Oops!

I messed up nicely on the new BDB album! It's so hard to tell with albums like this. I figured it would get a mid-range rating that said little and took no real position on the album. It seems I was wrong!

Badly Drawn Boy - Born in the UK *

It's been a few days. I'm still incredibly busy, but the end is in sight. In the meantime I thought I'd throw together a quick post so any daily readers don't think I have given up!

I only have BDB's first album. I like it ok, but don't really see what the fuss was about. Has this been reviewed by PF yet? I couldn't find it on the site, but didn't really look very hard either. In case it hasn't, I'll predict a 6.6 for this one. Actual rating: 2.8. Point differential: 3.8.

Bob Pollard

I don't get the rating for this one. PF seemed to like the album, saying Bob was finding some consistency, but gave it a lowly 6.4. That means I was off by 1.0. Argh!

A purchase worth noting

Still not a lot of time to post. I'll get back into it when work slows down a bit.

Meanwhile, there is always time for buying cds. Tonight I bought the new Hold Steady album, and found a modern Canadian classic - Now and Again by The Grapes of Wrath - for $4.99. That rivals finding two copies of Stephen Duffy's Music in Colors in the $0.99 bin a few months ago.

In my opinion, Now and Again is one of the best Canadian albums ever released. It is pure quality from start to finish. I haven't listened to it for at least 15 years, ever since wearing out my cassette copy. Treehouse was great too, although the songs were a bit more pop and less rock. But the band was never as good as on this album.

Robert Pollard - Normal Happiness *

I've been listening to a track from this ever since Heather posted it a short while ago. It's astoundingly catchy and incredibly simple; each time I listen to it I wonder why I can't write songs like it. And Bob shits them out 10 at a time.

PF was generally pleased with his last album. I'm predicting more of the same, say 7.4. Actual rating: 6.4. Point differential: 1.0.

Killers

Crazy week for me, not a lot of time to post. As you can see I was 1.5 off on the new Killers album. Not too bad I guess.

That's more like it

After my horrible Sean Lennon prediction the other day (I was off by 4.3; I seriously underestimated Sean's ability), it's nice to see I haven't lost my talent completely. As you can see, I was only off by 0.3 on the new Beck album. This pleases me, and means the Top 10 needs an update!

Beck - The Information *

Beck, I am definitely not ignoring you! I've just been busy with work so haven't had time to do a lot of predicting lately. So considering I missed out on predicting the new album from The Decemberists, I figured I would tear myself away from the grind for a few minutes and give your new album the attention it deserves.

I downloaded a few tracks off this new album. They were okay, but didn't excite me the way the first 5 or 6 tracks on Guero did. That was a solid start to an album. Anyway, I'll predict a 7.2 for this one. Actual rating: 6.9. Point differential: 0.3.

The Killers - Sam's Town *

The Killers is quite possibly the anti-Pitchfork, representing everything that PF works so hard to oppose about rock and roll. The rock star pretentiousness; the blatant ripping-off of the classics. But damn that first album was catchy!

I have heard two of the songs from Sam's Town. I wasn't terribly impressed with either one.

Still, I can't decide if PF will like this album just to be able to say I told you so, or hate it because that's the indie thing to do. What do you think? I predict a 7.6. Actual rating: 5.9. Point differential: 1.5.

Old prediction

A prediction from July (Silversun Pickups - Carnavas) was reviewed today too. Nothing exciting there, I was too high by 1.7. It's dated July 25 if you're interested.

Hold Steady

The commenters were right: PF has a boner for this album. I predicted 8.4, which would normally pass for a high rating, but I was still a whole point too low. So not great on my part, but certainly great news for anyone who plans to get this album.