Chapter V – Trey Songz – The tenor r&b sex toy exists to give r. kelly a good name -which can't be done. Trey, on the other hand, is a slow burner who can't write a song. Except, Chapter V puts its foot off the metal long enough to sniff your panties, and croon a song – Grade: B-
The Midsummer Station – Owl City – "Fireflies" was an amazingly irritating song and the one time I saw him live, he stood behind a PC doing nothing much. Three years later, nothing much has changed. And he may have a hit with the Carly Rae duet, but the rest of this sounds too off. It sounds like 80s pop in that the synths and electronica are metallic and unpleasant. And his songs suck. Plus, if "Good Time" hits you'll want to kill him before the winter is over – Grade: D+
Hot Cakes – The Darkness – Sure it's a genre exercise but Justin Hawkins, out of rehab and embracing pure musical excess, understand the hard hot high ball of post-Queen hard rock better than anyone and everything, except for "Concrete" which sounds like Paul Rodgers with a sinus infection, is exactly right. Plus it will be a real mean scene on stage. – Grade: B+
Election Special – Ry Cooder – Ry would be much better up if he wrote instrumentals and let the title of the songs express express his political opinions. The lyric to "Mutt Romney Blues" doesn't need further explanation-certainly not one this lousy. What we get is Mark Russell on a bad day – Grade: C-
Four – Bloc – Wow, talk about artificial intelligence. If you are gonna name a song after a Phillip K. Dick's masterpiece, you should make it a helluva lot better than this. Middlebrow art drab – Grade: C'
Mature Themes – Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti – I don't doubt Ariel's sincerity, I doubt his abilities. "Nostradamus & Me", a droning headache and possibly the best song on the album, might be many things, but it sure doesn't sound good – Grade: C
Last of A Dying Breed – Lyrnd Skynrd – They may never be able to recover from October 20th, 1977, but this is a serious attempt to move past it. A pretty consistent Southern rock boogie album that exists beyond the haunted plane crash that decimated the band. – Grade: B
Circles Around The Sun – Dispatch – Dreary jam band sell albums like hot cakes, made boring rock albums witha hint of Phish at Phish's least arty – Grade: C-