All Your Friend’s Friends – Various Artists – Smoke M2D6 adds beats to songs off the indie K records label and the originals must have been hella good because this is an exceptional collection of rhymes and beats. Exceptionally exceptional? Xperience’s “Evolve Away” – B+
IX – ..And You will Know Them By The Trail Of Their Dead – Not for everyone and I have never much cared for the over played mash up of prog and punk. If you do care for it, this fits nicely in their ongoing catalog – C+
Antimasque – Antimasque – A super hard rock critical mass band featuring members of At The Drive In and The Mars Volta -two great bands, but this is a little bland hard rocking boiling up stuff. Dave Elitch is the best thing about the entire enterprise – C+
Broke With Expensive Tastes – Azealia Banks – Azealia must have worked like hell on this, and not just because it took years. It adds rap to everything from hard rock to jazz, and she is a great rapper so everything works. The samples are scholarly – A-
Men EP – BenZel – Japanese duo, residing in nyc, performing soul with very modern beats and samples.Try the Spectrasoul remix of “Wasted Love” -one of the best tracks of the week – A-
Cadillactica – Dirty South hip hop at its best, Big K.R.IT. finally comes into his own on this trip to his subconscious. King Of The South? Hard to deny it – A-
Candy EP – Borns – Four songs of modern pop rock, with a hint of T Rex on the opener and always a melodic grace you can’t beat. From L.A., where they know more about emerald pools than we do – A-
Final Days – Cult Of Youth – Punk folk but don’t think Billy Bragg, the vocals are too harsh – B
Cut Copy Presents Oceans Apart – Various Artists – EDM from Melbourne as Cut Copy pay it back. All over the place but Andras And Oscars “Music Is My Life” is first rate – B
My Favourite faded Fantasy – Damien Rice – Irish folkie back after six years – B-
Daggers – Ex Cop – A bland showing at the CBGB’s festival earlier this year infected my opinion but in the clear light of night, this is a pretty melodic 80s inspired pop album with moodiness – B
Sonic Highways – foo Fighters – In which Dave Grohl visits eight recording studios for an HBO special, and forgets to bring a single good song with him. I recommend he spends more time on his craft and less on his resume – D
Greenhouse EP- Gospels – These guys have been knocking around for a couple of years and this fine rock and mood album should graduate them to the next level – B+
Bestiary – Hail Mary Marron – I always liked Aesop Rock and here with the equally flow and rhyme brainiage Rob Sonic, the words flow and overflow. This has been one of the best weeks for rap this year – B+
Oddments – King Grizzard And The Lizard wizard – Never has a band better lived up to its name. I missed em but everyone who saw em at CMJ 2014 left with their brain in a sling: psychedelic warped out garage swamp rock and roll plus Ray Manzarek’s keyboards – B+
Abandon Ship – Knife Party – Very good house, beats, plus vocals. Try the superb “EDM Trend machine” – B+
Bloodstone & Diamonds – Machine Head – They don’t sound like Deep Purple, but this is as good as heavy metal gets right now, the West Coast band throws everything into the sound, including strings but it all comes out tough as hell – B+
Give My Love To London – Marianne Faithfull – Her best album in years begins with a song co-written with Steve Earle and ends with a Leonard Cohen cover about aging and a vibrantly and beautiful Ute Lemper-y cover of a Sinatra classic. In between, she uses her many friends to her own ends and somewhere in the middle covers the Everly Brothers – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-
Just Like EP – The M Machine – Sounds like early Skrillex plus vocals, not entirely odd because they are signed to Skrillex label – B-
Lost On The River – The New Basement Tapes – There are keepers here, the Costello lead on “Golden – Silver Judas” is ok till they reach the bridge. Perhaps if they released it a month or a year from now it wouldn’t be paling in comparison to the old basement tapes – B-
Nick Jonas – Nick Jonas – what do former teen idols do when they grow up? They record modern pop and soul albums like they’re Justin Timberlake. As Justin proved on his last album, even he isn’t Justin Timberlake -C+
Earth Sick – Oh Land – sweet sounding Swede pop, like she is Robyn on dramamine – C+
The Endless River – Pink Floyd – tasteful and lovely from time to time, very Pink Floydish, it never stops swelling – B
Forever – Queen – William Orbit does a great job remixing the Michael Jackson-Freddie Mercury duet “There Must Be More to Life Than This” , otherwise for fans only – C+
The Inevitable End – Royskopp – Experimental electronic music but I guess Robyn rubbed off a little, “Sordid Affair” for one straddles the line – B
Cathedrals – Tenth Avenue South – Not very good Christian rock – C-
Live Her Greatest Hits – Whitney Houston – Nothing we don’t know except for a superb “I Love You Porgy/And I Am Telling You” – B
Greatest Hits so far… Zac Brown Band – Or just go listen to “Chicken Fried” – D+
