Review: Archer Prewitt - Wilderness

Archer Prewitt - Wilderness: Chameleonic array of voices and styles. One minute, he sounds like George Harrison, the next, Bob Dylan. Later on, Robert Plant or Burt Bacharach. The entire album, however, feels lonely and barren, but it still manages to succeed.

Stream clips of Leaders, O,KY and Cheap Rhyme

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Review: Say Anything - Say Anything Is A Real Boy

Say Anything - Say Anything Is A Real Boy: Alluring and disturbing. Alluring, because it's a different take on the Agressive Emo formula, but disturbing in it's inability to be a quality effort. The vocal harmonies are cool, but get tiresome. Still, A for effort.

Stream Belt, Woe, Alive With The Glory Of Love and Slowly, Through A Vector

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Review: Sufjan Stevens - Come On, Feel The Illinoise

Sufjan Stevens - Come On, Feel the Illinoise: Progressive. Folky. Whimsical. Good. All words to describe this album. While listening, I kept asking myself when I never revisited Michigan or Seven Swans. Surely, there's a reason, but one that has thus far escaped me.

Stream clips from the entire album

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Review: World Leader Prented - Punches

World Leader Pretend - Punches: Initially brought to my attention as a cross between REM and Radiohead. After listening, I'm not sure I wouldn't have come to the same conclusion.

Stream Bang Theory, Punches and Tit For Tat

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Review: Blind Willie McTell - Complete Recorded Works, Volumes 1-3, 1927-1931, 1931-1933 and 1933-1935, respectively

Blind Willie McTell - Complete Recorded Works, Volumes 1-3, 1927-1931, 1931-1933 and 1933-1935, respectively: More like 1930s pop than blues (though it's unmistakably bluesy), it wasn't what I expected. Nor is it something I plan to listen to, but it is something I plan to reference.

Stream clips from Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3

Purchase Volume 2 and Volumes 1 and 3

Review: The Beatles - Revolved

The Beatles - Revolved: Another classic album butchered for the sake of being trendy. No more mash-ups please. And, no, I won't be downloading any more either.

Download the entire album (torrent)

This item is a bootleg and has not been mass produced. So, if you want to buy a copy, go buy The Beatles Revolver and all of the other albums which contain the songs found here. Then, download the torrent, burn a copy and you can feel good about yourself for not supporting piracy.

Review: Alfie - If You Happy With, You Need Do Nothing

Alfie - If You Happy With, You Need Do Nothing: Trying to rip off all the great British bands (Radiohead, Coldplay, Doves, Elbow) is one way to get you noticed, but no guarantee to make you good.

Stream the album in its entirety

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Review: The Mosquitos - Sunshine Barato

The Mosquitos - Sunshine Barato: Beach music that quickly wears thin.

Stream clips from the entire album

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Review: Moonbabies - The Orange Billboard

Moonbaies - The Orange Billboard: Better than June And Novas, but still not something that resonates.

Stream Sun AM

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Review: Kenna - New Sacred Cow

Kenna - New Sacred Cow: One of the albums that starts off as a cool concept, but gets very tiresome.

Stream clips from the entire album

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Review: Jeniferever - Chronicles Of Omega/Iris

Jeniferever - Chronicles Of Omega/Iris: Marring beautiful instrumentation with such poorly delivered vocals is a crime.

Download You Only Move Twice

Download For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky

Purchase Iris for $9.70

Chronicles of Omega is no longer for sale, but you can try eBay

Review: Various - Lost In Translation Soundtrack

Various - Lost In Translation: Various layers and textures make for a damn good album on its own. Add that to the fact that the movie is awesome, and you've got a complete package.

Stream a bit of the album from the movie's official website

Purchase for $11.03

Review: Simply Waiting - Cutting Ties

Simply Waiting - Cutting Ties: Acoustic emo that fails to have any of the passion or intensity a Chris Carrabba conveys.

Stream most of the album (as well as a few tracks from other releases)

Purchase for $6.00

Review: Yesterday's New Quintet - Angles Without Edges

Yesterday's New Quintet - Angles Without Edges: I never thought I'd like an album with only beats, but here I am, really liking an album with only beats. Of course, it's fitting that all of the beats are jazz-based.

Stream clips from the entire album

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Review: Wire x2

Wire - Pink Flag: Saw their name come up simultaneously and a few messageboards and blogs, so I decided to investigate. While it's good, it's nothing not explored by Mission Of Burma.

Stream clips from the entire album

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Wire - Chairs Missing: Slightly more angular than their previous album, but still nothing spectacular.

Stream clips from the entire album

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Review: Radiohead - Kid A

Radiohead - Kid A: It took me 6 years to like OK Computer (and 6 days to love it). I suspect that it will take at least 12 years for me to like this less-accessible album.

Stream/Download Everything In It's Right Place

Purchase for $12.88

Review: David Pajo - Pajo

David Pajo - Pajo: With the reformation of Slint, is this even worth the listen? Well, I decided to find out. While I've listened to two of his other albums (under the 'guise' of the M moniker), I didn't enjoy them. This is better, just not something worthwhile. When's Slint gonna hit the studio?

Stream the video for High Lonesome Moan

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Review: MF Doom Is Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain

MF Doom Is Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain: Extremely compelling, hook-free hip-hop. It's about as good as rap can be.

Stream clips of four tracks

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Review: The Explosion - Black Tape

The Explosion - Black Tape: I wasn't expecting perfection after releasing what I consider to be a seminal punk albums. I was expecting something good if not really good. What I got was crap. C-R-A-P Oh, and the 'cover' of No Revolution (their own song) is a pitiful and ineffective way to retain the audience you so carefully chose to leave behind.

Stream I Know (as well as other songs from previous releases)

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Review: Dropkick Murphys x2

Dropkick Murphys - Singles Collection, Vol. 2: Had forgotten that they could still write a damn fine tune. Doesn't work as an album, but it's a nice collection of rarities that would otherwise be difficult to obtain.

Stream Pipebomb On Landsdowne (Dance Remix)

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Dropkick Murphys - The Warrior's Code: Leaps and bounds better than their last outing, but they couldn't have gone much further down. Falls somewhere between The Gang's All Here and Sing Loud, Sing Proud.

Stream The Auld Triangle

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Review: Dogs Die In Hot Cars - Please Describe Yourself

Dogs Die In Hot Cars - Please Describe Yourself: I tried so hard, but I couldn't get past the guy's voice.

Stream Lounger (click on Media->Audio)

Purchase for $8.44

Review: The Dead 60s - The Dead 60s

The Dead 60s - The Dead 60s: The only relation this band has to the 60s is in name only. Otherwise, it's a piss-poor modern-age new wave rip off.

Stream Riot Radio

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Review: Anger Regiment - Aces And Eights

Anger Regiment - Aces And Eigts: Another unnecessary addition to the annals of hardcore music.

Download Empty

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Review: Amusement Parks On Fire - Amusement Parks On Fire

Amusement Parks On Fire - Amusement Parks On Fire: One part post-rock, one part shoegaze, two parts loud. The best part is that all four parts work so well together, making for a magnificent album.

Stream a bunch of live tracks and videos

Purchase for $10.26

Review: Beck - Guero

Beck - Guero: I guess I'm not cool enough to 'get' Beck.

Stream clips from the entire album

Purchase for $10.77

Review: Tsar - Band-Girls-Money

Tsar - Band-Girls-Money: It's a fun record, but nothing spectacular. Kinda reminds me of a cross between The Kaiser Chiefs and The Hives.

Stream clips (I think, I can't get it to work) from the entire album

Download Band-Girls-Money

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Review: Architecture In Helsinki - In Case We Die

Architecture In Helsinki - In Case We Die: Bunky done well or The Fiery Furnaces done poorly. Take your pick.

Stream clips of the entire album

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Review: Various - Six Feet Under: Everything Ends

Various - Six Feet Under: Everything Ends: Exactly what it needs to be; a collection of songs that fit perfectly with the mood and tempo of the show. For fans of the show, you can picture a scene featuring each song. For non-fans, if you like the feeling this collection delivers, you should check out the show.

Stream the entire album

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Review: Boogie Down Productions - Criminal Minded

Boogie Down Productions - Criminal Minded: A friend of mine and I once joked that the only criteria for being considered a rap album was that you had to mention your name, your producers name or your album title in a song that wasn't the title track. Well, this one takes the cake. KRS-One never lets you forget who's rhyming, nor that Scott La Rock is behing the turntables. Still, if you can get beyond that (and some of the obtrustive beats), you will be rewarded with a fine rap album and one that doesn't get enough recognition, even among purists. Perhaps it's because KRS-One went on to do much better, something I plan on finding out.

Stream clips from the entire album

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Review: Eric B. and Rakim

Eric B and Rakim - Paid In Full: MTV recently named this the greatest rap album of all time. While I don't think that's the case, it's got to be in the top 10. Recorded during the first golden age of rap (late '80s), it features *gasp* a rapper rapping and a DJ (what we would now call a producer) mixing on turntables. It sounds a little dated, but is made up for by how solid it still is, all this time later.

Stream clips from the entire album

Purchase for $7.59

Review: At The Drive-In - Anthology: This Station Is Non-Operational

At The Drive-In - Anthology: This Station is Non-Operational: I can't speak for this retrospective's effectiveness in attempting to sew up all the loose ends in the ATDI catalog. I can say, however, that each cut is extremely solid on its own, but fails to work together as a work (not that it was meant to). Ranging from straight-forward punk to art-funk-prog rock you really get to experience the gamut of their dimensions and can see the groundwork for their later projects (Mars Volta and Sparta).

Stream clips from the entire album

Download Chanbara

Download Non-Zero Possibility

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