#519 Cee-Lo Green - The Lady Killer

First of all, Fuck You is an incredible song, Hey Ya-deep in hooks, every sylable perfectly, cuttingly delivered.. And the cover of No One's Gonna Love You does everything a cover should, taking it to new places you can't believe it wasn't from originally. And CeeLo's got pipes and charisma to spare, but the rest of the album can't keep the energy level up, sounding samey and indistinct and fillery by the end, each song returning to its chorus one more time than it seems like it had earned 2.5/5

#518 Kanye West and Jay-Z - Watch the Throne

I've never been that into either of these guys, neither as guys, nor as rappers, but MBDTF was pretty incredible, so I figured I'd give it a chance.

I don't have any patience for this kind of shouty self-aggrandizing rap. There are some of the moments of vulnerability that endeared Kanye to me for an album or so, but for the most part this its the "hove and yeezy are great" show. The production is varied enough to be interesting, but there's not enough soul. Also, what's the appeal of N's in P? That song sucks 2.5/5

#517 Quinton Sung - Kid A (8-bit)

8 bit versions of every song on Kid A (free here)! Two things that must be said:

 - It is perfectly executed, nailing the sounds better than would have seemed possible given the limited toolset.

 - If you're a fan of Kid A this is definitely worth hearing once, because when the loops and melodies are quantized this way you can really see the skeletons of the songs. Kid A is almost too perfect in is blending of sounds, such that the entire thing hits as a cohesive package, defying any understanding of how it achieves what it does. This album serves as a blueprint, allowing you to trace how the parts interact. If you're into that kind of thing.

That said, its not all that listenable, and in no way serves to replace the original: its a novelty, an overlay on the classic album more than an album in its own right, even if it is admittedly the perfect realization of its concept 3/5

#516 Liars - WIXIW

Liars started off with angular dance/post punk, swerved off into batshit wicker absurdity, and then settled into honest to god art rock, garnering acclaim from the indie intelligentsia for their obsession with ambience, tone, and the finer points of every sound, all wielded with creepy, ethereal menace. And that's roughly where we find them here, sounding a bit like late Radiohead's evil twin, drifting even more ethereal, more electronic,  lulling you into nightmare with waterey ambiance that is both disarming and unsettling, snaking into your brain like an infernal used car salesman.

No 1 Against the Rush is the finest example of this approach's strength, as it rides a simple beat, sawtooth arpeggios and a perfect burble-pop loop to pretty post-punk perfection. But the rest is a bit like Steely Dan, empty, or maybe evoking emptiness (credit to Orion for that one), but appealing only intellectually 3.5/5