A little darker, sometimes lonelier. Still my favorite blend of disco vibe and hip hop beats out there. Not as upbeat as the last album but a few songs that still make me start boppin’ my shoulders and jumpin’ around at my desk. Fave song so far: “Going On” (bounce, bounce, bounce go my hips).

There’s a real Freddie Mercury/Queen vibe going on. In a good way. And not in the “glam” way of, say, My Chemical Romance (although there’s nothing bad about that). In a “rock” way.

Absolutely Love & Adore:
Sea Wolf “Leaves in the River” – So awesome. Love the lyrics, and the mood, and the harmonies. Just lovelovelove.
Bat for Lashes “Fur and Gold” – Eccentric and layered. Worried it’d be too Tori Amos for me but the music behind the voice (almost Berlin-like or Cocteau Twins. lordie this brings me back in time) is so much more enjoyable (to me) that the comparison falls away fast (phew).
The Avett Brothers “Emotionalism” – A little bit country, a little bit folk rocky. Lots of enthusiasm and fun.
Lupe Fiasco “The Cool” – This kid is a blast. Love how he’s mixing in lots of sung vocals as well.
Random Singles:

• “Skinny Love” Bon Iver (break my heart much, would ya)
  
• “In the Sun” Donna De Lory (cover of Joseph Arthur, so many people have covered this now, it’s almost unbelievable)
  
• “Work That” Mary J. Blige
  
• “Just Fine” Mary J. Blige
  
• “Apologize” OneRepublic & Timbaland (LOVELOVELOVE)
  
• “Raining in Baltimore” Brandi Carlile (cover of Counting Crows)
  
• “Thou Shalt Always Kill” Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip (so much fun!)
  
• “Paperweight” Joshua Radin & Schuyler Fisk
  
• “Endless Shovel” Rogue Wave

Other Albums I Liked:

• Augie March “Moo, You Bloody Choir” – Aussie rock.
  
• Brother Ali “The Undisputed Truth” – Really enjoy…to a point. It’s a LONG album and I start to forget who I’m listening to…
  
• The Foxboro Hot Tubs “Stop Drop and Roll” – Whether or not this is actually Green Day, I think it’s a LOT of fun.
  
• Simple Kid “2” – sounds like a combination of Beck and Elliott Smith.
  
• Nick Light “The World Forgetting by the World Forgot” – kinda Matt Nathanson-y. Not sure he’s made himself distinctive enough to really break out. I’ll be interested to see.
  
• UGK “Underground Kingz” – I’m not sure I’ve ever made it all the way through (what’s up with rap albums having like 38.5 songs?), but I like it in select doses.
  
• Juno soundtrack – Love (LOVE!) a lot of this but can’t listen to it in one go, gets monotonous. Taken in doses, however, the sweetness and the romance bring you right back to the mood of the movie, which is AWESOME.
  
• Hard-Fi “Stars of CCTV” – Really liked their new one (first to me); just catching up on the back catalog.
  
• The White Stripes “Conquest” EP – Sort of a “protest against the press” album to me, if you dig into the lyrics. Just as good as their recent album, just shorter!
  
• Jay-Z “American Gangster” – I don’t buy ALL his albums but I think this one is a solid “entire album” listen. Love all the movie references and the tough guy talk.

Not really for me / but maybe for you!:
Radiohead “In Rainbows” – I stopped being a Radiohead fan such a long time ago (sorry, I’m just not THAT COOL); you should be surprised I even gave this a chance. I do find this album “LISTENABLE” and honestly that’s a compliment given what I thought of the previous couple. And there are a couple songs I actually LIKE (“House of Cards” would be one), but I don’t enjoy enough of it and I often “fast forward” when random songs from it come on up shuffle. It’s just not really my thing.
Siobhan Donaghy “Revolution in Me” – I bought this hoping to get a pop diva fix. It’s got some nice songs, but I don’t find myself looking for it on the Pod.
Shamefully have either not listened to at all, or not all the way through, or so few times that I can’t legitimately offer an opinion:

• Mavis Staples “We’ll Never Turn Back” (loved the samples I listened to on iTunes but just haven’t gotten around to it)
  
• Dyme Dec “Space Music” (although I have listened to the one song “Let It Be” a bunch, which features speeded-up Beatles and is AWESOME!! I’ve told you about it before.)

Always behind the times as I am, I picked up this 2003 release at Green Apple on my trip to San Fran last month. Not only had I never heard of this album, I didn’t know Andrew Kenny (or his band American Analog) or the Home series itself (which offers other interesting pairings such as Bright Eyes/Britt Daniel).
So pleased I bought this. Lovely quiet little songs. Subtle and sweet. Here’s a longer review if you need one.
Gibbard’s Death Cab band mate has a solo album out (out now, currently, not four years ago — in case you’re wondering) and it’s getting good reviews everywhere I look. But so far I really haven’t been tempted — it’s Gibbard’s voice that really makes Death Cab for me; and you get a nice dose of it here on these four solos.

It’s really great. I loved their first album but this definitely takes things up a few notches. Melodic and intense. Some songs are what I imagine Explosions in the Sky would sound like if they added a vocal track. A couple songs remind me of Pink Floyd, I admit sheepishly (not my fault! I did date Pink Floyd’s Biggest Fan!). And there’s one song with Eagles-esque harmonies (“Peaceful Easy Feelin'” type harmonies is what I’m sayin’).
Totally love it.
Although it seems kinda short. I want more!

I really hadn’t listened to Pearl Jam much in recent history, but then I started reading I Am Fuel, You Are Friends, and Heather is an unabashed PJ fan…and then they played Lollapalooza…

This album is the soundtrack to the movie. And I swear when I listen to it..this is going to sound crazy!… I can FEEL Alaska. I can feel wide open horizons… I can feel solitude, and silent (echoing?) forests… Expansive. Lonely. Calm. I don’t know what it is — Vedder’s voice, the background music, the lyrics — but it is creating very vivid pictures in my mind…

It’s a mystery to me…
You think you have to want more than you need
Until you have it all, you won’t be free.

I really like this, I think there are some quality songs I will be listening to for a while… BUT. But.

Ou est the joy, Kanye? The thing I really, really loved about his previous albums was the FUN. The sense that he was smiling the entire time he was rapping. When I saw him in concert, I thought “damn this kid is HAPPY.” I mean, maybe not as crazily silly-ily happy as, say, Lupe Fiasco, but still. There was a real joie de vivre about the whole thing.

On this record, even on the songs with positive, peppy lyrics, I feel like he’s got this “I am very purposeful” look on his face. A “hey, this is serious, I’m not joking around” tone. Like he’s just not having as much fun. 🙁 I know he feels like he’s got something to prove; there’s the “who will sell more” battle with 50, and the reviews that all say “he gives his best stuff away! his albums aren’t as good as the stuff he does for other people!” … but maybe he needs to not care about that, you know.

I still like it, I’m still listening. But I don’t LOVE it the way I did the previous two.

Rogue Wave: “Asleep at Heaven’s Gate”.

Um hello = LOVE IT. Listened straight through twice so far. Can’t even be bothered to try the other albums I bought last night, because this sooooo pleasing. Oui, ça me plaît beaucoup. Love it.