
OK:
The Blue Oyster Cult, Tyranny and Mutation: how they played this stuff so in '73 is beyond me, as well as why the first two records weren't huge hits. Buck Dharma rules! I did have to tell a buddy who whined about the relatively quiet bottom end level, turn it UP.
Patterson Hood, Heat Lightening Rumbles in the Distance: this guy is an absolute treasure, this album a complete gem.
The Joy Formidable, Wolf's Law: I really want to really like it, but it's just OK, with that fucking basketball drum sound like Bush's and that whiny Pumpkins-clone band's latest.
Low, the invisible wrong: gets me high.
Mudhoney, Mudhoney: a work of grunge genius, what is not a oxymoron, dude.
Isidore, Life Somewhere Else: where Kilbey takes us to church, with a different congregation.
MBV, Isn't Anything: I'm still listening to the original mixes these many years later, still trying to figure out why this stuff works, if what's-name is a genius, and if I like it. I'll have to listen again.
Danzig, Danzig II-Lucifuge: R. Rubin, B. O'Brien and J. Scott make this sound great, and the band, like on the first record, has silly songs, silly names and a bad enuff 'tude to make it rock. Whatever happened to J. Christ?
Lou Reed, Animal Serenade: sheer misanthropic poetry, done with very little percussion, and F. Saunders as MVP.
Johnny Marr, The Messenger: I so want to like this, and don't - over-produced and generic despite the very occasional flashes of genius.