JANELLE MONAE, Metropolis: The Chase Suite - I Don't Get It

So this sweet young thing was just on the cover of Paste Magazine as an 'artist to watch', so I thought I'd give it a shot buuuut, in a year of Estelle, Santo Gold, MIA, Erykah Badu, and dare I say Duffy, this poor little record has no nuts. Although I may agree with some of the lyricism the arrangements, music and production are just kind of blah. I'll also use this as a tangent opportunity to gripe about the proliferation of the EP. I mean really, can you give me a break? Can you just hold on another month or two and just make a really good album. I know that all the new glorious marketers think it's a really awesome way to keep your attention but, trust me, we get that it's just a ploy to separate us from our money. That doesn't really have anything to do with this record other than it's a junk 'special edition' 'EP'. whatever that means. I'm not judging the quality of the record on this criteria, it's just a crap tangent.

THE WALKMEN, You & Me - Mad Men soundtrack for the South

I will admit that I have not been following this band for very long. But I really like this album. It's kind of like Afghan Whigs and Felt had a love child and had it smoking and pouring perfect manhattans by the time it was 5. This album also reminds me a titch of Black Heart Procession. Regardless, the album is permeated by a deep languid 60's like production. Ya know, a little cartwheel across the dark street kind of feeling. A little like Commitments wrapped up in a blanket. OK, enough similes, I think you get it. A great album.

BLACK KIDS, Partie Traumatic - Uh, what the fuck is this?

Wow. So much hype and so much suck. I'm not even sure where to begin. This record is pop for teenage hipsters. This record is everything I hate about the 'new' 80's sound. Every track follows the same shouty whiny method. There are plenty of bands who do this much, much better, that I enjoy. And to be fair if a track came on the shuffle during a party or at a bar I wouldn't be dieing inside. But track after track is like water torture. At track 3, I was pulling my hair out. At track 5 I was punching myself in the face. By 9 I was praying for my brain to melt of my ear. But I'm a crabby old coot and this album is for tweeners.

SASHA, Invol2ver - Nap Time

I basically don't have anything good to say about this record. It's a big bore. It's totally innocuous. It's every mid-tempo record you ever heard in every cocktail bar. He even managed to suck all the life out of the tear jerker, Arcadia by Apparat. The anthemic Destroy Everything You Touch from Ladytron is reduced to a bass blob of lite beer. I mean really. But at least I didn't have to turn it off, it is listenable if totally unmemorable. It's really sad. I still have such fond memories of the mixes that he did for Global Underground (still on GU) namely San Francisco and Ibiza. Northern Exposure 2, unstoppable. I'll even give him Xpander. Airdrawndagger, snooze-fest. Involver, restaurant background. Involv2er? I don't even think there is an album here.