Album Reviews

Minnesota folk-blues artist Charlie Parr entered the studio to record both new songs and newer versions of his classic songs. This might otherwise be rather insignificant except that this came after a freak accident lass than a year ago that forced him how to relearn how to play the guitar. This had him taking a […]

Beneath the Eyrie is the seventh full-length album from alt-rock legends Pixies and the third since the band reunited in 2004. Like 2016’s Head Carrier, it is a more mature album, trading in a lot of the frenetic eccentricity that characterized the band’s early releases for a more cohesive sound. The sound is still diverse […]

This is what this writer said about Bill Scorzari’s 2017 Through These Waves –“…his thoughtful cinematically shaped songs that continue to resonate after repeated listens. Yes, this is a “must hear” for singer-songwriter aficionados.” Most deeply outspoken singer-songwriter critics (and aficionados) would agree that his album was clearly among the year’s best.  To be sure, […]

How’s a Nineties-era rock star avoid becoming a mere nostalgia act? If you’re one of the Gallagher brothers who fronted Oasis, like Liam, you not only record new music in the form of Why Me? Why Not., but document the process on film, which is what he’s done with As You Were, a video which […]

Being a traveling musician—an artist—is not a path toward a glamorous, fulfilling life. Even those lucky enough to get to make a living at it will likely emphasize that the grass is always greener. On his new record with Hiss Golden Messenger (HGM), M.C. Taylor comes to terms with that deep-seated conflict. Terms of Surrender, […]

Ghalia Vauthier, now using the shortened “Volt” as a surname, the Belgian singer-songwriter/guitarist, is back with another after her acclaimed New Orleans- flavored debut Let the Demons Out. This emerging artist from Brussels splits her time between her native country and the American South. Longing to record in Mississippi’s North Hill Country, Ghalia went to […]

If you were to know that folk singer Lisa Bastoni recorded How We Want to Live not long after the dissolution of her marriage, the likely reaction would be – Oh, another breakup album? The good news is that she spares us that, focusing instead on what lies ahead. Sure, she sings about romantic relationships, […]

The buzz about Robbie Robertson’s first solo album since 2011 calls attention to his inspiration from decades of film work and fascination with the darker side of human nature. Yet, Sinematic touches on many more themes, from his autobiographical growing up, to the dissolution of The Band, to love, to politics, to climate change to […]

Freeway is the ninth full length recording for Pieta Brown, along with four Eps. It’s almost hard to conceive that she’s delivered so much output because one of the best aspects of Brown’s music is that each recording is different than the next, some radically, some more subtle. Her voice is a marvelous instrument – […]

Singer/songwriter/guitarist Samantha Fish has evolved from the guitar slasher in a power trio to an artist who has become increasingly restless and somewhat unpredictable. Maybe she’s settling into her signature sound and maybe not, but she’s caught the attention of enough folks to ascend to a major roots label, Rounder, home to such artists as […]

There’s something pleasantly cliche about a rock band reuniting after a solo album. It isn’t simply a matter of anticipation, but the hope that an old favorite, long resigned to a distant memory of what was, might be here to stay. The broad label ‘rock’ is being applied here, due to the fact that Meg and […]

Sargent House’s steadfast goth goddess Chelsea Wolfe goes intimately acoustic on her 6th album, Birth of Violence, retreating to her scarcely-lived-in home to record in the Northern California wilderness and departing from the densely churning bombast of 2017’s punishing Hiss Spun, instead snapping back to the acoustic equilibrium of her earliest days; nonetheless she keeps […]

The assumption about Elvis Presley has always been that, had he lived, he probably would have continued making music along the lines of what he had already made. So maybe he would have gone back to his rockabilly roots, as he did on the ’68 Comeback Special. Or maybe he would have doubled-down on the […]

Trombonist, composer, bandleader, festival owner, label owner, record producer and entrepreneur Austrian Paul Zauner has led his Blue Brass unit since the ‘90s, at times featuring key guests. Roots n’ Wings, though is every bit as much about the versatile saxophonist and composer David Murray who plays tenor sax and bass clarinet throughout and composed […]

LP5 is the 6th studio album from German electronic artist Apparat. It is a balm for a troubled world: at once relaxing, invigorating, and simply beautiful. Fans of Apparat’s side project as part of supergroup Moderat will find things to love in Apparat’s more downtempo, more organic sound; however, similarly, Apparat fans will likely see […]

Yes, we bring you another duo, but it certainly sounds like a big band on several tunes. Kurt and Brianna Jorgensen (The Jorgensens) step forth with their second album, The Lexington Stretch,  in the company of a dozen other players, including a three-piece horn section and several backup vocalists, although the configurations are different in […]

Apparently pleased with the freedom found the first time he devoted an entire EP to songs of other artists, Greg Laswell offers a belated sequel a full decade later and expands its content in the process. Like its predecessor, Covers II mostly leans towards the obscure, but here, as before, it matters very little. Laswell’s […]

Lana Del Rey just released her 5th major label full-length, Norman Fucking Rockwell!, produced by the supernaturally ubiquitous Jack Antonoff. It feels unbelievable that she already has so many albums to her name, all of which reached the highest couple of spots on the Billboard 200. Since 2011’s rocky blog-drama-fueled emergence, as attention has shifted […]

Brian Lynch is one of the top trumpet players in jazz, equally comfortable in an ensemble hard bop/straight ahead mode, or in Latin jazz where he often plays with Eddie Palmieri, with whom he won a Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album for 2006’s Simpatico. Lynch is not only a formidable and well respected sideman […]

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on The Book of Traps and Lessons, the new album from poet and artist Kate Tempest, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):