True – Avicii By Avicii – In a world that includes Skrillex and Deadmau 5, Avicii is the most annoying guy in electronic dance but this album of remixes off his hugely successful debut album is all heavy beats all time time. Who would have suspected that the less Aloe Blacc the better? – A-
3rd – The Baseball Project – Steve Wynn and two thirds of REM just don’t know how to make stats come alive as songs – C+
Just Because – The Belle Brigade – More of the same So Cal soft rock only even fussier – B
A Tribute To Bob Dylan In The ’80s – V/A – Lucius do some justice here, Craig Finn has the right voice for another, Langhorne Slim is pretty good American, but there is no excuse for this “Brownsville Girl” (where is Lou Reed when you need him) or the other EDM track, and all the rest are whatever – C+
Abracaco – Caetano Veloso – Brazilian pop master is fucking awesome on this modern take on Bossa Nova and beyond – B+
Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia Live At The Wonder – The Dandy Warhols – Hang around long enough and what was a failed experiment in glam rock for the modern age becomes a successful career in glam rock for a cult audience – B
Live At The Jazz Club, London – D’Angelo – A later generations Sly Stone releases a full set from circa Brown Sugar, twenty years after its expiration date and it is still better than just about anything else you might consider funk. There is no way to overstate the case for this album and if we are never getting another album and if he can’t release the Radio City Music Hall gig from 2000, this will do very nicely. ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A
The Grand Budapest Hotel Soundtrack – V/A – Gypsy sounds plus Hungarian classical stuff – B
Winter And The Wolves – Grieves – Rap as deep blue singer songwriter – B
High Noon – Jerrod Neimann – You can’t tell em apart without a scorecard – C+
Pulses – Karmin – EDM pop band, better than the single would let you expect – C+
Teeth Dreams – The Hold Steady – Their worst album to date foregoes any attempt at melody for a dreary all too typical speak-sing plus rock riffs topped by a nine minute closer. An unmitigated disaster that should put em to sleep once and for all with one proviso: if I hate an an album by a band I love this much, many something hasn’t clicked yet – D+
Mess – Liars – Electronic indie mess – C
Miles at the Fillmore – Miles Davis 1970: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 3 – I have quite a few albums by Davis round this period and I have no problem adding another, especially for what amounted to a coming out party for white boys who weren’t getting it – A
May Death Never Stop You – My Chemical Romance – The only things you must own by MCR is the entire The Black Parade and “I’m Not OK, I Promise” but if you insist, this is an excellent scooping up of everything else you might want as well – A-
East – Nathan East – Master session player takes out his bass for a solo album and it sounds very very good; guess that’s what happens when you take Bernard Edwards role on “Get Lucky” -B
Shakira – Shakira – Yet another major mainstream move by the Voice chanteuse. And if “Dare (La La La)” is anything to go by it may do the job – B-
Forcefield – Tokyo Police Club – Major pop punk prove they have more than one melody and more than one tempo. ps the first song is 8 minutes long! – B+
