Goblin does something barely any albums, if any album at all, have done before. It does not give a shit about hype or your expectations. Not the slightest shit, like a piece of rabbit shit. Why is this a good thing? Because it surpasses the hype so greatly that it makes you forget there was hype in the first place. This isn’t rap, this is something far greater. Tyler isn’t trying to make something that will stand out as one of the greatest rap albums of all time, but he seems to have stumbled upon just that. So, enough build up… hey Kanye! Kanye! Imma let you finish, but Tyler, The Creator has one of the greatest rap albums of ALL TIME! ALL TIME!

Being serious, Goblin is the best rap album of the best ten years and easily one of the best rap albums of all time. Fuck it, it’s easily one of the greatest albums of all time, period. There is nothing, not a single thing, out there that is anything like this. It is unique enough to make even the most hardcore hipster cream themselves. Barely does an album give you chills, laugh your ass off, and scare the shit out of you all within an hour and a half, and if you asked me if a rap album could do that, I would have asked you if a pig can shit out wings, attach them, and fly. Well, I think some swine just flu (BAHDUMTISH) because that’s exactly what Goblin does. When “Golden”, the final track of the album, ended, I found myself unable to listen to any other music for at least half an hour and could barely speak, as I had chills, goosebumps, and was completely speechless.

While other rap albums just give a friendly “Hello!” or a middle finger from far away, Goblin gets in your face and screams until it’s covered in more saliva than bacteria. Most people say they don’t give a fuck, but then whine about everything everyone says about them. While he does use his music as therapy, Tyler, The Creator makes you believe that he doesn’t even know what a fuck is enough to not give one. He made the beats, the videos, the artwork, and the lyrics in his own way and his own way is pretty damn amazing.

Anyway, let’s rap this up (BAHDUMTISH). Goblin is not for the faint of heart. It hasn’t lost the edge Bastard had, it actually up’s the ante and makes you realize that, even if you wanted to, you can’t do shit to stop it. Rape, murder, drug use, alcohol abuse, suicide, insanity, confusion… the list goes on. But this isn’t just for the fuck of it, and it’s not just shock value to boost record sales. Tyler, The Creator has created (BAHDUMTISH) a line-up of characters that represent the dark and light sides of us all and dives into them headfirst, unintentionally almost becoming the spoke person for the human mentality. He brings the best parts of life out to the spotlight, but also drags the darkest, most ignored and conventionally rejected things into the same light, both with the same lack of care for other’s perception or reaction. But if you can weather the journey, you’ll find an experience that you will never, ever forget.

Long story short: Goblin is one of the greatest rap albums ever released. You must own it.

Goblin gets a 5 out of 5.

Starting off with a monologue from Nicki Minaj, in which she explains how twisted the “scene” is, the first thing we hear musically is piano, strings, and a choir. Before you know it, the beat kicks in and right away you are tapping your foot. Kanye West was always able to make some pretty sweet beats but this album, musically, blows almost every single other rap album ever made out of the water. From the “kick back and relax” beat of “Dark Fantasy”, to the tribal-march mixed with King Diamond backing of “POWER”, to the jungle punch of “Monster”, to the Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth sampled sobfest of “Runaway”, and, what may be the most surprising of all, to the Aphex Twin (yes, that Aphex Twin) sampled ballad “Blame Game”, the music on this album shines almost as bright as West’s ego. Kanye obviously is trying to bring sampling back into rap and he did it perfectly. I mean, when you can make Aphex Twin work in a rap song, that HAS to say something about your musical ability.

Now, lyrically, this isn’t the most intelligent rap album of all time, as expected, but West is jarringly personal with his lyrics, revealing himself as human just as much as he says his presence is a present and you should kiss his ass. He is equal parts hilarious purposely, hilarious accidentally, shockingly open, and intelligent when he is rapping and it seems like he went over all his lines with a fine tooth comb over and over, just to make sure it was the best it could be. When the guest stars come in, they either completely surprise (like Nicki Minaj’s 32-bar, killer verse on “Monster”) or become completely counterproductive to the song/just approach the message wrong (like Pusha T in “Runaway”, who opens his verse on this heart-felt track with “24/7, 365, pussy stays on my mind.”), which ends up sweetening the album and, at the same time, almost completely making fun of the current state of it’s own mainstream by having the guests be so ignorantly oblivious of the human nature of the album. It almost seems like it was done on purpose, just to make Kanye seem so much better. Either way, it oddly works.

Out of everything this year, which mostly sucked ass, I never expected one of the biggest d-bags in music today to make something that I found myself going back to over and over again. Yet, I keep returning to Mr. West’s beautiful, dark, and twisted fantasy, because he has painted it so amazingly on this album that it has to be one of the most vivid rap albums of all time. Now, don’t get me wrong here, this is nowhere near the greatest rap album of all time, but with this album, Kanye is sending out two messages: The fact that everyone has a new standard to meet and that even when he takes a complete detour, Mr. West can amazingly come right back and feel like he never left. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is by no means a masterpiece, but it’s the closest thing that mainstream rap has had to one.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy gets a 4 out of 5.

Let me start off by answering the question everyone is asking: This blows Minutes To Midnight out of the fucking water. Linkin Park HAS finally proved they are a band instead of just a snapshot of the music industry in the early 2000′s. But, this isn’t enough to erase the snapshot altogether, it’s just able to have the word “band” scribbled under the polaroid. While it still has traces of Minutes To Midnight on it, it isn’t a steaming pile of alt-rock. To tell you the truth, it isn’t a pile of anything specific. It’s a giant mix of everything and is kinda confusing to be completely honest.

Don’t get me wrong, this album isn’t shit. This isn’t Kesha (I refuse to use the dollar sign) or Justin Bieber, but this isn’t The Fragile. It feels more like an experiment than an album. A test more than a final product. And you can tell that’s what they were going for. It was meant to be an experience. That’s why, if you got the special edition of it on iTunes, there’s a track called “A Thousand Suns: The Full Experience”. It’s not meant to be easy to swallow and, while that usually works, it actually ends up being quite hard to get used to it being in your throat. You don’t get it at first and it requires multiple listens to fully appreciate it, but it does grow on you.

We were introduced to the new sound with “The Catalyst”, which is the album’s 6 minute, half-electro, half-stadium rock single, and it didn’t seem abnormally drastic from their normal stuff. Sure, it was different, but it wasn’t completely left field. (It was a couple degrees short.) Then we got treated to “Wretches And Kings” and shit started to get very head-scratch worthy. Then we got “Waiting For The End”, which added to the scratching. Then we got the album. We’ve been scratching our heads so much that we’re starting to get skin under our fingernails and the album just made us scratch so much that we started to draw blood.

It’s not accessible. At all. That’s not a bad thing, but when you are band that’s as massive as Linkin Park, that could back you into a corner. Back in the day, they were pushing it by having an instrumental track on their record. Today, they are pushing it by having three minutes of filler tracks before the first real song. (There is a total of six filler tracks on this record.) And while “Burning In The Sky” is an easily-accessible yet still experimental track (and sounds like it would be a really heavy track), the training wheels are taken off right away with “When They Come For Me”. It’s titled like a ballad, it’s actually a track with an intensely-layered tribal beat and immensely distorted synths. We get the rare treat of Mike rapping a lot more on this record, but the rapping here feels more like Fort Minor than Linkin Park, which is understandable but out of place.

But this album does get the award for Best Song Title with “Robot Boy”. If you couldn’t tell already, this album likes to have misleading titles. “Robot Boy” sounds like it would be a very industrial or electronic song, but it’s a ballad with piano and strings. It’s actually one of the most uplifting songs Linkin Park has ever made.

Throughout the rest of the album, we get everything from layered ballads to “WTF?!” worthy combinations. A perfect example of the latter being “Blackout”, which has Chester screaming extremely intensely but is made up of a simplistic drum machine beat and very melodic piano. It’s the songs like this that really show the attempt and want to make something different and unexpected, but those songs never seem to be able to pull of the magic trick they are trying to.

A Thousand Suns is a great successor to the ultimately disappointing Minutes To Midnight and actually ends up surpassing it greatly. While it’s not hard proof that Linkin Park is a force to be reckoned with in any genre other than nu-metal, it is enough to make you turn your head and realize that they aren’t chained to the early 2000′s.  This is the right move for Linkin Park and they seem to be getting a grip on what they should do with the band’s direction. With that said though, A Thousand Suns seems to be more of a way to prove to themselves that they can do something other than nu-metal well than an actual attempt to do it. We’re not reaping the fruits of their success of becoming something more than a snapshot, we’re just observing their journey to that point. And that’s not really a bad thing.

A Thousand Suns by Linkin Park gets a 4 out of 5.

Our system is very simple. 5 ratings with 5 different meanings. No decimals. No 0′s or 6′s. Simple and easy. Here’s how it works:

1 – A 1 rating means something is horrible to the fullest extent of horrible. You need to avoid this at all costs. Now, sometimes 1′s are rewarded in a general sense or in a context of the review. (That’s the only confusing part.) Examples of some 1 worthy things are: Anything by Justin Bieber. Justin Bieber himself. Custer’s Revenger and E.T. You know, shit like that.

2 – A 2 rating means something is barely standable to somewhat standable. If you are into the kind of thing that whatever is rated this is, it’s worth at least a glance at your local store. Examples of some 2 worthy things are: Liberation Transmission by Lostprophets. Anything by Coldplay (in my opinion). Anything by Disturbed.

3 – A 3 rating means something is average. It’s not great, but it’s not horrible. It’s right there in the middle. Worth at least a test or rent or whatever at the local “test or rent or whatever” store. Examples of some 3 worthy things are: Any Austin Powers movie other than the first one. Wayne’s World 2. Minutes To Midnight by Linkin Park.

4 – A 4 rating means something that is actually quite good to pretty damn good. You really should have a healthy wanting to check this out. Examples of some 4 worthy things are: I Am Legend. Invaders Must Die by The Prodigy.

5 – A 5 rating is something that I personally give rarely. (Well, when we first stared, I gave them out quite easily, but now I’m better that that.) A 5 is only for something that ranges from super great to master-fucking-piece. If you don’t own this, you should be pimp-slapped into a china cabinet. Examples of some 5 worthy things are: Led Zeppelin. ‘Nuff said. Them Crooked Vultures by Them Crooked Vultures. The Fragile by Nine Inch Nails. Red Dead Redemption. Black Dynamite.

See, it’s really not that hard! Now that you understand our rating system, you can truly enjoy Pwnagepickle.com to the fullest extent. Now, go get caught in an amazer beam.

Cortini released 4 songs from his upcoming, self-titled album on his website for free, plus a bunch of pre-order packages. They are as little as the $8 digital album and pre-order exclusive demo/outtake EP, to the mega $200 “Geek Bundle”, including a homemade synthesizer made so you can mess around with the Sonoio sounds, a limited art print of the album cover signed by Cortini, a CD signed and numbered by Cortini, the digital album, the pre-order exclusive EP, and a pre-order exclusive t-shirt. Between those two, you have 7 different packages with different combinations of all of the offerings. If you don’t think that is choices, you need to read a dictionary.

But, of course, the main point of all this is the music. Even more so, is it worth spending $200 on? The answer to that is simple: yes. Just yes.

The four tracks released by Cortini on the website for free, “Just Me”, “Suck Up Everything”, “Not Worth Remembering” and “Silence”, are nothing short of addictive. All the songs on the album are made using only one synthesizer, Cortini’s voice, and some very few and scattered extras, so they all feel connected by sound. Some of the songs feel like electro-pop music you may hear on the radio in Europe, while others are ambient tracks with calm build-ups. All the songs are full of melody and get stuck in your head abnormally fast. You’ll be finding yourself snapping and singing along to the song randomly many hours after hearing the songs because they are just that catchy. Not catchy in a bad way though, like pop-radio. It’s catchy because it’s written well and it has that feel of accessibility without being something you’ve heard a hundred times before.

Plus, Mr. Cortini is an extremely nice guy, and I don’t know about you, but when a talented musician is nice, it makes me want to buy his music even more.

There isn’t much to report on this project as the album hasn’t even come out yet, but I am recommending this to anyone. At least download the 4 songs on his website for free, because you’ll be happy you did.

It all starts when Dave Lizewiski, an average, comic-loving teen, wonders why no one has ever tried to be a superhero. Even after being told that it’s a stupid idea by his pals, he buys a scuba suit and adopts the superhero name of “Kick-Ass”. He meets his first challenge when he runs into a pair of thugs (who usually mug him and his friend) trying to steal a car. After running into an alley to get changed into his superhero gear, he comes back out to stop them, only to get beaten, stabbed, and hit by a car. He begs the paramedics who bring him to the hospital not to talk about the costume and he pretends he was brought in naked, which sparks a rumor in Dave’s school that he’s gay. This in turn opens a door for him to become best friends with his long-time crush, Katie Deauxma, and he takes this chance, having to act like he’s homosexual every time he’s around her. But, he still tries to be a superhero, and after a video of him appears on Youtube of him saving a guy’s life, he becomes internationally known… but gets involved in something bigger than he expected. (DUN-DUN-DUN!)

Now, I’ll just say this now, hardcore fans of the comic will be partially disappointed. It’s a comedy (which the comic was not), the character of Katie is a lot nicer (she’s an asshole in comic), and the twist of the comics is a lot less of a twist in the movie, it’s pretty much given to you on a silver platter. But, that’s not to say you won’t enjoy it.

If you didn’t read the comics, you will either completely love or utterly hate this movie. It’s full of over-the-top violence, endless profanity (a lot coming from the 11-year-old Hit-Girl, who controversially states “Okay you cunts, let’s see what you can do now”, among other things.) , and a lot more intensity than you would expect from a normal superhero movie. If you are going into this thinking you will be watching a Spider-Man-esque movie, you are going in with the wrong mindset.

This is not a movie you can enjoy with a normal mind. *SPOILER* When you have an 11-year almost get beat to death by the bad guy from Sherlock Holmes, it’s not an everyday movie. *SPOILER DONE* But anyone who says that it’s wrong or says that this movie is “politically incorrect” and says it’s a bad movie because of that, they can go fuck themselves. This movie isn’t meant to be easy to swallow. There is very brutal murdering, intense torture scenes, and, as stated before, an 11-year-old swearing almost every other word. Anyone who says that it’s bad for being too inappropriate is missing the point.  It IS rated R.

To wrap this all up, Kick-Ass is one of the funniest, action-packed, intense movies I have seen in a while. Sadly, I didn’t read much of the comic, so I wouldn’t know personally how it compares, but as a stand-alone movie, it’s going to be sticking in my mind for one of the most enjoyable movies of 2010. Chloë Grace Moretz, who plays Hit-Girl, inadvertently steals the whole movie and, believe it or not, Nicholas Cage actually does a good job! Plus, the The Prodigy heavy soundtrack really tickled my music-lover fancy.

Kick-Ass gets a 5 out of 5.

Okay… so… here it is. The ultimate (not to brag) version of “The Fragile”. With all of the b-sides, a remix (or two), the cassette only tracks and the vinyl only tracks. All with new fade-in’s and fade-out’s for a complete and flowing experience.

Part I:

1: How It All Begins (The New Flesh Remix)
2: Somewhat Damaged
3: The Day The World Went Away
4: The Frail
5: The Wretched
6: We’re In This Together
7: The Fragile
8: Just Like You Imagined
9: The Persistence Of Loss
10: Even Deeper
11: Pilgrimage
12: No, You Don’t
13: La Mer
14: The Great Below
15: The Way Out Is Through
16: Into The Void
17: Where Is Everybody?

Part II:

1: And All That Could Have Been
2: The Mark Has Been Made
3: 10 Miles High
4: Slipping Away
5: The Great Collapse
6: Please
7: Appendage
8: Adrift And At Peace
9: Starfuckers, Inc.
10: Complication
11: The New Flesh
12: I’m Looking Foward To Joining You, Finally
13: The Big Come Down
14: Underneath It All
15: Gone, Still
16: Ripe (With Decay)
17: Leaving Hope

Part III – The Remixes:

1: Complications Of The Flesh
2: Where Is Everybody? (Danny Lohner Featuring Telefon Tel Aviv)
3: Starfuckers Inc. (Charlie Clouser)
4: La Mer (Jerome Dillion and Keith Hillebrandt)
5: Even Deeper (Telefon Tel Aviv)
6: The Becoming (Still)
7: Starfuckers, Inc. (Adrian Sherwood)
8: The Day The World Went Away (Still)
9: 10 Miles High (Keith Hillebrandt) + Untitled Appendage
10: Deep (Single Version)
11: The Wretched (Keith Hillebrandt)
12: The Fragile (Keith Hillebrandt)
13: No, You Don’t (Keith Hillebrandt)
14: The Day The World Went Away (Porter Ricks)
15: The Day The World Went Away (Trent Reznor)
16: The Frail (Benelli)

Part IV – Live:

1: The New Flesh + Pinion (Live From The Fragility Tour)
2: The Way Out Is Through (Live From The Fragility Tour)
3: Even Deeper (Live From The Fragility Tour)
4: Just Like You Imagined (Live At Fragility Tour Rehersals)
5: The Day The World Went Away (Live From The Fragility Tour)
6: Please (Live From The Fragility Tour)
7: Deep (Live At With Teeth Tour Rehearsals)
8: The Big Come Down (Live From The With Teeth Tour)
9: Somewhat Damaged (Live From The Fragility Tour)
10: No, You Don’t (Live From The Fragility Tour)
11: Into The Void (Live From The Fragility Tour)
12: The Day The World Went Away (Live At With Teeth Tour Rehersals)
13: The Frail (Live At With Teeth Tour Rehersals)
14: The Wretched (Live At With Teeth Tour Rehersals)
15: The Day The World Went Away (Live From The Chicago Recording Company Sessions)
16: The Big Come Down (Live From The Chicago Recording Company Sessions)
17: The Fragile (Live From The Chicago Recording Company Sessions)

Part V – The Ones Left Behind:

1: Something I Can Never Have (Still)
2: We’re In This Together (Radio Edit)
3: Metal
4: The Great Collapse/The Frail (Benelli)/Slipping Away/The Wretched (Keith Hillebrandt)(Things Falling Apart Trailer Mash Up)
5: The New Flesh (Deconstructed Mix)
6: The Frail + The Wretched (Extended Vinyl Mix)
7: La Mer (Extended Vinyl Mix)
8: Even Deeper (Extended Vinyl Mix)
9: The Day The World Went Away (Extended Vinyl Mix)
10: I’m Looking Forward to Joining You, Finally (Barely Extended Vinyl Mix)
11: Ripe (Alternate Non-CD Mix)
12: The Mark Has Been Made (Alternate Vinyl Mix)
13: The Day The World Went Away/We’re In This Together/Starfuckers, Inc. (German Album Promo Mash-Up)
14: The Day The World Went Away (Alternate Single Version)
15: Even Deeper (Live From The Chicago Recording Company Sessions)
16: Starfuckers, Inc. (Extended Single Version)
17: The Fragile (Still)

Videos:

Behind The Scenes:

The Live Video “And All That Could Have Been”
The Rare “And All That Could Have Been” TV Special
The Entire “Into The Void” Music Video “Red Room Take”
Behind The Scenes Of The “Starfuckers, Inc.” Music Video
Unused Band Shots From The “Starfuckers, Inc.” Music Video
A Short Behind The Scenes Video From The “We’re In This Together” Music Video

Bonus Videos:

The “And All That Could Have Been” Teaser Trailer
A Full Press Conference With Trent Reznor Explaining “The Fragile” And The “Fragility Tour”
The “The Fragile” TV Ad

Live Videos:

“Gone, Still” Preformed Live From Trent Reznor’s House
“Just Like You Imagined” Preformed Live From The “Fragility Tour” Rehearsals
“No, You Don’t” Preformed Live From Big Day Out 2000
“Somewhat Damaged” Preformed Live From The “Fragility Tour”
“The Fragile” Preformed Live At The MTV Awards 1999
“The Way Out Is Through” Preformed Live From The “Fragility Tour”
“We’re In This Together” + “The Frail” Preformed Live At A Secret Location

Music Videos:

The Original “Into The Void” Music Video
The Alternate Walter Stern Edit Of The “Into The Void” Music Video
The “Starsuckers, Inc.” Music Video
The Rare And Un-Released “The Day The World Went Away” Music Video
The Full 8 Minute Alternate Cut Of The “We’re In This Together” Music Video

The new OS scraps all the crap from previous OS’s, and old Windows Mobile apps are not compatible with WP7S.  They started from a blank slate, every thing is brand NEW. With a sexy and completely redesigned interface, it comes with Zune and X-Box LIVE integration, and cloud based Office 2010. It resembles the Zune HD interface, but that’s better than *gasp* Windows Mobile 6.5.

Microsoft also has everything locked down, in a good way. Before, Microsoft gave phone makers a software kit, and the phone makers did whatever. Now, Microsoft is dictating everything. They’re going to be picky on who makes WP7S phones, and all phones must have a capacitive screen, a “Bing” button, a FM radio, etc. This promises robust and competitive phones. All skins for OS’s, such as HTC SENSE, are banned, and the phone makers really only decide the shape and the optional keyboard.

Carrier partnerships are far and wide, including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange, SFR, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telstra, T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone, while hardware partners include Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC, HP, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Qualcomm. We’re told that we likely won’t get to see any third-party devices at MWC, though Microsoft is showing off dev units of unknown origin.

For more info check out this links:

Gizmodo

Engadget

This is not their worst album. At all. Liberation Transmission was their worst (and it was still better than most music out right now). But, this is not their best. At all. The album starts with a shortish intro song that has marching band-like snare rides and choruses with actual choruses singing. It gears you up for something epic… but it just doesn’t happen. After the first 3 songs (which are pretty decent, a lot different from the Liberation tracks and more like the original albums, but sound like imitations other than just sounding like them), we get treated to “Where We Belong”. It’s just a nosedive after that. “Next Stop Atro City” is a pretty hard rock track that isn’t too poppy, but after that, it’s just Liberation Transmission all over again. The ending track is similar to “Sway” from Start Something, as they both end the album with an extended instrumental, except this one’s is a hidden track that is stretched out way longer than it should be. (P.S. I reviewed the Korean edition, which has about 3 extra tracks in the middle of the album and this hidden track. All other versions do not have a hidden track.)

When I first started listening to the album, I’ll tell you, I had hope. Lostprophets is one of my favorite bands and I was just wishing that they would go back to their old grind. The only problem is this: The Betrayed attempts to do go back to the Start Something and Thefakesoundofprogress days for a little bit and then gives up. Even the times it tries, it sounds like the Liberation Transmission era Lostprophets are trying to imitate themselves instead of just BEING their old selves. Plus, as I listened to the Korean edition, it was 3 tracks longer and I felt that it stretched on too long. So, I suggest just picking up the US or UK version.

I’m just a really big Lostprophets fan who loved their first two albums more than most albums. That’s how I see them. If you don’t know this band or even if you have some knowledge about them, I highly suggest you pick this up. It’s an easy to swallow album that is poppy with a hard rock edge. It’s not bad, it’s just not the Lostprophets I know and love.

The Betrayed gets a 3 out of 5.