10 CD Thursday: It's almost Friday edition

Let's get to it ...

Noe Venable "The Summer Storm Journals"

Noe's voice is ethereal and gorgeous as she weaves delicate melodies over spare instrumentation. It kind of feels like the music you might hear while lost in an enchanted forest, or something.

Black Horse "The Black Arts of the Black Horse"

Fuzzed-out old-school rock and roll with a sneer and a swagger. The lead singer recalls an early Courtney Love. The effort is competent, but nothing special.

Born Ruffians "Red, Yellow & Blue"

Jaunty little ditties that experiment with changing time signatures enough to keep you off balance, but not so much that they throw you off entirely. Energetic and fun with enough complexity to keep you actively listening.

They kind of remind me of Vampire Weekend a little.

Danava "Unonou"

If someone played this for me and said it was some cock-rock band from the mid-'70s, I would have no reason to doubt them. Complete with indulgent guitar solos and tracks that extend past the 10-minute mark, this album sounds like the '80s and on never happened. Why doesn't anyone make new music that sounds new anymore?

more after the jump...Massimo Biolcati "Persona"

Instrumental jazz time! "Science teachers and the mentally ill, that's all jazz is for."

The Silver State "Cut and Run"

Ummmmm ... I've had this playing for about 20 minutes, and I'm just not really connecting with it. Or it's not connecting with me, I guess. It's pleasant, though. I like "My Neighbor's Basement."

The Heavy Circles s/t

Based on the name and the packaging, I'm guessing I'm in for another retrostravaganza. And I'm right, but not in the way that I expected. This has a much more sexy-cool easy rocking feel to it than our prior entries today. This doesn't mean I like it any better.

Gary Louris "Vagabonds"

I'm a medium Jayhawks fan, but Louris' solo album just isn't doing it for me.

Brian Blade Fellowship "Seasons of Changes"

Unbelievably chill, smooth jazz. Very soothing during the stressful part of my day.

Mussels "Little Voices"

Seriously, not four hours ago, I was wishing there was more music like Built to Spill out there. And these guys are! I like. Yeah, yeah, I was just complaining about music being too derivative earlier in this very post, but I guess it all depends on what you're deriving from. Ha! No, what I mean to say is that these guys make it their own enough to be interesting. And if no song is more than 3 minutes long, you can't go wrong. Their whole album is on their MySpace.

So three out of 10, not bad. Not good either.

eh.www.amNY.com

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Delicious
• Digg
• Stumble Upon