Album Reviews

Over the course of three records, Nashville’s Oberon Rose has been consistent in avoiding being pigeonholed by a specific sound.  The band – build on the songwriting team of Tommy Oberon and Rebecca Rose – has cobbled together a specifically unique brand of psychedelic-tinged pop music (think Big Star, Badfinger, Wings and The Posies) while […]

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on Fuck Art, the timely new album from Canadian rock and rollers The Dirty Nil, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

Matthew Sweet’s Catspaw, is a marked contrast with his previous two albums, Tomorrow Forever and Tomorrow’s Daughter. Like those LPs Recorded in the Honeycomb Hideout home studio he established after having moved back to his native Nebraska in 2013, this latest LP sounds less zesty than either of its predecessors. And yet for all the […]

COVID-19 has taken live music from us, but it has been interesting to see how musicians have responded to the pandemic. Some have written protest songs. Some seem to have found a deep creative well while being stuck at home. Some, like Countless Thousands, have created a rock opera. Yes, that’s right. This punk band […]

Viagra Boys have erected a rock and roll sound that stands on its own. The Sweden-based band came onto the scene in a big way in 2018 with the release of their debut album Street Worms, bringing together a brash style of post-punk, industrial, a smattering of saxophone and synth, and deadpan howling courtesy of […]

The co-founder and drummer of Soulive, Alan Evans has started a new endeavor Vintage League Music which plans to showcase that smooth funk sound he became known for. The most recent offering is a sampler album of unreleased tunes titled Family Album Vol 1. showcasing familiar and new players on the scene who are part […]

Part Iron & Wine, part Cowboy Junkies in their Trinity Sessions mode, the debut collaboration from Kacy & Clayton and Marlon Williams is ethereal folk and country so soft and reverent it almost comes off as a collection of modern hymns. Written and recorded in both Saskatchewan and Nashville, Plastic Bouquet manages to seemingly come […]

Music with a cause is not necessarily the same thing as music for a good cause, but 20 X 20 largely succeeds on multiple fronts. Twenty different artists recorded in isolation during the course of this ill-fated year and the Little Village Foundation has collected it to share in one fell swoop. In doing so, […]

Cat Ridgeway’s singing supersedes the lyrics so finely-printed inside the digi-pak of Nice To Meet You. But that’s no criticism of the words to the seven songs, only an observation/reminder the human voice is rightly regarded as the greatest of all musical instruments. On this the woman’s fifth recording, however, she also demonstrates her multi-instrumental […]

When is a seasonal album not a seasonal album? When the artist who made the record, in this case, the Michael Falzarano Extended Family, illustrates how the sentiments permeating the music are worth savoring at times beyond the holiday proper. A bandleader in his own right as well as an erstwhile member of Hot Tuna […]

When you receive music from Voodoo Rhythm Records, you can bet that it’s going to be something unusual. But even if you’re prepared for something unusual, you’re probably not entirely prepared for Degurutieni. Degurutieni is a one-man band who grew up in Osaka, Japan. He began creating music when he was 16, using whatever he […]

While I don’t think anyone would ever characterize Mark Oliver Everett’s music as optimistic, his latest effort, Earth To Dora, is probably the closest he has come in decades. Recording under his longtime moniker Eels, this LP features plenty of drum loops and electronic flourishes but is much less sterile than his 2018 album The Deconstruction. […]

It’s an odd choice to release an album at the tail end of any year after most publications have already published their best-of lists. Add a pandemic ton top of that and it seems crazy that any band would want to release a new album. For Cooper Trail and his project Desolation Horse, these factors […]

As much as That Which Colors The Mind may present a test of listening patience, it offers ample rewards for the exercise. On this double CD, just two selections, Indian ragas both, comprise slightly more than one-hundred twenty-minutes of a sophisticated demonstration of musical dynamics. Surprise of surprises perhaps, this exhibition isn’t altogether dissimilar from […]

Most of 2020 has been a disappointing heap of cancellations, curfews and COVID. For music lovers, it has been especially difficult because of the absence of live performances. Some of us still can’t bring ourselves to throw away the tickets to those cancelled shows. For Belle and Sebastian, plans to tour as well as plans […]

GNL Zamba is an artist from Uganda who grew up with the sounds of Fela Kuti, Ice Cube, and Gil Scott Heron, all of whom were played on the radio when he was growing up. It may be hard to imagine a sound that incorporates such disparate influences, but that is exactly what GNL Zamba […]

The accordion often gets a bad rap. For some people, the instrument is an automatic strike against the music that includes it. Call Me Spinster, on the other hand, was inspired when three sisters found an accordion in their grandfather’s closet. That led to exploring a variety of instruments including mandolin and upright bass. On […]

Twenty years ago, The Avalanches released their near-perfect debut, Since I Left You. A groundbreaking entry in sampling and plunderphonics, the album was heralded by fans and critics as an immediate classic. But the Melbourne group, content only with perfection, spent over 11 years working on a follow-up and after lineup changes and more sample […]

Prolific songwriter M. Ward’s Think of Spring is a collection of songs originally recorded by Billie Holiday – a muse to Ward and many others. Although Lady Day’s songs have been recorded by hundreds of artists, chances are that you’ve never heard them rendered this way.  M. Ward comments on his approach, “I first heard […]

Given Bill Evans’ iconic status in contemporary jazz, it should come as no surprise there’s been no shortage of posthumous releases since he passed in 1980. Evans In England and Live at Art D’Lugoff’s Top of The Gate are among those to precede Live at Ronnie Scott’s, the fifth such issue of unreleased music and […]