Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Album Reviews 3/22/2011
2010 Song Project Report - 3/22/2011 - I've decided to combine the first round of the tournament with the audition round. This should speed things up considerably. I cleared 116 songs today, leaving 3462 songs left to review in the first round of Phase 2.
Album Reviews 3/21/2011
Drowning Pool - Drowning Pool - Brain dead sludge metal, as expected.
Godsmack - The Oracle - A note to Godsmack: If you're going to rip off Metallica, at least have the common sense to not rip off the lowest point of their career, the "Load" / "Re-Load" / "St. Anger" era. This album did have one song on it that I liked: "The Oracle" a solid heavy metal song where Godsmack had the human decency to not let Sully sing during the entirely instrumental song.
Clay Aiken - Tried & True - An album of standards. It's not like Clay doesn't do a good job singing them, but it's still an album of standards, and that has never interested me.
Miley Cyrus - Can't Be Tamed - A decent pop album. Most of the songs are rather unremarkable, but a few are actually pretty good. Not exactly my usual speed, but not as unpleasant as I expected it to be.
3OH!3 - Streets Of Gold - Lame frat boy hip hop / pop. This is some serious lowest common denominator stuff here.
Bret Michaels - Custom Built - A below average country rock album with no notable songs.
The Jonas Brothers - Jonas L.A. - Boring kiddie pop. I'd say more, but reality has already been far more harsh to these kids than I ever could be.
Sully Erna - Avalon - This album suprised me. Sully Erna is apparantly much better at ballads than he is singing metal songs with his band Godsmack. Of course, it still isn't all that great, but at least it wasn't horrible.
Alter Bridge - AB III - Another dreary neo-grunge album from Creed minus Scott Stapp.
Hinder - All-American Nightmare - A hair metal revivalist album that alternates between treacly ballads and horrible screaming fits. The difference between this and other hair metal revival bands is that this album isn't fun in the least.
PHASE ONE COMPLETE - March 21st - 3:40 PM
2010 Song Project Report - 3/21/2011 - I finished the remaining 10 albums today and completed Phase One of the 2010 Song Project. I had time left over at the end of the day, so I began Phase Two. The final number of songs identified for Phase Two consideration is 3618. After just under two hours of Phase Two, there are still 3578 songs remaining to be evaluated.
Godsmack - The Oracle - A note to Godsmack: If you're going to rip off Metallica, at least have the common sense to not rip off the lowest point of their career, the "Load" / "Re-Load" / "St. Anger" era. This album did have one song on it that I liked: "The Oracle" a solid heavy metal song where Godsmack had the human decency to not let Sully sing during the entirely instrumental song.
Clay Aiken - Tried & True - An album of standards. It's not like Clay doesn't do a good job singing them, but it's still an album of standards, and that has never interested me.
Miley Cyrus - Can't Be Tamed - A decent pop album. Most of the songs are rather unremarkable, but a few are actually pretty good. Not exactly my usual speed, but not as unpleasant as I expected it to be.
3OH!3 - Streets Of Gold - Lame frat boy hip hop / pop. This is some serious lowest common denominator stuff here.
Bret Michaels - Custom Built - A below average country rock album with no notable songs.
The Jonas Brothers - Jonas L.A. - Boring kiddie pop. I'd say more, but reality has already been far more harsh to these kids than I ever could be.
Sully Erna - Avalon - This album suprised me. Sully Erna is apparantly much better at ballads than he is singing metal songs with his band Godsmack. Of course, it still isn't all that great, but at least it wasn't horrible.
Alter Bridge - AB III - Another dreary neo-grunge album from Creed minus Scott Stapp.
Hinder - All-American Nightmare - A hair metal revivalist album that alternates between treacly ballads and horrible screaming fits. The difference between this and other hair metal revival bands is that this album isn't fun in the least.
PHASE ONE COMPLETE - March 21st - 3:40 PM
2010 Song Project Report - 3/21/2011 - I finished the remaining 10 albums today and completed Phase One of the 2010 Song Project. I had time left over at the end of the day, so I began Phase Two. The final number of songs identified for Phase Two consideration is 3618. After just under two hours of Phase Two, there are still 3578 songs remaining to be evaluated.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
2010 Song Project - Explanation
I've made several references to my 2010 Song Project, so I figure I should explain what that is in case anyone is curious.
The past two year (2008, 2009), I've put together a list of the 500 best songs from each year and a list of honorable mention songs. I intend to do this every year I can.
The first phase of this project involves listening to as many albums as possible from a given year. I get my album lists from Metacritic (http://features.metacritic.com/features/upcoming-album-release-calendar/) and the All Music Guide newsletter. I also download Blalock's Indie Rock Playlist every month (http://www.blalocksirp.com/), which is a great source for under the radar songs. The final source of new music is the year-end best of lists produced by Pitchfork, Spin, Rolling Stone and any one else who puts out a list. Each year, my evaluation process has involved approx. 700 albums released the previous year, plus the play lists and countdowns. As I listen to each album, I flag the songs that think are worth listening to more than once and mark them down in a spreadsheet. The rest, I never listen to again (sorry, Black Eyed Peas).
Phase two begins once all of the content from 2010 has been listened to. In past years, I would face each song off head to head with another song in a tournament format, but since this process took too long and created too much hassle in phase three, I've decided to have the first round of the tournament be more of a qualifying round. Basically, I'll listen to every song and determine if I think it has a shot of making the final list of 500. If it doesn't, I'll remove it from consideration. I hope to eliminate more than 70% of the previously flagged songs using this method.
After the qualifying round, I will stage the tournament. The tournament will determine the #1 song of 2010, but more importantly, it will lay the groundwork for figuring out the entire 500 song countdown list. The reason for this is the simple logic that the only song that could have defeated the #2 song of 2010 is the #1 song of 2010 and so on. By keeping track of which songs the #1 song defeated in the tournament, determining the #2 song is a simple matter of determining the best song directly defeated by the #1 song. After #2 is decided, #3 is decided by comparing the best song defeated by the #2 song to the best remaining song defeated by the #1 song. This process continues until all 500 songs have been determined. It seems complicated, but after the first 25 or 30 songs, I'm only adding 2 or 3 songs to the process when I add each song. The process of determining songs #2 through #500 is Phase 3.
Since I didn't have a qualifying round the previous two years, Phase 3 was a very long process and involved a lot of songs that only barely merited consideration for the final list. This delay, coupled with another change that I made to speed up the process (I had previously listened to every song on every album from start to finish whereas now I make my decision on a song as soon as I can tell if I like a song or not), caused my Best of 2009 list to be delayed until August of 2010. I hope to have this year's list ready sometime in the early summer.
I intend to complete Phase 1 of my 2010 project on Monday (March 21st) and start the qualifying round of Phase 2 on Tuesday.
I've posted my 500 best songs list for 2009 on this blog. If you're interested in my best of 2008 list, leave a comment and I'll post it as well.
The past two year (2008, 2009), I've put together a list of the 500 best songs from each year and a list of honorable mention songs. I intend to do this every year I can.
The first phase of this project involves listening to as many albums as possible from a given year. I get my album lists from Metacritic (http://features.metacritic.com/features/upcoming-album-release-calendar/) and the All Music Guide newsletter. I also download Blalock's Indie Rock Playlist every month (http://www.blalocksirp.com/), which is a great source for under the radar songs. The final source of new music is the year-end best of lists produced by Pitchfork, Spin, Rolling Stone and any one else who puts out a list. Each year, my evaluation process has involved approx. 700 albums released the previous year, plus the play lists and countdowns. As I listen to each album, I flag the songs that think are worth listening to more than once and mark them down in a spreadsheet. The rest, I never listen to again (sorry, Black Eyed Peas).
Phase two begins once all of the content from 2010 has been listened to. In past years, I would face each song off head to head with another song in a tournament format, but since this process took too long and created too much hassle in phase three, I've decided to have the first round of the tournament be more of a qualifying round. Basically, I'll listen to every song and determine if I think it has a shot of making the final list of 500. If it doesn't, I'll remove it from consideration. I hope to eliminate more than 70% of the previously flagged songs using this method.
After the qualifying round, I will stage the tournament. The tournament will determine the #1 song of 2010, but more importantly, it will lay the groundwork for figuring out the entire 500 song countdown list. The reason for this is the simple logic that the only song that could have defeated the #2 song of 2010 is the #1 song of 2010 and so on. By keeping track of which songs the #1 song defeated in the tournament, determining the #2 song is a simple matter of determining the best song directly defeated by the #1 song. After #2 is decided, #3 is decided by comparing the best song defeated by the #2 song to the best remaining song defeated by the #1 song. This process continues until all 500 songs have been determined. It seems complicated, but after the first 25 or 30 songs, I'm only adding 2 or 3 songs to the process when I add each song. The process of determining songs #2 through #500 is Phase 3.
Since I didn't have a qualifying round the previous two years, Phase 3 was a very long process and involved a lot of songs that only barely merited consideration for the final list. This delay, coupled with another change that I made to speed up the process (I had previously listened to every song on every album from start to finish whereas now I make my decision on a song as soon as I can tell if I like a song or not), caused my Best of 2009 list to be delayed until August of 2010. I hope to have this year's list ready sometime in the early summer.
I intend to complete Phase 1 of my 2010 project on Monday (March 21st) and start the qualifying round of Phase 2 on Tuesday.
I've posted my 500 best songs list for 2009 on this blog. If you're interested in my best of 2008 list, leave a comment and I'll post it as well.
Future Rock Legends - The Song Project - 1982 Nominees
Aerosmith - Back In The Saddle
Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Loved You)
Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Takin' Care Of Business
Badfinger - Day After Day
Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead
Bill Cosby - Little Ole Man (Uptight, Everything's Alright)
Bob Dylan - Desolation Row
Bob Dylan And Johnny Cash - Girl From The North Country
Carole King - I Feel The Earth Move
Chicago - Wishing You Were Here
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Up Around The Bend
Curtis Mayfield - Pusherman
Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
Dave Clark Five - Glad All Over
David Bowie - Ashes To Ashes
David Bowie - Golden Years
Def Leppard - Saturday Night (High N Dry)
Depeche Mode - Just Can't Get Enough
Desmond Dekker & The Aces - Israelites
Electric Light Orchestra - Can't Get It Out Of My Head
Electric Light Orchestra - Evil Woman
Electric Light Orchestra - Hold On Tight
Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Radio Radio
Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
Gary Numan - Are Friends Electric
Grateful Dead - Sugar Magnolia
Hall And Oates - Rich Girl
Hank Williams Jr. - A Country Boy Can Survive
Ike And Tina Turner - It's Gonna Work Out Fine
James Taylor - Sweet Baby James
Janis Joplin - Cry Baby
Jerry Jeff Walker - Mr. Bojangles
Johnny Burnette And The Rock And Roll Trio - Train Kept A-Rollin'
Joni Mitchell - Help Me
Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights
Kim Carnes - Bette Davis Eyes
Kiss - Strutter
Lou Reed - Perfect Day
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Saturday Night Special
Muddy Waters - Got My Mojo Workin'
Otis Redding - I've Been Loving You Too Long
Patti Smith Group - Dancin' Barefoot
Pink Floyd - Echoes
Pink Floyd - Welcome To The Machine
Rainbow - Man On The Silver Mountain
Randy Newman - Louisiana 1927
Rick Springfield - Jesse's Girl
Ringo Starr - It Don't Come Easy
Rosanne Cash - Seven Year Ache
Roxy Music - Virginia Plain
Santana - Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen
Sly & The Family Stone - Dance To The Music
Soft Cell - Tainted Love
Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride
Stray Cats - Rock This Town
Suicide - Ghost Rider
T. Rex - 20th Century Boy
Ted Nugent - Stranglehold
The Allman Brothers Band - In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed
The Amboy Dukes - Scottish Tea
The Animals - We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
The Beach Boys - Surf's Up
The Chantels - Maybe
The Damned - New Rose
The Doors - Love Her Madly
The Hollie - He Ain't Heavy (He's My Brother)
The Isley Brothers - It's Your Thing
The Jackson 5 - I'll Be There
The Jam - In The City
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Foxy Lady
The Kinks - Shangri-La
The Monkees - Pleasant Valley Sunday
The Penguins - Earth Angel
The Police - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
The Shirelles - Mama Said
The Silhouettes - Get A Job
The Staple Singers - Respect Yourself
The Temptations - Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)
The Undertones - Teenage Kicks
The Velvet Underground - Venus In Furs
The Walker Brothers - The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore
The Youngbloods - Get Together
Three Dog Night - Joy To The World
Tommy James And The Shondells - Mony Mony
Van Halen - Runnin' With The Devil
Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Loved You)
Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Takin' Care Of Business
Badfinger - Day After Day
Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead
Bill Cosby - Little Ole Man (Uptight, Everything's Alright)
Bob Dylan - Desolation Row
Bob Dylan And Johnny Cash - Girl From The North Country
Carole King - I Feel The Earth Move
Chicago - Wishing You Were Here
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Up Around The Bend
Curtis Mayfield - Pusherman
Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
Dave Clark Five - Glad All Over
David Bowie - Ashes To Ashes
David Bowie - Golden Years
Def Leppard - Saturday Night (High N Dry)
Depeche Mode - Just Can't Get Enough
Desmond Dekker & The Aces - Israelites
Electric Light Orchestra - Can't Get It Out Of My Head
Electric Light Orchestra - Evil Woman
Electric Light Orchestra - Hold On Tight
Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Radio Radio
Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
Gary Numan - Are Friends Electric
Grateful Dead - Sugar Magnolia
Hall And Oates - Rich Girl
Hank Williams Jr. - A Country Boy Can Survive
Ike And Tina Turner - It's Gonna Work Out Fine
James Taylor - Sweet Baby James
Janis Joplin - Cry Baby
Jerry Jeff Walker - Mr. Bojangles
Johnny Burnette And The Rock And Roll Trio - Train Kept A-Rollin'
Joni Mitchell - Help Me
Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights
Kim Carnes - Bette Davis Eyes
Kiss - Strutter
Lou Reed - Perfect Day
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Saturday Night Special
Muddy Waters - Got My Mojo Workin'
Otis Redding - I've Been Loving You Too Long
Patti Smith Group - Dancin' Barefoot
Pink Floyd - Echoes
Pink Floyd - Welcome To The Machine
Rainbow - Man On The Silver Mountain
Randy Newman - Louisiana 1927
Rick Springfield - Jesse's Girl
Ringo Starr - It Don't Come Easy
Rosanne Cash - Seven Year Ache
Roxy Music - Virginia Plain
Santana - Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen
Sly & The Family Stone - Dance To The Music
Soft Cell - Tainted Love
Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride
Stray Cats - Rock This Town
Suicide - Ghost Rider
T. Rex - 20th Century Boy
Ted Nugent - Stranglehold
The Allman Brothers Band - In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed
The Amboy Dukes - Scottish Tea
The Animals - We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
The Beach Boys - Surf's Up
The Chantels - Maybe
The Damned - New Rose
The Doors - Love Her Madly
The Hollie - He Ain't Heavy (He's My Brother)
The Isley Brothers - It's Your Thing
The Jackson 5 - I'll Be There
The Jam - In The City
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Foxy Lady
The Kinks - Shangri-La
The Monkees - Pleasant Valley Sunday
The Penguins - Earth Angel
The Police - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
The Shirelles - Mama Said
The Silhouettes - Get A Job
The Staple Singers - Respect Yourself
The Temptations - Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)
The Undertones - Teenage Kicks
The Velvet Underground - Venus In Furs
The Walker Brothers - The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore
The Youngbloods - Get Together
Three Dog Night - Joy To The World
Tommy James And The Shondells - Mony Mony
Van Halen - Runnin' With The Devil
Future Rock Legends - The Song Project - 1982
Here are the songs from 1982 that I feel are worthy of Hall Of Fame Induction, ranked in order of preference:
The Clash - Should I Stay or Should I Go
Michael Jackson - Beat It
Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun
The Jam - Town Called Malice
Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five - The Message
Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic City
Judas Priest - You've Got Another Thing Comin'
Iron Maiden - Run to the Hills
George Clinton - Atomic Dog
Prince and The Revolution - Little Red Corvette
Billy Idol - White Wedding
Modern English - I Melt With You
George Thorogood - Bad To The Bone
Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
Prince and The Revolution - 1999
The Clash - Rock the Casbah
Toto - Africa
Michael Jackson - Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
Crosby, Stills & Nash - Southern Cross
The Kinks - Come Dancing
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Violent Femmes - Gone Daddy Gone
The Clash - Should I Stay or Should I Go
Michael Jackson - Beat It
Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun
The Jam - Town Called Malice
Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five - The Message
Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic City
Judas Priest - You've Got Another Thing Comin'
Iron Maiden - Run to the Hills
George Clinton - Atomic Dog
Prince and The Revolution - Little Red Corvette
Billy Idol - White Wedding
Modern English - I Melt With You
George Thorogood - Bad To The Bone
Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
Prince and The Revolution - 1999
The Clash - Rock the Casbah
Toto - Africa
Michael Jackson - Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
Crosby, Stills & Nash - Southern Cross
The Kinks - Come Dancing
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Violent Femmes - Gone Daddy Gone
Album Reviews 3/18/2011
Album Reviews:
Soulja Boy - The DeAndre Way - Braindead ring-tone rap with inane lyrics and the absence of the quality hooks that made his earlier albums at least tolerable. One of the worst rap albums of 2010.
Charlie Wilson - Just Charlie - A solid R&B album, but no stand-out songs.
The Plain White T's - Wonders Of The Younger - An inoffensive pop-rock album in the Matchbox 20 tradition. "Rhythm Of Love" is the only memorable song, though.
Tank - Now Or Never - An average R&B album. I know that sounds like a BS review, but I don't have anything else to say about albums that sound exactly like one another. There's nothing wrong with them, but they're not outstanding either. The only song I'll remember from this album is a cover of "I Can't Make You Love Me".
Avant - The Letter - I know it sounds like a broken record, but this is an average R&B album. In fact, this album is almost the exact same album as Tank's. They are both in the same genre and they both have the same number of songs. Also, the only notable song on this album is the last song, which is a cover of Toto's "Africa", which works remarkably well.
Volbeat - Beyond Hell - Above Heaven - A surprisingly melodic heavy metal album (I almost labeled it as alternative rock on my WMP genre tag), "Beyond Hell - Above Heaven" features a lot of solid songs (and a couple notably bad duds) and is an overall solid album.
Taio Cruz - Rokstarr - A lame pop album. This produced #1 songs? I'm really glad I don't listen to Top 40 music anymore. It must be absolutely abysmal.
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today - I'm going to have to disagree with the critics who love this album. It's an average indie album with a few great songs on it. I don't think it's likely to put any songs on my year-end countdown.
Nellie McKay - Home Sweet Mobile Home - Another excellent album from one of my favorite singer-songwriters. Not every song is a classic, but the sum is greater than it's parts.
Women - Public Strain - A decent, but not spectacular shoegaze album with a few notable songs.
Jewel - Sweet And Wild - A solid effort, but far from Jewel's best album. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be another country music album from her because I honestly can't tell the difference between "country music" and the type of music Jewel has always made if the singer isn't using or faking a Southern accent.
2010 Song Project Report - 3/18/2011 - I finished 11 albums today, bringing my 2010 total down to 10. At my current pace I'll complete this phase of the project on Monday. Unfortunately (for me), I've saved the worst albums for last, so Monday is going to suck. A lot.
Soulja Boy - The DeAndre Way - Braindead ring-tone rap with inane lyrics and the absence of the quality hooks that made his earlier albums at least tolerable. One of the worst rap albums of 2010.
Charlie Wilson - Just Charlie - A solid R&B album, but no stand-out songs.
The Plain White T's - Wonders Of The Younger - An inoffensive pop-rock album in the Matchbox 20 tradition. "Rhythm Of Love" is the only memorable song, though.
Tank - Now Or Never - An average R&B album. I know that sounds like a BS review, but I don't have anything else to say about albums that sound exactly like one another. There's nothing wrong with them, but they're not outstanding either. The only song I'll remember from this album is a cover of "I Can't Make You Love Me".
Avant - The Letter - I know it sounds like a broken record, but this is an average R&B album. In fact, this album is almost the exact same album as Tank's. They are both in the same genre and they both have the same number of songs. Also, the only notable song on this album is the last song, which is a cover of Toto's "Africa", which works remarkably well.
Volbeat - Beyond Hell - Above Heaven - A surprisingly melodic heavy metal album (I almost labeled it as alternative rock on my WMP genre tag), "Beyond Hell - Above Heaven" features a lot of solid songs (and a couple notably bad duds) and is an overall solid album.
Taio Cruz - Rokstarr - A lame pop album. This produced #1 songs? I'm really glad I don't listen to Top 40 music anymore. It must be absolutely abysmal.
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today - I'm going to have to disagree with the critics who love this album. It's an average indie album with a few great songs on it. I don't think it's likely to put any songs on my year-end countdown.
Nellie McKay - Home Sweet Mobile Home - Another excellent album from one of my favorite singer-songwriters. Not every song is a classic, but the sum is greater than it's parts.
Women - Public Strain - A decent, but not spectacular shoegaze album with a few notable songs.
Jewel - Sweet And Wild - A solid effort, but far from Jewel's best album. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be another country music album from her because I honestly can't tell the difference between "country music" and the type of music Jewel has always made if the singer isn't using or faking a Southern accent.
2010 Song Project Report - 3/18/2011 - I finished 11 albums today, bringing my 2010 total down to 10. At my current pace I'll complete this phase of the project on Monday. Unfortunately (for me), I've saved the worst albums for last, so Monday is going to suck. A lot.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Album Reviews 3/17/2011
Keith Urban - Get Closer - A dull country album. Easy to listen to, but nothing dynamic that deserves further attention.
Loreena McKennit - The Wind That Shakes The Barley - By happy coincidence I ended up listening to this album of traditional Irish / Celtic tunes on St. Patrick's Day. LM's a great singer and while some of the songs dragged on too long, overall it was a solid album.
Twin Shadow - Forget - A solid indie rock album that starts to drain in the last few tracks.
Darkwater - Where Stories End - An average heavy metal album, neither great nor awful.
Lloyd Banks - H.F.M. 2 (Hunger For More 2) - LB is an excellent rapper and this album is filled with great hooks and packed with guest stars, making for one of the better rap albums of the year.
Take That - Progress - "Affirmation" was an alright pop song, but mostly this was exactly what I expected from the re-formed boy band minus Robbie Williams.
David Guetta - One More Love - A surprisingly good pop / R&B album with a couple songs that might make the year-end countdown, especially "Sound Of Letting Go".
Jazmine Sullivan - Love Me Back - An average R&B album.
JLS - Outta This World - Lame boy-band garbage.
Miguel - All I Want Is You - A below average R&B album.
Mitchel Musso - Brainstorm - A lame pop album. There's not much else to say about some of these albums. At this stage, it's very rare to be surprised by the lack of quality.
2010 Song Project Report - 3/17/2011 - I finished 11 albums today, bringing my 2010 total down to 21. At my current pace I'll complete this phase of the project on Monday.
Loreena McKennit - The Wind That Shakes The Barley - By happy coincidence I ended up listening to this album of traditional Irish / Celtic tunes on St. Patrick's Day. LM's a great singer and while some of the songs dragged on too long, overall it was a solid album.
Twin Shadow - Forget - A solid indie rock album that starts to drain in the last few tracks.
Darkwater - Where Stories End - An average heavy metal album, neither great nor awful.
Lloyd Banks - H.F.M. 2 (Hunger For More 2) - LB is an excellent rapper and this album is filled with great hooks and packed with guest stars, making for one of the better rap albums of the year.
Take That - Progress - "Affirmation" was an alright pop song, but mostly this was exactly what I expected from the re-formed boy band minus Robbie Williams.
David Guetta - One More Love - A surprisingly good pop / R&B album with a couple songs that might make the year-end countdown, especially "Sound Of Letting Go".
Jazmine Sullivan - Love Me Back - An average R&B album.
JLS - Outta This World - Lame boy-band garbage.
Miguel - All I Want Is You - A below average R&B album.
Mitchel Musso - Brainstorm - A lame pop album. There's not much else to say about some of these albums. At this stage, it's very rare to be surprised by the lack of quality.
2010 Song Project Report - 3/17/2011 - I finished 11 albums today, bringing my 2010 total down to 21. At my current pace I'll complete this phase of the project on Monday.
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