some of these moments, it definitely has songs that rock about as hard as anything they've put out: "Fever Dreaming", "Depletion" and "Shed & Transcend" are bonafide rockers. The pace is fierce, the drums pound, the vocals are screeched in, it makes you want to break something like a lot of the best rock music should. But much of the rest of the album takes a softer approach. The vocals play a bit more of a role this time around, where you can hear lyrics and actually hear the voice in general, but it's not a good thing. I want those vocals buried back into the mix, adding to the overall feeling of a song. Tracks like "Glitter" and "Skinned" and "Valley Hump Crash" are all decent, but they're not really memorable and after listening to the album quite a few times, I found myself wondering whether or not I would actually like these songs more if they were purely instrumental.

Which brings me to tracks like "Katerpillar", "Sorts" and "Positive Amputation", which are all essentially instrumental drone tracks, but tracks that I find maybe the most interesting on the album. There's just something about No Age's specific brand of drone and noise music that really does it for me. It's not too loud and too grating and it's not sentimental either, it's somewhere in between, it's like the cool Eno instrumentals on those 70s Bowie albums, but for the here and now. They're transcendent in a way, they're pretty, but they're still gonna blow your speakers. "Shed And Transcend" is the perfect compliment between these instrumentals and a really great punk song. Probably the best song on the record and maybe one of the best rock songs of the year.

I still like this band and I still want to root for them, but I can't help but think that No Age took a step backward on this release. Yes, they're trying to expand their sound a little bit, they're experiencing a bit more with different tempos and different samples and probably becoming more confident as songwriters which is all good and well - but "Nouns" just rocked so awesomely, that I just want that sound created some more.

In Summary: Nothing is truly bad here, but about half the album is pretty forgettable.

I don't think I've heard anything from the Walkmen other than "We've Been Had." I have no good excuse for why I've avoided this band, but I definitely need to listen to their new one.

Also, I used to think we had extremely differing taste, contradiction. But on most of the albums you've reviewed that I have heard, I find myself agreeing with you over and over.

Funny how that works! I'm sure we both have a lot of things we disagree about, but when we put things into a microcosm of our tastes, well - we're all best friends! haha.

Twin Shadow - Forget

This is how you craft a brilliant pop album. I've read some of the stories about George Lewis Jr. aka Twin Shadow's history in the music industry and it's fascinating and all, but totally irrelevant and tells me nothing about how he was able to create this record, one of the best of the year.

With an aesthetic that recalls the ever-so-hip 80's revival, "Forget" manages something that most of these other new-new wave albums fail to: by creating a sound that is it's own, both retro and modern and experimenting with a lot of different sounds. We could list a lot of influences heard in Twin Shadow's sound: Roxy Music, Morrissey, Tears for Fears, Echo & The Bunnymen, Tv on the Radio, Grizzly Bear, "chillwave", it goes on and on and it's all apt, but there is something here that is soulful. Whereas bands like The Radio Dept., Wild Nothing and even Caribou are creating retro sounding pop music that is real good, there is something inhuman about a lot of their tracks. They're about atmosphere, awesome, cohesive sounds - but too often it just sounds a bit...cold. Twin Shadow's songs features similar instrumentation and drum machine patterns, but his voice is just exquisite, one of the best new vocalists in a while, and his songs speak to the listener: personal yet applicable to the outside and it is because of this that his music feels much warmer, much more human. It's not perfect music, but it's music that definitely speaks to you.

What I really enjoy about this record is how each track is distinguishable from the one before it. Just about every song has a hook that you want to hum along to, but the actual sounds and format on each of these 11 songs is different enough to retain it's own unique quality while still retaining enough cohesion to work as a really great album. I mean for me, this plays like some of Roxy Music's best moments, like a New Order greatest hits - it's an album that should be considered one of the best albums of 2010 and one of the best albums of 1984.

The production is top notch, it's not glossy and has a bedroom feel to it, which is exciting, but it's not lo-fi. But with Chris Taylor's help, every instrumental choice and pattern within the songs just seems right. There are few bands who can do this, where a single, simple synth effect in just one place can change the entire song for the better and "Forget" has this feature on just about every song.

For me, this might be the best electronic-based pop album since the Junior Boys' second album "So This is Goodbye"...and they're basically my favorite band. I don't want to sound completely hyperbolic because this isn't my favorite album of the year, but I can say with confidence that this might be the definitive pop statement of 2010 and an album that I will remember the year by a decade from now.

In Summary: The best chillwave, synth-pop, 80s-revival, etc. record released this year. Just great pop music.

agree - enjoying this one.

Sufjan Stevens - The Age Of Adz

An awful lot has been written about Sufjan Stevens over the past 8 years. You can go to virtually any website specializing in pop-culture criticism or go through just about any music or entertainment magazine and there is likely to at least have been some off-handed mention of singer/songwriter somewhere, if not some overwrought, deeply meditated on analysis of his body of work and personal demons. After releasing what was basically the undisputed music critic's favorite album of the year in 2005, Sufjan basically disappeared, popping up every now and then with some experimental releases and random backup singer performances for his friends. Maybe he couldn't handle the pressure, maybe he went through a medical scare, maybe he was working on something completely new, maybe he just wanted time off - who cares. You can go elsewhere if you want to philosophize about this uniquely divisive artist and his whereabouts over the past 5 years, this is about my relationship with him.

When I stumbled upon "Michigan" somehow in 2003, before my knowledge of Pitchfork and indie music in general, that album really changed the entire musical landscape for me. I was delving into the world of independent releases, but hip hop was still the dominating force in my life. Sure I'd marveled and sung along to The Strokes 2 years earlier, but I was definitely more keen to listen to Jay-Z on repeat back then. "Michigan" nailed me from the first time I heard it. Opening track "Flint..." was breathtakingly beautiful, I mean this is the song above all others I've heard in the entirety of my life that probably reduced me to tears more than any other. Sure I was in a rougher, less confident place back then, but Sufjan's frail voice and the minimal banjo accompaniment - this shit got to me. I thought "Fathers of Ypsilanti..." was the best song I ever heard, I just loved this album, both the bombastic, high-reaching stuff and the fragile folk songs. It's like this album was made to get me into new kinds of music and it succeeded.

But it also made Sufjan a deity in my eyes. The most important musician going at the time, the guy who was going to save music and eventually every spot in my top 10 albums of all time. I thought I was alone in this sentiment, that I was the only one in the world who was having a deep emotional connection with Sufjan's music, but with the release and disappointment of "Seven Swans" (maybe my favorite now), I felt alienated and upset. Upset that he wasn't able to exactly replicate what he had done on "Michigan" but also that he was getting praise for more places by the day, that some of my real life peers were listening to him and asking me if I knew about him. It was embarrassing the possessive grasp I had on Sufjan and when others wanted a piece of him and that music, I let go and walked away.

So I approached "Illinois", his most praised and talked about album with a cold shoulder. Why should I care about him when he doesn't care about me? It could be his best work, it could be the most ambitious album in many years, it could be an album that college students were likely writing half-baked theses about and it didn't matter. This wasn't the Sufjan I wanted, I was too good for that.

So when he disappeared, I was happy. The name "Sufjan Stevens" sort of became a joke, almost in the way that "You know how I know you're gay? You listen to Coldplay" worked so well in the "40-year Old Virgin" - we had this secret longing to still respect and enjoy the artist, but maybe not to tell anyone. I wanted to separate myself from Sufjan. But he made it easy when he separated himself from everyone.

So "The BQE" was totally exciting to me. Something new that not many people cared about or even liked, something that I could totally claim to be worth owning, worth praising, Sufjan being less precious and more serious again. But the truth was that I didn't really give a shit about that record after more than a half-dozen listens. Interesting? Sure. But it was cold and Sufjan's music isn't supposed to be that way.

So why am I telling you all this bullshit that doesn't matter? Because "The Age of Adz" is a rebirth of Sufjan in an era where he is no longer the most important musician for music fans and with a sound that is at once vintage Sufjan, while also totally brand new. Because this is the album where he stops being cute, stops writing about obscure, infamous characters and writes about himself. He lets it out, he opens himself up and once again, despite many of the songs containing a near-dance groove, he's putting out some heart-wrenching numbers.

I can't adequately review this album and I can't go into a huge amount of detail like lots of other reviews on the internet right now because: 1) I'm not a professional music critic who is good at doing that, and 2) Despite it being his most cohesive sounding album, this shit is still really dense. I've been actively seeking out the lyrics in the songs, even though the groove and bleeps want me to just enjoy myself and I'm impressed with the inward looking themes this time around, maybe it was a complete personal renaissance for the musician - whatever it was, it's probably for the better.

"The Age of Adz" is chock full of great moments, has a handful of truly memorable, impressive and immediately classic songs, but it still isn't quite to the level where I'm ready to fully embrace Sufjan the musician again. It's different, it's more subdued (in a way), and it sounds like an accomplished veteran just showering us with his prowess and ability to restrain himself, but there are moments that are still absurd. The last track doesn't need to be 25 minutes, though it's interesting, it's just not necessary. That could be it's own EP, that track could at least be cut down in half.

The album doesn't drag, it doesn't pick you up and drop you, it's an album and it's meant to be played as one. It's a nice statement and a nice rebirth for this once storied musician and it's sure to be as divisive as his other works as well. Is the Sufjan backlash over? Probably not, in fact - this album might make even more enemies than his previous work, but it shouldn't. It's making me want to take notice again, to like this guy, to spend time with this album. I may never love Sufjan the same way I did back in 2003, but I'm growing up and I'm glad he is too.

In Summary: On one hand it is his most cohesive and maybe listenable album to date, on the other hand - it lacks some of the high points of past records.

Girls - Broken Dreams Club EP

Of all the hyped bands of 2009, Girls was probably the one that I didn't understand the the high marks for. I wanted to be a fan, what with the vocalists backstory, their seemingly ridiculous persona and the fact that they are a Bay Area band, but after the opening of "Album" with great songs like "Lust For Life", "Laura" and "Ghost Mouth" - the whole thing seemed to just seemed to drift off into meandering, boring, not-quite-rock songs. They had a cool retro sound, but the songwriting wasn't there and beyond the chiming guitar which was really only evident on their true pop songs, there was just nothing that appealed to me. Try and try again, I could barely make it through their debut and listening again recently, my feelings are the same.

But I wanted to give them the benefit out the doubt, in hopes that they're going to be on an upward swing with their new releases. "Broken Dreams Club" is an improvement over that debut, in that the songs are better, more mature sounding and a little more fleshed out - but there isn't anything nearly as catchy as "Lust For Life" or "Laura".

"Thee Oh So Protective One" opens the album with an entirely new sound for Girls, with horns and sparse, oldies-style guitar thats stops and starts in a way reminiscent of early Elvis Costello. It's essentially a lounge act and would sound great soundtracking some sort of outdoor pool party scene in whatever new independent teen film is coming soon. "Heartbreaker" is their most fleshed out song, sounding a bit like Mojave 3 other aesthetically pretty, calming indie-pop bands. It's a great song and the real standout of the set.

From there, the EP falls a bit into meandering territory again, not really giving anything exciting, always performing around mid-tempo. It's clear that the band has some new influences, has learned some new studio tricks and has been working to write more focused songs - but they're still not quite there yet. The highs aren't quite as high as there very best stuff, but the overall sound is an improvement from their debut.

I think the band is moving in the right direction and I'm not doubting their ability to improve with even more releases and experience, but as of now - I still don't really think they are a band that deserves hype. They're just decent and nothing much more.

In Summary: Better than their debut, but not worth keeping.

Alright, well I'm not ready to review Kanye so I guess I'm done with Pitchfork's current BNM stuff and gonna go onto random things again!

i thought this album was pretty good. even panties to the side, which isn't really all that creepy. i'm gonna have to check out his other albums.

Joe Pug - Messenger

Despite gathering thousands upon thousands of dedicated fans across the US, recording and releasing a literate, confident and excellent EP in 2008 and basically be hailed as the next "it" singer/songwriter, I hadn't heard of Joe Pug until late this year. Early and inevitable comparisons to Dylan and Nebraska-era Springsteen made people take notice, relentless touring anywhere he could play in Chicago built up a reputation and his DIY attitude and willingness to send out apparently 15,000 CD-R's of demos and samplers allowed him to gain a legion of fans that only select folk artists are able to gather these days. Over the past year or so, he has taken the mantle from the likes of people like The Tallest Man on Earth, Deer Tick and Justin Townes Earle as one of the most blogged about musicians in the Americana world.

And he's gonna get big.

At 25-years old, Joe Pug writes songs that exude emotion in a different way than those previously mentioned. Though sometimes the "Nebraska" comparisons are apt, Pug can me compared most directly to John Prine at his most sparse or Josh Ritter without the orchestration. Most songs are sparse affairs: Pug with his acoustic guitar, harmonica some slide guitar here and there and a track with banjo. The album is bookended by tracks that feature a full band, but the instrumentation is just barely on the good side of a Barenaked Ladies or Counting Crows song, and they don't really fit with how good the rest of the album is, they're just a bit too cheesy.

But the other 8 songs, the real bread and butter of the record are mostly excellent singer/songwriter tracks. Pug writes literate, personal songs that don't wallow in flowery language and abstract concepts. He sings with conviction, emoting his pain and his love in a way that is as different from The Tallest Man on Earth you can get - it's calming music, but it's still powerful. Some lines make could probably make someone a bit uncomfortable as they occasionally move towards sappy romantic movie and coffeehouse cliches, but it's most relatable stuff. When Pug sings "I wrote John Steinbeck's books", your first reaction might be bafflement, but it's not hard to make a comparison in their style of writing - Pug is writing and performing songs that are familiar to everyone, yet his personality and his slight tweaks on stories make them much better than the average writer.

His voice is decent and will likely improve over time, it's already improved greatly since his debut EP two years ago. It's clear with a slight nasal like Prine, but it's pretty like Ritter's. On "Bury Me Far (From My Uniform)", he does sound like Springsteen at his quietest, but like the best folksingers, he's a combination of his influences. It's a humane voice, no one is going to consider it the best voice ever, but it's certainly pleasant and it certainly has passion. John Gorka might be another reference point.

The point is that Joe Pug's debut LP is definitely something exciting: a back-to-basics affair of well written modern folk songs, something you can put on in the morning, afternoon and night and just enjoy. If you like any of the musicians I've mentioned, you should do yourself a favor and check this album out. Is a complete revolution in the Americana world like some blogs want it to be? Not quite. Is it album of the year? Not even close. But it's clear that Joe Pug is going to be a major player in the roots world in years to come and that's definitely exciting.

In Summary: For fans of Josh Ritter, John Prine, other american singer-songwriters. Moments of cheese that will alienate some people, but most of the songs are really excellent and it should have a number of fans here.

i also want to stress again on that album that if you choose to listen to it, don't be turned off by the first song. it is a bit cheesy though it grows on you. the last song is pretty bad though which is a shame because it's acoustic on his EP and way better.

Never heard of Pug, but all the reference points head places I like to go, so I'll check him out. Really needs to pick a better name, though.

its pretty light and sappy, but it's good i think.

Cee-Lo - The Ladykiller

When I was younger, my older brother used to set the VCR to record Yo! MTV Raps when it had come back from the dead. This was like 94-95, without Dr. Dre and Ed Lover - where it was basically just videos and then commercials. He would record them on the weekend night, and then the next day him and I would go through that time, which always ran out before the entirety of videos was played. One day out of nowhere, never having heard the group before at that time - there was a video we watched called "Soul Food" by Goodie Mob. I fell in love with it instantly, the beat, the lyrics, and most obsessively: with Cee-Lo. I was under the spell of this dude's charisma, his bizarre voice, and how funny his lyrics were. As a kid who grew up listening to my brother's west coast records, Bone-Thugs and Nas - this was a revelation to me. I must've been the only white kid in Oregon under the age of 10 citing "Soul Food" as my favorite song. And now I can count it as one of my favorite albums.

Fast-forward about 10 years to when Cee-Lo actually sort of broke out with "I'll Be Around" with Timbaland. That song (and album) were breathtakingly exciting at the time. When Timbaland was actually still producing insane beats rather than the same thing over and over and Cee-Lo was finding a near-perfect balance of singing and rapping throughout that album. Just a couple years earlier, I tried to tell my friends to listen to "Cee-Lo Green And His Perfect Imperfections" but the truth was that despite a awesome video for "Closet Freak", the album was way too disjointed. "..The Soul Machine" on the other hand was full of great pop, funk and hip hop and while it was critically praised Cee-Lo still didn't really break through.

And then there was "Crazy" and Gnarls Barkley and suddenly Cee-Lo was one of the biggest and most popular musicians in the world. Let's not understate the importance of "Crazy" either - this song was the very first to ever top Britain's music charts entirely based on online sales.

But despite his continued success and his monster singles, there still hasn't been a Cee-Lo related release that doesn't have a disjointed feel or ultimately leave me feeling disappointed. Personality-wise, Cee-Lo is still one of my very favorite people in all of music even if he's no longer rapping, the guy is a joy but that can only take him so far.

"The Lady Killer" was released on a wave of hype, with "Fuck You" being one of the biggest and most popular viral music videos in ages. The lyrics-only version of that youtube has 7.5 million views, while the official video has almost 26 million. If anything can be called the dark horse for biggest song of the year, it's this one. And it's a great song. I mean sure it's a blast to sing along to (fuck the radio edit), but it's actually a great throw back song. It's emotional, hilarious, and features great production. It's every bit the monster it deserves to be, not just because it's controversial but because it's a great song even without the lyrics.

And on "The Lady Killer" that song is preceded by "Bright Lights Bigger City" and followed by "Wildflower" which are both also monster songs. The former is this huge sound, shows Cee-Lo channelling the 80s moreso than the 60s and 70s, has a slight Michael Jackson vibe to it while the chorus is like a more bombastic Hall & Oates and it's probably my single favorite song on the entire album. "Wildflower" builds slow but opens up into this huge chorus that features more excellent production and soaring vocals. This is Cee-Lo at his crossover best and should probably be the next single.

But after these 3 tracks, the album starts to fade as most Cee-Lo albums do. "Bodies" is a slow-burn, military-beat song with epic strings that just sort of sounds like a mess. It reminds me of that "Necromancer" song on the first Gnarls Barkley album - it's dark and creepy yet bizarrely sexual. Basically, I don't like it - all hook and nothing else. "Love Gun" is one of the worst songs on the album. It has cool production but the vocal delivery is annoying and whoever the female singer is just does not work. I don't know if Lauren Bennett is anyone famous, but she sounds like Janelle Monaé without being good - or in other words like every UK retro-soul, Mark Ronson protegé. "Satisfied" is another upbeat, 60s-inspired track and it's a fun listen but nowhere near the heights of those first few songs. I could see this track being really big as well, but it just sounds sort of uninspired to me.

And the rest album follows this very same path. All the songs are expertly produced, all the choruses are huge and Cee-Lo exudes confidence and charisma, but they just don't sound that special. I know there's no one really making music like Cee-Lo and certainly no one who sounds like him, but that doesn't mean all his songs are good and "The Lady Killer" proves it. There are a couple actual bad songs on here but the rest just sort of sounds like what we've heard from him before, or I'm just not buying his schtick as much anymore.

But there are a few really high moments on this record, they just happen to come at the very beginning. I'll still follow Cee-Lo until he's done making music because I'm sure somewhere up his sleeve, he's gonna finally pull out that solo masterpiece and satisfy my 9-year old self.

In Summary: Better than Gnarls Barkley, but most of these songs just aren't that great. Starts off amazingly strong though and then never catches up.

jesus my reviews started as like one paragraphs and somehow now I'm writing memoir's every time. I'm not even that passionate about an album like this or Joe Pug and yet they're coming out as novels. Sorry, I know no one wants to read that shit.

Jason Simon - Jason Simon

I'm not a huge Dead Meadow fan even though I think I own or at least have heard all of their albums. I mean, I like psychedelic music, I like stoner rock, images of giant redwood trees and memories of weilding axes, going camping and cooking over the open flame but something about Dead Meadow's albums always leaves them a bit lacking to me. I always like them, but they're never gonna blow my face off.

But when I found out that Jason Simon from Dead Meadow was releasing a solo album this year in a more intimate/acoustic setting, I was very intrigued. What we have here on his debut solo album is something that actually sounds like the album cover looks, complete with howling dog on "Strayin". It's a pleasant, tripped out sound and psychedelic folk music when done right is basically my favorite music in the history of the world - but there isn't enough variety here to keep me entertained or even recommend this album to anyone but the biggest fans of Simon's work.

The songs themselves are all decent and atmospherically convey the barely-lit-cabin feel that Simon is so good at, but the 10 tracks really start to blend into themselves pretty quickly. A mixture of picked guitar and some chords, an occassional electric wash, bass plodding along and Simon's echoed, whispered vocals are nice and it's definitely looking back at good American psychedelic folk, but this just needs more to work as an album. "What You Put In Your Head" is probably the album standout, because it differs from the rest of the album in that it's basically a pop song or a country rock song, and is a bit more upbeat than the 2am sound that the rest of the album is.

If I was making an autumn or winter mix in this vein, I'd put a song or two from this album on that mix, because like I said before, the ambience and overall feeling of the record accomplishes what it's doing and does it well - it's just a one trick pony and not worth listening to for 45 minutes.

In Summary: Not terrible, but not worth listening to. Decent psych folk for those who like Ben Chasney, Dead Meadow, etc. but ultimately underwhelming.

I've been kind of impressed by how much you've been writing for these. I struggle to put together two paragraphs most of the time.

Although I am pretty far behind in actually reading these. I plan to catch up and read most of them, though, as I am interested in what you have to say.

most of it is unnecessary bullshit about my youth

You really can't go wrong with any of The-Dream's solo albums. They're all some of the best pop/R&B releases of the decade.

Also, at some point you should do yourself a favor and check out his Electrik Red project.

oh i already listen to electrik red

Ellen Allien - Dust

When "Berlinette" was released in 2003, that album became a huge turning point in my relationship with electronic music. Up to that point, the only stuff I was listening to was Boards of Canada and a handful of other Warp artists, focusing on the spacey side of whatever the hell IDM was. But Ellen Allien's real breakthrough solo piece hit me in a awesome way. I remember writing back then that it was probably the best electronic album I had ever heard (though of course my selection at that point was really small). There was something about the production, about the how the tracks actually "bounced" and how they sounded so fluid and out of this world yet still made me dance, it was just a totally new ballgame. I can credit Ellen for being the person who directed me into having any sort of appreciation for techno and house music in their countless forms.

Since then, her albums have been pretty hit or miss. "Thrills" was sonically very exciting but ultimately disappointing for me, wanting another funky album like "Berlinette". Her album with Apparat "Orchestra of Bubbles" was something that was a product of it's time - when Postal Service was ruling the world, here was a slightly less pop and easy-listening electronic album, I enjoyed that but not to a huge degree. "SOOL" was the album where my relationship with Ellen Allien had some disagreements. Despite coming out when minimal techno was all the rage, something about that album was just TOO minimal, too sparse and left me flabbergasted. I think I deleted it somewhere around 6 different times and then redownloading it and eventually falling in love with it and buying it - a status I still feel with that album today (though I have sold it back with al my cds). Something about "SOOL" eventually stuck in me. It's minimal, sparse, yes yes and nothing like "Berlinette" - but if listened to long enough, you begin to find those things you're looking for. It worked to great effect late at night and passing the time.

So for "Dust" I was excited to see where she was going to take her sound. But it's not good, save for a few things here and there. Foregoing the sparse, experimental stuff from "SOOL" - Allien has decided to embrace her pop side once again, essentially turning in a dream pop album not too far off from the people who are typically considered the jokes of the genre. "Our Utopie" starts the album off interestingly enough, sounding very similar to the things Four Tet has been producing late, but "Flashy Flashy" just sounds dated and cliché - the kind of techno you would hear in the background of some terrible teen drama television show when they finally get into the night club they've wanted. Cheesy vocals, cheesy beat, just not good.

Much the rest of the album just sort of floats empty, with tracks that aren't interesting one way or the other. "Sun The Rain" would fit onto a Morr Music album and if the vocals were less whispered, wouldn't sound out of place on whatever 80s revival indie rock album came out this year. "Ever" might be the highlight of the album, even if it doesn't show originality. It straddles the line between early 90s house music and more modern minimal stuff, but it's an exciting listen for all 6 minutes. And from there, the album closes terribly. "You" sounds like a Moby song, "Dream" is boring, and the album just closes with more duds.

It's as if Ellen didn't have a vision for this album and was just going through the motions to appeal to the largest number of people possible, but in doing so has alienated a lot of her fans who like it when she challenges us. When she's good - she's one of the best producers in all of electronic music, this just isn't good.

In Summary: Ellen Allien's worst album.

Suff Daddy - The Gin Diaries

If nothing else, this album certainly sports one of my favorite covers of the year. The hue, the car, the setting, it's just an awesome photo.

But the music? Well it leaves something to be desired. At some odd point in my life, I was consuming and almost solely listening to instrumental hip hop. Once I discovered RJD2 and other hip hop producers put out beat tapes and fully fledged albums, I was hooked and I just wanted it all. I had a good friend who was into it even more and the two of us would swap this instrumental music, constantly talk about it and basically envision ourselves in our very own extreme sports videos. He went to actually make mountain bike videos and likely uses some of that very same music.

But then that genre basically died to me. RJD2 started putting out real bullshit, DOOM disappeared, Madlib was too prolific to follow and J Dilla pased away. Meanwhile acts like Bonobo were consistent but never the real deal, Blockhead became uninteresting, Damu was dope for a minute, blah blah blah. The novelty wore off. But I gave Suff Daddy a listen because of that cover and the name and for quite a few months, I've listened to this album more than a lot of other stuff from this year.

It's basically just a jazzy beat tape with some soul singing here and there. The song with Miles Bonney is actually real dope and smooth and reminds me a lot of Jose James without having to venture into the 7 minute mark. There is nothing too creative here, you've probably heard it from Nujabes or other French, German, Dutch and Japanese hip hop producers, but it is a pleasant listen. The drums are crisp, the keys twinkle, it's a nice little jazz album. And if you need that album for when you want something pleasant to put on when you have guests or for cleaning the house during the warmer months, this album might be for you.

But through repeated listens, I've come to decide that while it's inoffensive, it's just not worth keeping around. A couple tracks are really great, but most are just run of the mill jazzy beat tape excursions. But what is clear is that Suff Daddy has an ear for pretty sounds, has a good collection of funky drums and will likely put out a better album in the future - which I'll definitely check out. For now though - this is decent, but not really worth having unless you love this music.

In Summary: Probably nothing any of you would bother with, so don't. If you like Jose James and Foreign Exchange, you might just try and get the song "5 O'Clock Stuff" as it's a nice little foray into vocal jazz/neo soul.