2014 Top 20 – Armin Van Buuren – When Armin began rewriting the book of EDM in the image of highly melodic heavy music, he felt like a mainstream sop. Today, he is the gatekeeper of modern EDM MOR whose influence is all over Guetta, Avicii and even Harris. This Top 20 from his excellent “A State Of Trance” shows ranges from Sue McLaren’s ballad “Running” to crashing on the waves of sound heavily orchestrated anthem “New Horizons”. This is not a state of trance, it is a state of electronic dance. Haters, start here – A-
Prokofiev: Symphonies 1 & 2; Sinfonietta – Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra / Kirill Karabits – The great modernist Prokofiev gets a stunning treatment by conductor Kirill Karabits. This is what Blair Sanderson said on Allmusic “Kirill Karabits continues his cycle of Prokofiev’s symphonies with the cheerful “Classical” Symphony and the uncompromising Symphony No. 2.”. Some of this is so beautiful, especially “Symphony # 2 in D Minor”. Trust me on this one – A-
1st Of The Month Box Set (Deluxe Edition) – Cam’ron – I’ve loved this guy since S.D.E. in 2000, and I loved the 4 tracks at the month concept, gave em a steady string of rave reviews all year. But listening to it all together on this compilation is way too much – B
Sucker – Charlie XCX- If the explanation is that Charlie didn’t have enough time to signify at Jingle Ball, well, she still didn’t signify, and if this rock and pop and dance album is lively, well, why is the name coming to my mind Avril Lavigne? Luckily, half of these tracks are killa… “Sucker” over “Boom Clap” – B+
Black Messiah – D’Angelo – How can an album 14 years in the gestation sound unprepared… relatively speaking (full review here) – B+
Dark Side Of The Mule – Gov’t Mule – How good is this? The “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” is one of the most glorious things you’ll hear this year and the entire three hour manifestation of jam meets Pink Floyd (live) is exceptionally great, channeling the late Richard Wright before the entire band and especially Haynes whose opening solo will ring on long after it’s over, blasts it to the edge of ever. An astounding performance dating from 2008 by the way – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A
I LOVE MAKONNEN EP – I LOVE MAKONNEN -If all you know from this Atlanta rapper is Drake’s featured performance on “Tuesday”, he has a lot more. All seven songs here are first rate and “I Don’t Sell No Molly No More” is funny and first rate – A
Into The Woods – Original Soundtrack – Stephen Sondheim’s classic take on fairy tales is a Broadway beauty and Rob Marshall is used to directing Broadway beauties with film stars (pace “Chicago”), but it is much easier to sing Kander and Ebb than Sondheim and this doesn’t sound right. Exception, shockingly enough Anna Kendrick – B
Inherent Vice Soundtrack – Jonny Greenwood – Incidental music plus a coupla tracks by the likes of Can and Neil Young – C+
Luca Brasi 2: Gangsta Grill 2 – Kevin Gates – It isn’t meant to be, but this deep feel gangsta rap is a little funny. Luca Brasi meets John Gotti, is that mixing your metaphors? – B-
The Pinkprint – Nicki Minaj – Does the world really, I mean really really, need Nicki Minaj channelling the Weeknd? At 78 minutes, it is about twice as long as it needs to be as well, and with every pop star in the firmament featured somewhere or the other it is crowded; is a hard sell that appears to be a soft sell. But where is the filler? Where are the mistakes? Much better than the first album, it is inches away from a masterpiece – A-
Peter Pan Live (Original Soundtrack Of The NBC Television Event) – Various Artists – There is a reason people spend decades perfecting their skills as Broadway singers IT IS SO THEY CAN SING BROADWAY MUSICALS. I was at Cat Stevens the day it aired live, but I VOD’d a coupla days later and couldn’t sit through it. For camp value, get Christopher Walken singing “Vengeance” and then try and pretend it never happened – D
