The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo


Band: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Album: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Best song: Well, it’s a score album, but the covers of “Immigrant Song” and “Is Your Love Strong Enough?” are actual songs, for what that’s worth.
Worst song: It’s a film score, so it’s hard to pick a bad song. Each composition works within the film.

I use music in this space to give insight on shit only for which I have concern, as this is the ultimate in intellectual masturbation. There’s a small method to this particular madness in that I always considered myself a “music guy,” whatever that means. In fact, in previous times, that was called “pretentious,” a “music snob,” a music nerd,” being into “indie rock,” being into “underground music” and the like (some people use “hipster,” but that’s a young man’s game and it is unidentifiable [this is one of my pet peeves.]). My Rolling Stone blog project sort of shows that definition to be true. Music is a thing for me.  Read More »

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Bon Iver


Band: Bon Iver
Album: Bon Iver
Best song: “Holocene” is the best song on the record, though album opener “Perth” is great.
Worst song: “Wash” is the weakest on a very strong record.

We’re coming up on the time of the year wherein everyone releases their “best of the year” lists. These lists, of course, are nonsense. They seem to always include whatever schlock Wilco has produced in a given year — despite not having released a truly great album since 2002 — and a representative from all of the possible genres of music (save, of course, for metal). Read More »

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Let England Shake


Band: PJ Harvey
Album: Let England Shake
Best song: “This Glorious Land” is amazing and kind of scary.
Worst song: “Hanging in the Wire,” while still pretty good, is the weakest of the record.

A note: In a fit of real goal making, I had intended to write about Let England Shake soon after writing about the Kinks’ Arthur (or some other of the Kinks’ similarly Anglocentric records [which is probably all of them]). But, life intervened and I wanted to spotlight my favorite albums of 2011. So, here is the first. I already wrote about the other. Maybe I’ll get to Arthur soon. But probably not. Read More »

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Tramps, Traitors and Little Devils


Band: A Drag City Supersession
Album: Tramps, Traitors and Little Devils
Best song: “Leaving the Army” is my favorite song on the record.
Worst song: “Everyday” is my least favorite song on the record.

You know, in writing about supergroups in my bit about the Amalgamated Sons of Rest record, I never really stopped to contemplate about the indie/underground nature of the band. The term “supergroup” mostly exists for the purposes of bands like Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominos, the Dirty Mac, Damn Yankees, Zwan and other such bands that include stars as large as Eric Clapton or Billy Corgan. Ultimately, who — outside of people like me — gives a shit if Ali Roberts and Jason Molina record some songs with Will Oldham. Read More »

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Pink Friday


Band: Nicki Minaj
Album: Pink Friday
Best song: “Moment for Life” and, more so, “Blazin’” are excellent.
Worst song: “I’m the Best” isn’t the best.

Let’s get this out of the way. Pink Friday isn’t much of a record. It has its ups and downs, certainly. But, for whatever reason, Nicki Minaj’s first proper release is a forgettable album. Read More »

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Here I Am


Band: Kelly Rowland
Album: Here I Am
Best song: “Motivation” is great, even with a terrible guest spot.
Worst song: “Keep it Between Us” isn’t much.

I wonder if Kelly Rowland, barely a week younger than I am, ever gets really jealous of Beyonce? I have no idea if they’re friends or not, but I have to think there’s a jealousy in the difference in the amount of attention the two of them get. Read More »

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Elettra


Band: Carmen Consoli
Album: Elettra
Best song: “Sud est” is my favorite, though “‘A finestra” features some pretty great Sicilian lyrics.
Worst song: “Ventunodieciduemilatrenta,” the album ender, is the weakest song on a very strong record.

Part of the issue with listening to music in a language/culture I don’t understand very well is that I don’t get the entire gist of the music’s place in said culture. I have no idea if, say, Dente is the Italian equivalent to Jack Johnson, Brendan Benson, Matt Nathanson or Bill Callahan. I really don’t know. Read More »

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Horse Stories


Band: Dirty Three
Album: Horse Stories
Best song: “Hope” is one of my favorite songs in history.
Worst song: “Red” is not a highlight.

I’m not sure I’ve outlined my feelings on lyrics in this space, but I did do a little bit of it on my old site. In a review of one of my favorite albums, Elliott Smith’s Either/Or, I wrote: Read More »

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Fallen

Band: Burzum
Album: Fallen
Best song: “Vanvidd” and “Budstikken” are the best songs on the record.
Worst song: “Valen” is pretty bad.

Separating artists from their art is one of the most difficult things for a consumer/appreciator of said art. There are scores of wonderful pieces of art made by terrible, awful people. Moreover, loads and loads of art is distributed by terrible, awful organizations. The problem with music, it seems, has not been solved. Read More »

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Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)


Band: Marilyn Manson
Album: Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)
Best song: “The Fight Song” is pretty good.
Worst song: The entire second half of the album is disappointing.

I, like most reasonable people, adore The Onion. Not AV Club, which I also love, but rather the proper Onion. My relationship with it goes back, of course. In high school, one of my friend’s siblings went to University of Wisconsin, where it had begun and my friend would get copies of The Onion and laugh at it. This was, of course, before the Internet. I believe, its first foray outside of Madison was into Chicago, where we’d pick up free copies from newspaper boxes. Read More »

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