Iman Lababedi

While I expect Taylor Swift to have many more problems projecting at Metlife on Saturday, my money is on Taylor to pull it off.

Meanwhile, Jahn, Tomas, and Shinobi all represent a real independent spirit

Joe is a good not great singer, superb with rhythm but his songs are generic and not particularly memorable

The exception isn’t the Leonard Cohen covers, which you probably figured they would be, it is the Dylan cover where the story of drugs and rough trade in Mexico takes on a certain elegance.

And while it will undoubtedly, indeed already has, out sold Kweezy, it isn’t as good as Kweezy

This is Jay-Z time folks, the Yankee Stadium shows are coming up later this month, the new album is out and it isn’t a complete dog and here is re minder of how good he can be topped with a new song

Everybody involved should be arrested

The only breathtaking omission is Laura Marling. I mean, did you expect them to name check Claire’s Diary?

Tomas’ A Slight Return album? You’ve read me rave about my friend’s new album and it isn’t here yet but all four tracks on this list are absolutely brilliant especially “Brooklyn To Ethiopia” or maybe “How Long”

This song is an insult to everybody, nobody more that the “Wounded Warriors” to whom half of the proceeds are going. It makes you wonder if Venezuela might not have a point

How can a chart as transient as the US Albums be so sucky. I mean, since the turn over is so swift, surely it should be a little more out there? Wale is one of the lamest acts in Hip Hop… no in pop music as a while.

A month ago I predicted the top three songs on this list in the top three positions they have taken, and a month later, there they are.

The day belongs to Armstrong who always claimed July 4th was his birthday so would have been, er, 111 years old if he was still with us!

Prior to Yeezus release, West showed what it might have sounded like if Rick Rubin had always recorded with him. It would have sounded really good

Two of these are reactions to Steve Crawford’s best of the 70s post today, he rest are all new, and one them is sooooooooooooooooo bad. In the end, it is a thank God for Joe type week.

The barely concealed feeling is central to the album: it is all subtext, its meaning a grave and beautiful thing.

3. Blurred Lines – Robin Thicke – Sexy, funny, but is it anatomically accurate

I have been so disappointed in the man for so many many years and I don’t know if this is gonna be the one to bring him back to his old glories

One needs a spanking and one needs a hugging and one’s on the way…” the great Loretta Lynn and the travails of housewifedom from way back when and it doesn’t sound like fun, now does it?

With his band he presents a light show flickering, mostly well paced show. But he isn’t there yet. There is a shallowness to him, an ingratiating falseness

A dystopian masterpiece about 2013 disassociation filled with doubt and dismay, made acidic by acoustic renditions of great pop songs

Odell is a modern day Elton John with a more operatic take to his voice and dashing blonde boy good looks and Long Way Down is a pretty good album that should break him Stateside. Signed to Lily Allen’s record label.

I adore Icona Pop, they are a terrific live band and I am so happy to see them at #1. Indeed, this is as fun a Top 10 list as we have seen all year and promises a fun Summer Of 13…. if you live in England!

In 1987, after years of steady decline, my life began to straighten itself out and in celebration I wrote my second novel, “The Positive Touch”, about AIDS, infatuation, murder and suicide and… Patsy Cline

This is made for Middle America White teenagers and rather than mean that as a back handed compliment , I say it as a benediction

When she gets it right, a song like the Michael Jackson soundalike “Just For You”, it is worth the bromides and then some – ALBUM OF THE WEEK

I know two people who ain’t hatin’ on One Direction. One is me, the other is Debbie Harry after the band covered “One Way Or The Other”! Me? I thought they were terrific at Jingle Ball last December. Did I say two people? Plus another 25, 000 teen girls who will be at Izod Center Tuesday night

My niece Louba is getting married in October and I recommended the Colbie song to her and now I recommend it to you

Randall’s Island now needs resodding, two other festivals have been cancelled, as was Mayor Bloomberg’s annual party at which he is furious

Primal Scream are such contrarians. The lead song off their new album is one of the best songs of the year but the rest of the album is the definition of ordinary

Of course the mother and daughter duo sound like the Roches on the but there is something even more deeply familiar in the tanglement of voices on the bridge, it sounds like “On The Road To Fairfax” for a moment, and then it doesn’t any more.

Heavy beats, heavy disco, the same old Debbie distance and closeness at the same time, perfect dance songs from the band that brought you “Heart Of Glass” and “Atomic

As histories go this one doesn’t have all that many chapters. Record a coupla big albums and spend the rest of your life flogging em seems to sum it up.

Freedy will be at Joe’s Pub, a 730p show on Wednesday August 14th. I’ve seen him on stage several times and he is completely excellent, and the price, $15 plus $12 minimum for waiter service, will be worth it