By Kendall Gibson
‘Close to the Glass’ – The Notwist

I like this album in a music sense, but I have qualms about the lyrics. Lyrics themselves are a form of art, much akin to poetry, but when lyrics are as bland and straightforward as the ones in “Seven Hour Drive,” they cease to be art. Indirect expression is much more powerful than direct expression, so for this case, “Seven Hour Drive” would be a more powerful song if the lyrics weren’t explicitly about the singer’s long distance relationship. Write it instead about two pupils, who routinely fake sick and meet daily in the infirmary. Or about two planets, whose orbits meet once every trillion years.

If You Like: The Flaming Lips, Foals, Cage the Elephant.

‘Brandt Brauer Frick’ – DJ-Kicks

This album is my nightmare. Listening to it transported me to a crowded room with thunderous speakers, tricksy lasers and pompous lights that can’t decide whether to be on or off. What I am talking about is a club, and what I am getting at is that this is club music. If you are into clubs and club music, then this album will interest you. It was made by competent artists. For me it does not. Listening to it over the weekend, I made it to about the fifth track, then got scared and called my mom.

If You Like: Seizures, MDMA, Fake IDs.

‘Music Speaks’ – Candice Glover

In RoboCop, a corporation takes man and fashions him into a machine. American Idol does something similar, except it takes man and fashions him into money. Candice Glover won season 12 of American Idol and after looking at her first audition on YouTube I am not surprised. She had an incredible voice. But she has been fed into a machine, a money machine, and will likely never crawl out. In her audition, her voice was sultry, soulful and lifting. On her album it sounds mechanical, weak and gutted. It sounds as if she has been stripped of all human emotions and reduced to a puppet. She has.

If You Like: Adele, Jennifer Hudson, Amy Winehouse.