The 50 Albums Project.

[ROC]

Question regarding Mike Shinoda; does he finally, FINALLY actually use a different flow than the exact same one he's used in every song I have heard with him in it for the past six years? If so then I kind of have to hear this album, hate Linkin Park though I may.

[Ananas]

Per John Mayer: I'm actually a fan, but I'm with GoGo on "Your Body Is A Wonderland". So fucking annoying.

[ROC]

Grr, once again my lack of success in finding a chart entry has led me to put another one in its place. This is a review of the new disc from those crazy kids who once wrote songs about this chick named Jane...and sold millions.

19. Maroon 5 - It Won't Be Soon Before Long

Release Date: May 22, 2007

That "one guy from that one band that teenage girls swoon over that isn't Fall Out Boy" Adam Levine and his boys are back for a crazy sophomore effort. Now, there isn't much backstory on these guys here other than Adam Levine is loved by teenage girls and was loved by Jessica Simpson before she wanted to hear John Mayer talk about her body being a wonderland. Oh, and that "Makes Me Wonder" became the highest chart gainer in Billboard chart history, jumping from #64 to #1 within a week's time. So going into the purposefully redundant IWBSBL, it seems like Maroon 5 is going to get an encore of the sales peaks that Songs About Jane earned.

However, would it deserve it by basically retreading last album material? Probably not, but as this record proves, Levine does have it out to do tracks that just so happen to have similar riffs to one another. ("Goodnight Goodnight" opens almost exactly like Three Doors Down's "Kryptonite", "Won't Go Home Without You" sounds like "She Will Be Loved", etc.) And it's sad that the music is derivative, because some of the lyrics, like the ones in the aforementioned "...Without You" and "Nothing Lasts Forever" are at worst personal and at best my life story. However, the air runs out quickly after "Makes Me Wonder" and the funk-pop vibe goes away for what is essentially a caricature of Songs About Jane.

On the upside, Levine could always do another Kanye song using his lyrics. (It would be the best of both worlds.)

Rating: 5/10

Must Haves: "Makes Me Wonder", "If I Never see Your Face Again", "Infatuation"

And tomorrow, I will see if I can actually review a record on the list this time. In that case, tomorrow should be Tim McGraw's latest.

Edited May 31, 2007 by ROC

[ROC]

20. Tim McGraw - Let It Go

Release Date: March 27, 2007

It's hard for the non-country music fan to view Tim McGraw's latest album without a feeling of apathy. Especially since this is the same artist that has seemed to do nothing of note the past ten years other than have sex with Faith Hill and star in two good to mediocre movies. So when his latest record, complete with the obligatory happy-go-lucky single in "Last Dollar", opens, it's hard not to cringe. In fact, the first seven tracks are a massive skipfest, complete with Tim trying to show his own sorrowness a bit too much.

That said, the second half of the album does have better shaped songs and ones that don't just sound like shit Tim pulled from his catalogue (well, barring "Comin' Home" and "Shotgun Rider"). "Nothin' to Die For" is actually an impressive song as well as "Between the River and Me" which channels a great deal of country's past in story form while utilizing mcGraw's modern style.

That said, Let It Go delves too much into the "sorrow" of Mr. McGraw. And frankly, while pain happens to everyone, even Tim McGraw, I somehow doubt there's THAT much pain when you're married to Faith Hill. Cliche and baseless statement, I know, but McGraw seems a lot happier than this record shows.

Rating: 4.5/10

Must Haves: "Between the River and Me", "Nothin' to Die For"

[ROC]

21. The Shins - Wincing The Night Away

Release Date: January 23, 2007

So, Garden State. Other than being the film that turned Zach Braff into a movie star (y'know before The Last Kiss and The Ex tanked and his career was brought back down to earth), it was the film that turned near-unknown indie rock into hot commodities on unknown labels. Frou Frou (mainly member Imogen Heap mostly), Zero 7, Iron and Wine, and the ever growing after his death Nick Drake, all saw boosts in popularity via the movie. Hell, a song that was just covered in the movie even became a big smash (The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights"). And then, of course, The Shins. The group became so well known that their two album releases, Chutes Too Narrow and O, Inverted World, sold around 800,000 copies combined. Not too shabby for a group that's biggest airplay was Natalie Portman uttering that listening to them would "change your life".

So, with a bigger fanbase and a temptation to go more commercial, The Shins walked into their third album Wincing The Night Away thinking "oh screw it, let's just do the music we want to do". And it works brilliantly. Sure, there's definitely a higher touch to tracks like the opener "Sleeping Lessons", which builds and builds into an explosion of electronica and pulsating rock. But all in all, it's still the Shins you all know and love. "Australia", "Phantom Limb", and "Sea Legs" have a very poppy sound that's just great chillout music. Maybe my only qualm about Wincing is its more sorrowful numbers like "Black Wave" and "Split Needles". I don't know, they're just hard to get into. Also, the finale "A Comet Appears" feels like way too soon of an ending. But maybe that's perhaps what the Shins do best: They leave you wanting more.

Rating: 7.5/10

Must Haves: "Sleeping Lessons", "Australia", "Sea Legs", "Girl Sailor", "Phantom Limb"

[ROC]

22. Hannah Montana Soundtrack

Release Date: October 24, 2006

Wow, at once I feel this review would be too harsh and not harsh enough at once. I mean, the work here is meandering pop but Miley Cyrus does have this homely attitude and look about her. She does have a good voice, and for coming from a man who only crooned infamous numbers about broken hearts, she's got potential. It probably doesn't help that I am nowhere near the target demographic for this record. (As in, I'm not a girl, and I'm at least about five years older than the typical buyer of this CD.) So, since you won't read this, or you're just laughing at my cold torture. I'll throw on a CD and I'll be out of here...oh shit, tomorrow's Hinder. Shudder.)

Rating: 2/10

Must Haves: I guess the whole CD if you're a young girl.

[Lowerdeck]

I'll throw on a CD and I'll be out of here...oh shit, tomorrow's Hinder. Shudder.)

Ouch. A CD for a 12 year old followed by a CD seemingly written by a 12 year old. Sorry for ya man.

[ROC]

23. Hinder - Extreme Behavior

Release Date: September 27, 2005

What did the 80s teach us? That big hair after a while looks sort of tacky? That Michael Jackson had moments in which he wasn't a complete freak? Apparently, the 80s taught rock revisionists Hinder everything they know about music, and especially songwriting. Nearly every song on their latest album, Extreme Behavior, is laden with the attitude of an emo kid trapped in the body of an asshole. There's moments where it appears they're pouring out their soul for a woman, but whoops, they gotta throw in that they screwed some broad whose name they don't even know, which they laud over in "Room 21". Whoops, my bad. I thought you were writing from the diaries of Conor Oberst for a second.

If there is one thing from the 80s they did take that was, y'know, good, it is that the music has a catchy tone to it. However, there is also no legit hard rock moments here, unlike say Buckcherry's album, which is more tolerable because they make no qualms about their ideas...that and they actually try to rock. But somehow, I'm more amazed that women can stand this objectification, especially on "Get Stoned", where he purely wants to rile up a girl so that the sex is better. I mean, as a man, I'd lie if I didn't say I have those types of urges at points, but purely from an artistic standpoint, it's silly. Just silly.

Rating: 2.5/10

Must Haves: This is hard...

Tomorrow is an artist I have never actually heard of, an RnB crooner named Gerald Levert. I'm thinking that one could be in the "pleasant surprise" category.

Edited June 4, 2007 by ROC

[JStarr]

For someone who seems to know his shit as well as you do, ROC, I'm somewhat surprised that you've never heard of Gerald Levert. He was putting out some strong stuff with his brother in Levert in the late '80s, solo throughout the '90s, as well as with Johnny Gill and Keith Sweat in LSG. I think you are pretty likely to enjoy that album. Think poor man's Luther Vandross.

[ROC]

24. Gerald Levert - In My Songs

Release Date: February 13, 2007

Posthumous albums have been known to lean two ways. It can either show the greatness of an artist in his final days to those who sadly didn't seem to care much for him when he was alive, and in the case of records like American V from Johnny Cash or Elliott Smith's New Moon, it does encapsulate the solid material and sheer talent that an artist had in life. Or it could go the Tupac direction, where corporate greed only seems to rule over the music that the artist probably wouldn't wanted to have seen release into the public eye. Thankfully, in the case of the final album from underappreciated and unsung RnB singer Gerald Levert is definitely the type of album he respected well enough, and it's a good show for a man who could bellow as well, if not better, than his more popular contemporaries.

In My Songs opens on its title track, with the only addition the voice of Eddie Levert saying a brief speech about his son's excitement for this album before his death, and of course, the track has a sorrowful tone to it as it relates to Levert's need to feel something in life like my passionate songs. And indeed, the best moments of In My Songs come when Levert thinks about his woman. "Hang In There" has to be brought up as his most emotional and ultimately the best track on the album. It is EXACTLY the type of track RnB was made for: a sweet, tender ballad showing a man's love of a woman being delivered with passion and true honesty. If anything, it shows you just what Levert really could do when on fire. Sure, there are weak spots. "DJ Don't" is kind of a faulty number, as well as a couple of other tracks. That said, some of the great tracks including "What Cha Think About That?", "Is This The Way To Heaven?", "Sweeter", and even the playful "Wanna Get Up With You" all show the type of charm that Levert truly had and certainly what the world will miss about him. If you need a good RnB album, then give Gerald Levert's swansong your time. He deserves it.

Rating: 7/10

Must Haves: "Hang In There", "What Cha Think About That?", "Is This The Way To Heaven?", "Sweeter", and even the playful "Wanna Get Up With You"

[ROC]

Yes, it's another damn replacement review. Since I could not find Beyonce's B-Day, I will sinetad review another major star of RnB's latest CD release, Rihanna.

25. Rihanna - Good Girl Gone Bad

Release Date: June 5, 2007

If there's one thing good that could be said about the modern age of RnB music, it's that computers and super-producers really hold the control over where the artist goes. That and some of these super-producers have their good instincts and experimental qualities. With Rihanna's second album, the 19 year old Barbados beauty goes from that chick that sang the shitty song about being "a murderer" to a truly diverse artist guided by her producers' keen sense of turning RnB sounds on their head and adding a bit of electronic and rock sounds to the mix. With the work of her guilding light, Ne-Yo, Rihanna does what Justin Timberlake did with FutureSex/LoveSounds in that she makes a Cd that can still sell with pop auds while gaining the respect of the skeptics.

In fairness, much like on her last effort, A Girl Like Me, Ne-Yo's biggest effort happens to be the weakest effort, in the case of track "Hate That I Love You", which sounds more like one of Ne-Yo's generic tunes rather than the electro fusion of the rest of the record. However, lead single "Umbrella", "Push Up on Me", and "Don't Stop The Music" provide an impressive opening set of tracks. Other efforts like "Shut Up and Drive" (which manages to make sexual game while driving sexy again after efforts like Nickelback's sleazy "Animals" threatened to destroy its appeal) and the ballad "Rehab" both show her range of making a solid ballad while also making a clever, sexy song. And that's ultimately what separates Ne-Yo and Rihanna's experiment over the others. Ne-Yo makes Rihanna really fucking clever.

Rating: 7/10

Must Haves: "Umbrella", "Rehab", Push Up on Me", "Don't Stop The Music", "Shut Up and Drive"

[YI]

Rihanna has one hell of an arse on her...that is all.

Plus, I just looked at your myspace with all the Rascal Flats fans. Jesus Christ! What a bunch of morons. Do any of them even understand the concept of a 'review'?

And I checked them out. And they're fucking awful. The singer sounds like a tosser.

[ROC]

26. Jump In Soundtrack

Release Date: January 9, 2007

It's generic RnB for tweens. Do I need to say more? I do? Well, uhh...Chris Klein is a shitty actor. I mean, look at him. He looks like those high school douches that steal your chick and act all sensitive when deep inside they just wanna have anal sex with her. And you get real mad about it. To the point where you just take your best friend and you go to the fucking mall. And then you talk to that one chick you know who's compiling a book about sex, even though she's only 15 and that one guy who just stares at those "hidden image" thingys and is like "I wanna see the fucking sailboat". And then you hang around those two guys who just get baked all the time and they sabotage the effort of the douche by showing a tape of him fucking some other chick up the ass. And then you're happy again.

Rating: 2.5/10

Must Haves: Again, if you're a tween, you'll love it. And there isn't any sex references like that Pretty Ricky CD.

Yes, I know. I'm being a lazy reviewer, but seriously, you expect me to say something about a Disney channel soundtrack?

EDIT: For YI.

Edited June 9, 2007 by Mr. James Murphy

[Guest Ringo Masterson]

Lazy reviewer.

[YI]

You could at least do what I do and rant about random shit. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

And Rihanna still has a lovely bum. I'd eat ice cream out of it.

Edited June 8, 2007 by YI

[ROC]

Okay, so I've made the new version of the review for YI. >_>

[ROC]

27. Celtic Woman - A New Journey

Release Date: January 30, 2007

Celtic music has a long-storied tradition of influencing every other type of music known to man. Before rock and the intense over-saturation of music today...like way back...like fucking 15th century back, the Celts entertained themselves with dances of happy music and they was truly the first of their kind. Hell, their influence even comes into awesome songs today. Ever listen to Dropkick Murphys? Flogging Molly? There's a good deal of Celtic influence, there.

Which leads us to Celtic Woman, a group whose main occupation is to re-interpret the old Celtic music of the past with modern gusto. And I give credit to the quintet, for they have great singing voices. Unfortunately, the music's boring. I mean really really boring. An article I read said that "this is the type of music you hear on PBS" and while their tone was more complimentary, let's honestly think, when is the last time anyone saw anything remotely interesting on PBS? I mean, they've got some cool specials on the 60s, but there's a lot of programming there that isn't plain interesting at all. And you could argue the same thing here.

If any comparison can be made here, I'll compare it to Joanna Newsom's Ys album. It's the type of album that if you like harp and old-style music, you'll enjoy a lot, and if not, well, then, you'll be like me.

Rating: 3/10

Must Haves: Gah, I don't know.

[ROC]

28. Dixie Chicks - Taking The Long Way

Release Date: May 23, 2006

Some say revenge is the ultimate form of satisfaction. In the case of The Dixie Chicks' Taking the Long Way, it's doing what you do best and managing to not only NOT fall into the pratfalls of your genre but create a strong free-spirited record that is a bit too long (though, to be honest, it's to be expected with the title) but is also a solid piece of country music. As you may have figured out already, I think country is best served with a pot of rebellion. Mainly because country has always been a rebel's genre of music to begin with, whether it be the link to the South or the fact that its greats took no prisoners and certainly took no shit.

And in the case of the first three tracks of Taking the Long Way, "The Long Way Around", "Easy Silence", "Not Ready to Make Nice", the Dixie Chicks hold strong to their country twang, the one that made them superstars in Nashville and yet they turn it on its head with Natalie Maines's soft crooning into smart lyrics attacking those who spoke out over their stance on the President and their exercising of free speech. Especially on "Not Ready", Maines confronts her haters head on, and I must say, gives a pretty solid "screw you" to them in the process.

Now when all the clever tracks involving the incident fade, the album's only fatal flaw is apparent: it drags a lot. Many tracks are skipable merely on their length, and on a disc with over an hour in length, there is quite a bit of bloat here. Thankfully, the proceedings pick with "Favorite Year" and "Voice Inside My Head", further expressions of Maines's tart attitude that also gets inside her own vulnerabilities in life. Now, this is hardly a perfect album, but for a country album that also happened to be a massive seller (Another hearty "screw you" to those who thought they were buried and done after the incident.), this is pretty solid stuff.

Rating: 6.5/10

Must Haves: "The Long Way Around", "Easy Silence", "Not Ready to Make Nice", "Favorite Year", "Voice Inside My Head"

Tomorrow is another group made famous because of Zach Braff Scrubs Grey's Anatomy: The Fray.

(I wish Dr. Cox's breakdown made "How to Save a Life" famous, but people went apeshit over it in Grey's more. :ohwell: )

Edited June 13, 2007 by Mr. James Murphy

[YI]

That's a lie. Small Blue made The Fray famous. To me at least.

And finally an album I can comment on in The Dixie Chicks. And we pretty much feel exactly the same way (Despite my favourite songs not being the same). You giving it 6.5/10, me giving it 66/100.

Edited June 13, 2007 by YI

[ROC]

29. The Fray - How to Save a Life

Release Date: September 13, 2005

So, VH1. Why do I bring a music channel whose new preoccupation is doing the same exact reality show about five times over and giving Loni Love a paycheck for just yammering obnoxiously for half an hour a week? Because they were one of the many things that brought another AC band up to the forefront, a Colorado based group known as The Fray. Well, them...and Scrubs...and Grey's Anatomy...and annoyingly catchy choruses.

Sadly, this isn't the feel good record of the decade, the one that makes you feel better about living and all. No, this is melodramatic pop that only cranks its dramatics up over its 12 track hold. After the two super mega ultra hit singles "How to Save a Life" and "Over My Head (Cable Car)", there is a decent soft ballad in "Look After You", the type of peaceful music that could have been the rest of the album. And that would've been good. However, it is surrounded by piano-laden tracks that don't serve to calm you down no more than grab and force emotion and in the process bore you to tears. And they all tend to sound almost exactly the same as the other. It's hard to notice what's radically different in form between "Heaven Forbid", "Vienna", and "Dead Wrong", barring say a brief chord in DW. And unfortunately, it isn't the blah AC record I wanted it to be. Instead, it was a little suckier.

Rating: 3.5/10

Must Haves: "How to Save a Life", unless, y'know, you listened to the radio sometime in the last year, in which case, skip that.

Edited June 14, 2007 by Mr. James Murphy