Album Reviews

[rating=6.00] It’s appropriate that the gentlemen of The Far West all hail from different corners of the country because the sound they all make together represents a hearty scope of the land’s musical heritage. With members emanating from Chicago, Texas, upstate New York, and Los Angeles, the five-member band can certainly pass as an act […]

Goodnight Tender is a gutsy, creative, and complete effort that showcases a developed and mature sound, honest, meaningful lyrics, and a more personal side of Ray that will undoubtedly please her followers and open their ears to new realms of music.

Clark’s new album arrives with the same vigor, verve, and unique style that we’ve come to expect from a St. Vincent record, only here those qualities are turned up and carefully honed, resulting in a collection of songs that are among her most audacious and intriguing to date.

The most immediately recognizable difference between Angel Olsen’s debut album and the follow-up, Burn Your Fire For No Witness, is an exhilarating confidence woven through each song. The tremendous benefit of Olsen’s newfound poise is an inviting, personal album that encourages subsequent spins and features songs you want to explore.

[rating=7.00] The first release from Les Claypool’s Duo De Twang, Four Foot Shack, sounds like it was recorded in the titular setting, perhaps situated far from civilization. It’s a no-frills album featuring Claypool on bass and vocals with longtime pal Bryan Kehoe handling guitar duties. Together, they weirdly work through 15 tracks of selected Claypool […]

[rating=6.00] “It’s a totally selfish effort,” Tom Petty once remarked of making albums apart from his band, the Heartbreakers. Not so for Benmont Tench, Petty’s resident pianist, who for his own solo effort, You Should Be So Lucky, welcomed guests and put much of his project in their hands. Tench’s friends didn’t exactly wait for […]

[rating=8.00] It was an equally brave and honorable gesture Paul Rodgers made with The Royal Sessions. Offering homage to those artists, like Albert King, Sam, Dave and Otis Redding, that strongly influenced him to develop a career that included singing for “Free,” forming “Bad Company” and fronting the remaining members of “Queen,” one of the […]

[rating=10.0] As Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, and Mike Heidorn piloted their battered touring van up the eastern seaboard in the midst of an Arctic-like winter to Boston’s Fort Apache Sound, it’s doubtful they envisioned themselves as heartland saviors or inventors of newfangled musical genres. Sure, they were driven and motivated to make good on the […]

[rating=7.00] The honesty in John Butler’s songwriting comes through in his storytelling, both lyrically and instrumentally; it’s a component of his music that is very experience based.  In live performance, a cornerstone experience like “Ocean” is something that is transmitted from Butler into anyone who is actively listening.  The newest release from the John Butler […]

[rating=8.00] After the Disco, the follow up recording to Broken Bells’ self-titled release in 2010, could be as much a reference to a state beyond happiness as one of a state beyond loneliness. Using that as a thematic base for songwriting has yielded, again, a great unison of brilliant melody and dark infused lyricism. One […]

With the emergence of CD box sets, two specialties seem to be rising to the top like natural selection. Perhaps one’s a direct result of the other, who knows, but we now have the best label compilations (Island, Vertigo, Harvest, Dandelion, Dawn etc.) along with current labels compiling genre anthologies. Just released by Grapefruit Records, […]

[rating=7.00] There is distinct vulnerability in James Vincent McMorrow’s voice on his latest release Post Tropical.  It’s a tone that casts a vision of remembrance, strained relationships and patience, and while these are vivid elements that stand out in the music, they cause parts of the record to blend together the way they are arranged.  […]

[rating=8.00] Railroad Earth’s latest album, Last of the Outlaws, finds the sextet both exploring some new territory in the studio while at the same time giving their fans a healthy dose of what they have been used to since the band’s inception in 2001—tightly-crafted music that tells a story and seems to get better each […]

[rating=8.00] Written on both coasts between touring, Too True finds the Dum Dum Girls pushing off almost all their garage rocking ways and in turn trying on some shimmering 80’s pop for size; it sure fits well. Main songwriter Dee Dee Penny talked about an overall aesthetic (and a new guitar pedal) that links things […]

[rating=9.00] It is a tribute to Eric’s Clapton’s fundamental integrity as a musician that, no matter how deeply he’s pursued mainstream acceptance, he’s never wholly forsaken his roots in the blues. Accordingly, what might seem just another careerist move, his appearance on “MTV’s Unplugged television program in 1992, turns into a reinvention of his persona […]

[rating=6.00] Fun fact: Stephen Malkmus has now released one more album (six total) with his band the Jicks, than he recorded in the entirety of his tenure fronting alt-rock legends, Pavement. For us ‘90’s nostalgics now settling into a more steady and sedate form of adulthood, this only serves to reinforce how fast the time […]

[rating=7.00] Hailing from upstate New York this organic four piece plays Americana folk with ease and grace on their self titled third release. Recorded in an old church with help from Grammy winning engineer Robby Hunter the group blends melodies and strings to create a warm sound. Opening with a stripped down sense on “High […]

[rating=6.00] Trent Dabbs’ eighth release, The Way We Look at Horses, treads familiar territory for the Nashville singer-songwriter. It is a collection of songs dealing with concepts of love, loss, death, and spiritual discovery. The title track references equine therapy and how a spiritual connection with horse and rider can help uncover buried feelings and […]

[rating=7.00] All Your Life may be the loveliest album Al Di Meola has ever done. His affection for the Beatles material that comprises the album was no doubt amplified by recording at Abbey Road Studios where the iconic foursome did the bulk of their work. In producing this tribute to the Beatles, Di Mieola remains […]

[rating=7.00] Jonathan Meiburg hails Fellow Travelers to be his favorite Shearwater album, as it serves as a quintessential chronicle of the Austin band’s 13-year existence told through the songs of the various acts they’ve toured with during that time. Originally conceived as an EP release, it had quickly grown to LP proportions after realizing the […]