Album Reviews

[rating=9.00] Yeasayer is one of those bands that sound different on each album, a fact that is both refreshing and frustrating to fans. Though each album sounds distinctively like Yeasayer and like perhaps no one else in the industry, each channels their sound through different filters. All Hour Cymbols is a psychedelic album with Middle-Eastern […]

[rating=9.00] Sturgill Simpson has emerged as a standout in a new breed of country music artists who harken back to a purer sound in the genre’s history. He’s got that old school vibe with Waylon’s masculine grit and George Jones’ cowboy romanticism. And on his much anticipated new record A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, he […]

[rating=6.00] For some of 2016’s loveliest listens, look no further than Love Letter for Fire, the special new record from Jesca Hoop and Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam. The duo got together in all their hipster twee glory and created thirteen soft-focus, dazzling duets, complete with rich string accents and earthy acoustic guitar. Love Letter […]

[rating=6.00] An exodus from the sweet emotionalism of his former albums, Nate Currin takes listeners over to the flipside with the hard truth on his fourth studio album The Madman and The Poet. The first six tracks on the album are both the sparklers of the album and a foray into unchartered territory for Currin and […]

[rating=7.00] Coming quickly on the heels of the darkly determined Istanbul/Fog of War, By The Time Your Rocket Gets To Mars finds Jerry Joseph rekindling his better known signature style, one that’s equal parts rock ‘n’ roll with a profoundly populist stance. Joseph took a dire world view on Istanbul/Fog of War, a reflection of the sobering circumstance he […]

In the newest installment of Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle reviews the new album from country crooner Margo Price, Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution:  Read our full written album review of the new Margo Price album! [youtube id=”LtxUDSRfmto” width=”630″ height=”350″]  

[rating-6.00] Riding piggyback to Mumford and Sons as purveyors of the new populist folk, The Lumineers made a strong case their first time out that indeed, like the Mumfords, they’d be a band to reckon with. Their song “Ho Hey” practically became the new mainstream anthem, thanks to a catchy chorus that deemed it a […]

[rating=8.00]  There has always been an overtly punk aura around Parquet Courts’ work despite their ability to weave through the fluxing borders of such a genre. This is perhaps because they carry the same spirit of other, more renown past artists in the 80s. Much of the time they moralize in a far more subtle […]

[rating=8.00] It’s one thing to be a chameleon. However it’s quite another to change your tack completely. The former J Geils frontman Peter Wolf is, shall we say, a Wolf in sheep’s clothing. Where once he specialized in fire and frenzy via the band’s stomping, rollicking blues; Wolf’s solo career’s found him ploughing the fertile […]

[rating=6.00] Though they’re finally — finally — getting their due with their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cheap Trick could still be called the Rodney Dangerfields of Rock ‘n’ Roll. After all, respect has been a long time in coming for a band that’s been making records for more than four […]

[rating=8.00] The Dandy Warhols have been creating music together for over twenty years. The majority of the first half of their career was spent on major label Capitol Records where they produced their most mainstream album Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia, which included the single “Bohemian Like You”. After splitting with Capitol and forming their own […]

[rating=7.00] “I find no interest in the methodical stabilities of the sane/For I delight in the shadowy corners of unhinged thought, eating up my bad brains.” That deranged passage from the tellingly titled “Prophet Incarnate” off his new album, the even more descriptively dubbed Revelations of a Mind Unraveling adequately illustrates the fearsome rampage that’s […]

[rating 7.00] Whenever you have a producer with the credence and credibility of Brendan Benson at the helm, you’re bound to get attention. Of course, from that point on you have to then prove that you’re worthy all on your own. On their sophomore album Automatic + Voluntary, MODOC (singer/guitarist Clint Culberson, lead guitarist Kyle […]

In the newest installment of Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle reviews the new album from Brooklyn indie rockers Parquet Courts, Human Performance, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution:  [youtube id=”hv0bBjMc6FY” width=”630″ height=”350″] [youtube id=”Enter video ID (eg. Wq4Y7ztznKc)” width=”630″ height=”350″][youtube id=”Enter video ID (eg. Wq4Y7ztznKc)” width=”630″ height=”350″]

[rating=8.00] While the title of Bleached’s second album has a decomposing ring to it, the band has actually improved their upbeat pop punk from their excellent 2013 debut. That’s not to say everything is sunshine and spring gardens though as Welcome The Worms was written during some difficult times in the band members lives. Lyrically […]

[rating=5.00] When you find out that Wolfie’s Just Fine is the serious musical project for Jon Lajoie, who is probably best known for his role as Taco on The League, it makes you skeptical. How can a guy who plays a guy named Taco produce something worthwhile? Particularly if you’re familiar with his comedy albums […]

[rating=8.00] Damien Jurado makes a sublime noise, one characterized by found sound, ambient textures and a added suggestion of shoe-gaze and cryptic folk. That’s what makes him a singular musician and a challenge to typecast. Adding to that difficulty is that fact that his albums verve unpredictably in different directions, going from traces of electronica […]

[rating=8.00] Bob Mould has a fearsome reputation, and it’s little wonder considering his body of work boasts some of the most aggressive riffs ever put to wax. That’s been his constant, not only in his seminal band Husker Du and its successor, Sugar, but also throughout his own solo output, which, with few exceptions, have […]

Mike Patton and composer John Kaada reunite for another beautifully evocative trip into strange new worlds.

[rating=8.00] “Hello, this is Charles Bradley,” the prolific soul singer introduces himself in the powerful and emotional spoken word intro “God Bless America” on his latest record Changes. Never one to shy away from a dramatic entrance when it comes to his songs, Bradley does not disappoint on any part of Changes. And though it […]