Wow

Just finished my first year at Berkeley and it's good to be home...except for the fact that now I'm working 10 hours a day, so I haven't found time to review new music. But in the near future, I will have my reviews of Narrow Stairs by Death Cab For Cutie and Visiter by The Dodos. By that time, I probably will have also purchased Evil Urges by My Morning Jacket, Lay it Down by the great Al Green, and Weezer by...take a wild guess. A massive review of all the Radiohead albums is in the works as well.

Portishead - Third

3.5/5
The critically-acclaimed former trip-hop group finally released their third album after taking a 10-year break. The album is littered with unsettling, melancholic background music while Beth Gibbon's beautiful voice transcends it all. "The Rip" starts off with acoustic arpeggios, when suddenly, but yet subtly, the drums come in halfway through the track. "We Carry On" has a grinding and strangely catchy groove. "Deep Water" would be better named "Fresh Water"; it comes as a pleasant and fulfilling minute and a half of pure beauty amid the disquieting genius of the rest of the album. The lead single "Machine Gun" combines industrial beats with Gibbon's aching voice to create an intriguing song, only to be bolstered even more by a Chariots of Fire-like synth-brass section at the end. "Magic Doors" has what I would almost call a funky drum beat with some Indian-influenced backing music. The album is very well-constructed and has the ability to grow on you, as I'm sure it will even further on me.

Nine Inch Nails - The Slip

3.0/5
I have never been a big Nine Inch Nails fan and certainly would not have obtained the album if it wasn't offered on their website for free. That's right, for free. Go get it right now if you like: www.nin.com. It's not like I don't like NIN, I've just never gotten into Trent Reznor's music. In that light, The Slip is overall and enjoyable album. The industrial grooves are easy to get into. "Discipline" and "Echoplex" are definitely the two best tracks on the album. NIN takes it down a notch with "Lights in the Sky", sounding reminiscent of a piano-based Radiohead song, except with Reznor's baritone rather than Thom Yorke's high tenor. The album was a pleasant surprise and certainly worth the cost of zero dollars and zero cents, so go download it.

The Roots - Rising Down

3.0/5
The Roots are one of the most respected rap groups in the game. Led by MC Black Thought and drummer ?uestlove, they make dark, politically conscious rap with a full live band. Their new album Rising Down has substantial highlights, but the album as a whole struggles with being TOO dark. A few songs have great beats, like "Get Busy" and ?uestlove's drum-thumping in "75 Bars", but most of the beats are uninspired. Of course I've always been one to overwhelmingly appreciate a song's musicality and melody more than the lyrics, and the same goes for rap. I care much more if the track has a sick beat than if the lyrics are good. So those who have an affinity with lyrics may appreciate the album more than me. But even paying close attention to the lyrics, I find that they lack any kind of sense of humor. Even politically conscious rap can be clever, but I find these tracks lacking in that cleverness. Besides the two tracks I mentioned before, "Criminal" is a great song with an enjoyable chorus and "Rising Up" is probably the catchiest song on the album. Good stuff, but it could have been better.