Iman Lababedi

Everybody is gagging for the new No Doubt, doubtlessly, but after “Lamborghini Angels” , there’s a new chance this is the Lupe album we’ve been waiting for/ As for Green day, nice timing Billie Joe.

Rehab – Amy Winehouse – The classic update lyric with down home sound and that voice. When it was first released it was a great joke, today it aches with poignancy and warning – Grade: A

This is as good as Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting back Together Again” -a song it resembles in its breathless perfectness. This is a s good as Titus Andronicus ever needs to get. Sometimes they are better than this but no, they don’t have to be at all

How exciting!! The former Sleater Kinney lead singer Corin Tucker at Mercury Lounge. I guess she will be celebrating her second solo album, which will have been released two days prior two this Thursday evening release party at the tiny club. Added plus? “Groundhog Day” is my jam.

I haven’t much cared for the Script since I saw em open for McCartney at CitiBank Fields, and see no reason to do anything but exentuate the negative. The Killers? The lack the consistency of a great band. And on this list the xx are the best… so consider it a bad week.

The Script! Ugh Ugh Ugh… I can’t stand that song at any price. Otherwise, this is a relatively slow moving chart this week. Also, I like the Guetta but the first Sia song was better.

On her two albums, Amy used jazz and souk to work out her London lexicon, not a million miles from the way Lily used pop. The frank strategy was to make the old new again in the vision of a rehab candidate. “The way his shirt hangs off his back, my train of thought stays right on track”, she sings in this stunning little admission of sexual need. “I know that I’d look good on you” she claims. That’s her moral parallel – Grade: A

Battle Born – The Killers – The Killers are the Mitt Romney’s of rock, big, brash, Mormon, and not a brain in their haircuts. When I put it on as background it is charmingly aggressive, tugging at my sleeve and saying “hey, we found ourselves a place and we belong in it forever” but whenever it gets my full attention, it is so wretchedly silly and loud, I wanna punch it in the nose. Grade: C

Milo – Quilt – Boston trio mix close harmonies with druggy empathy on this dreamy slice of folk rock, starting slow and building to a Whoish middle. Good on record but live the moments become movements and the let’s the band do it what it does best: stretch – Grade: A-

The Carly song samples “Cupid”, so a) Sam Cooke is doing somersaults , and b) This might be the follow up she’s been looking for, and Minaj is back and she wants Cassie NOW. Lizard Kisses best song, by the way.

Wedding Song – Anais Mitchell and Justin Vernon – Much better than the name would suggest, a coutry blues opener to Mitchel’s 2010 rock opera with Justin as Orpheus. typecasting it says here – Grade: B+

Yoko Ono with the backing of Amnesty International, will be giving the grant to Pussy Riot in New York City on 21st September 2012 in the hope that they will be released as soon as possible.

I am claiming I saw him at Roseland years ago and that Prince would wipe the floor with this Prince the way the 1998 Yanks would slaughter the 2012 Yanks.

I’m tired of people just using us 35 years later as the ones who got up and said something about what was happening

Over the years, the singles and album charts have switched places. The album charts are now the houses of the one hit wonders and the sudden spark of interest before the fan base subsides, while as the Singles charts are tough to get on but once you are on there, you’re marooned 5 on there for life .

Dave Matthews isn’t as bad as I claim he, is much worse, and Amanda deserved to move more than 24K still a Top 10 hit is a Top 10, but the surprise here is Little Town, which follows in the footsteps of Sugarland and Lady Antebellum but with better songs.

Sober – Little Big Town – In a world where the simple gifts of songwriting have been replaced by the slave to the beats, this is a well well written song, spinning on a simple simile, being in love is like being drunk – Grade: A-

The tipping point for me was the very funny SNL skech where mall employees are brought out of their funk by the song, culminating in PSY, the South Korean rapper slash overnight sensation -slash Autumn Carly Rae, doing his invisible horse dance

Like It Or Love It – Kreayshawn – It’s worth mention that Kid Cudi’s rap here is better than his solo rap with GOOD Music, and it is also worth mentioning that Kreayshawn isn’t a faker, the entire album is real good, but this is even better – Grade: B+

Fine, it is Pink, so who gives a fuck? I do when it involved Lily Allen, one of the most gifted songwriters from the start of the century who has chosen this crappy song to ease herself back in the music world

I think Amanda has so little to add to it except an instrument, it is pointless. Except it is such a great song and she sings it so straight and so in her underwear, it is its own reward.

The Boys – Nicki Minaj and Cassie – Nicki’s best song since, well it is better than “Starship” if not “Super Bass”, has a lovely chorus by Cassie before Nicki trashes that other sex and really very well. Hey, talking of bests, her best rap since “Monster” – Grade: A

I am blowing off Bon Iver at Radio City Music Hall to catch the band at Local 269, where they will be part of the CAVESTOMP RECORDS presents evening of fun and rock and roll on Saturday, September 22nd. Also present are McGee faves the Lime’s and, in his opinion the purveyors of the album of the year, the Golden Boys

It has been a coupla of lifetimes since Nookie, and being a grown up doesn’t wear itself on Green Day. Like Blink 182, they don’t do adulthood well. Maybe they are too mewlingly adolescent for the roll of grown up.

Last time round I made our writers promise to really nail the Disco Biscuits story for us. Needless to add, that was a complete waste of time and energy. By the time the teenage writers left Camp Bisco, older but wiser, we were thankful for anything they provided.

This is like a list of must hears here. First and foremost Good Music, since “Clique” was so much better than anything Kanye has released all year. But really everything looks good here, the new Aimee Mann, Grizzly Bear… Richie Sambora?? And Kreay with a lot to prove. Color me impressed

Default – Atoms For Peace – This has been getting mixed reviews but I like it a lot more than Radio: it is a percolated ping pong beat with Thom’s discombobulated vocal and not much more. And that is plenty – Grade: B+

Oh to be a Springsteen fan on the second leg of his US Tour. Finally, he has stopped flogging that dead horse known as Wrecking Ball (really,he dumps the newbie at this point of the tour every couple of years), gone from 40% of the set to 20% of the set and now, on any given night, he will delve deep into the vaults and pull out anything he wants to from any period of his career.

The owner of Bridgetown Records, Kevin Greenspon finally brings his lo-fi sound modulations to the East Coast for one of the most eagerly anticipated gigs of the year at a friends house in Brooklyn on Tuesday

17 year old X-Factor UK style (where they are actually paying attention) Amelia shows what a a pair of teeth and a dye job can get you, a number two hit on a nothing great electro dance track. Is that a new Flo Rida track I see? Is “Whistle” finally suffering from dry mouth???

One song does not an album make, but if one song did make an album, that song would be the XX’s “Angels”. The Script beat, one of the worst bands on the planet beat out Dylan and PSB (which doesn’t) and Ora is the sole hip hop rep if you don’t include the Will I AM collab with the Script -and I don’t.

Pon T Loca – Damn Yankee – In the Reggaeton genre, I always went with Don Omar, the better vocalist. But DY’s current album hands him the crown, as he raps well but builds beats a whole lot better – Grade: A-