Pearl Jam (Backspacer)

Very excited to get my hands on an early copy of Pearl Jam's newest album "Backspacer". If you grew up in the 90's you know how important this band was to our (Late Gen X'ers and Early Y'ers) youth.

I can't explain to you how happy I am to see them back on the scene, putting out old tracks like they used to... They've never sold out... not once! They continue to write and make the same music as they have since they formed in 1990 during Seattle Washington's boom of great grunge bands.

You may or may not know but Pearl Jam's lead singer, Eddie Vedder, recently released his first and only (to date) solo album for the soundtrack to the movie Into The Wild. Hand-picked by Sean Penn, whom directed the movie; the album reached #11 on US Billboard Top 200 of 2007.

In Backspacer (and the rest of the band), the album comes with 11 tracks... all with a feel of the 90's. There are a couple songs that I wouldn't have put on the album, but that's just me...

However, this album is a far cry from the brilliance of Ten or Vs. it still has much to offer. If you still love old grunge and the memories that Eddie Vedder's voice brings to you, buy this album.

Recommendation: Buy Album

(If you don't want to buy the album but do want to check out a couple songs, I suggest "The End" or my favorite on the album, "Just Breathe".

Jay-Z (The Blueprint 3)

In Jay-Z's newest album, un-originally named "The Blueprint 3" , Jay-Z has masterfully put together 15 tracks with 4 of which are actually worth checking out... thank God for iTunes $1.29 price tag per song...

1. Already Home

2. So Ambitious

3. Run This Town (Feat. Kanye West & Rihanna)

4. Young Forever (As made popular by Alphaville & Napoleon Dynamite.... but with rap)

The regular album retails for $10.99 or you can pick yourself up the deluxe version ($16.99) which features 17 songs, 2 of which are videos of other songs already included, only now featuring other artists like Kanye West and Rihanna.

How many times has Jay-Z retired only to come back now? I know he's beat Lance Armstrong and working on surpassing Brett Farve on combacks... as a good buddy of mine recently said "there is a special place in hell for backer-inners."

On the other hand, Young Forever is actually a pretty good song... It's the song in Napoleon Dynamite when he Napoleon gets his chance to dance with Pedro's date.... come'on... you remember.... right? Regardless, it's worth the $1.29. Hell, I've already saved you $11.83.... spend the $5.16 on 4 songs. You won't be disappointed...

Recommendation: Buy selected songs.
1. Run This Town
2. Young Forever
3. So Ambitious
4. Already Home

MUSE (The Resistance) & Kid Cudi (Man On The Moon: The End Of Day) & Kanye West (The Jackass)

Listening to the new MUSE and Kid Cudi tracks.. MUSE is back to old form, continuing their brilliance from Black Holes & Revelations in their newest release The Resistance. I'm only 2 songs deep and am jamming, so far. Definitely a buyer. More to come on them.

EDIT: In "Black Holes & Revelations" there was a song (Knights Of Cydonia) where you could tell they (MUSE) had been listening to way too much Queen... With that said, there are multiple songs on this set that have a Queen vibe to them, and I have to say that they are great. I'm not big on Queen, but these songs are incredible. There is also 3 songs that were performed with a symphony... simply excellent driving tunes.

Recommendation: Buy entire album

Kid Cudi's newest tracks in Man on the Moon: End of Day, is good but not what I was expecting... after hearing him mix with the likes of Paul Simon, Tori Amos, and Band of Horses, his long awaited release is not as good as I had hoped for. Originally, it seemed like a classic Biggie move where he would find a classic song, steal the sheet music and mix it to some generally good rap, however, Cudi would mix it up a little more, mostly improving the feel of the song.... but in his own brilliance, his lyrics fall flat. It feels like an incomplete CD with 15 songs, which doesn't make any sense.

Expect to hear a lot from Kid Cudi... in other words, get used to hearing his name... I expect him to be as big as Kanye was..............

Recommendation: Buy selected songs.
1. Make Her Say (Feat. Kanye West & Common)
2. Pursuit of Happiness (Feat. MGMT & Ratatat)
3. Up, Up, And Away
4. Day N Nite
5. Soundtrack 2 My Life

Speaking of Kanye, what a Jackass he is... so eloquently spoken by President Obama. I expect this to dominate the headlines (at least in music) for quite a while... Hopefully this will pull him back to Earth from the spaceship to which he thought he was on... Being so full of one's self can be exhausting... hopefully he will take his own advice and take some time off, as he mentioned on last nights episode of The Jay Leno Show, and realize that he is not the foremost authority on... well.... anything. Advice to Kanye: Stick to your shitty rap played behind good mixes... it's all you've got.