Aztec Camera - High Land, Hard Rain

I don't know where I first learned about Aztec Camera, but I'm glad I did. This album sounds like a cross between XTC circa Skylarking and Elvis Costello circa Get Happy!, which is a remarkable feat. There is a definite UK vibe to this album with hints of future Scottish pop (Roddy Frame, lead guitar, vocals, and songrwriter is Scottish) from acts like Teenage Fanclub and BMX Bandits.

The album's opener, "Oblivious" kicks off with an off-kilter XTC-ish jam that turns into pure pop joy at the chorus. This mixture of oddness and sweetness is the very foundation of the album. It never stops being interesting, which is very much appreciated. I'm listening to the album again as I write this review and I don't want to turn it off. This album is a pure delight.

Autour De Lucie - L'échapé belle

My roommate gave me this album when he heard me listening to some old yé-yé singles because he figured I would enjoy other good French language music as well. Turns out I do.

Autour de Lucie takes off like Aimee Mann singing in French, then it morphs into something a little closer to Stereolab. The album is a bit of a tweener when it comes to genre, but that's not a bad thing. Tweeners are only bad when they can't decide what they want to be, and Autour de Lucie knows what they want to be. If you enjoy strong female vocals, crafty songwriting, subtle genre changes within an album, and don't mind a little French in your life, Autour de Lucie may be up your oddly specific alley.

Authority Zero - A Passage in Time

While Arizona has certainly had more than its share of fair-to-middling punk bands, the state hasn't ever had enough great punk bands. This is where Authority Zero comes in. They hit the scene with energy, speed, and some of the fastest vocals I've ever heard. No, seriously, Jason DeVore might very well have the fastest mouth in all of punk. He is known for singing a punked out version of "The Rattlin' Bog" in concert which continues to increase in speed even when it seems a physical impossibility. Check the hidden track on Andiamo if you want to know what I'm talking about. I was at the show where that track was recorded.

Aside from the sheer speed of the band, Authority Zero brings a great sound and a great vision. It isn't all hardcore punk all the time. They mix in a beachside jam on "One More Minute" and a ska ditty on "Over Seasons." Even when they slow it down, Authority Zero never loses their intensity. While the laid back tracks are as good as anything else the band does, I prefer the brashness of their punk tracks, especially on the title track of this album. This is, as far as I can see, the very best punk of which my home state is capable.

At the Drive-In - This Station is Non-Operational

At first glance, This Station is Non-Operational appears to be a simple greatest hits compilation, which is not necessarily a bad thing for a band which brings passion and fury to everything they've ever done. While all y'all who already own the band's studio albums and EP's may not think you need this compilation as well, don't be too hasty.

The first half of this album covers a somewhat predictable selection of At the Drive-In hits, but the second half is filled with rarities, including a couple of very interesting covers: The Smiths' "This Night Has Opened My Eyes" and Pink Floyd's "Take Up They Stethoscope and Walk." There are also a couple b-sides, a remix, a BBC session track, and a lone track from the Sunshine split. These rarities (especially the covers) are reason enough for hardcore fans to pick up this fantastic compilation.

Baleeted? No. Too many good things happening here to even think of baleetion.

The Ataris - End is Forever

End is Forever finds The Ataris attempting to follow the pattern for pop punk awesomeness laid out by Blue Skies, Broken Hearts...Next 12 Exits, and generally succeeding.

The references to things from the 80's fly fast and loose on this album (including a song whose title is the infamous Konami Code. Contra anyone?) but the quality of the songs themselves is a small step down from Blue Skies. "Summer Wind Was Always Our Song" and "I.O.U. One Galaxy" are the best tunes on the album, and they come right at the beginning. End is Forever wears a little thin in the end, but on the whole it's still a very good pop punk album.

Baleeted? No. There are enough good tunes to keep this one around.

The Ataris - Blue Skies, Broken Hearts...Next 12 Exits

This is The Ataris at their very best. They are swinging for the fences on every single track, and send a surprising number of them over the wall. Did I mention that baseball season started this week? It did.

Anyway, this album is notable for the presence of the greatest Ataris song of all-time, which is also one of the greatest pop punk songs of all time. I am speaking, of course, of "San Dimas High School Football Rules." It's not the only gem on the album as "I Won't Spend Another Night Alone" is almost as good. If you like anthemic pop punk which doesn't take itself too seriously and revels in references to the 80's, this is the album for you.

Baleeted? Nope. We don't delete pop punk this good. We just don't.

The Ataris - Anywhere but Here

Anywhere But Here is The Ataris debut, and while it isn't quite as polished as later output like the surprisingly excellent So Long, Astoria, there are still hints that The Ataris were destined for pop punk greatness.

My personal favorite track, while somewhat of a gimmick, is "Four Chord Wonder," which parodies the common simple formula for pop punk hits. The best thing about The Ataris is that they appear to be fully aware of the shortcomings within their own genre, and don't attempt to take themselves too seriously. Anywhere But Here may not be the most impressive album you'll ever hear, but it is a whole lot of fun.

Baleeted? No. This album has enough redeeming qualities to stick around a while.

The Ataris - All You Can Ever Learn is What You Already Know

This EP is highly unnecessary. The Ataris are one of the premier pop punk outfits in the universe, but not everything they touch is pure gold. Most notably, the acoustic versions of their tracks leave something to be desired. For the most part, The Ataris only sound good when the guitars are plugged in and the amps are turned on.

Not everything on this EP is an acoustic version of an album track, there are also incredibly rough demos and unreleased tracks which weren't exactly begging for a release. The whole thing feels like a record label cash grab, and as such it is not a necessary purchase for Ataris fans.

Baleeted? Yes. I don't need this, and neither do you.

At the Drive-In - El Gran Orgo

While El Gran Orgo falls between Acrobatic Tenement and In Casino Out chronologically, it sounds much earlier than it actually is. While At the Drive-In has always sounded like pure fury raging forth from some Texas garage, El Gran Orgo just sounds slightly more garage-ish and primitive than other At the Drive-In output.

"Fahrenheit" is the best track on this EP, but the whole thing is comparable with other At the Drive-In output, which is to say: fantastic. At the Drive-In does not mess around. They do what they do better than anyone else, and they have never released anything that wasn't amazing.

Baleeted? Never.

Asleep in the Sea- Little Heart EP

I used to have a friend named Amber who was friends with the guys in this band. She picked up this EP back when it was titled Little Heart and not Yay! O.K. Yeah?, which I think was just a later title for the same thing.

Asleep in the Sea is a now defunct local indie pop outfit which wrote simple sounding tunes that almost sound like songs from children's tv shows, but with swearing. I only like one of the songs on this EP, but the whole thing is fairly pleasant. The recommended track is "Annie," but I know people who are more partial to "Seahorses." I think I would like this EP more if I knew the guys in the band, but I don't.

Baleeted? Yeah. Amber has deleted herself from my life, so I think it's time to delete her music from mine.

Asia - Greatest Hits

When I was in high school, my dad acquired a new turntable, just in time for my mom to have thrown out the majority of our records. In order to have something to spin, my best friend brought over some records his much older brother bought in high school. The records were 4 by Foreigner, Into the Gap by Thompson Twins, Ghost in the Machine by The Police, and Asia by Asia.

There were only two songs that I really ever liked on that album. "Heat of the Moment" on the A-side and "Wildest Dreams" on the B-side. I loved those two songs, and didn't particularly care for any of the rest of it. I thought that if there were 2 great songs per Asia album, Asia's Greatest Hits would be awesome. Unfortunately, it appears that the only two worthwhile songs the band has ever released are "Heat of the Moment" and "Wildest Dreams."
Lesson learned.

Baleeted? Almost. The two good tracks got in the way. 

Ash- Twilight of the Innocents

Fie on Infectious Records for never releasing this album in America. Don't they know the deal? Every Ash album should be released in America with bonus tracks to boot. I was forced to acquire this album through ambiguously legal means because I couldn't even get it as a digital download when it came out in the UK. I like to give Ash money. They have given me immense joy over the years, and I feel I should always give them money wherever possible. Shame on Infectious for keeping cash out of the band's pockets.

Twilight of the Innocents is the first combo-breaker of the band's career. The odd-numbered albums were supposed to be the dark, prickly ones, and the even-numbered ones were the poppy light-hearted affairs. Meltdown, the album immediately preceding Twilight of the Innocents was dark and prickly, but Twilight of the Innocents doesn't follow suit with Free All Angels-esque pop.

"I Started a Fire" kicks off the album in classic Ash fashion. The song has both hard rocking instruments and a beautiful melody, which has become the band's calling card over the years. The second track on the album, "You Can't Have it All" is equal with the first. After knocking the first two tracks out of the park, the rest of the album cools off a bit. I honestly don't think I can highlight any of the remaining tracks, but I will say that they are all pretty good. They aren't a Free All Angels murderer's row, but they aren't at all disappointing either. Taken as a whole, Twilight of the Innocents isn't quite as good as Meltdown, but it's still very good.

Baleeted? No. Not while it's my only means of listening to this album.

Ash - A-Z Singles Vol. 2

This album compiles the second half of Ash's A-Z Singles project. As it was with the first half, this compilation is a mishmash of various styles and genres which sounds better as individual tracks than as a cohesive album.

One of my favorite highlights from this album isn't even one of the singles, but one of the b-sides. "Spellbound" is a soul sister to the excellent "Candy" from Free All Angels. It's basically what a Free All Angels track would be if there were some synths in the background. I would actually like to know where the inspiration for all the synth work on the A-Z singles came from. Did they just pick up a Roland somewhere and start noodling with it, or were they just listening to Return of the Rentals (something that all people should do at least once per month)? At any rate, this is another fine set of singles which will provide a great deal of pleasure to Ash fans as well as those of you who are willing to take a chance on something awesome.

Baleeted? Nope. I love this stuff.

Ash - A-Z Singles Vol. 1

The A-Z singles were part of a very forward-thinking move by Ash. As they stared into the void which is the future of the music industry, they came to two conclusions: 1) That consumers are more likely to consume singles rather than entire albums and 2) That consumers are more likely to purchase digital content than actual hard copies. If itunes has taught us anything, it is that Ash was exactly correct on both points. Of course there are still those of us who consume albums and prefer hard copies of our media, but we old timers are part of an ever-shrinking minority.

Anyway, the A-Z singles were a project in which the band released a new single every two weeks, one for every letter of the alphabet (52 weeks in a year, and 26 letters in the alphabet. Convenient, isn't it?). Fans could subscribe to the project for a nominal fee, and receive new mp3's as they came out. Old timers like myself could subscribe at a higher price and receive 7" vinyl singles of each song, which I totally would have done if I weren't unemployed.

On the whole, the singles find Ash dabbling in a variety of genres aside from their standard rock and roll goodness. On the first two songs alone ("Return of the White Rabbit" and "Trule Love 1980") they dabble in dance punk and synthpop. The first 13 singles and their respective b-sides which are collected on this compilation do not form as cohesive an Ash album as I would like, but the songs themselves are fantastic. They are among the most interesting things Ash has done since Free All Angels.

Baleeted? Not a chance. I'm a loyal....whatever it is that Ash fans call themselves. Ash tray? Ash from housewares?

Aretha Franklin - Queen of Soul: The Atlantic Recordings

Aretha Franklin is the second greatest female vocalist of all time. Of course the first is Ella Fitzgerald. The ranking of these two titans of vocal performance is not merely a matter of opinion. It is immutable fact. There will never be a female vocalist better than Aretha Franklin who is not named Ella Fitzgerald, and Ella Fitzgerald is now, and will always be, the greatest female vocalist of all time regardless of genre. But enough about Ella.

Aretha Franklin is exactly what this box set proclaims her to be: the queen of soul. Evidence of this fact can be proven by one song and one song alone. Otis Redding, one of the greatest soul singers of all time, wrote and recorded the original version of "Respect." When Aretha Franklin recorded "Respect," Otis Redding was quoted as saying, that Aretha had, by virtue of her performance, simply taken the song from him, making it her own.

This four disc box set is a fine overview of Aretha's career. The first three discs follow hits with even more hits, and there really isn't a weak point in them. There is a slight dip in quality on the fourth disc as Aretha's career branched out in a number of different directions, some of them ill-advised (Let us not forget that she cut a single with George Michael which, despite being a hit in terms of its standing on the charts, is a massive piece of garbage). Not everything on the fourth disc is gold, but there are two collaborations with Ray Charles on the disc, which almost make up for the missteps. I highly recommend the version of "Spirit in the Dark" with Ray Charles. It is absolutely inspired gospel music. Anyway, if you are a fan of Aretha Franklin and you're looking to get a whole bunch of her best tunes at once, I highly recommend this set.

Baleeted? No way. I'm still holding onto hope that Aretha might go out with me someday.