Review: Sparks - Hello Young Lovers:

Upon first listen, Dick Around may be my favorite song of the year. The entire album is filled with songs that sound like some weird blend of Court of the Crimson King, SMiLE and Blind Guardian. I know it's hard to picture, but wow.

Download minute-long clips of a few tracks (including the amazing Dick Around)

Purchase for $8.81

Review: Pretty Girls Make Graves - Elan Vital:

Upon first listen, it's accessible, yet avant garde and free from the punk edges found on their early work. A lot of the songs are good, but I didn't enjoy it as an album.

Download The Nocturnal House

Purchase for $10.49

Review: Marconi Union - Distance:

Upon first listen, it has just enough action and noise to keep you interested with just enough suspense to make you want more.

Download Sleepless

Purchase for $12.99

Review: Ghostface Killah - Fishscale:

Upon first listen, it's easily the best rap/hip-hop album of the year. The production is good, the rhymes are good, the flow is good AND it's got MF Doom. What more can you ask for?

Stream the audio or the video for Back Like That

Purchase for $9.89

Review: Calexico - Garden Ruin:

Upon first listen, I fell in love with the Iron & Wine/Calexico Split from last year, so I assumed I would also love this. I shouldn't have assumed such grandiose desires, as I find this to be rather boring and uninteresting. Perhaps I'll like Iron & Wine better.

Download Cruel

Purchase for $9.99

Review: Delays - You See Colours:

Upon first listen, I hesitate to use the word dense when describing this brit-pop band, so perhaps a fuller sound is what they've developed since their debut. More electronic flourishes are present and a lot of the songs tend to run together. Ultimately, it's a decent follow-up, but one that takes a lot more time to reconcile.

Stream Long Time Coming and Nearer Than Heaven

Purchase for $21.04 (or wait until it's released domestically)

Review: Secret Machines - Ten Silver Drops:

Upon first listen, it starts a bit slow and stiff, but is soon falls into a groove that while, similar enough to Now Here, is certainly more open and more flowing.

Stream the entire album

Purchase for $12.99

Review: Dresden Dolls - Yes, Virginia:

Upon first listen, it's overly dramatic, as to be expected. This gets rather tiresome, really fast, and with no 'Girl Anachronism' or 'Coin-Operated Boy' to break it up, means the album becomes stale.

Download Dirty Business and stream Modern Moonlight

Purchase for $9.38

Review: Saves The Day - Sound The Alarm:

Upon first listen, it has a couple of good songs, but it's nothing more than decent rock/pop.

Stream The End and Shattered

Purchase for $9.38

Review: Various - Compounds & Elements:

Upon first listen, it's a compilation of minimalist, ambient and electronic music featuring Brian Eno, among others. Some works, some doesn't. What surprised me was how much I did like, having no previous disposition towards liking the aforementioned genres.

Stream the entire album

Purchase for $2.14

Review: Saves The Day - Bug Sessions, Volume 1:

Upon first listen, it really showcases how much his voice has changed, as they cover acoustically (albeit with too much noise and enthusiasm) some older and newer hits. In the end, it's great for fans, but the casual listener just won't get into it.

Tour only EP, go see them live

Review: Playwrights - English Self-Storage:

Upon first listen, it falls somewhere between Fugazi and Franz Ferdinand on the post-punk scale. Leans a little more heavily to Fugazi, but has some of the pop sensibility (but very little of angular guitar attack) of Franz.

Stream some samples of a few tracks

Purchase for $10.43

Review: Hayseed Dixie - A Hot Piece Of Grass:

Upon first listen, it's like Devil Went Down To Georgia-esque country-rock with covers of Led Zeppelin, Motorhead and Green Day, among others and in addition to some originals. Covers are worth the price of admission.

Download Holiday

Purchase for $13.26

Spam Blog

So Blogger thought this was a spam blog and had to investigate it yesterday, which is why there was no post. They've put it on the 'whitelist' so that it won't be investigating again, which means now would be the perfect time to make a spam blog.

Review: Get Up Kids - Something To Write Home About:

Upon first listen I felt as though I cheated, listening to their first and third albums before this, giving me vast amounds of insight into their sound.

Stream clips from the entire album

Purchase for $11.54

Review: Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood:

It's kind of like Rabbit Fur Coat, only done well.

Download Star Witness

Purchase for $9.72

Review: Voices and Organs - The Orphanage

Voices and Organs - The Orphanage: It still amazes me how some bands call what they make music as opposed to what it really is, boring noise collages.

Download clips for a couple of tracks

Purchase for $11.19

Review: The Promise Ring - 30 Degrees Everywhere

The Promise Ring - 30 Degrees Everywhere: Quintessentially emo, but a bit more rough. I have a feeling they followed it up with a great album, but this one falls a bit short.

Download Red Paint

Purchase for $9.48

Sound The Alarm

Saves The Day's new album, Sound The Alarm, has leaked.

Review: Mogwai - Mr. Beast

Mogwai - Mr. Beast: I've listened to all of their album, but I've never been impressed with Mogwai. Until now. While I liked (a lot) some (if not most) of the songs, I didn't like the entire album, but there's enough to bring me back at least a few more times.

Download Folk Death '95

Purchase for $11.19

Dylan Still Touring

Updated tour dates here, including a 05.05.06 date in Atlanta.

Review: Liar's Drum's Not Dead

Liars - Drum's Not Dead: No rmally, I don't go for the drone-heavy type of music, but the first few tracks of this are 'turn it up to 11' quality. The latter half of the disc wasn't as interesting (or as loud), but I have a feeling I'll end up getting into it.

Download and stream a ton of music and videos

Purchase for $12.99

Review: Janis Ian - Folk Is The New Black

Janis Ian - Folk Is The New Black: "Folk is the new black/cheaper than crack and you don't have to cook/download it and see/first time is free, then you'll be hooked/we'll be singing hootenanny songs/long after rock and roll is gone/better than crack - folk is the new black"

Download The Great Divide

Download Folk Is The New Black

Purchase for $9.99

Review: The Loved Ones - The Loved Ones/Keep Your Heart

The Loved Ones - The Loved Ones/Keep Your Heart: There's plenty of boring rock on commercial radio, so there's no sense in occupying some of the independent music scene.

Stream Suture Self and Breathe In

Purchase the EP for $7

Purcahse Keep Your Heart for $9.76

Kenotia

In preparation for the Week Proposal Reunion Show, I bring forth Kenotia (http://www.myspace.com/kenotia).

Review: Half-Handed Cloud - Halos and Lassos

Half-Handed Cloud - Halos and Lassos: A bit of an annoying voice for an album all about religion makes for a very long listen.

Download Feed Your Sheep A Burning Lamp

Purchase for $10.49

Review: The Get Up Kids - Four Minute Mile

The Get Up Kids - Four Minute Mile: Admittedly, I always judged this band (specifically their first two albums) by the people who liked them. While I fell in love with On A Wire (and took a pass on Guilt Show), I never journeyed to their roots. I wish I had done so sooner. It's more raw than Saves The Day, but poppier than Lifetime, seeming to bridge the gap from a thousand miles away.

Stream clips from the entire album

Purchase for $10.85

Review: Figurines - Skeleton

Figurines - Skeleton: Poppy without being cheesy and artsy without being avante garde, this albums treads a fine line of supersaturation on just about every base it attempts to cover.

Download The Wonder

Download Rivalry

Purchase for $10

Review: The Essex Green - Cannibal Sea

The Essex Green - Cannibal Sea: I'm not usually a fan of both a male and a female singer in a band, especially in the same song, but The Essex Green make it happen and deliver another solid batch of pop/rock tunes.

Download Don't Know Why (You Stay)

Purchase for $10.49

Review: Cracker - Greatest Hits Redux

Cracker - Greatest Hits Redux: I can honestly say that I didn't know who Cracker was until the other day. After listening to the album, I of course recognized Low and a few others, but had never put a name to the songs. But anyways, this reworking of some of Cracker's greatest hits (to combat Virgin Records' own release of greatest hits released on the same day and without band input) is a great collection for the new fan. It's traditional rock done right and refreshing to hear in a musical climate of oddness.

Download Low

Purchase for $11.42

Review: Chas Mtn - Hugs

Chas Mtn - Hugs: Of the sixteen tracks, there are about six actual songs. The rest just seem to be foundations for songs yet to be made. Because of so few songs, the album is inconsistent and had to get enjoy.

Stream Fly Over The City, Deep Safety and Leveled Mez

Purchase for $11.19 (out April 25)

Review: Rival Schools - Unreleased Album

Rival Schools - Unreleased Album: With a catalog of unreleased material for Mr. Schriefels it's hard to keep up. That's why I was surprised to find out that there was an unreleased Rival Schools album, and it that it's scheduled to get released this year. The songs represented here are more like demos and difficult to judge, but lack some of the catchiness and firmness on their debut. Still, here's hoping the the finished product lives up to the potential.

Download the entire album

Not for sale...yet

Review: Rilo Kiley - Live At Fingerprints

Rilo Kiley - Live At Fingerprints: The only disappointing part of this album is the lack of crowd noise. For a live album, you'd expect a little bit more, especially at a Rilo Kiley show.

Download some bootlegged live shows

Purchase for $7.99

Review: Quasi - When The Going Gets Dark

Quasi - When The Going Gets Dark: Imagine if Piebald made a darker, artsier album and it was good.

Stream The Rhino

Purchase for $11.19

Review: Ashley MacIsaac - Pride

Ashley MacIsaac - Pride: Sounding like a poppier version of Saul Williams (at times) this album is confusing as it transverses a lot of different terrain. Overall though, the songs are a bit repetitive but it manages to succeed.

Download Bitch

Download Just Because

Download Hey Alright

Purchase for $9.79

Review: Cities - Cities

Cities - Cities: Debut album from this Radiohead sound-alike provides the foundation for what is sure to be future greatness. Not to say that this disc is somehow poor or inferior to future work, just that it's not all that it could be.

Stream A Theme and Cancer

Download A Theme

Album out April 18th on Yep-Roc Records

Review: Belle And Sebastian - Push Barman To Open Old Wounds

Belle And Sebastian - Push Barman To Open Old Wounds: This 2 disc collection of non-album tracks quickly wears thin despite some of its excellent tracks. And it's not as if this is a Belle and Sebastian thing, but 2 discs worth of material is a bit much for most artists to succeed with.

Stream clips from the entire first disc

Stream clips from the entire second disc

Purcahse for $12.14

Review: Man Man - Six Demon Bag

Man Man - Six Demon Bag: Good enough to enjoy, annoying enough to never listen to.

Download Van Helsing Boombox (Media)

Purchase for $11.19

Review: Antlerand - Branches

Antlerand - Branches: The minimally-adorned packaging lends no clue to what lies beneath, which is certainly a good thing as there are no predictions as to the albums sound. So, when the disc is finally inserted, you are blown away by how great it is. The first half, at least, is very strong, poppy, but instrumental like post-rock. The back half is where things begin to falter as it's more of the latter and just didn't live up to what the first half sets up. Overall, it's a good album, but could have been great.

Download Brighter Rays/Goddamn Your Energy

Now It's A Year (Going On Six Years)

Purchase for $10.00

Review: Jesu - Jesu

Jesu - Jesu: My obsession with post-rock a few years ago (wow, it's been a few years already) has ruined the vast majority of future 'post' endeavors, including the cool new post-metal. As such, I find all of these albums to be boring and uninteresting, despite the concept to be exciting and interesting.

Stream Tired Of Me

Purchase for $10.00

Review: Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies

Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies: Sparse musical arrangements accentuate Bowie-esque vocals making for an enjoyable and unique album that requires more than just one listen.

Download European Oils

Purchase for $10.49

Review: Coldcut - Sound Mirrors

Coldcut - Sound Mirrors: Essentially, an electronic outfit with guest singers, the electronic aspect of which is unappealing, but there are some tracks on here that are highly enjoyable.

Stream Sound Mirrors

Purchase for $11.19

Review: Belle And Sebastian - The Life Pursuit

Belle And Sebastian - The Life Pursuit: For me, Belle and Sebastian has always been an intimidating band. They have routinely received such grandiose amounts of praise that they surely could not live up to it. So, with hesitation and an open mind, I popped the disc in. Belle and Sebastian proceeded to deliver on every wonderful thing I had ever read or heard. In hindsight, this is allegedly a 'different' album for the band, but it's spectacular. Imagine listening to the Scissor Sisters cover the Shins.

Download Another Sunny Day

Check out the contest to sing with the band on stage in Seattle

Purchase the CD/DVD package for $12.99

Review: Various - London: Original Motion Picture (Featuring Original Score By The Crystal Method)

Various - London- Original Motion Picture (Featuring Original Score By The Crystal Method): The title is a bit misleading, containing mostly Crystal Method tracks, but a few others too. And it's a score, which means it was made to be accompanied by a movie. As a score, it probably succeeds, but as an album, it fails to deliver. Unless you're a Crystal Method fan.

Download Smoked

Purchase for $10.26

Review: Sing Sing - And I

Sing Sing - And I: Wow, this was really, really good, overproduction aside.

Stream Come(,) Sing Me A Song, Lover And Mister Kadali

Purchase for $9.99

Review: His Name Is Alive - Detrola

His Name Is Alive - Detrola: I recently came into the posession of an alarm clock that plays CDs to wake you up, which is perfect for me. I would hesitate to pop this disc in the day before an important event, for fear it wouldn't wake me up (at least until track 7 or 8). And this is not because it's boring, but rather because it's really well timed and enjoyable. Some really good 'chill' music to put on the background and just enjoy.

Download Get Your Curse [On (Summer Left Your Heart Behind)]

Purchase for $10.59

Review: Hamell On Trial - Songs For Parents Who Enjoy Drugs

Hamell On Trial - Songs For Parents Who Enjoy Drugs: It would be impossible for me not to compare this to the Noisies. Like the Noisies, much of songs are tongue-in-cheek tirades, but the subject matter differs as Hamell is certainly going through a mid-life crisis of sorts, having had his/their first child. It becomes necessary to reconcile his sordid path with the lessons the child must now be taugh. At the end (as he says in the first, and funniest, track) he gives up and says "fuck it".

Download Inquiring Minds (the aformentioned track)

Download Heat

Purchase for $12.25 (out 02.07.06)

Review: Eef Barzelay - Bitter Honey

Eef Barzelay - Bitter Honey: Sounding a bit like Jeff Mangum in this solitary setting, Eef (of Clem Snide fame) turns out an album that is so true to its title. The music is sweet, but the lyrics are bizarre and smirk-worthy.

Download Ballad of Bitter Honey (and you'll understand)

Purchase for $9.09

Review: Paint It Black - Paradise

Paint It Black - Paradise: Their no-frills approach to hardcore is the same reason that this disc is a breathe of fresh air and a disc that does little to separate itself from the legions of hardcore bands. Talk about a catch 22.

Download Exit Wounds

Purchase for $9.30

Review: The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music, Vol. 1

The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage- Animation Music, Vol. 1: There's a decent album buried beneath the rubble of unnecessary.

Download a ton of live and demo stuff

Purchase for $11

Review: Of Montreal - The Gay Parade

Of Montreal - The Gay Parade: Not as acessible, and by extension, not as enjoyable as The Sunlandic Twins.

Download Jaques Lamure

Download Nickee Coco and the Invisible Tree

Purchase for $12.37

Review: New Radiant Storm King - The Steady Hand

New Radiant Storm King - The Steady Hand: Bradley may have jumped the gun on album of the year, but it is really, really solid pop/rock bordering on shoegaze.

Download The Winding Staircase

Purchase for $12.00

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)

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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