Is it just me or is mediocrity en vogue this season?

Seriously, I’d like to know. Was the music just better last year (and the year before)?

Has anyone else been a little disappointed with the lackluster Neon Bible, the poppy (but generally heartless) We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, and the languid Pocket Symphony. Even Bloc Party’s A Weekend in the City seems to lack a certain vitality (though they’ve come closest). Where’s the heart and soul?

But maybe it’s just me and my state of mind. See, when I first heard Funeral, and Takk, and Apologies to the Queen Mary for instance, I was desperately seeking a savior, a relief, from a nearly unbearable existence. I speak hyperbolically. What I mean to say is that my emotional state was on the fritz. I think my vunerability allowed music to penetrate deeper. To pluck at the strings of that proverbial harp in my chest.