Album Reviews

The Baseball Baseball Project : Vol. 1 Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails

The Baseball Project, made up of Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate/Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3), Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows/Minus 5), Linda Pitmon (Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3) and Peter Buck (REM), is not simply a group of accomplished musicians who happen to like baseball, but rather a group as well-versed in baseball's deep human history as they are in America's musical tradition. This thoroughly American collection of songs about baseball, like the sport itself, is about so much more, because the band sees beyond the superficial.

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Avett Brothers: The Second Gleam

The Avett Brothers' breakthrough album, last year's Emotionalism, was a work whose broad influences were felt throughout and whose quiet ambition made it both huge and intimate at the same time. The Second Gleam, while keeping to the Avett's signature sound, doesn't share its predecessor's breadth.

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Lee “Scratch” Perry: Repentance

Lee “Scratch” Perry is known for his role as the legendary Jamaican producer who helped usher in the genre of dub music over 40 years ago.  Featuring experimental and spacey bass-laden effects on lyric-less versions of reggae classics, a new genre grew and was popularized by the storied producer.  Having created and worked on countless albums with every dub artist imaginable, the storied Grammy winning icon is back with his 54th studio album, Repentance.

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Grayson Capps: Rott-N-Roll

“I’m going back to the country/cause country’s what I am”  Grayson Capps sure as shit is country, he is “eatin’ cornbread and raising hell” an singing about “Big Ole Woman”, but how many other good ole country boys pontificate on Oscar Wilde and Salsamaggiore, Italy?  Grayson Capps has got more then a little poet in him, a whole lot of living to talk about and with the help of the Stumpknockers backing him up he explores his roots and then manages to fly above them on Rott-N-Roll. 

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AC/DC: Black Ice

With a number one album, a Rock Band video game, and a cover of Rolling Stone magazine, 35 years later AC/DC  have hit their popularity peak. Although their creativity might have peaked after 1980’s Black in Black, Black Ice, their 15th studio album proves you can rock almost as hard in your fifties as you did in your early twenties.

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The Low Anthem: Oh My God, Charlie Darwin

This album, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, is beautiful. The new long-play offering from Providence, RI based trio The Low Anthem explores changing times, places, love, and loss over the course of its 42 minutes.

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Lucinda Williams: Little Honey

On Lucinda Williams’ last album, West, we were taken through misery after misery – a boatload of “what ifs” until you started to wonder if she would ever write another happy song.  Of course, Williams is known for sad, angry songs, which I don’t have a problem with – it’s just so nice to hear her voice filled with joy on her latest offering, Little Honey.

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Horse Feathers: House With No Home

With their second full-length album, Horse Feathers delivers a piece of subtle Americana that is as beautiful as it is unnerving and as soothing as it is depressing. Justin Ringle’s vocals are hushed, as if he is performing alone in his bedroom, trying not to disturb anyone.

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