Album Reviews

[rating=8.00] Kings of Leon’s sixth studio album’s title is very fitting ride as the 11 tracks run the gamut from ballsy dive bar rockers to arena worthy sing alongs. The Followill family band took a lengthy break from recording and touring and returned to record one of their most eclectic and poignant albums. It was […]

[rating=8.00] Gov’t Mule has never made a record that sounded more like a Warren Haynes solo album than it previous studio work, By A Thread. In contrast, the band’s debut on Blue Note Records, Shout!, is a seamless piece reminiscent of their best work on stage and in the studio. In fact, The Mule almost […]

[rating=7.00] Philadelphia indie rockers Man Man have always sought to push the envelope. With the release of their fifth full-length album, they do that by taking their music in a direction no one expected: the mainstream. To say that On Oni Pond is the band’s most accessible work is putting it mildly. The band that […]

[rating=6.00] Austin indie rockers Okkervil River have just released their seventh full length studio album, The Silver Gymnasium. (ATO) Like most of the inclusions in the OR discography, The Silver Gymnasium is a concept album. But lead singer and chief composer Will Scheff isn’t your average front man. Any fan of the group can tell […]

[rating=6.00] First, a word on that jacket cover: is this a band selling, or a band for sale? The sign hanging above the pictured consignment shop/hair salon — Stylz Unlimited — suggests a bit of both. And in the foreground, MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser appear open for business, content with mingling among the […]

[rating=9.00] Upon first listen the aptly titled, Band of Heathens release, Sunday Morning Record, seems to stand in contrast to the group’s prior live and recorded material.  The sonically subtler collection of songs takes a few spins to ultimately reveal the rock, folk, country, blues, soul and gospel influences that make the Band of Heathens […]

Versions sounds both familiar and new, both surprising and self-evident; the songs here aren’t rebuilt from scratch so much as refined, clarified, crystallized. Only time will tell whether Versions is the end of the first chapter of the Zola Jesus discography or the beginning of the second, but it’s a worthwhile and fascinating effort in either case.

[rating=8.00] Rambling around those swampy crossroads of punk/soul/rockabilly Barrence Whitfield and The Savages are creating that garage lo-fi R & B that just rattles and shakes like 50’s boogie-woogie on a three day bender. The Boston based collective throws down with abandon, teetering on the edge of the stage, but never collapsing off of it. […]

[rating=8.00] With each album the Arctic Monkeys experiment with their sound a bit more, stretching out from their high-powered storytelling pub rock that shot them to instant fame back in 2006 with the classic Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. They played up their aggressive late night drug fueled party vibe during […]

[rating=7.00] But don’t let Glen Campbell’s advanced age (77) and recent diagnosis with Alzheimer’s Disease sway you from giving See You There – new recording of his old compositions – a listen. Campbell’s voice remains strong and this treasure chest of songs could easily be described as hauntingly beautiful. The album opens with two heartfelt, […]

[rating=6.00] Ben Shepherd has spent his career in the shadows. He spent most of his career as almost an afterthought in Soundgarden, the steady bassist always upstaged by Chris Cornell’s soaring vocals and Kim Thayil’s rapid-fire guitar solos. Perhaps it’s fitting then that Sheperd’s debut solo album is under the cryptic moniker HBS. One thing […]

[rating=7.00] During a break from recording and touring, Acoustic Syndicate’s trademark patchwork of bluegrass, rock, jazz, and reggae must have still been evolving somehow. After semi-disbanding in 2005, the band began playing shows again a few years later. It seemed for a while that playing occasional southeastern shows would be whole of the band’s future. […]

[rating=6.00] The new noise/drone/art-rock duo Body/Head is actually comprised of two elders on the scene, Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth fame and Bill Nace who runs Open Mouth Records out of Northampton, Massachusetts. The pair has lived in these experimental waters all their lives combining forces on this dense, layered and challenging release that only […]

[rating=8.00] The North Mississippi Allstars have never strayed too far from the blues of their native South (apart from the mainstream rock of Polaris that is). But not since the raw, gutsy likes of their debut recording have they immersed themselves so fully and unabashedly in their main influences as they do on World Boogie […]

[rating=8.00] Not since the late-career heyday of RL Burnside has the contemporary blues market been as exciting as it’s been over the past couple of years. And right alongside Gary Clark, Jr. in the march to bring some soul back to the age-old American art is none other than fellow Austin Texan Black Joe Lewis, […]

[rating=8.00] Two years after the release of 2009’s Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, the Glasgow band went on hiatus with no definite plans of regrouping. The band was burned out, weary from nonstop touring and jaded by an album that was both a critical and commercial disappointment. It took a lot of soul searching to determine whether […]

[rating=8.00] George Orwell lived through the two worst wars in human history. These were dark times indeed, and his uneasiness for the future of humanity manifested itself in the masterpiece 1984. No one will deny it as a work of genius. Unfortunately though, Mr. Orwell got it completely wrong. The dystopian future he imagined came […]

[rating=9.00] When Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks formed the Tedeschi Trucks Band in 2010, it was cause for celebration. On a personal level, the married couple would no longer have to endure separation during long tours. Musically, the new band maximized the strengths of each while downplaying their weaknesses. Trucks, whether playing in his own […]

[rating=9.00] Moderat is Apparat and Modeselektor. Whether that means anything to you shouldn’t matter. However, if it does, you already know you should acquire this album. For the uninitiated: both Apparat and Modeselektor are of the Berlin electronic scene. Apparat is a one-man show, Sascha Ring, with roots in techno and ambient music. Duo Modeselektor, […]

[rating=7.00] Even as he toured with Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2007, John Frusciante, the band’s guitarist, hauled a synthesizer and a drum machine between hotel rooms. His mind was on making different music, though the road offered little time to dabble. So when the group took a two-year break, Frusciante never returned; his solo […]