Artist: Camera Obscura. Album: My Maudlin Career.
Artist: Estelle. Album: Shine.
Artist: David Kilgour. Album: A Feather in the Engine.
The latest reframing of the ad-lib Terminator mythos brings both schlock and awe to the franchise, with Sam Worthington's young-dumb-and-full-of-come cyborg making up for Christian Bale's nuked-over messiah. Director McG's workmanlike craftsmanship references better, more austere science-fiction when it isn't laboring under a summer blockbuster-mandated Bed Bath & Beyond Thunderdome yolk. This installment doesn't so much move the story forward as it doesn't set it back (in time or otherwise). Grade: B
Artist: The Handcuffs. Album: Electroluv.
Artist: Michael Giacchino. Album: Star Trek (Music from the Motion Picture).
A rollicking, resounding franchise resuscitation—busy with charismatic casting, youthful exuberance, shiny production design and general space-sexiness. The likable leads turn in surprisingly subtle performances, restoring primal emotion to the Prime Directive. My main beef, almost grief, with the architects of the new beginning is this: As fearless as their reinvention of the Star Trek universe is, the genocidal violence they inflict to do so is also, at its molten core, pretty heartless. Grade: B+
Artist: Say Hi. Album: Oohs & Aahs.
Artist: The Boxer Rebellion. Album: Union.
Artist: Eagles of Death Metal. Album: Peace Love Death Metal.
Artist: White Lies. Album: To Lose My Life.
Legends of the Fall meets Airwolf … meets Thunder From Down Under. Grade: D
Artist: Club 8. Album: Spring Came, Rain Fell.
Artist: M. Ward. Album: Hold Time.
Artist: Ladytron. Album: Velocifero.
Artist: Handsome Furs. Album: Face Control.
Artist: The Kills. Album: Midnight Boom.