First Installment

Good/Decent/Crap
Good: Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer
Best Song(s): The Past is a Grotesque Animal, She is a Rejecter
Comments: Kevin Barnes churns out goofy concept album after concept album but with Hissing Fauna it all becomes personal--the album was supposedly the product of his breakup with his wife. For the trivia inclined, the name of the band is also a reference for one of Barnes' failed romances with a lady from Montreal. Incidentally, most of Of Montreals' albums were comprised of songs of short narratives, instead Hissing Fauna relies on an autobiographical approach. The pop-funk is especially rewarding and climaxes at the centerpiece song, The Past is a Grotesque Animal which clocks in at an unwieldy 12 minutes. For pop sensibility's sake, Barnes, word of advice, it would help you don't reference 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," "The Story of the Eye" and use the word parhelion and that's just one song! I literally had to crack open a dictionary. The vocals are bleak with the effective use of contrasting upbeat melodies.
Decent: Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position
Best Song(s): The Stars, The Magic Position, Accident Emergency, Overture
Comments: The Magic Position is a hit-and-miss ordeal. By the second half of the album, the sound seems tired and tedious. Wolf loses his enthusiasm. The great songs are great but the fillers are obvious too.
Crap: The Fray - How to Save a Life
Best Song(s): How to Save a Life
Comments: Perhaps the Fray suffer most from unoriginality. How to Save a Life is perhaps one of the most derivative works to hit record store shelves. It is not a requirement to reinvent music but so many have done this kind of album and done it so much better. The vocals are sufficient and the backing instrumentation also proficient but the result is flat. There is little depth in what the Fray strives to be an album of pop love songs. In fact, much of the songs sound the same that it is difficult to select a 'best song.' Unless the marketing executives are really going to push this, I highly doubt this will ever be popular.
I assure you, I've listened to these thoroughly and to their entirety.
-dwa9 "First Installment"