7/21/09 – Nothing Rhymes With Woman

So I picked this album up because I’d heard good things about Carbon Leaf.  Sad to say, halfway through the first track I wanted to switch it off and listen to something else.  I gave it a chance, though, and nothing came close to saving this album for me.  Think of the most generic parts of southern rock, folk, and country, slap some hokey lyrics in there… and this is what you’d get.  Just… no.

2/10/09 – Changing Horses

So the last Ben Kweller album I’d heard in its entirety was “Sha Sha” – I’d heard nothing from “On My Way” or his self-titled release at all.  Without hearing those two albums as a buffer I didn’t get any sense of transition, and this album smacked me in the face – in a good way.  Ben pulls off this indie-country sound flawlessly, and the songs would fit in perfectly back in the days when country music didn’t suck.