Opinz

Ghostface Killah – Ghostdini: Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City

One would hope that Ghostface could’ve closed out a decade of solid to absolutely classic releases with one more enjoyable listen but the “Back Like That”-styled, deliberately R&B-fueled Wizard of Poetry is weak sauce: the guest stars are b-list at best and while the rhymes are generally strong (this is Ghostface we’re talking about), they have no bite, except for the unquestionable album highlight and stunningly, impressively filthy fuck-jam “Stapleton Sex”. (Which Ghost has dedicated to Natalie Portman, because of course he has)

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Atlas Sound – Logos

The second solo outing by Bradford Cox of Deerhunter is a breathtaking expansion on the laptop experiments of his first album and the dozens of songs that can be found on his blog, a wildly diverse collection of songs that range from warm guitar pop (“Criminals”) to bubbly electronics (Noah Lennox collaboration “Walkabout”) and washed out, shoegaze landscapes (the Lætitia Sadier-featuring “Quick Canal”); Logos may be the best example yet of why Cox is one of the most talented songwriters in indie music today.

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Karen O and the Kids – Where the Wild Things Are: Motion Picture Soundtrack

What’s surprising about the soundtrack for Spike Jonze’ highly anticipated “Where the Wild Things Are” adaptation is just how cohesive it sounds as an album, without the context of the film (one could easily mistake it for a Karen O solo debut): brimming with an undeniably sweet and appropriately child-like energy, sing/shout-along sugar rushes like “All is Love” and “Rumpus” are well tempered by lovely instrumentals and ballads, the delicate “Hidaway” and Karen O’s beautiful rendition of Daniel Johnston’s “Worried Shoes” being big highlights.

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The Flaming Lips – Embryonic

Who would have guessed that a band 25 years into an already illustrious career and comfortably ensconced in commercial success and legendary status would take an absolute left turn the way The Flaming Lips do on Embryonic – a double album swimming in boomingly distorted instruments, jam sessions and noise freak outs, stoner philosophizing and minimalist experiments, from rockers like “Convinced of the Hex” and the stomping “Watching the Planets” to unsettlingly eerie tracks like “Evil”, there’s an amazing and satisfying sense of depth and musical experience to be found on Embryonic; thank god, for the first time in many years The Flaming Lips are fucking weird again.

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Muse – The Resistance

Half of The Resistance demonstrates that Muse has “grown up” a little, and the other half – the second half – demonstrates that they really haven’t grown up at all and are still overly concerned with making over-the-top, lush arrangements that are too self-involved for their own good; the band is channeling Queen with more frequency (and doing a better job at it) than before, managing to avoid sounding like a Queen cover band but stuffing all of the audio theatrics that entails.
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The xx – xx

20-year-old Londoners The xx seem poised as the next big, stylish act to come out of nowhere and catch everybody’s ear: their simple but highly original sound is composed of basic, New Order style drum machine beats slowed down to a crawl and mixed with dark guitars, deep bass, and hooky, smokey, sexy boy/gir vocals reminiscent of modern R&B (the album’s iTunes bonus track is a cover of an Aaliyah song); history would caution us against putting too much hype into such a band lest they collapse under it’s weight, but xx is a very strong album and one of the most promising debuts of the year.
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