And now is the part of this blog where I dedicate a paragraph to albums I thought were noteworthy. Any suggestions on what I should listen to next? I’d love to hear it! I’m up for listening to anything… except for Tyga’s new album. That’s a given though.
“Deep Space EP” – Eisley
Ah, the beautiful sounds of Eisley. “The Deep Space EP” is another lovely edition to their catalog. I never get tired of this band. To me, the title track as well as “192 Days” were the standouts on this too short collection. “Deep Space,” as you probably get from the title, is a song with a sci-fi twist. 192 Days sounds like it belongs in a different era of time. Not a bad thing in my opinion. The whole EP is more of a throwback to their older albums then a addition to “The Valley.” Eisley never disappoints. Now I just have to wait for the next full length album.
Some Nights – .Fun
.Fun is a band that recently Foster the Peopled. By 
“Foster the Peopled” I mean they went from being relatively unknown to #1 on iTunes overnight, thanks to a single song. Foster the People had “Pumped Up Kicks” skyrocket them to fame, .Fun has “We Are Young.” .Fun has a very unique, funky vibe to their music. They’re one of the artists you can recognize instantly. Although “We Are Young” is the track that’s carrying this band, in my opinion there’s better songs on this diverse album. “It Gets Better” is one of those. It’s a musically interesting and catchy track. “All Alone,” another highlight, sounds like it would be a gloomy track, but it actually has a very fun beat. You’d better check out “All Alright,” “Carry On,” and, heck, just check out the whole thing. The whole album is… wait for it… FUN. Hmm. Well, I do give you permission to “Stars.”
“Heart” – Audrey Assad
I heard about Audrey Assad quite a bit when her first album was released. On Valentine’s Day, I saw her new album “Heart” was out. It was just a little too perfect to pass up. The album was indeed perfect for Valentine’s Day: nice and sweet. I never expect much out of the Christian pop realm, but this girl has got some major talent. “Pop” seems like a not good enough title to give this album. Singer/songwriter almost fits better. Her lyrics are another strong suit. Some of my favorite tracks are “Even the Winter,” “Sparrow,” and “Slow.”
“Reign of Terror” – Sleigh Bells
First off, this album cover is sweet. Me and Sleigh Bells (stop thinking about Christmas) were first introduced thanks to a sampler put together by their record company. I instantly liked the grittiness of the song contrasted with the female vocals. Their latest album, however, loses much of the grittiness and replaces it with a more poppy vibe. “Reign of Terror” starts with “True Shred Guitar,” which frankly just annoyed me. Most of the “song” is a clip from a live show, and maybe it would be fun if you were in the crowd, but on CD it comes across as pointless. “Born to Lose,” the next track, does redeem them somewhat. Unfortunately, after that the album goes into the doldrums for a while. A handful of songs, like “Comeback Kid, “Demons,” and “DOA” do rise above the doldrums, but it’s still not quite enough to make the album worth buying.
“World We View” – Nine Lashes
I listened to and liked Nine Lashes’ independent album “Escape” quite a while ago. When I heard they were working with people like Aaron Sprinkle, Trevor McNevan, and Ryan Clark for their Tooth and Nail debut, I got excited. I even put them on my list of most anticipated albums at the beginning of the year. Now it’s the moment of truth. Was it a worthy addition to the list? That’s tricky. Although the albums is not bad, for the most part Nine Lashes sticks to the typical modern rock formula, which is a little disappointing. There’s nothing here that a hundred other bands aren’t doing. The plus is that Nine Lashes do what they do very well. For a first album, it’s not bad, there’s a lot of potential. Don’t scratch them off your list yet.
Thoughts From the Shredder 