Album Reviews

Rogue Wave: Descended like Vultures

E. C. Thomas December 1, 2005 No Comments

Descended like Vultures is not only beautiful, but heavy and textured pop that crawls under your skin with emotive lingering.

Spill Canvas: One Fell Swoop

Brie Austin November 30, 2005 No Comments

One Fell Swoop, the sophomore CD by Spill Canvas, is hard to dislike. From the very first note, this hard rocking band is in overdrive. They slow it down for

Atmosphere: You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having

Chris Clark November 29, 2005 No Comments

Atmosphere made a good album in You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having. Filled with solid beats, sultry samples and a thriving musical relationship between Ant and Slug, the album proves to be Atmosphere’s most impressive recording to date, helping place Minneapolis and the rest of the Midwest on the musical map.

Echo & The Bunnymen: Siberia

William Ruben Helms November 28, 2005 No Comments

What Echo & The Bunnymen have created in Siberia is a rare piece of work

Wilco: Kicking Television

Shane Handler November 24, 2005 No Comments

Kicking Television, recorded live at the Vic Theatre in Chicago, May 4-7, 2005, captures Wilco in the new Nels Cline/Pat Sansone/Mikael Jorgensen era, complete with sonic splashes, textured keyboards and disgruntled guitars to accompany Jeff Tweedy

Matt Pond PA: Several Arrows Later

Joe Long November 23, 2005 No Comments

Matt Pond PA are a consistent band. And when it comes to music, consistency can be both good and bad. It seems you know a new MP album will drop every year and this is the fifth from the band in the past five years. You know the quartet will have catchy melodies,
lovesick lyrics and usually some beautiful album art. Now centrally located in Brooklyn after leaving the brotherly confines of Philadelphia, not much has changed on Several Arrows Later.

Johnny Society: Coming to Get You

Jamie Lee November 22, 2005 No Comments

This is one of those that albums that forces you to listen and listen again, yet the sounds fend off any coalescing ideas. And it’s this uneven quality that draws me back time and time again, that glimmer of greatness that is elusive.

Jackson Browne: Running On Empty: Remastered

Keith Hannaleck November 22, 2005 No Comments

This oldie comes packaged as a remastered CD and DVD Audio release with extensive liner notes and video bonuses including a

Jerry Garcia: Garcia Plays Dylan

Chad Berndtson November 21, 2005 No Comments

Garcia Plays Dylan doesn’t have the completeness factor of this year’s other marvelous Jerry Garcia estate releases–but it adds another dimension and a different sort of thoroughness those releases can’t, by nature, explore: the connection between two storied musicians as exemplified by one’s tackling of the other’s material in a variety of contexts.