KATE BUSH / Aerial (2005)

Kate took some time off after The Red Shoes (1993); it ended up being twelve years, but she came back with a double album that's structured similar to her masterpiece, Hounds of Love (1985), in that it's split into two distinct halves.
Disc One (A Sea of Honey) is a collection of eclectic and mesmerising songs about life and people. It's often cryptic and has many hidden depths. Contrast that structure with the simplicity and beauty of Kate's slightly deepened vocal delivery and you'll discover one of the album's great strengths.
Disc Two (A Sky of Honey) has nine tracks but needs to be experienced and appraised as a whole piece, like The Ninth Wave. It's a complex and multi-layered arrangement that tells the story of one twenty-four hour period, a single summer's day, which may take months or even years to fully appreciate.

Songs of Note: King of the Mountain; How to be Invisible

4½ spiders of time out of 5

NINE INCH NAILS / The Slip (2008)

The Slip does what the majority of NIN albums do: it mixes the angry and the serene, and after repeated listens it's the serene tracks that prove to have the most depth musically and emotionally. It adheres to a mostly paint-by-numbers formula, but at least none of those numbers are (Year) Zero.
It should satisfy fans temporarily, but there are a few stand-out tracks that make owning it very worthwhile. Get it for FREE at the official site.

Songs of note: Echoplex; Lights in the Sky

3 that got away out of 5

ABDOUJAPAROV / Cycle Riot History Gang (2007)

Cycle Riot is the second full-length album from the trio with the difficult name fronted by Les 'Fruitbat' Carter. It's a collection of retro-sounding guitar-driven post-punk anthems that should strike a chord with the matured generation of students that embraced Carter U.S.M in their heyday.
It's a lot tamer than I expected and to be honest I was mildly disappointed on first listen, but after repeated spins it settled into the correct parts of my brain. Plus, it makes me happy to know that Fruitbat is still making music.

Songs of Note: Do It Myself; Hit Her With the Pig

3 Led times out of 5

BATHORY / Jubileum volume II (1993)

Vol II suffers from the same thing Vol I did: the songs are structured oddly, meaning the progression that Quorthon's music underwent is lost.
But as before there are some rare and previously unreleased tracks to ensure existing fans double-dip for content they already have. If the music wasn't so damn good, then I'd be hating heavily on the compilation, but I can't score it any less than it deserves. At least Black Mark ended the album with the Twilight of the Gods (1991) material; it works better that way.

Songs of Note: The Return of the Darkness and Evil; One Rode to Asa Bay

4 trips to foreign shores out of 5

TYPE O NEGATIVE / Life is Killing Me (2003)

Happy gloom that conjures mood and atmosphere in the familiar Type O Neg way. Peter Steele knew that you don't need to sacrifice melody in order to add distortion, and while the guitar sound hasn't changed — it still conjures images of an angry wasp on morphine, carrying a tiny shiv — it's broken up occasionally with lighter moments. The humour is still there, too.
It's an album that takes time to fully appreciate. If I'd rated it when it came out, I'd have scored it lower, but it has characteristics that improve with age, like barrelled whisky. It would've benefited from being shorter, but happily there's none of the usual filler between tracks to drag the overall experience down - the trip to Mockingbird Lane doesn't count, because it's great.

Songs of Note: I Don't Wanna Be Me; Angry Inch

3½ celebratory mourns out of 5

QUORTHON / When Our Day is Through E.P. (1997)

Quorthon had the good sense to not release it under the Bathory name.
If only he'd had the good sense to not release it at all.~

Songs of Note: There aren't any.

0 out of 5

VARIOUS ARTISTS / The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982)

A soundtrack album that collects together good old Country music songs from the good old comedy film of the same name, which was itself an adaptation of a stage musical. The big draw is that it features the wonderful Dolly Parton, who lends her vocal talents to a number of tracks. She even does a duet with the moustachioed Burt Reynolds! That alone should be reason to check it out.

Songs of Note: A Lil' Ole Bitty Pissant Country Place; Sneakin' Around

3 wipes with soap and water out of 5

CURRENT 93 / Horsey (1997)

An album that brings together many of the facets that C93 have explored over the years since their conception: the experimental, the acoustic, the abrasive industrial guitar drone, the neo-folk pastoralism, beauty and horror, and Tibet's unique, esoteric poetics that are delivered like some kind of informed, unconscious voice that guides the listener through a chaotic dream state. If you've ever had a dream spiral out of control, you'll understand what I mean.

Note: four of the six tracks on offer were originally released on a triple album (split release with Sol Invictus and NWW) that was limited to just 2000 copies. The two additional tracks are live recordings.

Songs of Note: The Death of the Corn; The Tree

4 breaking sounds out of 5

NURSE WITH WOUND / The Sylvie and Babs Hi-Fi Companion (1985)

Neither Sylvie, Babs nor Murray Fontana are on the album; nor any of the songs advertised on the front. It's NWW taking the joke contained within and extending it to the packaging. Stapleton has been quoted as saying he wanted to make a record "that was stolen from other people's records," so he did. He does the same thing with stolen clips that he usually does with his own; i.e. create a collage of sound that's neither music nor non-music, but something in-between.
Many of the sounds are culled from easy listening records from the 50s and 60s, interspersed with snippets of dialogue and various man-made sounds.
NWW albums always ride a fine line between irritating and art; Sylvie and Babs veers into the irritating more than usual, in my opinion.

Songs of Note: You Walrus Hurt the One You Love; Great Balls of Fur

1½ warning shots out of 5

ANNIHILATOR / Alice in Hell (1989)

Amid the usual odes to death and wickedness that make up many thrash albums, Annihilator's début included songs about the crippling nature of childhood fears, self-destructive adult obsessions, clinical insanity and a song inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. It's fast, technical thrash with breaks and riffs that should please fans of the genre. There are a couple of filler tracks that stop it achieving a perfect score but even they entertain after a few quality beers. And how could you not love a band with a gruff vocalist named Randy Rampage?

Songs of Note: Crystal Ann; Alison Hell

4 salads out of 5

JELLYFISH / Spilt Milk (1993)

The sound on Jellyfish's second album is a lot fuller than on their previous release. The band filled the spaces in their songs with so much dreamy, melodic Pop that it threatens to turn your ears to candy. It's one of the reasons I prefer the début album. I liked the spaces. There's almost too much going on here. The regular shift from Pop assault to saccharine lullabies is a jarring experience on first listen, but after a while it becomes easier to pick out the good bits, which is about 90% of it. If the Beach Boys joined a circus band, they might sound something like Spilt Milk.

Songs of Note: The Ghost at Number One; All is Forgiven

4 hand shandies out of 5

YEAH YEAH YEAHS / Mosquito [2013]

Post-punk dance act Yeah Yeah Yeahs' fourth album, 2013's Mosquito pushes the electronic textures into the background and brings out the standard guitar & drums, without sacrificing the dancefloor catchiness they're known for.
The songs teeter between frantically captivating to sublimely off-beat with some tracks being the best the group have ever penned to some of the least interesting they've ever mustered up.  I respect that Karen O & teh boys have stuck to their roots, unlike some of their peers in the genre but Mosquito is simply a mixed bag of quality that could have used just a bit more time to fine-tune the weaker areas.

3 percussive railroad tracks out of 5

Songs Of Note: Sacrilege; Buried Alive [feat. Dr. Octagon]

DAVID GILMOUR / David Gilmour [1978]

After dealing with the nightmare that was Roger Waters & Pink Floyd's Animals, guitarist David Gilmour stepped away to release his first solo album in 1978.
The self-titled effort is a bluesy straight-up prog-rock album without all the sound effects & cold disant emotions of the Floyd of that time.  In fact it's more of a melancholy album, filled with notions of loneliness, exhaustion and questions of one's own worth.  He's never been the imaginative one in Floyd and that lack of sticks out like a sore thumb here.  There's nothing really too special on the table but Gilmour's ear for beauty and his soothing voice is what carries the whole record which is something Waters' solo efforts are missing.

3 Joker's Wild reunions out of 5

Songs Of Note: Cry From The Street;  Short And Sweet

MIKE PATTON & VARIOUS ARTISTS / The Place Beyond The Pines: Music From The Motion Picture [2013]

Being a celebrated vocalist in a number of outlandish music projects it's interesting that Mike Patton would choose to score voiceless film scores.
With 2013's crime drama The Place Beyond The Pines being his 3rd feature length score it's even more interesting seeing as the film is so low-key, Patton's usual aggressive and flamboyant sound is nowhere to be heard.  Instead we're treated to a non-conventional film score that's eerily seductive and melancholy which perfectly reflects the lonely images it's meant to compliment.  Layered with Morricone-esque guitar twangs, haunting piano stings, a sampled choir, icy string arrangements and intimidating percussion work, Patton works with a compelling and creative palate of sounds to conjure up an impending sense of doom and mystery.

4 sharpened teardrops out of 5

Songs Of Note: The Snow Angel; Handsome Luke

AMORPHIS / Circle [2013]

11 albums in to their career, Finnish metal band Amorphis finally drop the Kalevala folktale concept in their lyrics and run with an original story on 2013's Circle.
It's a beautifully polished album with keyboards pushed into the background making for a fully fleshed out guitar & bass sound to add an extra woompht (that's the technical term for all your musicians).  It's not nearly as experimental as their early days but that's all right seeing as strong songwriting is their main focus now and that makes for a consistently well-crafted album here.  The symphonic folk flavors are still nicely fitted in where needed as are the dramatic guitars and emotional passages leading the listener into a world long forgotten.

 4 tales of altered destiny out of 5

Songs Of Note: Narrow Path; Nightbird's Song