Been listening to this...

• Beatles - Let It Be. I actually just got this. I know the hits, obviously, but the other 2/3s was mostly unknown to me. This album has always had the reputation as the weakest of the later albums, so I avoided it, not wanting to hear the Beatles fuck up. But, the completist in me demanded that I buy it. And... for me, it's a mixed bag. I cringe when I hear those syrupy strings in "The Long And Winding Road", and "Let It Be" is worn out. "Across The Universe" and "Get Back" are still fine, though. "Dig It" is pointless, "Maggie Mae" is a fragment. On the other hand, "Dig a Pony", "I've Got A Feeling" and "One After 909" are all great. So, yes, it's a bit uneven, but on the whole, I think it's pretty good.
  Four percents %%%%.

• Middle Distance Runner - Sun And Earth. I picked this up at their show in Chapel Hill a few weeks back. I like it a touch better than I like their last one. It reaches a bit farther, it's richer, denser, and the high points are higher: "The Unbeliever" (which I've mentioned many times before) simply rocks, "Let Nothing In" is a great little stomper, "The Wrong Hole" is catchy (here's an early, slower, version), and "Sundays Are Hell" with it's 70's glam-rock vibe is fantastic.
  Four percents %%%%.

• Polvo - In Prism. It has that unmistakable Polvo sound: tangled, thick and prickly guitars, constant tempo and timing changes, barely-comprehensible lyrics. It's different from other Polvo records in that some of those timing changes lead to bits of what sounds like standard hard rock. They'll come out of a section of baffling changes into a section of straight-ahead, muscular, hard rock chugging. They don't linger long anywhere, of course. This is Polvo; there's always a change coming. Unfortunately, I'm a little burned-out on Polvo these days, so I don't find myself listening to it much. Beggars Bowl.
  Three percents %%%.

• Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs. Recent YLT records have left me a little unsatisfied. They're a little bit too mellow, a little bit too safe. Sure, they'll have an uptempo song of two, and there's usually an extended guitar freak-out song, but the mellower songs have become more mellow and more numerous, the rockers are a little too easy, and the freak-outs feel obligatory. That's not to say it's a bad record; I don't dislike any of it. It just doesn't grab me the way Electr-o-Pura or Fakebook or President Yo La Tengo did. I dunno. Maybe it's me.
  Three percents %%%.

• Nick Drake - Bryter Layter. It's OK - a bit too heavy on the strings for my taste. But the songs are decent. And there are two or three songs in here which sound like the root of everything that Belle And Sebastian ever did - musically, anyway.
  Three percents %%%.