The Game

“The Documentary” (Interscope)

Compare to: Xzibit,

50 Cent, Young Buck

He’s got the rims, the tattoos, the bling, the bullet wounds and plenty of California Chronic. It seems like he’s got what it takes to make it.

The debut from Compton’s newest rap export, The Game, comes across — on the surface — as yet another tired attempt to be the biggest, the baddest and the hardest rapper of all time.

Sadly, these are shallow waters.

Each of the songs on “The Documentary” is the most unexciting and boring to hit airwaves in some time. If making a rap record was a color-by-numbers project, there is no doubt he would be the Picasso of sorts.

His raps rarely go beyond the clich‚ topics of wild sex, partying, drugs, dealing, killing, cars, money and healthy doses of name dropping — big deal.

Sure, drug use, sex and never-ending partying may seem like fun to partake in, but hearing about it for the hundredth time just won’t do the trick.

At this point, nobody cares for another rap about how many women he wants to sleep with, how many pounds of marijuana he can get into his lungs or how many people he needs to kill. It’s been done — and done a lot better.

It seems like any rapper with the ego to claim that he is, in fact, The Game, would know enough about it to know what has been done before and strive to do something new with it.

At least he seems to have the credibility to back up what he says, even if it is old news.

— Dante Sacomani

Esthero

“We R in need of a Musical ReVoLuTIoN!” (Warner Brothers)

Compare to: Marie Fredriksson, Daniel Belanger, Portishead

We are in need of a music revolution, but this release by Esthero hardly appears to be the one we are looking for.

Pronouncing Esthero’s name may be difficult, but listening to the first track on this album is far worse.

The entire song is a crack at music on the radio today, yet it fails to surpass any of those songs, as least as far as talent is concerned.

The second track, “Everyday is Holiday with You,” is a catchy song that you will easily find yourself humming on the way to class. The same is true with “This Lullaby.”

“Gone” appears to express Esthero’s tender side, but the lyrics aren’t especially original.

The guitar part in the song, however, makes it really pleasing to listen to.

The strongest track on the album is “I Drive Alone,” a song that features excellent vocals and has an almost hypnotizing quality to it. The electronic music provides a superb background to Esthero’s vocal styling.

Although Esthero’s CD features various types of music to showcase her talent, it fails to be the revolution she hoped for.

The entire message of the album is something audiences can relate to, but will most likely be forgotten once the record is finished playing.

— Ashley Garbin

Bodies in the Gears of the Apparatus/ Despised Icon

“Split”(Relapse)

Compare to: Soilent Green, The Red Chord, Dying Fetus

Over the years, Relapse Records has made a name for itself by shedding light on the farthest reaches of the heavy metal genre, with astounding results.

This split EP showcasing the talents of Florida-based grindcore unit Bodies in the Gears of the Apparatus and Canadian death metal band Despised Icon is no exception.

Bodies in the Gears of the Apparatus opens up proceedings with a chaos-ridden assault to the senses. The three songs the band offers here are mind-boggling displays of instrumental dexterity, replete with pulverizing stop/start riffing and sickening blast beats. Tracks like “War Engine” are the audible equivalent of an assault rifle-wielding maniac, spraying bullets mercilessly in all directions.

Despised Icon, on the other hand, offers a much more straightforward approach. Leaning more toward traditional death metal, Despised Icon’s highly precise musical attack on tracks like “Oval Shaped Incisions” serves as an excellent balance to Bodies in the Gears of the Apparatus’ deranged take on the genre.

If Bodies in the Gears of the Apparatus is a pack of deranged lunatics, then Despised Icon is a group of cold, calculating musical assassins.

With this split release, Relapse Records has once again managed to spotlight two highly deserving yet previously little-known bands, and any metal fan would do well to take notice.

—Joshua Haun

Pilot Scott Tracy

“Any City”

(Alternative Tentacles)

Compare to: Bloc Party, Devo, The Cars

Ladies and gentlemen, please extinguish all smoking materials and notice that the captain has turned on the “No Smoking” sign. Please put your seats and tray tables in their full, upright and locked position and prepare for takeoff.

Pilot Scott Tracy wants to fly you to its bubbly new world — a happy, synth-pop land, dipped in quirky lyrics and frizzy guitar riffs.

Created by Scott and Tracy Cox-Stanton, the husband-and-wife duo who pieced together the new wave/punk band The Causey Way, Pilot Scott Tracy offers up its whimsical sophomore album, “Any City.”

Scott and Tracy have two obsessions — airlines and the flirtatious mingling of punk and new wave. As the five-piece band infuses sounds of poppy electronic pulses and moog-synthesized vibrations, Scott brings aboard the punk through his vocals.

Although mostly kept at bay and not too chaotic, Scott’s vocals occasionally do go overboard. “Big Fan” and “Right On” could offer listeners indulgent-worthy tunes if the band’s synth styling was pushed to the forefront.

Although most of “Any City” features Scott’s vocals, his wife proves she’s not just for the background. In a waif-like and unstylized manner, Tracy adds an eccentric trance-like element to the mix.

“It’s a strange, strange world we live in,” Tracy sings on the track “Master Jack.” If this is true, Pilot Scott Tracy fits perfectly into it.

—Katie Piepel