Section: Music Reviews

2008 Album of the Year: Cut Copy/In Ghost Colours

Sections: Music Reviews Jan 3rd, 2009 No Comments

cut copy

Hands down the best piece of music I’ve heard all year.

Music Reviews for Summer/Fall ‘08

Sections: Music Reviews Dec 17th, 2008 No Comments

This is way way overdue….

The Cool Kids / Bake Sale / 4.0
Oasis / Dig Out Your Soul / 3.0
Okkervil River / The Stand Ins / 4.0
Dandy Warhols / Welcome To The Monkey House / 2.5
The Rapture / !K7 Tapes / 3.0
Health / Disco (V3) / 2.5
A.A. Bondy / American Hearts / 4.0
The Cool Kids / Bake Sale / 3.5
Mystery Jets / Twenty One / 3.5
Spiritualized / Songs in A&E / 4.0
White Denim / Workout Holiday / 3.0
Deastro / Keeper’s / 3.0
Beck / Modern Guilt / 4.0
Weezer / Weezer (The Red Album) / 1.0
Nôze / Songs On The Rocks / 3.0
The Charlatans / You Cross My Path / 3.0
Mark Ronson / Version / 4.0
Ryan Adams / Heartbreaker / 3.0
Drive-By Truckers / The Dirty South / 3.0
Art Brut / It’s A Bit Complicated / 2.5
Vampire Weekend / Vampire Weekend / 4.0
Yelle / Pop Up / 4.0
The Presets / Apocalypso / 3.0
Cut Copy / In Ghost Colours / 4.5

Early Frontrunner for Album of the Year

Sections: Music Reviews Apr 16th, 2008 1 Comment

…In Ghost Colours by Cut Copy. More from Pitchfork:

From the first swirling synths and gleaming melodies of curtain raiser “Feel the Love”, In Ghost Colours asserts itself as a hugely magnanimous record. Everything here sounds stadium-sized, loved-up, and breezily inclusive. There’s the lead single “Lights & Music”, an arena rock slow burner with a disco chorus; or the superb, helicoptering house of 2007 single “Hearts on Fire”, which gets a welcome reprise; or the sunburst rock of “Unforgettable Season”, which recalls Broken Social Scene in its ability to sound in full swoon from chord one; or the carefree “Strangers in the Wind”, whose lazy verse and torpid guitar peels owe a little bit to Fleetwood Mac. Elsewhere, “So Haunted” and “Far Away” compete for standout track status, the former sandwiching verses of fuzzy guitar squall around one of the most gorgeous-sounding choruses of the year, the latter an effervescent bit of 80s synth fluff that holds up against the best of Human League and Erasure.

Such. A. Great. Album. I don’t often agree word for word with a Pitchfork review but I simply can’t say it better. If this doesn’t end up being the album of the year, it has to already be the album of the summer… in April.

Album of the Year

Sections: Music Reviews Dec 30th, 2007 No Comments

2007 was a great year for music but one album stood out to me as 2007’s best:

LCD Soundsystem / Sound of Silver

Album Art of the Year

Sections: Music Reviews Dec 30th, 2007 No Comments

White Williams / Smoke

BTW the album as a whole is excellent with one stand-out track that could have easily been song of the year.

Fall Music Reviews

Sections: Music Reviews Dec 9th, 2007 1 Comment

My apologies for this list being so long and not having done it sooner. Work has unfortunately been running my life lately. Luckily I can still listen to music.

Heavy Trash / Get Way Out with Heavy Trash / 4.0

MIA / Kala / 3.0

Eagles of Death Metal / Death by Sexy / 3.0

Ambulance Ltd / LP / 4.0

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club / Baby 81 / 3.0

Cold War Kids / Robbers & Cowards / 3.5

The Dandy Warhols / Odditorium / 3.5

Neil Young & Crazy Horse / Live at the Fillmore East / 4.0

Yeasayer / All Hour Cymbals 3.5

Animal Collective / Strawberry Jam / 3.75

Band of Horses / Cease to Begin / 3.25

Beck / Timebomb (single) / 4.5

Black Devil Disco Club / 28 After / 3.0

Calvin Harris / I Created Disco / 3.75

Caribou / Andorra / 4.0

LCD Soundsystem / A Bunch of Stuff EP / 4.0

LCD Soundsystem / 45:33 (release) / 4.75

New Young Pony Club / New Young Pony Club / 3.5

Radiohead / In Rainbows / 4.25Shocking Pinks / Shocking Pinks / 4.25

A Sunny Day in Glasgow / Scribble Mural Comic Journal / 4.0

The Tough Alliance / A New Chance / 3.5

VHS or Beta / Burning On the Comets / 2.5

White Williams / Smoke / 4.5

5 - classic / 4 - excellent / 3 - good / 2 - mediocre / 1 - not worth rating

Summer Music Reviews

Sections: Music Reviews Jul 23rd, 2007 4 Comments

From excellent to not so excellent:

Spoon / Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga / 4.5

Arcade Fire / Neon Bible / 4.25

Wolfmother / Wolfmother / 4.25

Blitzen Trapper / Wild Mountain Nation / 4.0

Digitalism / Idealism / 4.0

Tapes and Tapes / Loon / 3.75

Of Montreal / Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? / 3.75

Blumfeld / L’Etat Et Moi / 3.75

Datarock / Datarock / 3.75

Spoon / Gimmie Some Fiction (2005) / 3.75

Chromeo / She’s In Control / 3.25

The Fratellis / Costello Music / 3.25

White Stripes / Icky Thump / 3.0

The Knife / Silent Shout / 3.0

5 - classic / 4 - excellent / 3 - good / 2 - mediocre / 1 - not worth rating

Record Reviews for March 2007

Sections: Music Reviews Mar 22nd, 2007 9 Comments

Yeah it’s been awhile since I’ve done this. As before, all scores are out of five.

LCD Soundsystem / Sound of Silver /5.0

The Good, The Bad, The Queen / The Good, The Bad, The Queen / 4.25

Wilco / Sky Blue Sky / 2.5

That last one breaks my heart. But at the end of the day, Sky Blue Sky is a very mediocre record.

That aside, Sound of Silver will surely be one of the best albums of 2007. It’s easily the best so far. Pitchfork just gave it a 9.2 (out of 10) and I’m not convinced they weren’t a little too critical.