My Shame Is True – Alkaline Trio – After 17 years pounding out Goth punk anthem, Alkaline Trio have finally released the album of their career. Power punk swirls of smart lyrics, catchy hooks, clever melodies. Who are they? Green Day? "I Wanna Be Your Warhol" ("hanging on your wall-all") is a song of the year and so is "I Lied To The FBI" and if they can't maintain this level of smarts, they don't miss by much. ALL OF THE WEEK – A-
Strike Gently – The Virgins – I dismissed this album out of hand because it wasn't what I wanted: another album filled with the Stones circa "Miss You" steals. But this one is a grower and "Impressions Of You" and "Prima Matera" alone make it worth more than a curt dismissal. A fine Strokes-y post-disco hard rock band featuring Donald Cumming's always excellent singing – B+
Machineries Of Joy – British Sea Power – What's that word again? Soundscape. This Brighton England band (hence the name, no doubt) Play lovely mood music that seems to swim in place from album to album This is lovely stuff… but a little much after awhile – B
Ride Your Heart – Bleached – Garage rock West Coast style, I'll take em over Haim any day but it seems to spin its wheels too much. Catchy, average, but smartly melodic, and pretty good live, they still can't get over a bland hump – B
Sempiternal – Bring Me The Horizon – These brilliant metal core boys have been wowing rock nyc since forever, but not me. I found them a little obvious till now. This is high melodic hardcore and the lead singer isn't quite bowels of hell because he screams in melody – B+
Dear Miss Lonelyhearts – Cold War Kids – "Wilco is to country/Americana as Cold War Kids is to soul/punk" so quoth Cold War Kids, but is that a compliment? Listening songs as strange and brutal as "Fear And Trembling" with its haunting sax at the end, you got to think maybe these guys are better than you thought they were. I think a larger audience would improve them – B+
Pioneer – The Band Perry – How bad can it be? Oversung claptrap by another trio of country bores – D+
10 – New Kid On The Blocks – They took a 15 year break and have been back for 5 years, and this is the same as it always was, five part harmonies with a lead over the top performing pop manufactured songs – C-
A State Of Trance 2013 (Unmixed Edition) – Armin Van Buren – The blueprints from which his DJ build their case, and really, just proof as to how much goes into a remix – C-
Rkives – Rilo Kiley – I'll give "All The Drugs" and "The Frugs" and "Running Around" but the rest of this reminds you the many reasons you didn't like this band as much as you remembered loving them. And why except for Jenny's first solo album, they've done nothing much since their break up. Oh, and why is there no liner notes since these are outtakes and recorded and different periods of their career – B