3 Minutes, 49 Seconds

Though it surely wasn't reflected in my blogging frequency, 2011 found my relationship with music rebounding from the slump of the last few years.Though most new artists and I remain strictly platonic, several old flames rekindled the passion. As has been tradition the last couple of years, here're the albums that stuck with me the most. Along with my thoughts, I've listed my personal highlights. Adele: 21 One of those rare records that find simultaneous commercial, critical, and personal success. Though the album flirted with overexposure in the months after its release, I believe it will endure a long time. Faves: Rollin' in the Deep , Rumour Has It , Set Fire to the Rain , One and Only ,  Someone Like You * The Cars: Move Like This Reunion albums tend to have an air of desperation and the sweat of trying too hard to recapture past glories. Move Like This manages to avoid that completely. Ric, David, Greg, and Eliot pick back up and zip through these ...

Here's the tracklisting and cover art for my end-of-the-year favorites mix. Click here to see the details on the first volume. 1. R.E.M.: All the Best 2. Raphael Saadiq: Radio 3. Wugazi: Killa Hill 4. Foo Fighters: Arlandria 5. The Rosebuds: The Woods 6. The Decemberists: Foregone 7. Wilco: Dawned on Me 8. They Might Be Giants: Can't Keep Johnny Down 9. "Weird Al" Yankovic: Skipper Dan 10. Fountains of Wayne: A Road Song 11. Death Cab for Cutie: You are a Tourist 12. Kaiser Cheifs: My Place is Here 13. Ben Folds Five: Stumblin' Home Winter Blues

"If you only own one album by Paul Simon it's gotta be [insert masterpiece here]." Welcome to Rock Solid , where we fill in the blank. Our goal is to pseudo-scientifically determine the best, the beloved, the most classic album in an artist's catalog. Here's how it works: I've consulted two main sources. The All Music Guide pro vides the professional critical point-of-view and Amazon.com offers the fan perspective ( because most people who choose to review albums on Amazon are adoring fans of the artist in question) . The album with the highest combined rating from both source s is the one I'll consider the best. An artist's entire body of work is eligible, with one exception: No comp ilations ( i.e. greatest hits). In each case, I'll also share my personal favorite album by the artist in question, as if you care. * * * Paul Simon is a big baseball fan, so I'll start with a baseball analog...

I was very surprised when I heard recently that U.K. band Refrigerated Love were reuniting - after nearly five years apart - for a winter tour and possible new album. It occurred to me that RL is one of those rare beasts, a vastly prolific but vastly unknown group. So, for those of you who have never heard of them, I thought I'd shed some light on their background. I'll warn you, it's a long and convoluted history, so grab a beverage and settle in… Roots In 1979 school friends Colin Porthorn and Nigel Hornblower began performing in clubs as a folk duo called The Coldsmen. Porthorn's raspy choirboy tenor and Hornblower's dexterous guitar technique were a fine combination, but they were severely out of step with the times. So they wised up and recruited mates "Pasty" Pete Pockhorn, Elvis Hornman, Hornel Lieberman, and Ricky Hornblatt for drums, lyrics, keyboards, and tambourine respectively. The group took on the new-wavier name Refrigerated Love and set ...

It's an established truism in the music industry that you can never count a good band out. A lesser-known but no-less-true correllary is that you can't really count the bad ones out either. And thus we have Refrigerated Love, the British group Stephen Thomas Earlewine once called "the chronic bronchitis of rock." It's been a wild ride since their 2008 reunion release  No Expiration Date . That album found modest success, mostly due to ironic attention from hipster bloggers, and the band went back into full swing. In 2009 they put out a spiritual follow-up to their 1994 all-female cover album  We Refuse To Pun the Word Cover . The album,  Coming In , featured the band's renditions of tunes by gay artists such as Judas Priest, Husker Du, Ricky Martin, and Indigo Girls. Despite excellent song selection, the album tanked. This began yet another dark period for Refrigerated Love. In 2010 Lead singer Colin Porthorn served as a judge on the disastrous...

Just when I thought I was out... Last year I did a marathon review-every-"Weird Al"-album project. Honestly, it was more "Weird Al" than any person should have to experience in a short period of time. But now, Al's back with a new album, Alpocalypse , and duty compels me to throw in my two cents. I actually already wrote about 5 of these songs, because Al released them 2 years ago as the Internet Leaks EP . I wrote then that this was somewhat of an odd strategy, and I still feel that way. It essentially means that a little less than half the new album is actually new. It's also disappointing because, as you'll see, I didn't much care for 4 of the 5 songs on the EP. Following the format of my past "Weird Al" reviews, let's take a look at Alpocalypse . Parodies: The album leads off with Perform This Way , a take on Lady Gaga's anthem Born This Way . There was apparently a misunderstanding about this song, with Al going to gr...

Every year I make a compilation of some of my favorite songs. Some years I make two. This is one of those years. Here's the tracklist and cover art for my first-half-of-2011 collection:  1. Sloan: Shadow of Love 2. Adele: Rumour Has It 3. The Cars: Sad Song 4. Duran Duran: All You Need Is Now 5. White Light Riot: Conduit 6. Tapes 'n Tapes: Freak Out 7. The Get Up Kids: Regent's Court 8. Beastie Boys: The Larry Routine 9. Paul Simon: So Beautiful Or So What 10. Fleet Foxes: Helplessness Blues 11. Rogue Valley: Orion 12. Apex Manor: The Party Line 13. The Decemberists: This Is Why We Fight 14. Sloan: Beverly Terrace

"If you only own one album by Van Halen it's gotta be [insert masterpiece here]." Welcome to Rock Solid , where we fill in the blank. Our goal is to pseudo-scientifically determine the best, the beloved, the most classic album in an artist's catalog. Here's how it works: I've consulted two main sources. The All Music Guide provides the professional critical point-of-view and Amazon.com offers the fan perspective ( because most people who choose to review albums on Amazon are adoring fans of the artist in question) . The album with the highest combined rating from both source s is the one I'll consider the best. An artist's entire body of work is eligible, with one exception: No compilations ( i.e. greatest hits). In each case, I'll also share my personal favorite album by the artist in question, as if you care. * * * Word has it that Van Halen will put out a new album this year. It would be their first full-length effort in 13 yea...

"If you only own one album by U2 it's gotta be [insert masterpiece here]." Welcome to Rock Solid , where we fill in that blank. Our goal is to pseudo-scientifically determine the best, the beloved, the most classic album in an artist's catalog. Here's how it works: I've consulted two main sources. The All Music Guide pro vides the professional critical point-of-view and Amazon.com offers the fan perspective ( because most people who choose to review albums on Amazon are adoring fans of the artist in question) . The album with the highest combined rating from both source s is the one I'll consider the best. The declared winner will be subjected to the Thriller Test (do I need to explain the name?), a set of 4 criteria an album should meet to be considered a masterpiece. Those are 1) at least 3 hits, 2) great album tracks that sh/could have been hits, 3) no filler, and 4) memorable cover art. An artist's entire bo...

Here's the drill: 12 songs to summarize an artist's career, in chronological order (of course). This one features... All hail the masters of loud-folk-power-pop alt-country! 1.  "If My Heart Was a Car"  (from Hitchhike to Rhome , 1994) Lays out a rough blueprint for the band: Fast tempo, country roots, raw but controlled vocals, and metaphor-laden lyrics about how fucked-up romance can be ("If my heart was a car / you would have stripped it a long time ago"). 2. " 4 Leaf Clover"  (from Hitchhike to Rhome , 1994) This one is always a concert highlight. 3.  "Victoria" (from Wreck Your Life , 1995) I want Rhett Miller to write a song about me. 4.  "Timebomb"  (from Too Far to Care , 1997) A perfect marriage of music, lyrics, and performance. The narrator is about to lose control, and the song spends its entire 3 minute lifespan walking on the right side of chaos. 5.  "Barrier Reef"  (from Too Far to...

"If you only own one album by The Monkees it's gotta be [insert masterpiece here]." Welcome to Rock Solid , where we fill in the blank. Our goal is to pseudo-scientifically determine the best, the beloved, the most classic album in an artist's catalog. Here's how it works: I've consulted two main sources. The All Music Guide pro vides the professional critical point-of-view and Amazon.com offers the fan perspective ( because most people who choose to review albums on Amazon are adoring fans of the artist in question) . The album with the highest combined rating from both source s is the one I'll consider the best. An artist's entire body of work is eligible, with one exception: No comp ilations ( i.e. greatest hits). In each case, I'll also share my personal favorite album by the artist in question, as if you care. * * * I spent a lot of time on the Monkees back in 2009, reviewing all 11 of their albums, plu...

"If you only own one album by Weezer  it's gotta be [insert masterpiece here]." Welcome to Rock Solid , where we fill in the blank. Our goal is to pseudo-scientifically determine the best, the beloved, the most classic album in an artist's catalog. Here's how it works: I've consulted two main sources. The All Music Guide pro vides the professional critical point-of-view and Amazon.com offers the fan perspective ( because most people who choose to review albums on Amazon are adoring fans of the artist in question) . The album with the highest combined rating from both source s is the one I'll consider the best. An artist's entire body of work is eligible, with one exception: No comp ilations ( i.e. greatest hits). In each case, I'll also share my personal favorite album by the artist in question, as if you care. * * * Oh, Weezer. What more can we say about you? You've made us love you, made us hat...