Another soundscape album of semi-songs by Sonic Youth, I feel that somehow this one seems like less of a throwaway experiment and more like a mature work by musicians extremely deep into their career. On the other hand, nobody reading this blog post would enjoy it, so bear that in mind before you run out to make a purchase.
You know, I always thought I liked Murray Street a lot more than this album, but listening to it for the first time in a few years I realized it's one of Sonic Youth's best. They claimed it was their attempt at a classic rock record, like something by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, which I can sort of understand - there aren't any four part harmonies, but the guitars are really gentle and layered in a way that can best be described as pretty. It's probably the least "aggressive" SY album out there. Maybe it'd be in my top three of their albums? I can understand why 24 year old me only thought it was ok - he had some pent up issues that were probably best solved by listening to At The Drive-In on repeat.
Well, this album sucks, but the question is does it suck as much as Pitchfork famously claimed? I guess it'd be hard to, but I doubt even Pitchfork really believed the album was a 0.0. It's got some good moments musically speaking, but those are frequently ruined by bad impersonations of high school students imitating Jim Morrison imitating the beat poets. Well, there was nowhere to go but up after this I guess, but it's easily the worst thing Sonic Youth has ever been associated with.
I've found that a lot of radio pop lately has been employing common late 90s electronic music moves that I would have loved back when I tracked, which is cool but also embarrassing because if I pick somebody up in my car and I'm blasting this or Nelly Furtado it's tough to come up with excuses. Well, as for La Roux, the 80s-style synthpop and charming androgyny of this group is extremely catchy. That's my excuse? Um.
It's Devo's first studio album in 20 years, and boy do I remember standing in line at the record store in 1990 with my fifteen Canadian dollars ready to pop down for Smooth Noodle Maps. No I don't, but if I did or that had actually happened I would have been tres disappointed - that album blows. This one's pretty good, though. I guess if you can put out one good album every quarter century you shouldn't feel too bad about yourselves, but don't take my word for it. Dahda da!
Alternating between aggressive 303 tweaking and almost polite backbeats and vocal sampling, this terrific electronic album (NSFW) is what you might get if you crossed the music from Megaman 2 with the sounds of a self destructing killer robot factory. I think the electronic scene of the late 2000s was what I was always looking for in the 1990s when I still wrote electronic music, because boy did I hate The Crystal Method and The Future Sound Of London.
As I mentioned before, I'll watch just about anything that features Bruce Willis packing heat. So I was pretty stoked to find out that he's in the video for the new Gorillaz track "Stylo." I don't really understand what the clip is about, but it has Bruce Willis, guns, and muscle cars in it. The song's not bad either. 
Cookie Monster drowns with stringed accompaniment as the Russian tanks roll into Berlin. This shit is bananas.
Sufjan Stevens, indie music troubadour and vaguely Christian singer/songwriter, has released a whole hell of a lot of Christmas music in the last few years. One of the better tracks, by virtue of it's animated video, would have to be "Put the Lights on the Tree." It's a pretty short, upbeat, somewhat whimsical song. Also, if you listen to the lyrics, it's kind of like an instructional guide for the holidays (Put the lights on the tree / Put the ribbon on the wreath / Call your grandma on the phone). But if indie whimsy isn't your style and you're looking for something for your saddo side, try "That Was the Worst Christmas Ever."
Not enough emo in your eggnog? Well then champ, you should really try listening to Weezer's "The Christmas Song." You'll be crying into your Dungeon Master's Guide before you know it. But seriously folks, even though "The Christmas Song" is a downer, Weezer has apparently recorded a whole bunch of other Christmas songs. And if you're looking for one that won't have you reaching for the razor blades, I would recommend "Christmas Celebration."
The White Stripes' "Candy Cane Children" was released in 2002 on a Christmas themed 7" single (the b-side featured a reading of the story of the magi and a candid rendition of "Silent Night"). Despite being a cover, the song's lyrics feature some themes that reoccur in other White Stripes songs (ie: children, guns). Since I genuinely like this song, I really don't have anything snarky to say about it. Man, I'm starting to think this project was a bad idea.
"The Christmas Shoes" is a treacly piece of shit by the Christian rock group NewSong. The lyrics of the song describe an encounter between the song's narrator and some poor kid who really wants to buy his dying mother some shoes for Christmas. The kid guilt trips the narrator into paying for the shoes and somehow valuable Christmas lessons are learned. Listening to this song is not advisable under any circumstance. What is advisable is watching the animated video that accompanies comedian Patton Oswalt's deconstruction and mockery of the song. (The video, while hilarious, contains offensive language and may not be suitable for a work environment.)
56, 51, 53, and 47. You can't really blame Sonic Youth for putting out a largely forgettable album after almost 30 years of being together. I mean, at their age most bands just stop writing new music and fall back on their catalog of hits (oh, right). It's decent enough, but it doesn't do anything new. Sorry Sonic Youth, major deduction for not altering the stale formula of rock in a radical and original way for the billiontieth time in your career you old fogeys. 
Whereas many of our readers were totally grossed out or whatevs by the video for Justice's song "Stress" that I posted a couple days ago, I immediately bought the whole album after seeing it. It's pretty much everything I want out of an electronic album: great beats, interesting and unique manipulation of samples and instruments, and a real sort of furious energy buried beneath all the ones and zeros. Daft Punk, the other big French electronic duo, sometimes comes close, but I've never enjoyed a single album by them as much as I've enjoyed this one. So check out some more music by them unless you're scared of getting beaten up by awesome music after seeing the other video.
Oops, looks like I'm behind in the times again, but here's a pretty fun album that I'm sure everybody has already played to death since it came out a year ago. It's sometimes rocky and sometimes dancey, and if there's one thing I know about our readers at R3 is that they love to dance. Yeah, I like this album a lot, but I'm not so certain how much more can be milked out of alternadance, but then again I'm no Pitchfork Media so what do I know.
Peanut butter and chocolate, lemon and lime, punk rock and badly misinformed Marxist arguments - history is just full of great combos like these, and while only two of them can (so far, science?) be eaten, at least the third makes for a pretty decent album to blast from the speakers of my Honda Accord LX with leather interior as I'm driving through the poor parts of town. Solidarity my friends! After slogging away with the other proles for 10 hours today at work I don't feel like creating an analogy to describe Gang Of Four's sound that at first would seem hilarious and witty but on second read would turn out to make no sense whatsoever for describing any type of music, but here's some links, so maybe you can crack open some PBR to listen for a second. I also just relistened to Franz Ferdinand's first album and that one is fun, but not fun enough that I feel like writing about it (and I barely wrote about this album if that tells you something).
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