More new music:

The new albums this week tended to disappoint me, which is too bad, as there were about four or five that I thought had promise before they were released. And it's not like this is just a case of me being in a bad mood and it coloring my opinions of these albums: it was in the 50s and sunny yesterday, I had the top down on my car and was smoking a cigar, and still, the music playing out of the speakers failed to grab me.

The least disappointing of the new albums was probably Bruce Springsteen's. I'm not even sure I need to say much about it: people will like this album, and people who don't like Bruce Springsteen probably should listen to some different stuff by him, but if they listen to that different stuff and still don't care for him, this album certainly won't change their minds. I guess this album is folksier, slightly more stripped-down Bruce - there's not much sax in it (RIP Big Man) and little to no E Street Shuffling - but it more or less sounds like what I expected it to sound like, which is fine. I could go off on a tangent and veer into pretentious with a capital P territory by discussing at great length my thoughts on albums like this one that were made in the back half of an artist's career and what they really mean in the grand scheme of things and like, the human condition, but I think I'll pass. I'll just say I liked the album, but not as much as Magic from a couple years ago, which to me represents the high water mark of Springsteen's career in the new millennium.

Other than that, it's slim pickings this week. I had hope for White Rabbits, who had a great song on their previous album called Percussion Gun, but they apparently took to heart the criticism that their earlier work sounded too much like Spoon (how is this a bad thing?) and cut down on the hooks and the catchiness on the new album. Unfortunate.

Has anyone on hear ever listened to the Magnetic Fields? They released a new album yesterday as well. It's not terrible, but it's probably a pretty bad entryway into the band: you should probably start with 69 Love Songs, the literally-named triple album from 1999. The new album has some catchy synth-y pop songs, but the whole thing is a little too silly, and actually listening to the lyrics will only decrease your appreciation for it.

Andrew Bird released another album too. It sounds like an Andrew Bird album, which to me means innocuous, but nondescript bordering on boring. Maybe it will grow on me, but all the songs blended together on first listen.

The Kaiser Chiefs are unfortunately attempting for something approaching artistic legitimacy, releasing an album full of gloomy songs, when all I want from them is big dumb singalong songs. The song Little Shocks isn't terrible, I guess.

Oh, Anais Mitchell is a pretty decent singer-songwriter who released a new album last week. Her voice kinda sounds like Lucinda Williams', and she does singer-songwriter-y things. Top to bottom her new album Young Man in America is pretty good, albeit pretty laid back, kinda like something Regina Spektor might do. It's not an all-moods type album, but I'd listen to it on a Sunday morning.

All in all, there was a whole lot of B- music released this week, and not one single that I could point to and say I really like. Oh well: everything can't be a winner. That'd be communism.