Kind of surprised to see Era Vulgaris so low. Some of Homme’s best work is on that album in my opinion.But no Eagles of Death Metal? That group has Josh Homme written all over it.

Vampire Weekend’s album is definitely my favorite of the year so far, but I want to give an honorable mention to The So So Glos. Their album was probably the most fun one to listen to so far this year.

It’s a solid effort, but overall I feel pretty underwhelmed. I don’t understand why the band would say this is a more aggressive album, because it seems to be the exact opposite nearly all the way through. In fact, a lot of these tracks I’m having a hard time telling apart as many sound so similar. In albums before they always struck a nice balance between their somber music by having very energetic, more anthem like tracks mixed in, but those latter tracks seem to be completely absent on this album, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it makes the 55 minute run time feel a lot longer and a lot less interesting than it should. I really do enjoy The National, and this is an album I’ve been looking forward to for a while now, but I think I was expecting too much after High Violet. Hoping Tom is right and that this is more of a slow burner, something I’ll come to appreciate, but for now it seems to be their weakest effort since their pre-Alligator days.

Great choice, but I’m sad to see you guys ignored Bored Nothing’s debut album that also came out this week. I’ve been playing that for a couple days now, and while it’s not going to blow you away, it is a pretty enjoyable album.

I have to agree. I’m a huge YYYs fan, and I was so looking forward to this given that It’s Blitz! was my favorite album from 2009. In comparison to that, and their albums prior, this one does feel a little boring. Too many ballads here, and while some are good, it all makes for a very unexciting record. As copy_paster_cat put it, when they do speed it up on songs like “Mosquito”, it sounds too forced or silly to really enjoy. I agree that the YYYs shouldn’t go back to their old sound, but I felt like they found a perfectly good new one with It’s Blitz! Moving into synth-dance territory was a great move on their part, but it seems like they’ve totally abandoned it on here. It’s not a bad album, there are solid songs on here such as “Sacrilege”, “Under the Earth”, and “Wedding Song”, but a lot of these songs are throwaways. Maybe my expectations were a little too high, but in my opinion, this one was a pretty big letdown.

Man, it’s almost as if The Pretenders didn’t have anymore than 3 albums.

Its sad to think that I wouldn’t be too surprised to see Rolling Stone implement some of these ideas.

As a huge fan of NIN and Reznor’s work, it has been hard for me to get into How to Destroy Angels’ stuff. The more upbeat tracks are great, but the slower songs, and particularly the instrumentals, feel off. I always have faith in Reznor, but I think he needs to experiment a little farther to make a good HtDA’s album.

I change it constantly, but Rubber Soul would have to be my answer. It is the perfect blend of their early pop records and their following experimental albums.

Homeless

You’re missing out, its an awesome soundtrack.

Pet Sounds