3 Disappointing Albums of 2009

While 2009 has been a somewhat decent year as far as music is concerned, there have been a few prominent releases that truly disappointed me. I’m not saying these are “bad” albums by any means. It’s just that when I hear a new album from one of my favorite artists, there are a few things I expect. Now this may not be what you think I’m going to say, but I do not expect every band or artist that comes out with new music to stick with the same sound they’ve rehashed year after year. In fact, my number one rule for new music is as simple as this: “how has their product improved?” I am not suggesting that everyone should ditch their trademark sound and replace it with a complete reinvention, but new music should mark some kind of evolution. In my opinion, if you fail to change at all, you are not a true artist. The key is to retain what makes you unique while still adding something new. Anyway, here are my picks for three biggest disappointments this year…

3. Breaking Benjamin – Dear Agony

It hurts me to say it, but Breaking Ben really dropped the ball here. I understand that they want to become more mainstream and have some more big radio hits to establish themselves, but this sounds like a watered-down, less creative version of the band to me. On their first album, Saturate, Breaking Benjamin came out blazing with real heavy rock that was still catchy and perfect to sing along to. They followed suite with their sophomore effort We Are Not Alone, complicating their arrangements a bit while still retaining heaviness and sing-along choruses. Phobia, their third album, was a misstep in my view, but it was still listenable. The songs were a little less dynamic, and they all sounded quite similar. With Dear Agony, Breaking Ben unfortunately continues their downslide into mediocrity with a radio-friendly album full of simple ballads and containing little of what made the band popular in the first place: scathing, straight-up catchy rock.

2. Busta Rhymes – Back on My B.S.

I don’t really need to say too much about this one. For every track where Busta harkens back to his old, fast-spitting self there is another full of fluff and nonsense. I mean, come on… the chorus to “Sugar?” Let me enlighten you guys to the masterful lyrics of this song. And no, this is not a joke:

“I wanna taste your body / I wanna taste your face
I wanna taste your breast / taste below your waist

Right here’s the perfect place / for me to kiss and fuck you”

I rest my case.

1. Weezer – Raditude

I like Weezer and much as the next guy or gal – in fact, I’m a huge Weezer fan. Their first record is one of my top ten albums of all time, and Pinkerton is not far behind. I was also a huge fan of The Green Album, Maladroit and last year’s Red Album (the only stinker on the latter was the tune written for Brian Bell’s other band). Unfortunately, this release falls more in line with the mediocre Make Believe than anything else. 2005’s Make Believe wasn’t terrible, but in my opinion featured some less-than-stellar songwriting in some cases. I feel similarly about Raditude, although this time around I have more of a gripe with the lyrics than anything else. The music has taken a turn for pure pop, which is fine… but it seems that nearly all of Rivers Cuomo’s eccentricity has been lost to the wind. He is writing as if he is a teenager still in high school, which is similar to what he did on the Red Album - though instead of making you think about the content of the song, here he just sounds bland. I do, however, dig the collaboration with Lil’ Wayne (“Can’t Stop Partying”) as well as a couple of others. I hope Weezer takes some more time with their next album and return to true form.

[by Greg Michaels]

Review - Halo 3: ODST

Platform: Xbox 360
MSRP: $59.99 - Release Date: September 22^nd, 2009

Before I begin my review, I’d like to introduce myself since I’m new to the blog. My name is Greg and I’ve been friends with the blog’s creator since we were just wee little tykes. When he told me that he was starting a review site I was all for the idea. Our goal with this site is to provide reviews for all different kinds of media, and hopefully provide you (the readers) with useful information as well as entertaining commentary. That being said, I’m going to start things off with a review of Halo 3: ODST for the Xbox 360.

First thing’s first: I’ll be talking mainly about the game’s first disc, the campaign. I have a nerd-tastic amount of experience playing the original Halo 3’s multiplayer, which is basically the same exact thing as ODST’s second disc. There’s not much new in the multiplayer… in fact, it’s really just Halo 3 with all of the downloadable maps. I’m not sure if the two new weapons from the campaign made it into multiplayer, but even if they did they’re pretty useless and boring. But more on that later.

Halo 3: ODST offers a relatively fresh perspective of the Halo universe. Instead of playing as Master Chief, a “Spartan,” you play as multiple humans who are members of an elite task force (“ODST’s,” or “Orbital Drop Shock Troopers”). You switch between these humans as you progress through the main storyline, although you always come back to the main character (a mute ODST simply known as the Rookie). This change is interesting, as it tried to develop a side story that really has nothing to do with Master Chief. The plot intrigued me, but I wasn’t so into it that I couldn’t wait to see what happens next.

Which brings me to the “hub.” Whenever you take control of the Rookie in campaign mode, for most of the game it’s a “hub” level. What I mean by that is after every legitimate stage where you’re controlling one of the ODST’s, you switch back to the Rookie who is in the same part of the narrative’s city (New Mombasa) for most of the game. The Rookie’s job is to snoop around until he finds a clue, which will lead you to the game’s next level as one of the other ODST’s. This ends up becoming quite tedious, especially since there’s not too many enemies and really you’re just traipsing around a dark, endless city. It is extremely distracting and jolts you out of the main game’s storyline. If I could have skipped the hub every time, I would have.

There’s not much new in terms of the actual gameplay. There are two new weapons, one of which is a useless, weak submachine gun, and the other being a useless, weak pistol. I don’t understand why they even bothered, really… I don’t think I used either of those guns once aside from the opening sequences. The other major gameplay tweak here is that double wielding is no more. That’s right, kids: Bungie opted to get rid of the mechanic that allows you to brandish two small weapons at once. I wasn’t as bothered by this as I thought I was going to be. In fact, it makes it feel a little bit more like classic Halo. That being said, this is really just an expansion pack for Halo 3: there’s no new enemies, abilities, etc. It’s the same old Grunts and Brutes you’re fighting as you progress through the game… and that never changes.

All in all, I enjoyed playing ODST for a while. But it didn’t really offer me anything new, and it felt like I was playing a dumbed-down version of Halo 3. The graphics are a little bit more polished than its predecessor, but nothing really stands out all that much. It looks pretty, but not as pretty as several of today’s games. The price is way too high, and I definitely regret spending 60 smackers for this “expansion pack.” It should be 25-30 at the most. The multiplayer is excellent, but you can just use the original Halo 3 and buy all the maps if you really wanted to. My advice would be to rent it for the campaign and save the money.

This game gets a 6.9

[by Greg Michaels]