Our Opinion… not that anyone really asked for it.
For the week of 11/12/2007

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT – SINCE THE LAST TIME (Vagabond)
The album title says it all. It’s been a long time since the last time Arrested Development did much. “Mr. Wendell” made a lot of sense in the days of pre-Chronic hip hop, but a lot’s changed in hip hop since then (Russel Simmons, I’m looking at you). Power to the people for trying to say something positive, but even as they say on “Stand”, “it’s better to write for ourselves and have no public than to write for the public and have no selves,” and that’s exactly what they’ve done. – Jonathan Lee Riches
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MAJOR STARS – MIRROR/MESSENGER (Drag City)
I usually like angry girl music but this album pretty much sucks. It’s a mixture of all the things I hate – bad metal guitar and a whiny girl who thinks she’s the new PJ Harvey. It’s like one of those pizza Combos. You already know it’s gonna be bad when you pop it in your mouth, but then you bite into it and the pepperoni-flavored sludge seeps out and you know your fucked. But sometimes, just sometimes, it tastes kinda good. But only when you’re in the mood for that sort of thing. Or when you’re really, really hammered. – Foxy Foursocks
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SAUL WILLIAMS – THE INEVITABLE LIBERATION AND RISE OF NIGGY TARDUST! (self released)

Que tonto! We took an solemn oath, upon the engagement of our services by this proletariat ‘magazine,’ to give no album a “5” rating until our rightful land & titles are restored… but with the continental aristocracy defunct, our royal privileges fading from view, and the latest offering from wordsmith Williams painfully fresh in our ears, we have come to regard this as a blunder. Suffice to say it is a matter of honor and cannot be undone. Hopefully the kind poet will not be wroth with us. Regardless: The Inevitable Liberation and Rise of Niggy Tardust! is a furiously enjoyable recording, what leaps seeming effortless from introspection to defiant rage to sublime melancholia and back again in the merest fifty-eight minutes. The poet – known to us before from la pelicula excellente Slam – is also, in this case, a producer, in which work he is most ably assisted by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails notoriety and others. In terms of the field of hip-hop as a whole, Niggy Tardust! is unorthodox, to put it lightly; in the vulgar argot, perhaps it could be said that it rips the new one an asshole (I believe this is correct). Attentive emcees may be forced to adopt a new modus operandi, lest they suffer obsolence or greivous injury at the hands of fans of Niggy T, an angry legion chanting battle-rhymes i.e. “Bitch nigga gun trigga dick’s bigga why fuck, killa blood spilla bitch steala mac truck.” Wheew! The mere thought gives us delightful shivers. In any case, this album will surely dominate conversation among intelligent hip-hop heads for several calendar months, so if you intend to keep your pretensions of culture intact, mon petitie canard, our advice would be to download Niggy Tardust! immediately. – El Marquis de Nada
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BRITISH SEA POWER – KRANKENHAUS? EP (Rough Trade/World’s Fair)

Now these guys are for real.  Here are five kickass jams that are wild, flawed and totally rock and roll.  There’s a sense of melody in the songs, but they never end up overly relying on it.  It’s almost a perfect formula for a good EP; the five songs are consistently good, but never lull the listener for too long.  There’s also the one truly excellent song that makes the acquisition worthwhile (“Straight Down The Line”).  If there’s anything to complain about, it’s a lack of diversity amongst the songs.  Even with a nine-minute extended jam, the songs are pretty similar.  But if there’s any justice in this world, the overall quality of this EP should do more than enough to generate much excitement for their upcoming full length, due early next year. – Motown
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DEVENDRA BANHART – SMOKE ROLLS DOWN THUNDER CANYON (XL)

This is how I see it- Devendra Banhart and myself time travel (thirty years back, something simple like that.) We both put on roller skates, Bright colored t-shirts & accesories that should no longer exist in present day. Hands locked, it’s at this point he starts belting out the song “Lover” off of his latest creation Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon with strobe lights beaming down on us from all sides, we dance, still on our skates, neither of us blinking. Sigh.
In this scenario I let it slide that Banhart sings to me about wanting to be a “Seahorse,” or a bird or a mountain lion or whatever it is now. I also let it slide that this new album leaves me much more disappointed than the last. For the first five tracks of the album, we tease our hair, I teach him how to do a better job of putting on fake eyelashes (needs to blend better with his beard) but by the second half of the album, I want to listen to something else. If he could only keep put out more songs with the folky feel of  “Rosa,” maybe I wouldn’t be exhausted by track 10.
p.s- Devendra I’d really like my rhinestone encrusted bra back. – Sugar Tits
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