1. Beastie Boys - Ill Communication

This is a total beast of an album. I keep revisiting, and am amazed at how great it sounds every, single, time I put it back on. I've had a really tough week, both at work and personally, and listening to this album has made my life a bit easier (along with browsing hubski, of course). It's an amazing, amazing album. In addition to how good The Beastie Boys are on this record, Q-Tip is great on Get It Together. No number of superlatives is enough for this album.

Picks: Sure Shot, Sabotage, Get It Together, Flute Loop.

2. Patton Oswalt - Feelin' Kinda Patton

Top shelf comedy album from a top shelf stand-up comic. I love it.

3. L'Orange - Old Soul

From the musician's facebook page: "Dedicated to originality, L’Orange imbues his smoky, soul-soaked tracks with lush texture through inventive mixing and psychedelic cuts from classic radio recordings."

Nice album. Not great. It certainly has a few tracks that stand out for me.

Picks: Lost Souls, The Heroine

4. Matmos - The Marriage of True Minds

The highly experimental duo may have overshot with this one, I believe. The trouble is while interesting and experimental are great if the output sounds good, they're not enough. I'm not sure if the whole album sounds good really. I was not at all comfortable listening to Ross Transcript, for instance.

Picks: You, Very Large Green Triangles, ESP