Review: Omar Rodriguez - Omar Rodriguez

Omar Rodriguez - Omar Rodriguez: On his latest solo album, Omar tries to make freak-jazz a viability. The problem arises when your realize that highs aren't so high and the lows are boring and don't, like Frances the Mute did, make you anticipate the highs. I still applaud him for making music and challenging creative norms.

No streams or downloads available at this time

Import-only price is going to put you close to $20, so I'd rather not link until it gets a proper release

Review: Good Clean Fun - Between Christian Rock and a Hard Place

Good Clean Fun - Between Christian Rock and a Hard Place: I think the cheeks of the members of Good Clean Fun have holes in them from all the tongue jabs they get. Another solid batch of satire for the hardcore/emo/whateverelseitscalled crowd. The MySpace Song in particular, is amazing.

Stream The MySpace Song and Positive Hardcore

Purchase for $8.99

Review: John Fahey - The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death

John Fahey - The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death: Interesting instrumental acoustic album from a guy who inspired a lot of people after him. Not something you'll play all the time, but something that should make mix tapes.

Stream clips from the entire album

Purchase for $10.93

Review: The Elected - Sun, Sun, Sun

The Elected - Sun, Sun, Sun: Leaps and bounds better than their debut. I wonder if I could play this on top of Rabbit Fur Coat and get a new Rilo Kiley album...

Stream Firelies in the Steel Mill and Not Going Home (Music)

Purchase for $9.79

Review: Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not: Perhaps it's selfish of me, wanting thirteen new songs for their debut album and only getting a few, but that's my right. The songs they did re-record seem to lack some of the intensity that their demo brethren posessed. Ultimately, however, it's hard to deny that this is one hell of an album.

Stream the video for When The Sun Goes Down

Stream versions of I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor, Fake Tales of San Francisco and Mardy Bum

Download live and demo versions of a bunch of songs

Purchase for $9.79

Review: Pearls Before Swine - Balaklava

Pearls Before Swine - Balaklava: Building upon the concepts created for One Nation Underground, Balaklava feels more like a complete album. It's an excellent album at that.

Stream clips from the entire album

Purchase for $10.99

Review: Pearls Before Swine - One Nation Underground

Pearls Before Swine - One Nation Underground: Quirky without seeming contrived, this pyschadelic '60s album (though not pop) is certainly decent, just not amazing.

Stream clips from the entire album

Purchase for $11.39

Review: Felt - Forever Breathes The Lonely Word

Felt - Forever Breathes The Lonely Word: Despite being '80s almost to a fault, this album could be the next 'next old [album] that's cool to like now'.

Stream clips from the entire album

Purchase for $13.29

Review: Cat Power - The Greatest

Cat Power - The Greatest: As if it were some fortune-telling device, this album turns out to be Chan Marshall's greatest to date. It's very accessible, without straying too much from her trademarks. It's entertaining and enjoyable, something previous albums weren't.

Stream The Greatest

Download The Greatest

Purchase for $10.49

Review: The Society of Rockets - Where The Grass Grows Black

The Society of Rockets - Where The Grass Grows Black: Good old fashioned rock and roll that's fun to listen to without being cheesy.

Visit their homepage

Their record label (one of the two should have mp3s and ability to purchase soon)

Review: Robert Pollard - From A Compound Eye

Robert Pollard - From A Compound Eye: I was never really into Guided By Voices to begin with, so it's not surprising I'm not really into Pollard's solo album. That's not to say it's bad, it's just not for me.

Download Love Is Stronger Than Witchcraft (via My Old Kentucky Blog)

Purchase for $11.19 (out 1/24)

Review: East River Pipe - What Are You On?

East River Pipe - What Are You On?: Really solid rock/pop if tryingly simple.

Download What Does T.S. Eliot Know About You?

Purchase for $10.99

Review: Two Gallants - What The Toll Tells

Two Gallants - What The Toll Tells: Like some magnificent marriage of Bright Eyes and Against Me!.

Download Las Cruces Jail

Purchase for $9.09

UponFurtherConsideration: It's tremendous. The storytelling is great, the delivery is outstanding. It just hits on all the right spots. Competing with Arctic Monkeys for album of the year (yes, I know it's only January).

Download Waves of Grain

Strem the entire album

Review: Tapes 'n' Tapes - The Loon

Tapes 'n' Tapes - The Loon: Great singles, but as an album it fails.

Download Insistor

Download Cowbell

Download Omaha

Purchase for $10

Review: The Spinto Band - Nice and Nicely Done

The Spinto Band - Nice and Nicely Done: Nicely done indie-pop.

Download Brown Boxes

Download Oh Mandy

Download Crack The Whip

Purchase for $12.56

Top 35 of 2005

Belated as usual, I bring to you my Top 35 of 2005. I know last year I did more than this (Top 88 of 2004), but I'll tell you why I did not.

This year, I managed to review one album (or EP) a day for an entire year. That's 365 albums that I, by myself, have reviewed. This is a very difficult task to do and one that I do not anticipate continuing.

As much as I like finding new music, I like listening to new music. Accordingly, when I'm forever reviewing a new album, I don't get the chance to go back to listen to ones that I liked, or that I should have liked. I did not spend enough time with anything outside of the Top 5 this year. Whereas last year, when I spent a good deal of time on my Top 20 or so.

In addition to listening to 365 albums this year, I listened to 166 albums that came out this year (more than double that of last year), which, to me, is astounding. Overall though, I found this year to be a weaker collection that last. I'm very excited for next year, as there seems to be a ton of good stuff on the horizon. I did, however, get around to listening to all of the albums that I wanted to listen to this year.

I mentioned earlier that I do not anticipate continuing my pace of an album a day. Surely, you can understand how difficult this is and respect my decision to cut it back but a bit. You should still see 4-5 reviews a week, just not 7. And don't look for reviews when I'm on vacation or on holidays.

That being said, I could continue to update more frequently if I had some help. So I'm asking you, my readership, for help. I'm looking for more 'staff' to help me out. E-mail me and we'll talk about what I'm looking for, what I need and how you can help.

Without further delay, I bring to you my list of year end bests. I'm pretty set on my Top 5, but everything else is up for grabs.

1	Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
2	Mountain Goats, The - The Sunset Tree
3	Bloc Pary - Silent Alarm
4	Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
5	Nada Surf - The Weight is a Gift
6	Bright Eyes - Digital Ash Is A Digital Urn
7	Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
8	Stars - Set Yourself On Fire
9	Imogen Heap - Speak For Yourself
10	Calexico and Iron & Wine - In The Reins
11	Mars Volta - Frances the Mute
12	Fiery Furnaces - EP
13	My Morning Jacket - Z
14	Animal Collective - Feels
15	Sigur Ros - Takk
16	Calla - Collisions
17	National, The - Alligator
18	Clientele, The - Strange Geometry
19	Elbow - Leaders of the Free World
20	Gorillaz - Demon Days
21	Editors, The - The Back Room
22	One.Be.Lo - S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M.
23	Antony and the Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
24	Apple, Fiona - Extraordinary Machine
25	Bird, Andrew - Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs
26	Coheed and Cambria - Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star4: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness, Volume 1
27	Common - Be
28	DangerDoom - The Mouse and the Mask
29	Foo Fighters - In Your Honor
30	Low - The Great Destroyer
31	Bane - The Note
32	Mental - Planet Mental
33	Leaves - The Angela Test
34	Coldplay - X&Y
35	Kaiser Chiefs - Employment

Review: Neutral Milk Hotel - When It All Caved In: Rarities and Final Show

Neutral Milk Hotel - When It All Caved In- Rarities and Final Show: This is the essential bootleg fans of NMH should obtain. At least, until Orange Twin gets their act together (or though it seems it's Jeff dragging his feet).

"Purchase" for a $5 "donation"

Review: Love Is All - 9 Times That Same Song

Love Is All - 9 Times That Same Song: Atmospheric pop music with a shelf life equal to that of a carton of milk.

Stream Make Out Fall Out Make Up

Purchase for $9.99

Review: Seu Jorge - The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions

See Jorge - The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions: Working brilliantly in The Life Aquatic, this gimmick fails to succeed as an album.

Download Life On Mars

Download Rebel Rebel (both courtesy of Sucka Pants

Purchase for $12.99

Review: Bell Orchestre - Recording A Tape The Colour Of The Light

Bell Orchestre - Recording A Tape The Colour Of The Light: If it hadn't been released, every indie-rock fan in the world would be clamoring for it, claiming its awesomeness. Because they released it, however, it loses some of it mystery. In the end, it's another mediocre addition to the very medicore genre of post-rock.

Purchase for $11.25

Review: The Sunshine Fix - Age of the Sun

The Sunshine Fix - Age of the Sun: Another Elephant 6 Collective release means, you guessed it, Beatles-influenced pop. What's striking is how well they are influenced by the Beatles without ripping them off.

Stream clips from the entire album

Purchase for $13.99

Review: The Strokes - First Impressions Of Earth

The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth: Not as good, or solid as Room on Fire (and it's been to long to compare it to Is This It?). Tries too much to vary their winning formula.

Stream the video for Juicebox

Purchase for $10.49

Review: The Strokes - Room On Fire

The Strokes - Room On Fire: I never liked Is This It? so I passed on this album when it came out a few years ago, but I now regret it. It's an extremely solid and likable rock record.

Stream a few videos and download the mp3 of 12:51 Music -> Room on Fire

Purchase for $11.69

Review: The Olivia Tremor Control - Music From The Unrealized Film Script, Dusk At Cubist Castle

The Olivia Tremor Control - Music From The Unrealized Film Script, Dusk At Cubist Castle: When they're not trying to be artsy and suspsenseful, you get the feeling as though they could bust out Strawberry Fields Forever and not miss a beat. Ultimately, it's really, really good pyschadelic pop with aformentioned moments of suspense and artsy-ness.

Download a few sample mp3s of Jumping Fences and Define A Transparent Dream

Purchase for $11.57

Review: Neutral Milk Hotel - On Avery Island

Neutral Milk Hotel - On Avery Island: A fine album, but had I listened to it before Aeroplane, I would have liked it better, but wouldn't have listened to Aeroplane.

Download Song About Sex

Purchase for $9.02

Review: Neutral Milk Hotel - Hype City Soundtrack

Neutral Milk Hotel - Hype City Soundtrack: The real early stages of a NMH album. This lays the groundwork for On Avery Island.

Download tons of bootleg songs

May be released in the future by Orange Twin

Review: Neutral Milk Hotel - Invent Yourself A Shortcake/Beauty

Neutral Milk Hotel - Invent Yourself A Shortcake/Beauty: More unreleased/demo/live stuff from Jeff Mangum. It's not really a necessary listen, unless you're a very large fan as any good songs are marred by fidelity issues.

Download a ton of bootleg, demo and live stuff

Possibly for sale at a later date via Orange Twin

Review: Elliott Smith - Basement Demos II

Elliott Smith - Basement Demos II: Fan collection of bootlegged demos with an unknown timeline for recording. While it's called the Basement Demos II, a lot of it comes from the Either/Or era, but still, I'm amazed every time I hear his voice how majestic it sounds. I didn't get a chance to check out From A Basement last year, but seeing such a strong set of demos makes me want to run out and pick it up.

Download all of the songs and more

Purchase From A Basement On The Hill for $12.43

Review: Sleater-Kinney - The Woods

Sleater-Kinney - The Woods: Grace Slick like vocals penetrate the air as Sleater-Kinney makes one of the best traditional rock-type albums the be released this year.

Download Entertain

Purchase for $9.77

Review: Of Montreal - The Sunlandic Twins

Of Montreal - The Sunlandic Twins: Sounding an awful lot like The Beatles, but with way more electronica, Of Montreal has created one of the finest albums of the year.

Download Requiem For O.M.M.2

Download Wraith Pinned To The Mist (And Other Games)

Purchase for $8.50

Review: Logh - A Sunset Panorama

Logh - A Sunset Panorama: For their third album, Logh decided to go quiet and make a really, really solid alternative album.

Download Destinymanifesto

Purchase for $10.26

Review: Imogen Heap - Speak For Yourself

Imogen Heap - Speak For Yourself: I was completely blown away by its beauty. Hands down the best straight up pop album I've heard all year, even if there is too much bass.

Stream Hide And Seek, Just For Now and non-album track Cumulus

Purchase for $9.49

Review: Sage Francis - A Healthy Distrust

Sage Francis - A Healthy Distrust: This would be the best rap album of the year if he would just get on the mic and rap. Instead, he tries to do some skits and some fancy production stuff and it comes across really low-rent.

Download Dance Monkey and Slow Down Gandhi (click on the plus sign next to the song title on the left hand side)

Purchase for $10.26

Review: The Drones - Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By

The Drones - Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By: "Actually, on first listen the Australian quartet may seem like little more than an unhinged bluesy garage outfit" says Brandon Stosuy over at Pitchfork and I couldn't agree more.

Watch the video for Shark Fin Blues

Purchase for $11.69

Review: Neutral Milk Hotel - Unreleased Demo 1 and 2

Neutral Milk Hotel - Unreleased Demo 1 and 2: If you remove all of the excellent production from most of the Neutral Milk Hotel songs, you're left with a foundation of '60s pyschadelic pop, which is what is showcased here.

Look for some of these songs to get released eventually on Orange Twin on a b-sides collection.

Review: Shakira - Oral Fixation, Vol. 2

Shakira - Oral Fixation, Vol. 2: Shakira is a singles artist. I have always loved her singles, and Don't Bother is no exception. But twice now, I have tried to get into an album of hers with little luck. It's not as if it's bad, but the singles are where it's at.

Stream Don't Bother

Purchase for $13.18

Review: Jeff Mangum - Live At Jittery Joe's

Jeff Mangum - Live At Jittery Joe's: He sounds so unsure of himself on stage, until he starts singing his song, and then it's as if he's the only man alive. In the end, the acoustic renditions of Neutral Milk Hotel songs survive extremely well, if not better in some instances, over the fully-produced versions from which most people are familiar with.

Download a 30 second clip of A Baby For Pree

Purchase for $12

Review: Jens Lekman - Oh You're So Silent Jens

Jens Lekman - Oh You're So Silent Jens: It's not as if Jens is this prophetic songwriter, it's that every word he sings just oozes charisma. This collection of singles, b-sides, EPs, et al is a wonderfully easy way to obtain everything he's done outside of When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog.

Download Black Cab

Download You Are The Light

Purchase for $$11.04

Review: Jenny Lewis - Rabbit Fur Coat

Jenny Lewis - Rabbit Fur Coat: I was a more than a little excited at the prospect of a Jenny Lewis solod album, just as I was for a Blake Sennett-fronted new band. I was a little disappointed in the results of the Jenny Lewis solo album, just as I was for the Blake Sennett-fronted band, The Elected. I was more disappointed with Blake's, however, as Jenny's isn't bad, it's just not Rilo Kiley and had it not been Jenny Lewis, I'd have really liked it.

Download Handle With Care, her cover of the Traveling Wilburys

Buy it when it gets released next month at Team Love Records

Review: Liz Durrett - The Mezzanine

Liz Durrett - The Mezzanine: Possessing a delicate, beautiful voice and sublime musical arrangement, this is the type of album that usually bores me. This time, however, I really enjoyed the listen.

Download some live songs and covers (not album specific)

Not available for purchase at this time. Out January 2006.

Review: The Darkness - One Way Ticket To Hell...And Back

The Darkness - One Way Ticket To Hell..And Back: The word sophmore slump gets thrown around too much in the media, so I'm going to avoid using it. Instead, I'll tell you how The Darkness' first record had amazing pop songwriting and excellent rock riffs that combined to make one of the most enjoyable rock records since Guns 'n' Roses. Their follow-up, however, is not only not as good as said record, but the songwriting is mediocre at best and the killer rock riffs have all but disappeared in favor of a more mainstream sound.

Stream the title track

Purchase for $12.99

Review: Chris Brokaw - Red Cities

Chris Brokaw - Red Cities: Typically, you see a man (or woman's) name and you expect a singer-songwriter type record. Chris Brokaw is no such thing, at least on this release. Instead, he has created a post-rock record that while sleep-inducing, remains compelling. Not relying on strings and grandiose arrangements, he instead opts for solid simplicity.

Stream King Ferdinand (or download the wma)

Stream clips from the entire album

Purchase for $10.75

Review: Piebald - Killa Bros and Killa Bees

Piebald - Killa Bros and Killa Bees: If you've ever heard Travis' solo project Totally Travis Y Las Marianas, you konw what to expect, albeit with a bit more fidelity. Most of the songs are throwaways, a few are demos of album tracks and a few are solid and should receive a rework for future release. And as a large Piebald fan, even I can't get into this release more than once or twice. I guess they're just not one of those bands who's demos and b-sides are all that appealing.

Stream Hard Kid and Waste Your Time

Purchase for $11.29

Review: Thursday - War All The Time

Thursday - War All The Time: Thursday has a huge fanbase, and it's easy to see why. They straddle the line between hardcore/metal and rock/pop, which gives them a large constituency in order to draw fans from. Some of it's a bit cheesy, but some of it's quite good. Overall though, I could live without it, but it's nice to know it's not all bad.

Stream the For The Workforce, Drowning in its entirety and clips from the rest of the album Music -> Discography

Purchase for $11.37

Review: Thrice - The Illusion Of Safety

Thrice - The Illusion Of Safety: I can see why Thrice and Coheed and Cambria share a lot of fans. And while Coheed does it much better, Thrice is more than adequate. Granted, it gets a little cheesy going from metallic to melodic so many times, it's overall atmosphere succeeds into a solid album.

Stream clips from the entire album (second album from the right)

Purchase for $10.26

Review: Neil Diamond - 12 Songs

Neil Diamond - 12 Songs: Truthfully, unless you told me I was listening to Neil Diamond, I wouldn't know. But this collection of songs (12 of them, even), is very well done. Very well produced and songwriting is solid, if a little cheesy at some points.

Stream clips from the first half on the album

Purchase for $13.98

Review: Neil Young - Prairie Wind

Neil Young - Prairie Wind: It's a bit more melodic, and by extension, accessible than some of his other work. Still, if you're not a fan by now, I can't envision this changing that fact.

Stream the entire album

Purchase for $10.49

Review: Various - the pAper chAse and Will Johnson Split

Various - the pAper chAse and Will Johnson Split: Each covering a song by the other. The Johnson song covered by the pAper chAse works, as almost anything by them does, but the country-folk version of I Did A Terrible Thing was different, but ultimately unappealing.

Download some mp3s by Will Johnson

Stream a whole bunch of pAper chAse stuff

Purchase for $5.00

Review: Test Icicles - For Screening Purposes Only

Test Icicles - For Screening Purposes Only: A catchier and more accessible, but equally as screamy, version of the Blood Brothers.

Stream clips from the entire album Media -> Audio

Purchase for $9.79 (Pre-order, will be released in January)

Review: Supermachiner - Rise Of The Great Machine

Supermachiner - Rise Of The Great Machine: All of the ingredients are there to make a really good post-rock/avant gardcore record, but it just misses, because it lacks some of the grandiocity and intensity present in other bands of the same sound. Still, it's worth a listen if you're a fan of post-rock and/or Converge.

Download Bitter Cold

Purchase for $9.28

Review: Sun Kil Moon - Tiny Cities

Sun Kil Moon - Tiny Cities: If I didn't know beforehand that it was a collection of Modest Mouse covers, I still wouldn't know. If you're a fan of Sun Kil Moon and know nothing of Modest Mouse, you'll like it. If you're a fan of Sun Kil Moon and of Modest Mouse, you might like it. If you know nothing of Sun Kil Moon but like Modest Mouse, you'll likely hate it. If you know nothing of either band, you need to read more mp3 blogs.

Download Ocean Breathes Salty (via Stereogum)

Purchase for $12.17

Review: Silver Jews - Tanglewood Numbers

Silver Jews - Tanglewood Numbers: I'm sorry, I found it hard to take seriously because I could not get the image of Sol Star singing out of my head.

Stream the video How Can I Love You If You Won't Lie Down (and try not picture Sol)

Purchase for $11.38

Review: Serena Maneesh - Serena Maneesh

Serena Maneesh - Serena Maneesh: There's so much good shoegaze/dream-pop out right now, that this disc is undeserving of your time.

Stream Selina's Melodie Fountain

Purchase for NOK 165,00

Or purchase digitally for $9.99

Review: XTC - Apple Bite

XTC - Apple Bite: The 54-track boxed site is entitled Apple Box, so it's fitting that the sampler to promote the box is entitled Apple Bite. The weirdest thing, is how this sampler feels like an album, even with its two newly crafted songs. This being my first encounter with the band, what I can't figure out is how come they weren't bigger. Sure, every music fan has heard the name XTC, but it's taken me far too long to have heard one of their songs.

Download the brand new song, Spiral

Stream a whole bunch of tracks from various releases

Purchase for $31.24

Review: Rogue Wave - Descended Like Vultures

Rogue Wave - Descended Like Vultures: It was a rainy Monday morning when I popped this disc in and it fit perfectly to the rain-soaked scenery all around me. I've yet to experience this disc elsewhere and without a droplet-filled windshield, so I'll reserve judgement, save to say its better than their last one.

Stream some tracks (the site doesn't tell you which ones, so even if I told you the names, you wouldn't know)

Purchase for $10.26

Review: The Libertines - The Libertines

The Libertines - The Libertines: A bit more mellow than their debut, but the obvious album briding Up The Bracket to Down in Albion.

Stream a bunch of tracks, including What Became of the Likely Lads

Purchase for $11.25

Review: The Libertines - Up The Bracket

The Libertines - Up The Bracket: After all of the hype, this is exactly what I was epecting. It even holds up to the hype. My favorite part about the album? The music is so loose, it could fall apart at any second, but so tight it may go on forever.

Stream a bunch of tracks, including the album-titled track from this disc (click on Jukebox)

Purchase for $11.48

Review: I Hate Myself - 3 Songs

I Hate Myself - 3 Songs: Not quite as anthemic as their previous work, but still, as a fan I'm excited enough knowing they're putting out music again.

Download This Isn't the Tenka-Ichi-Budokai from their previously released 10 Songs

Purchase the vinyl for $4.50

New Site Design

I got tired of the old site so I re-did it. Took me a minute to remember the CSS and XML coding, but I managed it somehow. The design comes from Open Source Web Design which I found out about from DJ. All that's left is fixing the logo to match, but my girlfriend Sara is having trouble with Extensis Suitcase and by definition her fonts, so that's going to have to wait. Let me know what you think.

Review: Heartless Bastards - Stairs and Elevators

Heartless Bastards - Stairs and Elevators: Female-fronted classic rock with a hint of blues and post-punk that succeeds on just about every song.

Download Onions

Download New Resolution

Purchase for $10.21

Review; Hard-Fi - Stars of C.C.T.V.

Hard-Fi - Stars of C.C.T.V.: It's very 2005 in its new-wave meets punk meets pop meets quirky. As usual, there are better bands that do it and there are worse bands that do it, but judge for yourself.

Stream Tied Up Too Tight, Hard To Beat, Cash Machine and Middle Eastern Holiday (click on Audio)

Purchase for $12.95

Review: Orenda Fink - Invsible Ones

Orenda Fink - Invisible Ones: Former Ray of Azure turns out to be rather boring and uninteresting.

Stream the entire album

Download Bloodline and No Evolution

Purchase for $9.28

Review: Depeche Mode - Playing The Angel

Depeche Mode - Playing The Angel: Without speaking to the albums in between, it's like the band hasn't lost a step between Violator and their new outing. Though Angel seems a bit more accessbile they are very similar albums sure to please fans of the band.

Stream video for Precious

Purchase for 11.99

Review: Depeche Mode - Violator

Depeche Mode - Violator: A more complete album than Some Great Reward. It's a bit more polished and more listenable all the way through.

Stream clips from the entire album

Purchase for $7.99

Review: Depeche Mode - Some Great Reward

Depeche Mode - Some Great Reward: To my naive ears, this sounds like New Order, done so much better.

Stream clips from the entire album

Purchase for $7.85

Review: Babyshambles - Down in Albion

Babyshambles - Down in Albion: A little slower and a little more raggae-influenced than I was expecting. Seeing as this was my first Pete Doherty album, I'll say what's been said a thousand times (today), he's a terrific talent wasting away in the coma of dependency. We'll just call him Terrell.

Stream clips from the entire album

Purchase for $15.99

Review: Akron Family - Akron Family

Akron Family - Akron Family: It was just kind of boring. I know that there are going to be people out there that like it, and I like my fair share of lo-fi, but this just slowly trods along.

Stream Small Shape, Shake Collage and Deep Kazoo

Purchase for $10.99

Review: Aberdeen City - The Freezing Atlantic/Sixty Lives EP

Aberdeen City - The Freezing Atlantic/Sixty Lives EP: Kinda boring, but decent. It tries to be a dark, atmospheric pop album, but falls just short of having either enough atmosphere or proper atmosphere.

Download In Combat

Purchase The Freezing Atlantic for $8.50

Review: 3 - Wake Pig

3 - Wake Pig: The lead singer, Joey Eppard, is the brother to Coheed and Cambria's Josh Eppard. 3 even sounds a little like Coheed, but with more prog, less metal and not as catchy. That's not to say that this is a bad thing. In fact, this album is better than Good Apollo... If you like Coheed, check these guys out. If you like prog check these guys out. If you like music, check these guys out, because they're really good.

Download Alien Angel

Purchase original version for $6.19

Purchase re-release for $7.56

Review: Natalie Rose Lebrecht - Imagining Weather

Natalie Rose Lebrecht - Imagining Weather: Some records are a chore to listen to. This is one of those records. Not to say it's bad, but you need to be in the mood for such and avant-garde performance art type of album.

Download Track 6 off her previous album

It's not for sale anywhere that I can find. Keep checking her website for updates

Review: Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary

Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary: Some of the songs are really good. Some of the songs are really boring. It has the potential to be a great, great album. Maybe it will grow on me, or maybe their next album will be better.

Stream Shine A Light and My Father's Son

Purchase for $10.27

Review: We Are Scientists - With Love And Squalor

We Are Scientists - With Love And Squalor: It triest to fire on all cylinders and be a pop-punky-indie band, but it just doesn't succeed. The singer's voice takes some getting used to and the songs are rather repititious.

Stream The Great Escape, Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt and It's A Hit

Purchase for $14.70 (it's only out in the UK)

Review: Various - This Bird Has Flown: A 40th Anniversary Tribute to The Beatles' Rubber Soul

Various - This Bird Has Flown: A 40th Anniversary Tribute to The Beatles' Rubber Soul: What would normally be a hit-and-miss affair of Beatles covers turns out to have far more hits than misses. There are, of course, misses, but not as many as you'd think. And I'd love for some of these artists to do an entire Beatles album (I'm looking at your Fiery Furnaces).

Stream clips from the entire album

Stream Ben Harper's Michelle

Stream Dar Williams' You Won't See Me

Stream Sufjan Stevens' What Goes On

Stream Ted Leo's I'm Looking Through You

Purchase for $12.99

Review: The Stone Roses - Ultimate Rarities

The Stone Roses - Ultimate Rarities: The Stone Roses is one of my top 10 albums of all time. Accordingly, they are almost the only band that can floor me with a collection of demos and practice sessions. If you're a big fan of their debut, you'll also enjoy it, but if you're only a casual fan don't waste the hard drive space.

The torrent is out there, but I couldn't find it

Item not officially released (with no plans on doing so)

Review: Renee Heartfelt - Death of a Ghost

Renee Heartfelt - Death of a Ghost: Featuring memebers of Count Me Out, American Nightmare and Striking Distance, you were expecting another hardcore album? Perhaps even a really good one? What you get, instead, is not quite melodic enough to be Melodic Rock and not hard enough to be Hard Rock, but rather something in the mediocre middle.

Stream Gratitude For as well as a few non-album tracks

Purchase for $9.78

Review: Ramallah - Kill A Celebrity

Ramallah - Kill A Celebrity: Very metallic and very bitter. It's got a little melodic edge to it this time around in the vein of White Trash Rob's other band Sinner and Saints. The album runs a little long and the debut EP is better, but if you enjoy lyrics like "I'd love to detonate a car bomb/ at the doors of your precious MTV/ and put some serin gas/ in the central A/C/ at the the VMAs/ and watch those beautiful faces turn ashen grey"

Stream the video from The Horror And The Gag

Download If I Die Today

Purchase for $10.49

Review: My Morning Jacket - Z

My Morning Jacket - Z: It doesn't feel as cohesive as it could be. All the pieces are there, but the end result lacks.

Stream Worldless Chorus and Off The Record

Purchase for $9.28

Review: Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan: A nice piece of history, but come on, like I'll put this in over Freewheelin' or Another Side? Right.

Stream clips from the entire album

Purchase for $7.99

Review: The Joggers - With a Cape and a Cane

The Joggers - With a Cape and a Cane: Solid indie-rock record with post-punk influences abounding. It's catchy enough, in its own special way, that you'll need to listen a few times.

Stream We've Been Talk Down To and Era Prison

Purchase for $10.49

Review: Animal Collective - Feels

Animal Collective - Feels: I've tried again to like the Collective and while I did enjoy this more than I did Sung Tongs, I still couldn't get into it. There were parts that I thought were really good, but there were parts I thought really bad. Whether this may even out (like Frances the Mute), I can't say for certain.

Stream the majority of the album

Purchase for $11.19

Review: The Mountain Goats - Protein Source of the Future...Now!

The Mountain Goats - Protein Source of the Future...Now!: It's obviously been recorded in his basement with mediocre equipment, evoking comparisons to Daniel Johnston and The Noisies. That aside, if you liked any of his other work, you won't be disappointed.

Download Love Cuts the Strings

Purchase for $13.00

Review: The Exit - Home For An Island

The Exit - Home For An Island: This record's been out for a year now and has just been re-released. The reason no one cared the first time around is because it's not very good. It's like they're holding back. They want to be this awesome guitar-rock band, but they hold back the guitars, settling for mediocrity.

Stream clips from the entire album

Purchase for $7.25

Review: Diamond Nights - Popsicle

Diamond Nights - Popsicle: After all the hype about their EP, I was suprised when I didn't even know that their full length had been released. And now that I've heard it, I know why.

Stream Destination Diamonds, The Girl's Attractive and Snakey Ruth

Purchase for $8.91

Review: The Clientele - Strange Geometry

The Clientele - Strange Geometry: Their name is The Clientele. The album title is Strange Geometry. The artwork on the album is of a train barelling accross the tracks in the distance on a dark moon-less night. So forgive me if I was expecting something a little, say, darker. What I got instead was an indie-pop that sounds like it was recorded at the end of a rainbow. A brutally honest rainbow.

Stream K Got Over Me and E.M.P.T.Y. (click on the album cover for Strange Geometry)

Purchase for $9.79

Review: Broken Social Scene - Bee Hives

Broken Social Scene - Bee Hives: Necessary only for those that must have every song BSS ever recorded. Otherwise, skip it, or listen to it once to say you've listened to it, but it's unlikely to get spins.

Stream the entire album

Purchase for $8.70

Review: Arctic Monkeys - Demos/Beneath The Boardwalk

Arctic Monkeys - Demos/Beneath The Boardwalk: This much-buzzed about abound has only a single (that's gone number 1 in the UK) that's been officially released, but about 45 songs that are floating around on the internet. Musically danceable and lyrically unforgettable, they sound like a weird cross between the Stone Roses and the White Stripes. While it doesn't work all of the time, it works enough of the time that I'm very excited for an official LP.

Hodge-Podge of Tracks 1

Hodge-Podge of Tracks 2

Hodge-Podge of Tracks 3

Purchase the single I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor for $7.38

Review: Hudson Bell - When The Sun Is The Moon

Hudson Bell - When The Sun Is The Moon: It's a solid pop album with shoegaze elements, but there are better by both such corners out this year. Still, it deservers a few more spins before any real judgement can be passed.

Download Atlantis Night

Purchase for $10.49

Review: Field Notes - Color of Sunshine

Field Notes - Color of Sunshine: There's so much potential in this record that you want to walk away liking it. However, I felt like it need a kick in the pants as it's atmosphere or body was lacking in a lot of places.

Stream Sister Says and Who's Fooling Who

Purchase for $10.00

Review: The Orphan Project

The Orphan Project - The Orphan Project: Their One Sheet likens them to Jimmy Eat World, Thursday, Planes Mistaken for Stars and Boy Sets Fire. I can't disagree and fans of those bands will enjoy this band, but not as much as the others.

Stream a little bit of one of their songs

This release not currently available for purchase (that I could find)

Review: Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea: It's amazing when you're not current on bands, because NMH sounds like a rip-off of a bunch of bands around today. Until you realize that this album came out 7 years ago and those same bands you though they were ripping them off turn out to have ripped off NMH. If blogs were around 7 years ago, this would be 1998's Funeral or perhaps Blueberry Boat as the songs are quirky, yet poppy and all run together.

Stream Holland 1945

Purchase for $11.89

Review: Nada Surf - The Weight Is A Gift

Nada Surf - The Weight is a Gift: Instantly likable and accessible. This year's best indie-pop album.

Stream Do It Again

Purchase for $9.99

Review: Paul McCartney - Chaos and Creation in the Backyard

Paul McCartney - Chaos and Creation in the Backyard: If it wasn't Sir Paul, no one would care. If it wasn't Sir Paul, I'd like it better. Figure that one out.

Stream clips from the entire album

Purchase for $12.52

Review: Gang Of Four - Return The Gift

Gang Of Four - Return The Gift: I think I need to listen to Entertainment! again, because I certainly did not enjoy this.

Stream the entire album

Purchase for $9.89

Review: Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better

Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better: ...than I, if you never listen to this album.

Stream a couple of tracks

Purchase for $10.12

Review: Calexico | Iron And Wine - In The Reins

Calexico | Iron And Wine - In The Reins: It's so good, but it's just not long enough.

Download Sixteen Maybe Less

Purchase for $6.84

Review: The Editors - The Back Room

The Editors - The Back Room: There's no denying they've been listening to Interpol, Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen more than casual fans. While this isn't a bad thing and they certainly aren't as good as those bands, they hold their ground. Still, later on, you'll find yourself putting Interpol into your CD player more often.

Stream Bullets and Munich

Purchase for $15.95

Review: Calla - Collisions

Calla - Collisions: Pretty cool for a track or two, then it gets lame as the tracks start to sound the same.

Stream It Dawned On Me and Initiate

Purchase for $10.75

Review: Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow

Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow: Rather underwhelming and forced.

Stream seven (of the 22) tracks

Purchase for $10.75

Review: Xiu Xiu - La Foret

Xiu Xiu - La Foret: Another follow-up, another disappointment. Le sigh.

Download Bog People

Purchase for $11.25

Review: Burning Star Core - The Very Heart of the World

Burning Star Core - The Very Heart of the World: Not only is this the worst album to come out this year, it's the worst album I've listened to this year.

Purchase for $12.00