Paramore – Brand New Eyes

I fell in love with Paramore thanks to Guitar Hero and everyone made fun of me for it. I guess it’s a good thing that nothing on this album is as good as that one song I played repeatedly (on expert, no less). It’s really close, but something’s missing.

Pearl Jam - Backspacer

What did you expect? It’s the same thing they’ve been doing for the past twenty years. And I mean that as a compliment.

The Nightwatchman – The Fabled City

Dylan goes electric. Morello goes acoustic. Tom’s not much of a singer, but it’s better than Audioslave (duh, obvz). I think I would have liked this more had he kept it stripped down with just him and an acoustic like his first album. It ends up in a weird place between not rocking enough and rocking too much all at the same time.

The Drones – Havilah

Fucking amazing. Psychedelic. Twisted. Australian. Rock and roll. Even the slower stuff rocks. Listen to it and then listen to it ten more times because it only gets better. Gareth Liddiard has the most amazing guitar tone I’ve ever heard – unique yet it embodies the epitome of what rock and roll guitars should sound like – and his voice gives the impression that his diet consists mostly of whiskey and cigarettes.

Girls – Album

Every douche bag tastemaker publication is hailing this as the next best thing so rest assured, it sucks. The same people that told you Dan Deacon was good are raving about Girls. Naw I’m sayin’? Really it’s just some whiney bitch with long hair crying about his ex-girlfriend while trying to make a surf pop record. The guitars don’t sound in tune at times, I suppose in an attempt to hide their straight up pop tendencies and his voice resembles Elvis Costello, except annoying to the point of being unlistenable.

CocoRosie - The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn

Before I ever listened to CocoRosie, my friend saw them live and took acid and molly and had an amazing time. 30 seconds into this album all I could think is, wow, I wish I had some acid. I imagine stumbling into an enchanted forest and finding pixies and centaurs and elves and lost children making this kind of music.

Marissa Nadler - Little Hells

It’s almost difficult listening to this album all at once because it’s too good. It’s the audio equivalent of looking into the sun. You can get a glimpse, but any more than that and it’d be too much to handle. This reminds me of Tiny Vipers (only because it’s a girl and her guitar singing slow, sad songs) but Marissa Nadler outshines, having put together a truly great record.

These Arms Are Snakes – Tail Swallower and Dove

It’s surprising when a band can continually make better albums then their last. Not even Bruce Springsteen could do that. It’s heavy and rocking, but still creative without falling back on the same tricks every other post-hardcore band relies on. It could be said this is more of the same, but it pushes their sound even further.

Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk

You would think that four guys that can, by most accounts, write decent songs would automatically write a song four times as great when united and yet we’re left with a sub par album filled with these boring songs. Their first mistake was that they named themselves Monsters of Folk. AND no one thought it was a bad idea to write a song called “Losin Yo Head.” This is supposed to be our generation’s Traveling Wilburys as if the Traveling Wilburys were any good.

Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem

I actually haven’t even really listened to this because it sucks so much. Which is disheartening because a Mount Eerie metal album sounds like it could (nay, should) be amazing. I love Mount Eerie, but it’s difficult to hear the songs thru all the noise.

Why? - Eskimo Snow

Eskimo Snow? More like eskimo blow. I’ve liked Why? for a long time which is what makes this so disappointing. I’ll listen to it, but only because I’m tired of listening to their older/better shit.