Pretty much the same ol’ shit, except with more synthesizers.

To be clear, Cage’s Depart From Me isn’t underwhelming because it’s so different and out-there; it’s underwhelming despite being so different and out-there.

Maxwell is still the king of baby-making music, but this time the undeniable sensuality of the vocals and arrangements are often at odds with the darkness of the lyrics.

Though all other stories this month were rightfully set aside by the upsetting news of Michael Jackson’s death, there were still many highlights to better help remember June in a more positive light. Here are 10 of the best as chosen by Culture Bully.

Street Sweeper Social Club is a textbook example of how supergroups so often equal less than the sum of their parts. It’s a solid album, but nowhere near as engaging as Rage Against the Machine or the Coup.

With Far, I half expected Spektor to return to her overly-quirky past and half-expected her to venture further into overly safe, piano pop territory (like the not-so-great song she added to the Prince Caspian soundtrack). I didn’t expect the same balance that made Begin to Hope so good, but luckily, I was pretty much wrong.

While May’s high profile major label releases might’ve dominated sales charts, it was the month’s independent releases that were the most compelling. Add to that a series of fantastic concerts, the Twin Cities’ largest hip hop festival and a few solid music videos and May measures just as strong as any other this year. Above all however, these are Culture Bully’s favorite things from the month of May.

…As someone who organizes and books shows myself, I realize that women are heavily outnumbered by men when it comes to rappers, and that schedules often don’t work out or whatever…so this is really symptomatic of a larger problem. This piece examines why that imbalance exists in the first place, and what we can do about it.

Late Spring and early Summer will see the release of three highly-anticipated hip hop albums: releases from Big Quarters, Maria Isa and Toki Wright.

It is often difficult to gain a balanced perspective on an album after reading a single summary of the music. Bias can tilt the review, as can personal taste, history and just about everything else that is unique to the person writing it. So in an effort to offer an expanded perspective on the music here are four reactions, four impressions, Four Takes on Actor by St. Vincent.

Listening to Van Hunt’s 2004 self-titled debut, it would have been easy to lump the singer into neo-soul’s second wave along with the Dweles and Musiqs of the world. But 2006’s On the Jungle Floor took the tiny hints of weirdness on Van Hunt’s debut and made an entire album out of them.

April was one hell of a month. Lily hit America, new members were introduced into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, No Doubt released its first new song in roughly six years, Eminem dropped his first (hugely underwhelming) video from his forthcoming album Relapse and a group of Frenchmen played SNL. But aside from all of that are Culture Bully’s favorite things from the month of April 2009.