Album Reviews

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on Hearts of Gold, the latest album from self-proclaimed “basement pop” band Dollar Signs, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

Vocalist and song interpreter Veronica Swift flips the script, following up her 2019 Mack Avenue Records debut, Confessions, with This Bitter Earth, the fourth album overall from the 27-year-old, and one which addresses topical issues and social ills of our times. {Note: She recorded her first album Veronica’s House of Jazz -SNOB, 2004 as a nine-year-old}. Swift tackles sexism […]

Daniel Lanois may be more famous for his production of outstanding records from U2, Peter Gabriel, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, and Willie Nelson than for his own solo work, some of which is equally outstanding. Consider Acadie, For the Beauty of Wynona, and Shine. Yet, if you’re expecting this new release, Heavy Sun, to sound […]

By now you have surely heard the singles and/or seen the video for “I NEED YOU.” While composer, pianist, and bandleader Jon Batiste needs little introduction, this project, WE ARE, represents a side of artistry that we have not yet seen until now. It’s been a remarkable year for Batiste, famously seen leading the Black […]

Whispers and Sighs, as described by songwriter Mary Gauthier, is “a masterpiece, a parting gift from an imagination of genius.” The album is indeed a powerful last statement from David Olney, an underappreciated, long known as a songwriter’s songwriter, who ranks with the idiom’s best, be it Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, Guy Clark, and […]

This long-awaited collaboration between two versatile musicians and individually separate musicologists owes mostly to a deep, close friendship. Jimbo Mathus and Andrew Bird, come across so authentically on the first track of These Thirteen’s “Poor Lost Souls” and the entire album to leave one asking, “Wow! Do they really make records like this anymore?” With […]

This writer has begun every review, this now the third, of Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with the word “iconic” preceding Lloyd’s name. It’s a term the NEA Jazz Master more than lived up to, based on his January performances with another of his groups, Kindred Spirits, at UCLA this past January. Following the tradition […]

boWsER is a band from the Gold Coast of Australia. You could describe the band in any number of ways, but all of those ways would include the word rock. It is a rock band with some bits of metal, psychedelic, and groovy heavy rock.  The band’s new album Whispers from the Wicker Man has […]

The pandemic has helped or hindered creativity in different ways for everyone. After 2020’s fantastic Rosewood, percussionist Mike Dillon had an outburst and recorded three albums releasing them all concurrently. Each record, Shoot The Moon, 1918, and Suitcase Man finds Dillon expanding his style, trying a variety of vibrating sounds and singing styles while dealing […]

The Midnight Broadcast is the most unusual entry in Peter Case’s extensive and eminently admirable career. The sixteen tracks interweave music, sound effects, and spoken word segments to create a simulation of that quasi-mystical sensation that’s inspired so many music lovers and musicians since the invention of radio. It is ultimately an experience that is […]

Without a full-length album from Valerie June in four years, there is, of course, speculation that we will get a shift in approach which we indeed do on The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers. This project is far removed from those early days of rootsy, bluesy material closely identified with her hometown of Memphis. […]

Widely considered one of the most groundbreaking and influential saxophonists and composers of his generation, altoist Miguel Zenón commemorates Ornette Coleman’s 91st birthday (March 9) with Law Years: The Music of Ornette Coleman. The digital release, his second already this year (El Arte Del Bolero, a duo album with pianist Luis Perdomo was released in January), is available on March 12th, […]

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on Until This Shakes Apart, the latest album from ska punks Five Iron Frenzy, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

The first time you hear the lush sonic beauty of Texas Hill Country singer-songwriter Israel Nash you might be moved to the kind of description this writer penned when listening to his previous effort, Lifted, much of which applies to this one, Topaz, as well. “{Lifted} t begins with an instrumental prelude that is somewhat […]

Afrofuturism is the fifth solo album on five different labels by the alto saxophonist/composer/producer Logan Richardson, likely an indication of his unbounded curiosity, and restless, open-minded approach. Five albums may not seem like many but consider that Richardson stays busy as a sideman too, having appeared on these acclaimed albums in just the past two […]

It’s difficult to come up with a succinct label for some bands. Honshu Wolves from Bern, Switzerland, is one of those bands. The band’s sound is described as “delta blues desert gospel space punk”. Admittedly, it’s a bit of a mouthful, but it is a pretty good description of what this band does. In fact, […]

The eighth album released by Fruit Bats finds Eric B Johnson and crew dealing with unsettled times in familiar ways and while the majority of The Pet Parade was written pre-pandemic the songs can’t help but flow through that collective experience and gain a new perspective.  Basically a Johnson solo project at this point, Fruit […]

Teenage Fanclub, the beloved Scottish band, is by all accounts, a legacy group. They may not be heralded as the influential and extremely consistent band they are, but their ability to routinely tour and release new albums is a direct result of their aging fan-base and the nostalgia and lingering pedigree of their early discography. […]

The newest release from the Philadelphia-based artist Ron Gallo is perfectly titled. Peacemeal takes a pop patchwork musical approach, sprinkling worrisome observations around various genres with oddball stitching, all the while trying to stay positive during tough times.  Opening with the album’s second song done in reverse, a lighthearted playful spirit bounces around but things […]

Looking back at Mando Saenz’s upbringing, it’s hard not to draw parallels to Kris Kristofferson. Both are military kids who spent childhood constantly relocating from army town to army town, with music being one of the few constants growing up. Kristofferson went on to become a much sought-after songwriter who managed to cut out his […]