50 Cent Curtis Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
"Something special, unforgettable," 50 Cent's choice words when describing his new album Curtis.
After retracting claims to surrender his solo career if Kanye West out sold him in the first week of their releases, 50 surprised us by putting out a decent record.
Give him credit for trying to break away from the pre-fitted rap stereotype even if he didn't get far, or even if Kanye crushed his sales. But let's not forget that the Universal Music Group parents both Good Music and Aftermath Entertainment. Can anyone say sales ploy?
As a whole Curtis doesn't stretch much from 50's norm but thankfully he doesn't sing on all the hooks, making the album taste equal parts bland and decent at the same time, kind of like Vitamin Water.
-DJ Squirt
Motion City Soundtrack Even If It Kills Me Epitaph Records
Overproduced, unnatural, groomed for TRL: Motion City Soundtrack's latest release Even If It Kills Me overwhelms with uninspired pop predictabilities. Playing the likes of Best Buys, Targets and Hot Topics 'cross the country, MCS has denounced any hope of being considered an actual rock band, accepting their status as corporate lackeys.
"This Is For Real" is painful to listen to the whole way through. The first single submissively follows verse-chorus-verse patterns with nauseating exactness-no creative injections to be found. "Broken Heart," rife with over-used rhymes and bland hooks, proves actually the album's most tolerable hit. I will not replay this album, even if it kills me.
-Laura Webb
Kanye West Graduation GOOD Music/Geffen Records
Don't we all wish we could just put out an album to confirm our degree? Kanye West's Graduation could more than award whatever diploma he was attempting: a bachelor in sample usage with a minor in originality.
The production on Graduation is remarkable but not as in your face as prior Kanye pieces, making it so you can easily listen to the album ten times in a row without driving your roommates crazy the way "Jesus Walks" and "Gold Digger" did.
Kanye still hasn't mastered lyricism but he shows improvement from his last album Late Registration. He still ends up making his tiny lyrical missteps into catchy lines like, "it feel like Philly, it feel like D.C., it feel like VA, or the Bay, or Ye, Ayy, this is the good life," one of the worst verses on any gold record in hip-hop history but still manages to produce a soon to be hit. After listening to the album numerous times the songs that you liked, you grow to love, leaving Graduation a rock solid album.
-DJ Squirt
Liars Liars Mute Records
Liars or not, their self-titled, full-length album is easily one of the most honest displays of psychedelic electro-thrash rock to emerge this year. With dissonance and distortion laced into every song and instrument heard on the 11-track record, Liars gives the effect of 1,000 strobe lights flashing in your face.
The first track, "Plaster Casts Of Everything," blends traits of heavy metal and electronica with smashing symbols and heavy guitar shredding. The consistent tom beats in "Pure Unevil" give a George-of-the-jungle vibe that's not buried by the distantly crunchy vocals.
Liars has a sound that feels like smoking a carton of cigarettes, drinking a gallon of whiskey, and regretting the decisions made the night before. Lord knows we've all been there, and now it's got a soundtrack.
-Laura Webb
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