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Jeff Tweedy & Co. serve
up the year's moodiest, most optimistic and unapologetically challenging
work. Not to mention the obvious choice for album of the year.
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Incredibly inventive sound collages infused by a raw human element, from
personal correspondence to irate motorists.
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Moving
beyond the heartbreak of last year's Girls Can Tell to such
topics as the alienation of stopgap workers, Spoon continues to operate
by its own uniquely skewed rules. Thank goodness for that; from start to
finish, this is the year's most infectiously listenable album.
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Beck's confessional, soul-laid-bare songwriting and
Nigel Godrich's pristine production complement rather than contradict
one another on this hangdog, heart-on-your-sleeve masterpiece.
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Understated and haunting, Portishead vocalist Beth Gibbons and former
Talk Talk bassist Paul Webb deliver a stellar one-off that hopefully
will lead to more collaborations between the pair.
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Metaphysical pop meditations on man's place in the universe and whether
a young girl can defeat a giant pink robot in gladiatorial combat. Par
for the course from the brilliantly inventive Lips.
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Volatile
blend of hip-hop, rock and soul meshes effortlessly thanks to the
production wizardry of the Neptunes and the formidable skills of backing
band Spymob. In Search Of... detonates the tired sound of
rap-metal, in favor of a smoother but still viscerally effective
approach.
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The most
impressive element of the Icelandic quartet's latest release is the way
it reinterprets the same vocal against a variety of increasingly
dramatic sonic backdrops.
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Positive electronic pop that casts the listener as
a spirit passing through the circulatory system of an organically
industrialized wonderland. Definitely worth the trip.
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Mike Skinner moves two-step garage from
the underground to street level in this fascinating "day in the life of
a geezer" document of bored, apathetic UK youth culture.
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