Kanye West - 808's And Heartbreaks
 Kanye West might as well have released his newest album, "808s and Heartbreaks" under the moniker "T-West." The 4th full-length album from the established producer and rapper attempts to show the softer side of Kanye, which turns out to be more depressing than anything. The intro to the album, "Say You Will," sets the tempo for the rest of the album by dropping a slow drum beat and vocoder-masked lyrics of angst over an elusive woman Kanye spends the entire album droning about.
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That Ghost - Young Fridays
 Young Fridays is the first album I have heard from Santa Rosa based artist That Ghost. I will give credit to the fact that Ryan Schmale, being a one man band, has more musical talent than I ever have.
But I give this album a resounding “Meh”.
My first impressions of Young Fridays were non existent. I attempted to do other work while writing the album, and honestly, I didn’t even notice when it was done playing. On a second listening, I paid closer attention. Continued...
Animal Collective - Merriweather
 There’s something I’ve always found intensely emotional, dare I say even spiritual, about Animal Collective. Something about the way Avey Tare’s voice so smoothly transitions from a delicate flower to a primal scream that captures the human soul, and wedges it squarely between a cacophony of noises that are so ripped and rendered by minidisk players, and whatever other bizarre devices the Collective uses, that they are unrecognizable. But somehow from this tangled mass a truly unique type of music is formed. To say the least, I dig what these guys do, and the new album doesn’t disappoint. Continued...
Sick Of Sarah - Sick Of Sarah
 To start with: I don’t like chick-rock.
It isn’t really sexisim. It just isn’t meant for me.
I try to see through that, but I see clichés, overdone pop formats, and pseudo-we-can-do-it attitude. Sick of Sarah, refreshingly, isn’t like that.
A five-piece from Minnesota, the first song caught my attention with the vocals. They aren’t sappy and over-done to cover up the fact nobody can sing. In fact, the girls sing quite well throughout the whole album. Smart and witty lyrics are carried throughout most of the album, and honestly, I found myself enjoying it.
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Gregory and the Hawk - Moenie and Kitchi
 For whatever reason, I’ve never been a fan of female vocalists. Maybe it’s because I’m secretly jealous, but I think it has more to do with vocal quality—in my opinion, boys just tend to sound smoother. There are, of course, exceptions to this: among them are Jaymay, Rilo Kiley, and now Gregory and the Hawk.
Moenie and Kitchi, the group’s third album (preceded by a 2007 EP, In Your Dreams, and the Boats and Birds EP, released in 2006), is an exercise in lyrical relaxation. Continued...
Amanda Palmer - Who Killed Amanda Palmer
 Imagine a street performer posing as a living statue. Then picture her turning into a lead singer, a pianist, and a lyricist for cabaret punk band called the Dresden Dolls and finally going her separate way. If you follow Amanda Palmer this story might sound familiar. After graduating from a Wesleyan University she formed a traveling street and theater group called the Shadowbox Collective and met Brian Vigiline along the way. They decided to settle down for a while and write some music under the name Dresden Dolls. Continued...
Pale Young Gentlemen - Black Forest (Tra La La)
 Starting something from the beginning is usually advisable, but I don’t regret hearing Pale Young Gentlemen for the first time on their sophomore album, Black Forest (Tra La La). I haven’t yet had the privilege of hearing their self-produced, self-recorded, and self-titled debut project yet, but it’s rising to the top of my to-do list with every listen I give to the band. Continued...
The Spinto Band - Moonwink
 At first, The Spinto Band’s Moonwink was headed for a bad review. After playing it through once, I thought the vocals sounded something like the Killers’ Brandon Flowers on helium, and for all I could make out the lyrics, I might as well have been sitting in class with the Peanuts gang, struggling to understand their infamous teacher. The album, overall, felt like going to a fair where everybody’s hopped up on cotton candy and every separate attraction clamors for your attention. Continued...
Pierre De Reeder- The Way It Was
 Pierre De Reeder is best known for his bass guitar contributions to Rilo Kelly, the alternative/country/pop /folk band from Los Angeles. He recently released a solo album titled The Way That It Was. His Press release states that, "Listeners will recognize the album's seemingly familiar blend of class pop, rock and folk but will quickly find it to be unlike anything they've heard before. Continued...
The Adventure - The Adventure
 One of the things I loved about playing games on the original NES back in my younger days was the music of the games. Fore some reason, 8-bit music has something catchy to me. It isn't something I would listen to every day, but hearing it does bring real nostalgia. So here I am reviewing the self-titled first album by The Adventure. While I write, it is as if I just left a game on pause. I suppose it isn't all that surprising that somebody would have enjoyed old videogame music as much as I had...Continued...
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