An appropriately titled album, Tha Carter II builds on the Lil Wayne of the first Carter, the Lil Wayne who was not only cocky, but also truly confident, confident enough to loosen up his rhymes and create a winning mixture of slick baller posturing and slippery flippancy. If the first Carter found him somewhere between a crazed Silkk the Shocker and a thuggish Devin the Dude, the excellent follow-up finds him more toward the latter. Take "Money on My Mind," a track that covers the ...   [ read more ]

CD $13.25

Showing much respect for an album he's obviously a fan of, remixer Michael "5000" Watts steps his game up and turns Lil Wayne's Tha Carter II into a hallucinatory, screwed-and-chopped classic. The opening two tracks suggest Watts isn't going to much more than slow the album down a little and scratch his turntable furiously in the background, but from "Money on My Mind" to the finish line he's fracturing the tracks with abandon. "Mind"'s great "Dear Mr. Toilet Seat" line stutters while a d...   [ read more ]

CD $9.45

Tom Rigney has not been an easy artist to categorize. The violinist/singer has focused on what is loosely defined as "roots music," but he hasn't embraced one type of roots music specifically -- and along the way, Rigney has played everything from Cajun music to bluegrass. Back Porch Blues, it turns out, favors a mixture of pre-World War II country blues and pre-World War II country (with elements of 1920s and '30s jazz at times). This early 2009 release makes it clear that Rigney has spent a l...   [ read more ]

CD $15.18