ORIGINAL HIPSTER

The year is more than halfway over. How ’bout a best-of recap of records thus far? I can’t think of any reason good enough to stop me. So here goes.

5. Morbid Angel – Illud Divinum Insanus – The Remixes

What would happen if a death metal band gave their songs to a bunch of hyper-creative electronic music artists to be remixed into a dance/death metal/dubstep hybrid? Awesomeness. That’s what. I don’t know whose idea this was, but it was a brilliant one. And I don’t even like dubstep.

4. Regina Spektor - What We Saw From the Cheap Seats

Regina Spektor has never made a bad album; this one surpasses its more serious predecessor Far by returning to the quirky charm of Begin to Hope.

3. Gojira - L’Enfant Sauvage

The title track alone makes the album worthy of being on this list. It’s outstanding. (The rest of the album is strong, too.)

2. Garbage - Not Your Kind Of People

Welcome back, Garbage. It’s been a long time coming, but it was well worth the wait. You make freaks feel cool, and we love you for it.

1. Baroness - Yellow & Green

The build-up to this album was absolutely ridiculous. The first single dropped months in advance of the LP. Baroness was touring the new material with Meshuggah and Decapitated, which didn’t make sense. (Why was a stoner sludge band from Georgia sandwiched between two European speed demons?). After red- and blue-themed albums, they chose not one but two colors for the name of this one. I worried that Yellow & Green would be to Baroness what the green album was to Weezer. I assumed it would inevitably suck. But it doesn’t. It is stunning. Gorgeous. Anyone looking to mosh and headbang can skip over this one (I won’t miss your bashing into me at the next concert). But anyone who gets excited when musicians won’t be confined by the genre they supposedly fit into will cherish Yellow & Green.

Biggest Disappointment: Jack White’s Blunderbuss. It was truly a blunder. Bland and boring.

I Have Yet to Hear: New Raveonettes album. Full new album by A Place to Bury Strangers (EP is strong).

Keep Your Eye On: Pilgrim, Lord Dying, Venomous Maximus, Bezoar, Emilie Autumn.