OK, these is almost random, thogh the earlier albums, Los Camp for instance, is just about my final take.
The Suburbs – Arcade Fire – With its hat in the ring for album of the year, it is a wonder of depth and meander and if their were a coupla more killer tracks it would be major. Grade: A
Bajah + The Dry Eyes – Bajah + The Dry Eyes – Proto reggae beat with stranger rhythms. Grade: B+
Beach Fossils – Beach Fossils – Shoegazing on the shore. Good if samey. Grade: B
Brothers – The Black Keys – Their best album is at its best at its poppiest. Say “Next Girll as opposed to “She’s Long Gone”
Sweet Time – Dafni – Live she might jones on jazz, this record arches upward on country -all these songs of escape. Grade: A-
Dark Night Of The Soul – Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse – Some of this really good and most of it ain’t. Born to be bought track by track. Grade: B
Miuntain Wittenberg – DP and Bjork – As strangely beautiful and moving as any music can possibly be. Grade: A
The Lucky One – Doug Keith – A folkie with heavy rock leanings: confessional, tuneful and deep. Grade: A-
Devil’s Eyes – Drop The Line – It is such a great song that it feels like a big pity Luca wasn’t handing off the remixes. Only Diplo kills it. Grade: B+
Recovery – Eminem – Ho fucking hum. What a whatever. Maybe the concert will change my mind but I’ll stay with relapse thank you very much. Grade: B-
Your Future Is Our Clutter – The Fall – OMG, is that a drum machine on “Mexico Was Solvent”? Grade: B+
Black Light – Groove Armada – A touch old fashioned, except for the Bryan Ferry song of course. Grade: B
Burrprint 2 – Gucci Mane – From the big house to your hose, a better blueprint. Grade: B+
Ain’t No Grave – Johnny Cash – Has its moments for sure, and not really as morbid as say “Hurt”, but not his finiest moment. Grade: B+
Twist – Kelley Ryan – Highly arranged, very tuneful songs about that other sex. Peaks enormously high but flattens out before the end. Grade: B+
Lady Gaga: The Remix – A bit of a snoozer, where are are the big names? Guetta? Ronson? Tiesto? Grade: B
Fortress – Minature Tigers – The Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo produced “Goldskull” was so good it was distractingly good and it took awhile for the rest of the album to kick in. But it is actually a magical set of pure pop confections, minor key but integruing and lovely. Grade: A-
Romance Is Boring – Los Campesinos – Why is this album so stranded on the beach? It’s as if the first two albums were really one album and Romance suffers from the sophomore jinx. Grade: B-
The List – Rosanne Cash – Whatver happened to the Rosanne who covered “Seven Year Ache”, “Rgues Rate Romance”, “Man Smart, Woman Smarter”. These are pretty good covers, but she is sure humorless.Grade: B.
Raymond Vs Raymond – Usher – I overestimated it when it first came out because both “Lil Freak” and “OMG” were completely undeniable. BUT everybody else missed it by a mile. Show me an album with songs as good as the two mentioned plus “Guilty” plus “DJ Got Us Falling In Love” (I know, if it was on the album) and I’ll show you “The E.N.D.”. Grade: B+