Plastic Beach (
Gorillaz) – A concept album from a concept band. What impresses me about this album is how fluid it manages to be for having guest artists on most every track (from Snoop Dogg to Mos Def to Lou Reed). It definitely has some catchy songs (e.g. ‘Melancholy Hill’) that you can’t help but like but it also has some less “user-friendly” tracks (‘Sweepstakes’ w/ Mos Def) which have a lot of depth to them upon subsequent listens. This helps make the album a lastingly good one. ‘Some Kind of Nature’ w/ Lou Reed doesn’t really fit any of those categories; it is just awesome.
8.5 (on a scale of -10 to 10)
Sisterworld (
Liars) – A friend of mine wondered if the cd had possibly been retrieved after being “discarded somewhere on the floor of hell.” He continued, “I tried, but I just can't do it. I feel like an old man getting his first taste of rock 'n' roll.” This album is definitely not for the faint of heart and yes it may have some diabolical qualities to it, but damn if I don’t LOVE this album. It’s so good. Admittedly, you have to be in a slightly sinister mood (in other words, don’t listen to it on a sunny morning whilst on a power walk) to really get into it. Interestingly, some of the tracks (e.g. ‘Scissor’) are haunting and jagged, yet others (e.g. “Too Much, Too Much’) are angelically melodic. Also, they pull off one of the best album remixes I’ve ever heard. As a bonus disc they do alt versions of each track allowing other artists to inject their influence and remix the track to their style. Two of these remix creations are just annoying and offer no new perspectives or improvements, but at least two of them are homeruns and most of them are just really good.
9.0
Go (
Jonsi) – Listen to this album on a sunny morning whilst on a power walk. It will make you happy. Jonsi (frontman of Sigur Ros) steps out on his own to deliver this solo project. It’s very colorful and upbeat and I like that it draws on that signature Icelandic sound that he has helped to create. No song really stands out as genius, and after a week or two you might even forget that you have this album in your collection, but it is good and you will be glad when you play it again after realizing that you haven’t listened to it in a while.
7.0
Forgiveness Rock Record (
Broken Social Scene) – The Canadien indie superband is back at it with their fourth studio album. I think this is BSS’s most consistently good album to date. It doesn’t have any immediate hits like ’Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl’ or ‘7/4 (Shoreline)’ but it has two or three or four songs that I really like and more importantly, no duds. This album is pretty recent so I haven’t given it a lot of listens yet but I’ve found that it’s their most complete album and for that reason probably their best.
I'm bored with this album by now. It has little character and at least one annoying song ("Texaco B's"). It still has a few nice tracks but it's never enough to pull me back in.
7.5 4.0
