Here are the latest CDs that I’ve been spinning on my daily commute:

• Broken Social Scene – Forgotten Rock Record
  Being from Toronto and not of the Tragically Hip generation, I feel it is mandatory to like BSS. Well their new album isn’t bad, but I kind of feel every BSS song sounds the same. I guess that is what happens when you put mix too many things together; kind of like colours, you always get brown.
• Cut Copy – Bright Like Neon Love
  I really liked Cut Copy’s In Ghost Colours, and I hoped that their debut album would be just as good. It’s not nearly, although it might be because the album was released in 2004 and doesn’t have the sensibilities of 2010. There are a couple of catchy tracks, but I don’t think its worth buying as the overall quality isn’t that great.
• Kings of Leon – Only By The Night
  I head Use Somebody a lot on the radio and because of that my impressions of Kings of Leon were that they weren’t very good. You can’t heard what they’re singing because every line comes up as a slur/drawl. After listening to their album a few times, I started thinking that they weren’t that bad. It was good music to just pretend to be a hipster too because there is this cool vibe to it (i.e., you must be in to know what the songs about). Then after a few more listens I realized that the songs are very shallow and am back to my initial impressions that Kings of Leon aren’t very good.
• Robyn – Body Talk Part 1
  Robyn plans on releasing three albums this year, I’m guessing part 2 and 3 of this one. This one is more of an EP than an album since it is only about 8 tracks long. Half are great, half are passable. Since this album isn’t out yet, there aren’t a lot of videos, but here’s one:
• The National – Boxer
  I had heard good things about The National so I picked an album to listen to. Maybe driving isn’t a good environment to listen to them though because there is a driving baseline and the singer sings very low. I find it difficult to get into them.
• The XX – xx
  I have heard a lot of hype about the XX recently and finally listened to them. Their debut is not bad actually. You’ve probably heard of the XX if you watched the Olympics, because there is a commercial featuring Apolo Ono using a song by the XX. That song basically sums up the XX for me, because they seem to be relying on the same haunting instrument in most of their songs. I like VCR though
• Vampire Weekend
  Vampire Weekend is another band that has been hyped. Originally I was a bit perturbed of putting their album on my listening list as they were described as having an African influence. That’s not pop music at all. But it works surprisingly well. It’s still not pop though, especially when you have songs named Oxford Comma, which is really about a comma and Oxford.
• Music from the radio March & May
  These songs suck! I’m glad I’m not listening to the radio these days. The only good song is by Spose.

Wow, I feel like I just spun part 6!

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: cdspinoff, music