Soul Coughing - Irresistible Bliss

Technically my first introduction to the band, I'd heard the Propellerhead remix of "Super Bon Bon" and was hooked. The album version eclipsed it immediately, though, and once I progressed into the sleepy whimsy of the first half, I was a fan. And then, the second half hits and the band changes gears. Where Ruby Vroom was largely a single tone album in that there wasn't an overbearing sense of gloom or sarcasm relegated to one half of the album, Irresistible Bliss is clearly split in two. For every subdued pop song ("Soft Serve") or smart ass love song ("Soundtrack to Mary" and "Lazybones") that the first half features, the second's sarcasm goes from inward to out and the world is Doughty's canvas. The bitter irony of "How Many Cans?" and the stalker in the night sounds of "Collapse" stand in almost direct opposition to the first half. Not necessarily as successful or memorable as their debut (It would be difficult to live up to "Screenwriter's Blues," "Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago," or "Bus to Beelzebub"), the overall result is still superb.

RJD2 - The Horror

Comprised mostly of inessential remixes and instrumental versions of song's whose strong points were the lyrical content to begin with, The Horror is more than slightly excessive. Sure, the DVD is a nice addition, and a select few songs ("Let the Good Times Roll Pt. 1" and "Sell the World") feel more than the retreads the rest of the album is, but who wants to fork out twelve bucks for two songs and a DVD that lacks just a bit in content? To be fair the remarkably good remix of "June" should be included in there as positives of the disc. For as epic as Deadringer was and is, The Horror comes off as an afterthought - something to crap out and package in cellophane.. . .

The End - Transfer Trachea Reverberations From Point: False Omniscient

I think it's fairly obvious, with this release and The End's upcoming album, that Relapse is scrambling like mad to find a replacement for Dillinger Escape Plan. Everything is there. Blast beats, jazzy little segues, polyrhythmic time signatures, everything in construction, but lacking completely in significance. The band goes through the motions so completely dead that you have to wonder if they don't find playing this shit, much less sitting through the tracking process, boring as hell. There is no finesse, no defining style, just loads of borrowed elements from DEP (I won't mention Cynic, since they don't even begin to touch the legendary group) and a dozen or so other proto-jazz-metal bands. Quite possibly the most boring album you'll hear this year.

Spitfire - Dead Next Door

Before they descended into Dillinger Escape Plan rip offs and horrible production values, Spitfire were actually pretty decent. Easily one of the heaviest bands, if not the best on the label, they were sloppy as fuck, happily borrowing from their predecessors to create the murky sludge of the album. Horrifically underrated and ignored, largely because of the Slideshow Whiplash faux pas, Spitfire is one of the few bands to come out on Solid State that didn't receive a shitload of hype, and naturally, is one of the few that deserved it.. .

Sufjan Stevens - Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lakes State

About 7:07 p.m., a screeching sound wound its way into the store over the PA system. A few seconds of silence and then the sound of a car peeling off into the distance. Someone out on the sidewalk started screaming. Hit and run.

Jet - Get Born

A few reasons for why I am now taking the "No future for you" part of "God Save the Queen" more seriously than ever before: 1.) "The Western Keys? Are they anything like the Black Keys?" -Anonymous freshman dipshit looking through a stack of CDs the campus radio station was giving away. Yes, they sound just like them because they both have "Keys" in their names. Similarly, Whitesnake and the White Stripes are indistinguishable, and so are Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers and Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, Black Flag and Black Oak Arkansas, Barry White and Dave Barry, and, of course The Allman Brothers Band and Godard's "Band of Outsiders." Exactly the same, all of them. 2.) "I want to write about angst in music and poety. Like emo.

V/A - Wig in a Box: Songs From and Inspired by Hedwig & The Angry Inch

I am not a homosexual. This alternately surprises, amuses, and horrifies my wife, friends, and family on a regular basis. In a true feat of psychopathia metrosexualis, I tend to gravitate toward sexually unambiguous facets of culture like musicals and campy novelties. In other words, I took to Hedwig and the Angry Inch like a fruit fly to the sugar bowl, if you catch my drift. All jokes about Rent t-shirts aside, Hedwig charmed so many people through Stephen Trask's damned fine songs and Jon Cameron Mitchell's surprisingly moving story.

Fall of Troy - Self Titled

"You really think these guys can pull it off? I mean, really get people's attention? Do something more than just be painfully average?" James attempted a reply over the dull roar of rain drops that flew like bullets to the sidewalk and the Doubting Thomas that was, at that moment, running back and forth in my mind screaming, "Not goddamn likely!" We were heading to the Paradox in Seattle's U-District to catch a show whose line-up consisted entirely of math rock doppelgangers. I'd asked him with that same block of fatigued bandwagoneering in mind, dreading every second of sitting through it. "Yeah, I do," he finally answered, grinning. "Fall of Troy will kill everybody." I took everything he said in stride given that we were currently paying nine bucks to sit through six bands, all of whom would be playing variations on an 11/8 time signature. God knows what we needed was another math-punk-jam band missing the point and trying to be "different." The problem was never being different, but rather not having any sense of vitality to the music.

Belle & Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress

You knew a girl in Jr. High who was always reading Dickens, or Bronte Sisters, and always got straight A’s. Get to know her better, and it turns out she’s into all kinds of cool shit, like Morrissey and making out with you – no strings attached. God only puts people like this in your path once in a lifetime, so you hang onto her like grim death, especially since you notice that she’s growing out of that pre-teen awkwardness and into high school hotness.