Wrapup of the Recent

Be warned, I am neither a journalist nor a music reviewer. What you are about to read is a lawyer's attempt to briefly bring you up to speed on his recent music purchases, and his impressions of those purchases. Feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments.

Buzzcocks, Flat-Pack Philosophy

You may say that Flat-Pack Philosophy is more of the same from the Buzzcocks. Yeah, it sounds pretty much exactly like what they were doing 20 years ago, but they rocked 20 years ago, and they still rock now. If I can rock this hard when I'm 50-ish, I'll be thrilled. Hell, I wish I could rock this hard now. You can't deny how fun, catchy and still-vital this album is. Good stuff.

Centro-Matic, Fort Recovery

As I've mentioned, this is a band I wish I'd listened to earlier. They just celebrated their 10th anniversary, and this is the first album of theirs that I've heard. It's fantastic. As I said, I'm no music reviewer, but the easiest comparison I can make to bands I like is to compare Centro-Matic favorably to Drive-By Truckers, Lucero and Sun Kil Moon. Considering how good those bands are, you should get a sense where I'm going here.

Graham Coxon, Love Travels at Illegal Speeds

Only listened to it 3-4 times, but can't say I like it anywhere near as much as his last album. The first single is catchy, but I have yet to really grasp onto anything on the album. I'll give it a few more listens before I write it off.

Delays, You See Colors

My impression now is the pretty much the same as when I first heard this streaming on NME.com. It's good. Not great. It's got a number of good to very good songs on it, but nothing reaches the brilliance of most of Faded Seaside Glamour. Opener "You and Me" comes closest. And "Valentine," which gets downright electro at times, is actually an excellent song. Unfortunately a good portion of the second half of the album is just so-so.

Morning Runner, Wilderness is Paradise Now

OK, I'll say it -- I was wrong. This isn't the great disc I thought it was going to be. It isn't awful, either, but it is a hell of a lot more Coldplay-ish than I initially thought. It rocks a bit harder than Coldplay, thank fucking God, but I can't say that the two bands are really that far removed. Let us never speak of this again.

Mystery Jets, Making Dens

Probably my favorite of this recent batch (although Centro-Matic is close). Not sure why, though. "You Can't Fool Me Dennis" is far and away the best song on the album, and is a contender for my non-existent "song of year" award. The rest of the album doesn't come close to being as catchy as "Dennis," and in fact veers off into some jammy, weird territory at times, but I still like it. You rarely get a sense that a band is truly having fun recording an album, but that's definitely the sense you get listening to Making Dens. Can't wait to see them at the Mercury Lounge this Friday.

Josh Rouse, Under Cold Blue Stars

I've loved the last two Josh Rouse discs, but for some reason haven't gotten around to filling out his back catalog. I finally picked up this disc a few weeks ago, right after seeing him play at Joe's Pub here in New York, and it's exactly what I expected -- more smart, catchy, pretty pop songs. Looking forward to hearing Subtitulo this week, and picking up the rest of his catalog at the same time.