Posts by Jeremy Lukens

Brighten is the third solo album from Alice in Chains co-founder Jerry Cantrell and the first since Degradation Trip in 2002. In terms of composition and tone, Brighten marks the biggest departure from Cantrell’s signature sound, taking his music in a new direction that has few similarities to his other work. The album was recorded […]

On Thursday, September 30, Rival Sons brought propulsive rock and roll to an Orlando crowd at The Plaza Live starved for a good show. It was the second show of the Pressure and Time 10 Year Anniversary Tour, serving as a celebration of the Long Beach band’s career, of old-school hard rock, and of just […]

In New Age Norms, Volume 3, Cold War Kids complete the trilogy on a high note, with a satisfying mix of upbeat bangers and soulful crooners. Each of the eight-song volumes is loosely connected sonically and thematically. The songs are lean and compact, at times with an almost lo-fi quality, as they explore shifts in […]

Candlebox’s seventh studio album continues the foray into pop-rock that began with 2016’s Disappearing In Airports. Though the Seattle band capitalized on the breakthrough success of grunge music on its early releases, it has always incorporated influences from blues, classic rock, and metal. On Wolves, that early grunge influence is nowhere to be found. In […]

Slothrust’s fifth album is a gratifying blend of hard alternative and pop-rock with a folksy twang. On 2018’s The Pact, the Boston band started incorporating more pop melodies and soft crooning into the band’s aggressive repertoire. Parallel Timeline continues that trend, focusing more on storytelling and hooks than on rocking out.  The result is the […]

Like many albums from the last year, Screen Violence was heavily influenced and affected by the global pandemic. The fourth album from Glasgow synth-pop band CHVRCHES was created in fragments, with each member composing and recording parts of the songs while isolated from the rest. Only the vocals and final mixing were done together.  Though […]

Contrast is one of the things that makes Welsh indie rock band The Joy Formidable so interesting. Soft, soothing vocals contrast loud rock instruments. Intricate melodies contrast heavy rhythms. So it’s not surprising that the band’s new release contrasts our bleak pandemic-mired world with a sense of optimism. Into the Blue, The Joy Formidable’s fifth […]

The fifth TORRES album, Thirstier, finds indie artist Mackenzie Scott breaking new ground, expanding her territory into a more excited and positive place. The quiet, contemplative sound that made up a large part of earlier TORRES work is still there in smaller doses. As a whole, Thirstier is louder and more vibrant, with more upbeat […]

Back in 2014, Modest Mouse recorded another album’s worth of songs at the same time as the sessions for Strangers To Ourselves. Though three songs were released as singles, the rest never saw the light of day — some are finished while others are still works in progress. Now eight years later, there is finally […]

Eclectic alt-rock veterans Garbage have returned with their third post-hiatus album and seventh overall. No Gods No Masters continues in the Wisconsin band’s tradition, melding disparate musical styles into a unique amalgamation while building in enough pop hooks to keep the songs accessible and memorable. It is very much in line with what the band […]

Daddy’s Home, the sixth solo St. Vincent album, marks another abrupt turn for the musical chameleon. Following two art-pop albums drenched in electronic influences, this release is Annie Clark’s most analog since 2009’s Actor. It is a retro album steeped in the musical styles of the 1970s, pop, and psychedelia melding with rock and world […]

Over its seventeen years of alternative music, Manchester Orchestra’s sound has been about balance — balancing light and darkness, heavy and soft, introspection and aggression. At times, the scales shift heavily in one direction, such as with the consistently heavy Cope, but the Atlanta rockers rely greatly on opposing dynamics — glimmers of hope to […]

The Rise & Fall of Loverboy, the third album from Southern California band Sir Sly, delivers an upbeat amalgamation of rock, electronica, and hip-hop that straddles the line between pop entertainment and art. With no shortage of hooks, Sir Sly takes listeners on a journey of introspection, acceptance, and self-sabotage through infectious grooves and danceable beats. The crunching drum beat […]

The fourth album from Canadian duo Death from Above 1979 is an energetic collection of dance-punk that melds savage ferocity with infectious hooks. Is 4 Lovers follows the style of its predecessors, delivering impossibly heavy drum beats and virtuoso bass riffs with hard-charging aggression. Throughout the album, Jesse F. Keeler’s basslines vary from dance grooves […]

Show Me How You Disappear is a complex tapestry of rock and pop that offers introspective tales through dreamy melodies and a juxtaposition of musical styles. Ian Sweet began as a Los Angeles noise-rock band before becoming Jilian Medford’s solo project. On the third album, Medford deviates from the rock aesthetic of the previous two […]

Alt-rock veterans The Melvins has returned to its roots with its twenty-ninth full-length album. Working with God reunites what the band calls Melvins 1983, the almost-founding lineup  – original guitarist Buzz Osbourne, original drummer Mike Dillard, and bassist Dale Crover, who joined the band when Dillard left in 1984. While the band has gone through […]

The landscape of alternative music has changed frequently over the 27 years that Foo Fighters has been around. Over the course of the band’s ten albums, Dave Grohl and company have taken their own roots and incorporated various influences. Over the last three decades, Foo Fighters has been one of the few bands to consistently […]

The Kills’ first album since 2016’s Ash & Ice is a collection of B-Sides and rarities chronicling the duo’s early career. Little Bastards is a lengthy collection of rare Kills tracks that shows off the band’s inventiveness, grit, and passion. With twenty songs dating from the band’s 2002 inception through 2009, covers and original songs […]

Smashing Pumpkins has always been a band that bucks trends, incorporating psychedelia and metal at a time when it was anything but cool in the alternative world, using densely layered sounds when the rock landscape was all about raw simplicity, and otherwise defying expectations. Starting with 1998’s Adore, the band defied its biggest trend, working […]

The sixth album from Larkin Poe deviates from the band’s signature southern rock sound for a lighter take on the Georgia band’s rootsy music. Kindred Spirits is a cover album with eleven tracks of soft, slow acoustic music that allows sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell to put their unique spin on well-known songs. Kindred Spirits […]