Caught Up, For Now

The Spinning Top
(2009)
Graham Coxon

My love for blur is undying to the point that I will listen to every album any member puts out as a solo artist. Graham Coxon's previous two solo albums, Happiness in Magazines and Love Travels at Illegal Speeds, were power-pop affair, and both were unexpectedly good. Damon Albarn was almost always the songwriter for blur, so I wouldn't have put a lot of chips down on Graham. Neither of those albums are classics, but they're both quite enjoyable. The Spinning Top is a *sigh* concept album about a man's life, from birth to death. At any rate, it's quite folk; this is where Coxon lets out his fondness for Bert Jansch, among others. From time to time, it's gorgeous, but it's too often plodding. His guitar playing is never less than phenomenal, though, and if you didn't believe he was his generation's best before, you should listen to this. I believe the word that suits it best is "solid."
Grade: B-

Journal for Plague Lovers
(2009)
Manic Street Preachers

I've not listened much to this trio (or would that be quartet for this album?). Turns out, I wasn't missing much. The back story for this album is far more interesting than the product, as it makes use of lyrics left to the band by their former lyricist, who disappeared mysteriously in 1995. He gave the lyrics to their bassist in a notebook, with collages and whatnots, and the remaining members used them as guides for how to make the music sound. Those were some extremely generic collages. There is neither an exceptionally written song nor an exceptionally executed sound anywhere in this album. It's not bad, I suppose, but only for those who like their music neither clever nor challenging.
Grade: D+

I Really Like the Colour of It All

Blue Lights on the Runway
(2009)
Bell X1

We can thank The Talking Heads for most of this album. Take their prime period, strip it of the funk, and you end up with the skeleton of this album. "The Great Defector" is definitely the best cut here, but the whole thing is, well, fun. Bell X1 have a sound both unique and entirely indistinguishable, which is what many a band would kill for. If it never quite takes off, it gets damned close.
Grade: B-

Relapse
(2009)
Eminem

I'm predisposed to liking "We Made You," only because it channels that Doomsday-Cabaret vibe which may actually be my favourite thing in music. And even that I only like for the sound of it, something I never thought I'd say about an Eminem album. Most artists can get away with mediocrity and still have it be at the least unobjectionable. But Eminem's persona only works when the material is undeniable, and on Relapse, it's anything but that.
Grade: D

Grace/Wastelands
(2009)
Peter Doherty

Yes, when a drug-addled songsmith who never lived up to his "potential" decides to go straight, he adds an "r" onto his name, and goes a bit folk. If he were American, he would have grown a beard. This album lost me, admittedly, right from the start, when Doherty sings the title of the song "Arcady" in a manner that is a clear violation of the golden rule, "Show, don't tell." I never got the fuss about Doherty, and this doesn't change my opinion. Fans should be happy, though.
Grade: C

Stop, I've Heard This One Before

Years of Refusal
(2009)
Morrissey

This may or may not be a return to form for Morrissey. I've been told by those who listen to Mozz with regularity that it is. Based on reviews I've seen elsewhere, I'm inclined to believe that is the case. But it really doesn't matter to me if it is a return to form, because I've never liked Morrissey, whether he was on form or not. In The Smiths, a band I can't quite bring myself to love, he was balanced out by Marr's expert musicianship, and he didn't seem quite so under the impression that the world is against him. That's really my problem with Morrissey as he is now. Nowhere else in popular music is there someone capable of writing a lyric like, "I'm throwing my arms around Paris, because only stone and steel accept my love," and I don't mean that as a compliment. It takes a special kind of egocentric to so fully embrace loneliness, and to do it simply so he has something to complain about. It begs the question, at this point in his life, how has he not realised he's the root of his problems? Maturing emotionally involves reaching a point where you can accept the blame for your own actions. On the cover of this album, you'll find a small child being held by a big fuckin' baby.

Grade: D+*

*If you aren't morally opposed to Morrissey as he is now, it's a C+. If you actively like him, it's a B.