After seeing it on charts and hearing good things about it since it was released over a year ago, I finally got around to listening to Final Straw, by Snow Patrol. To be honest, if it hadn’t been given to me by my sister, I may never have listened to it. For some reason, nothing about this album has ever intrigued me. Needless to say, I didn’t have high expectations. Now that I have given the album a chance, it is easy to see why Final Straw has gotten so much praise. It has the ear candy to bring you in, and the depth to warrant repeat listening. I don’t know if it cracked my top ten of 2004, but I can’t disagree that it is a great album.

I guess I have been talking about Beck alot lately. There was his ASCII mucic video. Then I was promoting Beck’s Hell Yes EP. Well, if you are tired of hearing me talk about Beck, too bad. I could simply say if you like Beck you will like his new album Guero, and if you don’t like Beck you won’t. This is a review though, so here is a little more for you to chew on.

After the first listen, you are thinking this is nothing like Sea Change, and seems to be more like Odelay or Midnight Vultures. After a few more listens, you start to recognize that the maturity that developed with Sea Change has spilled over into the area where Beck is most comfortable: having fun and experimenting. Guero has the beats and inventiveness that made him famous combined with the controlled composition that surprised many people with Sea Change. Overall it’s a fun album that holds together better than his earlier albums.

Another nice thing about this album is you get to hear the album versions of the Hell Yes EP. You could tell that there were great songs beneath the remixes, and the studio versions don’t disappoint.