Album Reviews

Gossip: A Joyful Noise

Gossip’s fifth studio album A Joyful Noise embraces their disco-funk fervor and turns pop inclinations into full-on infatuation.

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Billy Martin Wil Blades: Shimmy

Any music lover who relished Billy Martin's collaboration with John Medeski, Mago, will not only anticipate the master percussionist's self-produced work with Wil Blades, but be eminently satisfied with it as well.

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Caravan of Thieves: Funhouse

Like a lot of young string bands, Caravan of Thieves looks to the past for inspiration – but unlike many of their peers they do not revel in bluegrass or old-timey music.  This is one band that digs in a different direction, grabbing their influences from Django Reinhardt, swing, tango, and even scary old movies.  Add to that the contemporary sounds like the Beatles, 1960s folk and the theatrical production “Stomp” and you have a sense of the crazy mixed bag that is Caravan of Thieves.

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Grace Potter & The Nocturnals : The Lion The Beast The Beat

Earlier in the year, some fans were worried about the direction Grace Potter and the Nocturnals were heading. Bassist Catherine Popper had recently left the band. Then the band announced a tour opening for country artists Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw. The release of The Lion The Beast The Beat should alleviate those worries, though.

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Ryan Montbleau: For Higher

Produced by Galactic’s Ben Ellman, who assembled the group, the album features Anders Osborne (guitar), George Porter Jr. (bass), Ivan Neville (keys), and Simon Lott (drums) – an elite group by any standard. One look at the lineup and there’s no doubt that there will be funk found throughout this record. The album’s real charm, though, is in its restrained playing and in Montbleau’s astoundingly expressive voice.

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Fulero//Lehe: Cocoon

Fulero//Lehe is the brainchild of keyboardist Asher Fulero and guitarist Sean Lehe. Having met on the west coast festival circuit the two road warriors found time to spend three days recording with bassist Mark Murphy and drummer Zach Bowden in Sacramento in 2011. Their self-released debut, Cocoon, is out now and is a creative amalgamation of Phish-influenced jams and Steely Dan jazz-rock. Fulero and Lehe split the writing duties on six originals and the band wisely chooses a cover of Radiohead’s “In Limbo”.

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Joe Walsh: Analog Man

It’s wonderful to have a new album from Joe Walsh. He’s a true musical innovator and that by itself makes him worth hearing. His newest project has some great moments. At its best it succeeds in the same way Walsh’s work has always succeeded: sounding like nobody but himself. After all, it’s about personality.

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Lettuce: Fly

To proclaim that Lettuce avoids the usual pitfalls of contemporary funk is a left-handed compliment for sure, but it does say more than a little about the power and cohesion of Fly. In the diversity of material and arrangement, not to mention the savvy musicianship and production by which the band parlay their skills, this album is the sound of a group full of the confidence that comes with validation of their chosen style.

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Neil Young & Crazy Horse : Americana

And for Americana, Young's 13th studio LP with Crazy Horse, the team rekindles the spirited looseness that embodies them at the peak of their powers as they crank the Fender stacks to the max and ravage through some of the most well-known folk standards we learned from elementary school music class, claiming them as their own. They transform such day camp singalong fare as "Oh Susannah", "Clementine" and "Jesus' Chariot" (perhaps better known as "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain") into full-throttle blasts of classic Crazy Horse, giving more gravity to the history behind the lyrics through their electrified execution.

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