James Montgomery of MTV News posted his annual mid-year best of the albums that have been released so far this year. He has a pretty good list with a top ten and some honorable mentions.

A couple of the choices in his top ten include:

• Lily Allen, It’s Not Me, It’s You
• Wilco, Wilco (The Album)
• Kelly Clarkson, All I Ever Wanted

Some of his honorable mentions include:

Blogger Kevin Cogill, who pleaded guilty to leaking part of Guns ‘n Roses’ “Chinese Democracy”, was sentenced to one year’s probation. Also he is sentenced to two months of house arrest, having his computers subjected to government scrutiny, and he will have to record a PSA for the RIAA.

Cogill said that the nine songs he posted from “Chinese Democracy” was meant to help promote the band, not hurt it. Prosecutors had wanted Cogill to serve jail time, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Abrams determined that Cogill had learned his lesson.

PreOrder Alice In Chains – Black Gives Way To Blue

It was an industry only event at the Montalban Theater in Hollywood. There was an open bar and food catered by In N Out Burger. I got to the theater, grabbed a free Bass Beer, a burger and sat down next to my friend Chealsea. About 15 minutes later, some guy from Virgin Records came up on stage and said how Alice in Chains was the reason he got into the music business and how he felt so privileged to be a part of this “amazing” record. Then he said “Enjoy the Record” and walked off stage.

On comes the music. The boys in Alice in Chains snuck in from the back and stood by the soundboard and rocked out to the first song as it was playing. The audience looked like a bunch of zombies, staring at the stage with blank stares on their faces.
I don’t know what the name of the song was but it was a riff that sounded like it was tuned down to C that repeated over and over and over and over and over and over for what seemed like 5 minutes. It sounded like an album intro that should have been about 30 seconds. It went nowhere fast. After the song ended, the audience of music industry douchebags applauded politely. I looked back at the band and they had big smiles on their faces that looked like they were thinking “Yes! they loved the first tune!”

2nd song comes on. It sounded really heavy but really boring. It had a classic Alice in Chains sound except there was no chorus. At this point I’m thinking that the record label guy is either deaf or stupid or blowing smoke up the band’s ass or all three.

3rd song comes on. It sounded exactly like the 2nd song. I looked back at the band by the soundboard and they were banging their heads and playing air guitar. Their girlfriends were standing next to them trying to act like they liked the music. The song faded out and I said out loud, “They probably couldn’t think of another part so they faded it out” The guy in front of me turned around and said he was thinking the same thing. At this point several people got up and left.

4th song comes on. It started off with a nice acoustic melodic guitar. I’m thinking that if this is the single and has a catchy chorus, it could put the band back on the map. 2 minutes later, I’m still waiting for the chorus. Too bad. It had potential.

5 song comes on. I don’t remember how it sounded. I think it was very similar to the first 3. Chelsea got up to leave and I followed.

So 4 1/2 songs into the record, I give it a 0 out of 4 1/2.

Maybe the rest of the album got great but some how, I doubt it.