And I Feel Fine
The Best of the IRS Years 1982-1987
R.E.M.

Many years before R.E.M. became an arena-filling superband and Michael Stipe went bald and cuckoo, it was THE college band. Formed in 1980 by Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry, R.E.M. made intellectual, witty songs which were relevant to the times and pleasing to the soul. Stipe's voice mumbled through lyrics yet resonated enough for their first album MURMUR to become the 1983 Album of the Year in the Rolling Stone Critics Poll. The world had taken notice of a relatively obscure band from Athens, Georgia and has never been the same since.

SAD BASTARD MUSIC IS THE NEW SENTI.

If you happen to receive a copy of Keane’s new album from your favorite aunt or parish priest, immediately file it under the genre 'sad bastard music.' There are times when you want to hear a plaintive honesty that comes from a far deeper wellspring than your usual ghetto palace crib and it would be good to keep this CD where it's easy to find. There is such a thing as 'too much honesty' and methinks this album suffers from it.

It takes a certain mood to be able to listen to this album straight. Say your girlfriend of six years leaves you for your rich dad or your best friend runs off with your mother. Times when you need a Juicy. This is the type of stuff you can be sure Nick Lachey doesn't want to hear when he reminisces about Jessica or the current state of his career. If you're depressed and have a bottle of Valium in the medicine cabinet, stay away from this CD. Bad things might happen.

A SERGIO MENDES ALBUM WITH VERY LITTLE SERGIO MENDES

In the late sixties to mid-seventies, Sergio Mendes was the biggest cultural export of Brazil, introducing the world-at-large to samba and bossanova. An entire generation of children were weaned on Sergio Mendes records playing on their parents' hi-fis. Those children are all grown up now, with children of their own. Almost four decades removed from the days when Brazilian music was truly exotic, this generation parties to the beats of acts like Fifty Cent, Pussy Cat Dolls and Black Eyed Peas. For them, Mais Que Nada is elevator music, or something you'd hear when you're put on hold.

The music of Sergio Mendes is timeless. This new album is not.

FORMULAIC, SAFE AND SAPPY, THIS ALBUM DELIVERS GUILTY PLEASURES

Even though a lot of my high school classmates were members of the theater guild, I don't remember high school being anywhere near as musical as the one in High School Musical. Nobody broke out into song in the cafeteria. There was no dancing in the halls. Heck, all we could probably manage for entertainment was a dirty joke and a half. Still, give a listen to the High School Musical OST and you just might be fooled.

This OST works best in the context of the movie it hails from, a Disney Channel Original Movie that you can't seem to escape from. I've seen it rerun ad infinitum on cable. I've seen desperate parents buy bootleg DVDs of High School Musical from the bowels of Makati Cinema Square to placate their kids. My two and a half year old nephew flatly refuses to eat his lunch without Troy and Gabriella's audition scene playing on the telly. A pretty colleague of mine even sings along to Breaking Free after banging her head to Rob Zombie (unbelievable, but true). To ape a thought from The Matrix, this OST is inevitable, like the drunken shenanigans of Disney doyen La Lohan AKA Firecrotch or the monthly waning of the moon.