The state of current music

  A warning. This is my VERY subjective review of four fairly new albums. If I criticize one of your favorite bands/albums, know that I really don't care. I really don't.

  One of the things which has always driven me nuts about the music industry is the low good song to crap song ratio on the vast majority of studio albums. Admit it, you have a bunch of CD's laying around that have one or two good songs along with 10 or 12 mediocre at best and awful at worst songs. For every single "The Cure: Disintegration" or "Matchbox Twenty: Yourself or Someone Like You" which can nearly be listened to end to end, you have a bunch of "311: Transistor" or Franz Ferdinand's self titled album, with one good song in the bunch. (I know that I just offended a bunch of skaters who would never speak negatively of 311, but you know what? It's my opinion, so take another hit and chill out!) I'm not even holding shots here. Come on, Foo Fighters, can you seriously say that "There Is Nothing Left To Lose" was a great album end to end?

  I have noticed a trend in more recent years to a higher good to crap ratio on albums, which I have attributed to Napster and it's largest beneficiary, iTunes.
See, if it had not been for Napster and the ability of people to share just the good songs with each other for free (bypassing the album altogether unless it was a very good album), the record companies would have never allowed iTunes and it's a-la-carte format.

  I have obtained four new albums over the last few days, and have sadly been more disappointed than pleased. First offender was "Muse: The Resistance". The first single, "The Uprising" is very well done, with a good hook & great pace. The only other Muse song I've really been exposed to was "Starlight", which was okay.
Unfortunately, for me, the rest of the album falls into the mediocre at best category.

  Next up, "Kings of Leon: Only By The Night". These guys are getting a lot of buzz for good reason. While the singles "Use Somebody" and "Sex on Fire" are the clear cream of the crop, the rest of the album is listenable. For a bunch of young guys, they have managed to sound like a much more mature band. If they don't let the fame go to their heads, they just might be a powerhouse for the long run.

  Following a good showing by Kings, I was let down a little by "Owl City: Ocean", right up until I realized that I really didn't have any expectations for this album and got it on a whim because the pop hit "Fireflies" is so damn catchy. There were a couple of other okay songs on this album, but it falls off quickly after that. Not one I can listen to end to end.

  The surprise for me has been "30 Seconds to Mars: This is War". I'm only halfway through it, and have been pleasantly surprised. The single "Kings and Queens" is the best of the first half, but I haven't been tempted to skip anything so far.* I really expected less out of an emo actor and his band. If you like the single, you will probably like this album.
*Edit: I didn't care for song #8 'Vox Populi', really disliked #11 'Stranger in a Strange Land', & stopped liking #12 'L490' when it started doing a weird chant at the end.

  The verdict being that I still believe that the ratio of good songs to bad songs on albums is higher than the pre-Napster era, but definitely think in a buyer-beware mindset and take the time to go listen to the samples of an album on iTunes or Amazon.com.