My Dream Duets – Barry Manilow – Necrophilism lives on with this terrible idea wherein Barry splices his voice with the unsuspecting dead. How bad is it? Pretty terrible: poor ol Mama Cass, Dusty Springfield, John Denver and, er, Jimmy Durante, get the treatment. It all sucks except, for some obscure reason, “Zing! Went the Strings Of My Heart” which was kinda moving – C-
Black Veil Brides – Black Veil Brides – Over the years BVB have cut back on the Kiss shtick and emerged as a fair to middling metal band. Here they are two killer cuts away from big time – B-
Love Ran Red – Chris Tomlin – Give Chris this, he can write contemporary hymns which occasionally step out of the album and into the Church choir, here “Jesus Loves Me” is a fine song of faith. Plus: nowhere does he want to have a beer with Jesus – C+
Flesh And Machine – Daniel Lanois – Neither fleshy nor mechanical enough, this ambient album is a snore – C-
Money Sucks, Friends Rule – Dillon Francis – L.A. DJ, the Twista track is OK – C
With A Little Help From My Friends – The Flaming Lips – Astoundingly useless beatles cover album and Miley Cyrus doesn’t add significance even as irony and I like her at least more than Wayne who should listen to Cheap Trick’s Pepper – D-
Down To Earth – Flight Facilities – Aussie ‘tron, has soulful disco moments – C+
In The Corners – Francisco The Man – Those three name bands, just screams indie right? Pretty good LA pop rock, somewhere between rock and shoegaze – B
Spirits – French For Rabbits – Dream pop from New Zealand, who seem to be on a role after royals, sweet but a little bland – B-
Ruins – Grouper – So fragile, it sounds like it is going to break, so quiet it is like a singer-songwriter on Xanax… I’ll leave you to decide whether that is good or bad – B
Room 93 – Halsey – Superb four song EP compared to the usual suspect, Lorde from an electronic Brooklynite, but Halsey writes easier on the ears hooks – B+
Haerts – Haerts – Pleasant enough electro pop – B-
Remnants – Jack Garratt – Strong voice, the modern equivalent of a Nick Drake deeply felt folkie – B-
Rock & Roll Time – Jerry Lee Lewis – Bracketed by “Little Queenie” and “Promised Land” and in between there’s a “Folsom Prison Blues” so this adds nothing to anything, not even nostalgia. But still, a pretty good piano and an aging Jerry Lee don’t embarrass themselves – B-
Led Zeppelin IV and Houses Of The Holy Deluxe – Led Zeppelin classics with extra tracks that don’t add much – A
Heartstrings – Leighton Messier – Actress tries to prove she has a soul – C
Master Mix – Red + Hot + Arthur Russell – Various Artists – The cellist and avant garde, disco, experimental composer who died young from AIDs has inspired the best Red + Hot I’ve ever heard, including that awesome 2002 Red Hot + Riot: The Music and Spirit of Fela Kuti. Everything here is just about perfect, the funky Hot Chip, the arty Richard Reed Perry the moving Scissor Sister, the soundtracky Blood Orange and the poppy disco Robyn…. And everything else. Spectacular brilliance. ALBUM OF THE WEEK. – A
Forever – Mystery Skulls – Brandy and Niles Rodgers join Luis Dubuc on the two best tracks, but everything on this tron disco album is really good – B+
…Honor Is All we Know – Rancid – Five years on, this is the same old same old punk via Clash without the melodies but with extra hyperbole to make up – B-
Run The Jewels 2 – Run The Jewels – Better than the first album earlier this year, the track with Zack De La Rocha is fun, so is the second song, as close to a ballad as these two rappers are gonna get – C+
Montevello – Sam Hunt – This guy can write a song, and he can sing it, but the arrangements bland out everything it touches. Country needs a swift kick – C+
Chubbed Up + – Sleaford Mods – A modern day John Cooper Clark, with rap poems in hard working class accents (via Nottingham –which makes zero sense) and electronic back up. “Who gives a fuck about yesterday’s heroes?” asks Jason Williamson on “Pubic hair Ltd” so I guess nothing is in fact sacred – B+
Ohio – Stalley – Maybach music, but not so sweet after all, Stalley is a good, blue collar, Ohio native with good tracks, especially on the fine “Chevelle” and a voice and language this side of restrained – B
Sylvie – Sylvie Simmons – Old fashioned singer songwriter with a ukulele and a sense of sensuality to pull it off – B+
Super critical – The Ting Tings – Did these goes grow up on our ass? Ordinary but not bad indie dance – B-
Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave – The Twilight Sad – This is one of the bands you think you know, their keyboard player moved on to Chvrches, but you don’t know em. Well now you know em and you will love this Glasgow’s band electronic wall of melodic sound – B+
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