BRL 2010 Year in Review (Non-Hip Hop Edition)

I don't claim to be any sort of expert on rock music, and I certainly don't analyze it like I do hip hop, so take this list with a grain of salt. I have it listed in reverse order of artist name (don't ask me why) along with a rating. The best non-hip hop album might also be a recipient of some award or something that's not nearly as important as a BRL award.

Vampire Weekend - Contra - 8.5/10
Sufjan Stevens - Age of Adz - 8.5/10
S. Carey (of Bon Iver) - All We Grow - N.A/10
Ryan Bingham - Junky Star - N.A/10
Rogue Wave - Permalight - 8.0/10
Pete Yorn - S/t - N.A/10
N.E.R.D. - Nothing - 6.0/10
MGMT - Congratulations - 5.0/10
Local Natives - Gorilla Manner - 7.5/10
Linkin Park - A Thousand Suns - 7.0/10
Kings of Leon - Come Around Sundown - 6.0/10
John Legend & The Roots - Wake Up! - 8.5/10
Japanese Cartoon - In The Jaws of the Lords of Death - 7.0/10
Cee-Lo Green - The Lady Killer - 8.0/10
Broken Bells - s/t - 8.5/10
The Black Keys - Brothers - 9.0/10
Beach House - Teen Dream - 9.0/10
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs - 9.5/10

Rhymes & Life: Pete Yorn - American Blues Vol. 1 (Video)

Here is the video for Pete Yorn's new song American Blues Vol. 1. Pete wrote the song on the 4th of July after reading the morning paper. He was moved by how much negativity he was reading about and how even groups were boycotting Independence Day because they were so disgusted with the state of our Nation. He sent the song to some friends and one of them (a really old friend of his who is actually a huge reason he didn't give up on a musical career back in 1998) was really affected by the message. His friend always has had an unwavering faith in America and has always been able to laugh when times got tough. So, he decided to make a video and at the end send a message for people to get out and vote.

This is an amazing song, sums up what it means to be American. Happy July 4.

BRL Update

I am very sorry I have not been posting often. This is caused by my many lap top misfortunes (includes a virus not allowing me to use a web browser, two broken chargers, unable to reinstall operating system, and more). Please bear with me in the mean time, try not to go too insane with the lack of Beets in your life.

In other news:
Excellent music is being released tomorrow:
Fashawn - Boy Meets World (Entirely Produced by Exile) is a top conteder thus far with Brother Ali for Album of the Year. It will be released tomorrow.


New CunninLynguists' single was released 7 days ago (my bday), off of their November 2nd release, Strange Journey Vol #2


Scene&Blu released ADayLate&ADollarShort on October 13. This is one of the year's best works as well.


Tomorrow Royce da 5'9"s oft delayed Street Hop will finally be gracing the shelves of BG's Finders tomorrow as well.


And for all of my indie lovers:
Pete York & Scarlette Johanson released a 9 track masterpiece a few weeks back, here is their Ellen performance: