S=Y is an A+ on the strength of "Couleurs" alone. And then there's the rest!

That this statement can be made is testament to what an abysmal year for music it's been. And I'm no miser—2010 was a damburst of great records, one after the next, so many stellar records that ratings systems were arbitrary and pointless. This year, I'm not even sure there're ten good albums to put in line.

I agree totally, seven-deuce. I enjoyed listening to this album enough once, but I don't plan on doing so again. There's a strange habit on some review sites to judge a whole album by a few stellar tracks or even AH stellar track (Pitchfork is especially egregious here), but this review actually captures the whole…

No, that song is twee schmaltz, and you can admit it's twee schmaltz. You're not beholden to anyone on here.

Nothing's as readable as a furious review. Especially when Heller clearly wanted to have many more words to spew forth with, but had to keep it brief for the print version.

Nope. No one is. Or then again, everyone is:
http://www.theonion.com/art…

Hey, why don't all these people who always champion Nirvana never ever listen to Nirvana?

To Token Black, below: Looks like we were born to disagree. "Tedium" and "Stay the Course" are two tracks I deleted immediately. I love "I Gotta Rock" and "Enemy Lines" and most of the rest.

The career arcs of Shadow and RJ are pretty similar, levels of acclaim notwithstanding: Groundbreaking first album, second album that did the same only more focused and with more guests, piece-of-shit third album that tried to rewrite the style manual, and a mellower, return-to-form fourth album that recaptured the…

Endtroducing has the same obnoxious, no-reason-to-exist interludes that the other albums have. Hearing that sci-fi sample go, "Year 1-9," then "1-9-9," then "1-9-9-9" three separate times? Give me a break. And that untitled track, sheesh. Why?! Why include this bullcrap?

This album is streets ahead of The Outsider.

I think you guys are being too critical, (and on this!, the most critical messageboard of The Internet!) This album is quite good, and improves with further listens. I'd give it a B+.

Agreed. I went into listening to it wanting to disagree with the review, wanting the album to be better than a B-, which I was presumptuously sure it was.

Each idea ball has a verb, noun,or pop culture reference written on it. There's millions of them! The emcees choose an idea ball and walk it over to the joke combine on the other side of the studio. The idea balls drop into the joke combine and form a part of the lyrics. Stan Brakhage: a perfect Das Racist lyric! I…

Pitchfork's review of this album: Their most pretentious this year?

You get BOTH, Dired! FIRST, you get two minutes of ethereal snooze-fest, and THEN you get two minutes of fast-tempo "wake up and pay attention"! Repeat ad nauseam and there you have Strange Mercy.

Beat me to the punch, teendream. This album is a good song, but eleven times in a row it's pret-tee wearying.

I would say his authenticity saves him. Whoever this guy is, the kinds of songs he sing/speaks sound sincere. So he may be a self-destructive lecher, but he seems to be aware of it and enjoying it. He's free of pretense, and that's refreshing.

Caveat: Millhauser IS exceptional, but only in short bursts. "Dangerous Laughter" features all exceptional stories ("The Tower," the Tom and Jerry one come immediately to mind), but if you read them straight through, my do you begin to see them all blend in to the same story, the first-person plural, the strange-event…

"Gone" is about 8 minutes and 6 seconds too long, for example.