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Celebratory tax-time music roundup

Alright so I might have missed the first quarter mark of 2008 by a smidgen which is why we'll call this a celebratory tax-time music roundup. It's been a good year for music so far and in the interest of keeping track of all my current faves which I will of course have forgotten when it comes time my year-end music roundup let's keep the music truck moving right along. There's all kinds of goodness to behold.

MOST PLAYED & MOST DESIRED IN A LIVE MANNER: Black Keys, 'Attack & Release.' I have no recollection of how this album ended up in my collection. No, really. One day at work I sort've woke up and realized I'd been listening to this AMAZING album on my iPod. REPEATEDLY. It's DJ Danger Mouse produced and you wouldn't even know it unless you knew it (which you now do). This is the one album I'd regret missing if I had somehow missed it. A solid 4 Sopheava Superstars.

THE SURPRISE: Tapes 'n Tapes, 'Walk It Off.' Dude. In my entire history of album buying, Tapes 'n Tapes' first album 'The Loon' is the ONE album I kinda sorta wish I could take back to the store and never have back (I'm sorry Tapes 'n Tapes!!). Eventhough I paid for it, they could still have it back, that's how much I didn't like it. But it turns out their second album doesn't sound anything like their first album (at least to my non-critic, amateur music ears) and I can totally dig it. Maybe it's just that now I put Erik Appelwick's face to the band or something. Either way it's pretty darn good. Me like.

SEXIEST, SULTRIEST CHANTEUSSE & MY FAVORITE LIVE PERFORMER: Karen Paurus, 'Passion, Prayer & Poison.' The woman has pipes and she's not afraid to use them. While her album is the sexy (visually too, clearly :) it really is nothing compared to hearing her live. Gah. Damn. She'll give it to you hot. She'll give it to you sexy. She'll give it to you however you like. The point is you should let her give it to you in every way imaginable and all night long some time. *meow* [The album is available on iTunes and she performs regularly all over the TC, but also catch her with Lili's Burlesque.]

BEST TOKEN POP ALBUM: Robyn, 'Robyn.' She's Swedish. She knows "how to organize." And she waved a big FU at the record companies who didn't like her new sound and put out the album herself. Konichiwa bitches, indeed. The shortie EP is way fun and has had me dancing around, dizzly, many evenings this month. Super duper fun.

ALT & EMO: Bon Iver, 'For Emma Forever Ago.' What I loved about seeing him at the Turf Club in January is that he, like, had no idea how popular he is. He's just this dude from Wisconsin who recorded an album ... and then people started hearing it on the internet ... and then hipster alarms all over the country went off and he became a super mega alt sensation. Deservedly so. This album won't leave my iPod for, probably, years.

LOCALS: Cloud Cult, 'Feel Good Ghosts' & Atmosphere, 'When Life Gives You Lemons.' I couldn't pick just one album, sue me. They're equally hot but in very different ways that don't at all make it fair for me to put them in the same scale of hottness. Cloud Cult's album dropped and I was all, meh. But I kept it on the iPod and would occasionally stumble across a song here or there. And the more I heard it the more I liked it. And now it's a month later and I really, really, really, really like it. It grows on you. It's solid. And everyone in the band is so gosh darn likeable you won't be able to help yourself either. (They also put on one of my favorite concerts of last year and are a fun show to watch -- live painting 'n all!) Atmosphere comes out tomorrow and what I've heard of it sounds lightyears beyond their previous albums (none of which I could actually bring myself to purchase, btw). But I have purchased this one and hot dizzam it's sizzling. Try not to groove out to this thing. Dare ya.

DRIVING AROUND MUSIC: Gnarls Barkley, 'The Odd Couple.' Gnarls Barkley is having a darn good year. Ok fine he/they're having a darn good LIFE. Here I find myself gushing about DJ Danger Mouse again, half of the Gnarls combo, because goshdangit he deserves it. The album is raw and honest but that's a lot of its charm. This album could also double for the title of BEST WORKOUT ALBUM too. Crazy, happy beats.

HIPSTER ALBUM: Portishead, 'Third.' Yeah, like you didn't see this one coming. Of course Portishead is on the list and of course everyone loves them. I find that when I meet people for the first time and we're not sure what to talk about Portishead is one of those bands that everyone can go, "OMG I love them! I remember this one time when ..." and off you go. Supersolid band. Supersolid album.

CONCERT I'M MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO / BEST MORNING CD / PUTS ME IN THE BEST MOOD: Andrew Bird. I wish Andrew Bird were in my bedroom every morning to wake me up (lord, I mean that in the most non-sexual way possible ... I think). Whenever I listen to his music I sort of picture him under happy trees all blissed out with a whole crowd of little woodland creatures running up and making him an attentive audience just like in Bambi. His cheeriness is infectious and honest. Which is why I listen to him A LOT in the mornings. I mean, like, a lot. You should too.

ALBUM I ALREADY FORGOT ABOUT: Mariah Carey, 'E=MC².' Not hatin', just sayin'. I don't love it or hate it it's just that it's so ... meh. A couple songs are okay and when she comes on my iPod I don't bother switching her off. But I also never think of switching her on either.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT: Madonna, 'Hard Candy' & Moby, 'Last Night.' Let me just start by saying I loooooove Madonna. This album though ... Madonna you're killing me here. Lyrics? Weird. Beats? The same. Video? Meh. And is it just me or does it feel like she wasn't even present during the songwriting and recording of this one? I will always love The Madonna but this album makes me the sad clown inside. As for Moby (let me qualify this next statement by saying I'm not a music critic, I don't have a trained ear or whatever distinguished thing it is that makes music critics music critics, I'm just a chick with a credit card and an iPod) but the album? It sounds kinda, dare I say, amateur? Like he used one of those old 30-something key keyboards and recorded this in his room while his parents watched tv downstairs (yeowch, I didn't mean for that to be so harsh). A couple songs are nice enough that I've listened to them over and over, but for the most part I'm surprised by his work as a whole. AWKWARD!!!

ALBUM I WISH I COULD RETURN: Janet Jackson, 'Discipline.' I have very little to say about this album. Overprocessed. Overhyped. Over a lot of things and I was already over it 10 minutes after listening to it. My deepest apologies Janet but you sound like a robot. And not in the good way :(.

ALBUM I'M MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO: Santogold, 'Santogold.' I first read about Santogold sometime last year when music critics everywhere were calling her the new M.I.A. Which fully explains why it took me so long to actually listen to her since I was all, "Oh no you di''nt with the M.I.A.!" But they did, and then I did, and it turns out she's got all the goods. Her album comes out in only a week or two and if it's anything like the single 'Creator' (already on iTunes for those of you looking to take on a new Luvah) it'll be a healthy dose of kickass. Check her out fo sho.

ANOTHER OTHER ALBUM I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO BUT WILL ONLY SHARE WITH MY GIRLFRIENDS: Ashlee Simpson, 'Bittersweet World.' If I could have written that title in code so only the ladies in the house could read it I would have. My ladies will all secretly love this album in the privacy of our cars and iPods -- sharing and copying it for each other -- while boyfriends and significant others will continue to live in a state of quiet, blissful denial that their women would never indulge in that other Simpson's music. But we totally will, EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US.

I know there's about a gazillion albums missing from this list which is why you guys gotta represent and show me some love in the comments. Or hatin', whatevs. Either way I'm dying to know what you guys are investing in and what I might have missed.

*mwah*