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The Shout Out Louds have been a personal favorite of mine ever since I heard a copy of “Howl Howl Gaff Gaff”. They reminded me so much of The Cure and with Our Ill Wills I believe they have grown from that.

To me the Shout Out Louds put out better hits then actual albums and Our Ill Wills is FILLED with some great songs. There are a few mediocre that doesn’t either spark your interest in catchiness, lyrics or how it’s played but I kind of expect that out of the Shout Out Louds.

One of the things I didn’t expect when listening to our “Our Ill Wills” was the progression of Bebban Stenborg taking a bigger role in singing. She backs up beautifully in arguably the best song on the album with Impossible. She also sings the full song in “Blue Headlights” now my second favorite track.

This album is getting a 4.5 out of 5. The hits carry this one well and though I am probably biased here. Not the type of album you would listen in its entirety but like PopMatters says, their greatest hits album will be absolutely amazing.

Check out below for the video for impossible and Blue Headlights!

Blue Headlights by the Shout Out Louds

50 Cent has publicly made a promise that he would retire if “Graduation” outsold “Curtis”. So far the future is looking bleak and the internet has decided to pick up this story and 50 cent will probably undergo heavy criticism if he doesn’t oblige.

It currently 1 million to 700,000 copies sold after the first week.

I think West’s album sales is because of the critical praise it has gotten and 50 cent’s mixed reviews probably has to contribute into the factor.

I am really rooting for West here even though West does annoy me with his controversies. I really think it’s time for 50 cent to hang it up… and try acting or something.

Source: Billboard

I have tried listening to albums this year that were highly praised by critics like Battles’ Mirrored and LCD Soundsystem’s Sounds of Silver. Both were not to my taste and I have to say that I enjoy listening to “Attack Decay Sustain Release”.

There are some great dance tracks and some good beats with the occasional song on the album filled with vocals. The music video which I displayed for “Hustler” which a group of girls kissing was also great.

I really dug this album and while I believe it’s not getting as good of reviews as it should and people shouldn’t be worried about it not being “complex” when it comes to electronic music. Some great songs on here.

Check out the first track Sleep Deprivation and the video for arguably one of the better songs on the album “I believe”:

Sleep Deprivation (download)

Anyway the Devics are a “dream pop” band out of Los Angeles. I seem to have a liking for dream pop bands. The Devics don’t seem to be up to anything on their website and their last release Push The Heart Came out to generally positive reviews.

I had a listen to some of their stuff and while I can’t say I am a big fan of them, there are some songs that are elegant and just has that substance to get you addicted.

I realize that none of my favorite have been made into videos (boo!) so I’ll leave you with a stream of my favorite song to go to sleep to Song For A Sleeping Girl and a fan video for Lie To Me.

Song For A Sleeping Girl (download):

I knew nothing about John Vanderslice before I decided I would check out Emerald City. I did check out his wikipedia entry after listening to the album.

This album was very easy to listen to from start to end, with Vanderslice’s singing it just soothes into your ears. This album has been all I have been listen to the past few days due to both it’s ease and when you check out the lyrics it makes it even more amazing. The lyrics are deep throughout and this is an artist worthy of checking out.

I liken him to Andrew Bird but better for me with a voice and style that is more to my tastes. You should take the time to check out John Vanderslice. He is political with his lyrics though I barely can tell unless I decide to check out the lyrics. It’s a great album all around and I will be listening to this album for weeks to come.

This album gets a 5 out of 5 from me. It has gotten pretty good reviews on Metacritic. Picking which songs I wanted to upload too a very long time. My favorite song though is “Numbered Litograph” but the rest of the album follows closely behind.

Here are two songs from the album:

Kookaburra.mp3

Numbered Litograph.mp3

The beginning is pretty clever eh? They’re also releasing an album soon, called “Shotter’s Nation”. You can download the single “The Lost Art of Murder” from The Times website

M.I.A. is a rapper out of the UK with deep roots to Sri Lanka. Kala is produced very well with some very cool beats, and very easy to get addicted to. I personally am not a rap fan BUT I do admit that this album is very good, very catchy and starts off with addictive parts.

I did get bored of a few songs but it’s not because this is bad this is more of me not stylistically liking the genre and I can’t fault M.I.A. for that. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with this album and you make like it even more then me. I give it a 4.5 out of 5 though it probably won’t be on my computer for long.

Bamboo Banga.mp3

Come Around.mp3 (Featuring Timbaland)

It’s not the end of the world if I don’t see Rilo Kiley (I know they’ll be back) and being busy with school and all it’s pretty tough to go to a concert and keep up with school work.

I am probably not going to see this concert, though I would like to, it would take a last minute decision if I choose to see them. Either way it’s an excuse to include some music videos by them . Visit their home page and their myspace for other concert information. You can also visit their Youtube page for their other music videos.

Portions For Foxes (one of my favorite Rilo Kiley songs):

Silver Lining (off the recently released “Under The Blacklight”)

Bat For Lashes has a very good sound where Khan’s vocals are compared to Cat Power’s and Kate Bush’s to name a few.

This album “Fur & Gold” displays a lot of potential. However after listening to the past few weeks, I was unable to really grasp onto any other song then the single “What’s A Girl To Do?”.

This album has received some great critical praise so far, with an 81 on Metacritic and so far being called “critically acclaimed”. This album I can’t say is that. I feel like I am getting a headache through the constant change in style from song to song and I can’t listen to this album for a very long time.

It’s not terrible at all, some stuff is pretty good just not great at this point. I give it a 3.5 out of 5. I will look forward to more albums by them because I believe that they can release a potential super album with the variety of sounds they had and with Khan’s beautiful singing voice.

Check out the cool video for “What’s A Girl To Do?”

Anyways, back to the topic. I discovered this song near the end of the summer and its stuck in my head. This is a homemade music vid of the song Ayo For Yayo by Andre Nickatina. I love this video cause they basically made it from clips of two kick-ass movies: Scarface and Blow.

Check it out: