first impressions

audioslave - Out of Exile: I blame the resaon I want to like this on some dutiful sense of pent up nostalgia for this style of music that effectively ceased being effective one weird day in April 1994. The lead single, 'be yourself', is probably the worst song on the album. So if that's the only track you've heard so far, know that it gets better. But unfortunately, chris cornell's voice just ends up wearing on you until you wish he'd go back into exile with the rest of his former band.

imogen heap - Speak For Yourself: Reminds me of dido singing over a cirque de soleil soundtrack.

white stripes - Get Behind Me Satan: I'm listening to this from the advance vinyl release and I'll have to say I am rather enjoying it. Jack & Meg are back with an album heavy on their special brand of matter of fact love songs. Most tracks here also include the pianotron, which adds a certain elegance to the otherwise raw cuts.

black eyed peas - Monkey Business: The album opens with Dick Dale's now famous by way of Pulp Fiction riff from 'misirlou', and soon digresses into the peas' standard hand-clapping, fergie gyrating nonsense. How are we supposed to take these guys seriously with tracks like 'don't phunk with my heart'? We're not. And with that in mind, this is your standard NBA theme song making, top 40 hit machine type thing that these guys do best. Of all the guests that litter the album (justin timberlake, cee-lo, john legend, talib kweli, q-tip, james brown, sting), the jack johnson collaboration is my fave.

-whimsically observed, neph-