Musing

2022 almost got it right.  A grand total of 21 new releases - one short of perfect - crossed my desk last year.  It was enough that I couldn't even get to all of them.  So with apologies to Turnover, Jaws of Love, Richard Edwards, Trampled by Turtles, and Beirut, their albums aren't going to feature in this post in any other capacity.  I've probably heard half of the Turnover album already just because they released so many singles, but I haven't found the right moment to sit down with this one and all of the other mentioned. The full list of eligible albums is:   Florence + the Machine Dance Fever Glen Phillips There Is So Much Here Collective Soul Vibrating Charlie Winston As I Am Death Cab for Cutie Asphalt Meadows Muse Will of the People Embrace How To Be A Person Like Other People Hanson RGB Liam Gallagher C'mon You Know Andrew Bird Inside Problems Shearwater The Great Awakening The Smile A Light for Attracting Attention Bear's Den Blue Hours Arcade Fire WE...

Red Hot Chili Peppers' I'm With You Editor's Note: This is the 1st in a quasi-weekly series of reviews marking my favorite ten albums of 2011. New reviews go up every weekend through the end of the year. It can't be easy to lose John Frusciante. Hardcore fans of RHCP went into a collective apoplectic shock when Frusciante announced in 2009 that he was splitting amicably with the rest of the band.  The Three Pillars of the Peppers were down to two.  Regardless of where you would rank John amongst those three, it's pretty evident that he's not on this album.  What can we say about the new guy?  Well...he does play a guitar.  But few guys can drop a solo like John. That's not to say this is a bad album.  It's making the top ten, isn't it?  I wouldn't cut any of the songs in the tracklisting off of the album, which is more than I can say for some albums that will actually be ranked higher in the next few weeks.  The disappointment comes, unf...