Album Reviews

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on The Teenage Years of the 21st Century, the new album from singer-songwriter Micah Schnabel, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

Producer and author Yvette Landry has just written a new biography of the “The Godfather of Swamp Pop” Warren Storm with the same title as its musical companion album Taking the World by Storm. Landry is intent on giving Storm more than his fair due in several ways. The album, subtitled A Regional Roots Journey […]

Some of you may have the CD box set of Miles Davis’ first legendary quintet that was released 13 years ago. But many more of you just cannot get enough of Miles and Coltrane, especially since the 180-gram vinyl sounds so damn good. Craft Recordings is releasing this 6-LP vinyl set of The Legendary Prestige […]

Designed by Peter Blake, the cover art for WHO is arguably be more than just a Rorschach test. The patchwork of cultural reference images conceivably mirrors the delicate interrelationships of those contributing to this twelfth album by the iconic band, their first since 2006’s Endless Wire. But the pop artist who also designed the front […]

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on the self-titled new album from The Slow Laters in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop): The Slow Laters by The Slow Laters

A box set of any kind is meant to be a thorough collection of songs. It’s hard to imagine a collection more thorough than Down in Jamaica: 40 Years of VP Records. This collection of reggae includes 94 songs and features 101 different artists ranging from Gregory Isaacs to Beenie Man. It not only takes […]

Over the course of the last decade, Fred Hersch has rightfully risen to prominence as one of the premiere jazz artists in the world. Not coincidentally, most of his activity has taken place in the company of his trio including bassist John Hebert and drummer Eric McPherson, so it only stands to reason the pianist/composer […]

Expanse is the sophomore release for Tel Aviv trumpeter and composer Sefi Zisling, who builds on his acclaimed debut Beyond the Things I Know. Zisling’s sound melds contemporary jazz, funk, afro-jazz and spiritual jazz, much of what you hear on the nine-minute single “Happy Solar Return ft. Kutiman”, a piece that journeys through phases and […]

Some 40-odd years after his mysterious disappearance, Jim Sullivan is finally getting the fame that he worked so hard for in the sixties and seventies. This can be attributed to the reissue of his debut album U.F.O. being sent to a member of the record subscription service Vinyl Me, Please as their record of the […]

Will Oldham is never not busy. No stranger to hard work, he revels in the collaborative process of making art, often singing and playing music on friends’ albums, writing for soundtracks, or showing up on film. Oldham is a steady hand at his multitude of jobs—this is, after all, the man who once sang, “Without […]

Once again, the season of giving thanks has come and gone. As they have for so many years, Dark Star Orchestra commemorated the event by playing a pair of shows in New York.  They used to do them in Manhattan, but have come home to Long Island for the past few years. No pun intended, […]

Pink Floyd’s lavishly-designed The Later Years 1987-2019 effectively bookends the iconic British band’s career as  documented on a similarly massive box set released in 2016. Concentrating on the post-Roger Waters era, culls from studio records, an expanded version of a concert album and all manner of previously-unreleased and/or rare audio and video material appear on […]

This may be as talented a lineup as to ever grace a tribute album and that’s quite a statement considering the many that we’ve heard.  Consider these artists who pay tribute to the late jazz/blues great Mose Allison and then let the argument ensue – Taj Mahal, Robbie Fulks, Jackson Browne, The Tippo Allstars featuring […]

Ariana Grande is one of the two primary inspirations for Girl, the sophomore album from Girl Ray, out now on Moshi Moshi. The North London trio of Poppy, Sophie, and Iris (they don’t bother with last names) will be the first to tell you that this full-length follow-up to 2017’s then-teenaged Girl Ray’s earnestly twee […]

If you’re a fan of funk and soul, you probably know that you can find a lot of European groups playing in those genres. It kind of makes you wish that those bands would come over here and spread the gospel of funk and soul. On their new album Bumpin’ On, The Eminent Stars (from […]

One might be forgiven for passing on an album of 90s indie rock covers launched by a 90s indie rock icon, the act feeling too recursively throwback to many. But not for your humble correspondent as Quarter Century Classix (New West) nails its mission. While Ben Lee, the aforementioned icon, is under-appreciated, and perhaps best known […]

Chet Baker’s legendary Riverside albums are being released in all formats in a 5 -CD/LP Box Set. The four albums were released between 1958 and 1959: Chet Baker Sings: It Could Happen to You,  Chet Baker in New York, Chet and Chet Baker Plays the Best of Lerner and Loewe. The fifth is outtakes and […]

Scott H. Biram is a one-man band, handling vocals, guitar, drums, and harmonica. His persona is that of mad religious cult leader, songs often equal parts rock and roll and testifying. The image is aided by his surviving a head-on wreck with an 18-wheeler, returning to the stage a month later, giving him a supernatural […]

This tribute to Tom Waits is being issued a couple of weeks before his 70th birthday as an elite group of female artists find the beauty and magic in his songs on Come On Up to the House: Women Sing Waits. The results will likely startle you. The imagery you associate with Waits – the trashcan […]

The best music is timeless and malleable, lending itself to interpretation. Such is the music of The Allman Brothers Band.  As you know, this is the 50th anniversary of the release of their first studio album.  This year has seen multiple Allman Brothers-related projects, many of which were covered on these pages. This may be […]