The Absence – Melanie Gardot – If you get past the backstory (hit by car, months of rehab, hypersentive to light and noise), you can enjoy a stirringly beautiful pop chanteuse who moves in the jazzy realm of mid-period Joni Mitchell without the folk trappings – Grade: A-
Here – Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeroes – Proto-hippoe, culty, feel good vibes with the haze of pot and the space shifting of strong hallucigenics, Edward Sharpe is way too twee to be a pleasure. Except half of these songs are really good and a couple are great… I bet they jam out live – Grade: B+
The Grifters Hymnal – Ray Wylie Bubbard – As authentic as his name, this mixes country, rock and a fear of Jesus into prayers of rattlesnake bitten forgiveness. There's even a sidetrip twoth a 21 year old vet. And it all ends up in hell with Fox News whores and the Jim Morrison – Grade: A
The Hurt & The Healer – Mercyme – Christian rock band, and not the P.O.D. type either. Mid-tempo plodder, with a pretty good second vocalist and not much else – Grade: C
Where The Knives Meet Between the Rows – Leigh Marble – The ballads are sweetly beautiful, the blues numbers a bore, the lyrics all over the place, the highlights are very very high, the lows not so bad, it could break him out from a regional to a local act – Grade: B+
1991 – Azelia Banks – The ending of "Van Vogue" is quite possibly the most annoying minute ever recorded. The rest of the EP finds Banks to be an mix of Twister, Minaj and the shadings of Badu with her Afrikaan jazz full headlights on – Grade: B+
Magic Hour – Scissor Sisters – There wasn't much the gay icons could do but disappointed after the groundbreaking Eurotrash West Berlin, after the fall the sex Nightmoves. So they disappoint.Magic Hour is an excellent disco album, with great dance songs, great ballads, a smart novelty number, and a vibe that kicks on stage. But it isn't Nightmoves. Grade: A-