Both first time.

Aerosmith-Aerosmith
8.6/10

Get Your Wings-Aerosmith
9.3/10

Portishead - Third

A very self-assured, organically original set of songs, vastly different than the band's previous works - with the exception of a few cuts (those of which are at least well-written, enjoyable pieces of music)

9

ya the thing that was most amazing about that album other than how good it was was how it was so much different from their other stuff but still very solid. its like they put out out the same quality of music but in a different form. not many bands can do that successfully and not many bands have the balls to do something so different.

St. Germain (Ludovic Navarre) jazz/house fusion
Albums: Tourist, from Detroit to St. Germain and Boulevard >> all def'ly worth a spin/10
Sure Thing

and for those of you with a curiosity for the arab music world, check out Amr Diab. you have to hunt and peck your way thru his stuff, but he is legend. and he has some tasty (toyyib) session musicians. (Habibi) Nour Al Ain 1996 Arab song 'o the year and Amarain ...habibi = darling ... handy multi-purpose phrase to shout at your honey >> ya habibi yalla!

Rainbow - Rising
8.8/10

^ Did not care for Interstellar Space, myself. I'm sure there's a logical reason behind every note he's playing, but I don't really care. It just sounds cacophonous.

and mitch's word of the week is...?

drum roll

V




cacophonous

The Man used cacophonous before Mitch did. Would you prefer it if Mitch just said 'noisy'?

As someone who likes Led Zeppelin, I've never understood how the first 3 albums are thought to be so incredible. Each of them has a few tracks that seem a bit filler. I admit to having a personal bias against LZII though.

the man did use it first,it's just a friendly jibe nothing else.

Cynic - Carbon-Based Anatomy EP

Oh man, amazing step into a completely different direction from Traced in Air. They completely ditched any death metal influence and replaced it with world music. I can't wait to hear what the next full length will be like, this was fantastic.

8.5/110

Well, guys I'm back from vacation. I went to Costa Rica with my Dad and I've listened to A LOT of music over the past 2 weeks. Since there are so many and since a lot of time has passed since I listened to a lot of these not all the ratings will be 100% accurate. These are all for the first time.

Songs of Leonard Cohen-Leonard Cohen
8.8/10

Songs From A Room-Leonard Cohen
8.6/10

The Future-Leonard Cohen
9.1/10

White Light/White Heat-The Velvet Underground
7.9/10

Loaded-The Velvet Underground
9.4/10

Bad Company-Bad Company
8.6/10

The Slider-T. Rex
9/10

Screamadelica-Primal Scream
9/10

Viva Hate-Morrissey
8.9/10

Your Arsenal-Morrissey
8.9/10

A Love Supreme
8.5/10

In A Silent Way-Miles Davis
9.4/10

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts-Brian Eno and David Byrne
8.2/10

Eveything That Happens Will Happen Today-Brian Eno and David Byrne
9/10

Little Creatures-Talking Heads
8.4/10

Naked-Talking Heads
8.6/10

My Aim Is True-Elvis Costello
8.7/10

Armed Forces-Elvis Costello
8.6/10

Mellow Gold-Beck
8.2/10

Midnite Vultures-Beck
8.4/10

Mutations-Beck
9.4/10

Gorillaz-Gorillaz
8.7/10

Demon Days-Gorillaz
8.7/10

Alone With Everybody-Richard Ashcroft
8.5/10

Northern Soul-The Verve
8.9/10

X&Y-Coldpay
8.5/10

Mylo Xyloto-Coldplay
8.5/10

Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
8.9/10

Time Without Consequence-Alexi Murdoch
8.6/10

Homogenic-Björk
8.7/10

This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About-Modest Mouse
8.2/10

The Moon & Antarctica-Modest Mouse
8.4/10

We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank-Modest Mouse
8.5/10

I'm With You-Red Hot Chili Peppers
8.6/10

Fate of Nations-Robert Plant
8.3/10

One Night Stand! Live At The Harlem Square Club-Sam Cooke
8.7/10

Elvis Presley-Elvis Presley
8.4/10

From Elvis in Memphis-Elvis Presley
8.8/10

Ukulele Songs-Eddie Vedder
8.6/10

Crash-Dave Matthews Band
8.9/10

Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop-Nancy Wilson
8.4/10

All the Roadrunning-Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler
8.6/10

Night Moves-Bob Seger
8.6/10

Stranger in Town-Bob Seger
8.6/10

Against the Wind-Bob Seger
8.8/10

The Beyondness of Things-John Barry
10/10

The Stranger-Billy Joel
9/10

Turnstiles
9.1/10

Live at the Star Club, Hamburg-Jerry Lee Lewis
10/10

In the Wee Small Hours-Frank Sinatra
10/10 Loved this so much I listened to it twice.

The rest are ones I'd heard before

Urban Hymns-The Verve
10/10

Parachutes-Coldplay
9.2/10

A Rush of Blood To The Head-Coldplay-9.8/10

Debut-Björk
8.5/10

Talking Heads: 77-Talking Heads
8.8/10

More Songs About Buildings and Food-Talking Heads
8.9/10

Fear of Music-Talking Heads
9.4/10

Remain In The Light-Talking Heads
9.5/10

Speaking in Tongues-Talking Heads
9.5/10

Odelay-Beck
9.6/10

Guero-Beck
9.5/10

The Information-Beck
9.1/10

Modern Guilt-Beck 9/10

Sea Change-Beck
10/10

Catching up on 2011:

Russian Circles
Empros:

Even as a big fan of post-rock, I can only get so excited about a release that sticks so thoroughly to its genre's conventions. Sure, there's a lot more metal here than in most post-rock albums (and a lot more post-rock than in most post-metal), and it's not that I dislike it, but I'm far more interested in hearing something new than something that's been done a hundred times. Mladek sounds just like a song by Explosions in the Sky until the metal explosion halfway through, and Schiphol, as beautiful as it is, comes right out of Godspeed (as does Atackla, except instead of high-pitched screeching guitars at the climax we get low, heavy, distorted ones). The only track that doesn't follow the typical soft-loud-soft post-rock formula is opener 309. After a brief ambient intro, it bursts out with guns blazing, jumping right into a catchy metal riff. There are softer moments, but the band never lets up on the heaviness, both in general tone and in actual distortion on their guitars. Even then, it's probably not the best track on the album. The first riff is the only one that seems particularly inspired, while other songs, despite falling prey to the usual post-rock formula, have stronger melodies and song structures. Certainly not a bad album, and it does what it tries to do well, but it's nothing particularly special.

James Blake
James Blake:

I have no idea why I ignored this when it came out. I downloaded it and proceeded not to listen to it for ten months. It's only in the last week or two that I discovered what a gem I'd skipped over. I've heard it likened to the xx and I must agree that both artists have a sense for negative space, for silence, that many artists don't. I would genuinely be interested in knowing how many seconds of this album are silent. There's a lot of jump-cuts, as if a particular channel on the mixing board blew out for a few seconds while recording. Lindisfarne I in particular is filled with negative space. Blake's auto-tuned voice appears from the darkness for a few seconds at a time before receding back into the silence. Blake's such a masterful songwriter that - strangely, perhaps even perversely - none of the songs stick out in the first few seconds. He's not here for catchy hooks and pleasant melodies. It's all atmosphere, so even when the beginning of a song leaves me wondering, "Is it really as good as I remember?" it never fails to live up to memory. Most songs are built on only a line or two of lyrics that are repeated, morphed, played with in an ever-changing background of electronic bloops and bleeps. Whereas the Russian Circles album I reviewed above makes no attempts to escape genre conventions, this album makes no attempt to conform to any such conventions. It's a very singular work, the work of a single creative mind, and it's a very impressive work. Not all the songs are amazing, but none of them are anywhere close to bad. One of the best of the year for sure.

Yeah, a very interesting release for sure. I'm kind of glad that they're turning in a new direction because, as much as I liked Traced in Air, it definitely felt like the heavy aspects of it were a little forced, imo. Cynic has been getting some heavy rotation from me in the past few months and I can see them becoming one of my favorite bands if they continue to release such unique music.