Album Reviews

Much ado has been made already about "I Like It Small", the lead single off Vanishing Point, the ninth solo album from Seattle grunge icons Mudhoney. Is it about dick size? Is it about the intimacy of the venues the band likes to play in? Apparently, both instances are correct, as Mark Arm and company kick off their 25th year serving as the ultimate alternative to commercial rock

The pairing of Anais Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer is nothing short of magical on this seven-song collection of tracks. Mitchell’s clear, spritely voice is the perfect complement to Hamer’s thick, rich vocals, and when combined with the simple folk stylings of these traditional ballads from England and Scotland, these ballads are made stirring and beautiful. Child Ballads transports you to another time and place, and in so doing becomes one of the year’s most unique releases.

Like a pirate winking behind his eye patch, it’s hard to tell when Robyn Hitchcock is pulling your leg. Over the course of a career spanning nearly four decades, this visionary Brit wit has carved out a musical path that is purely unique. His work exists in a realm all its own, largely defying comparison to any other songwriter’s work.

The Black Angels' recorded efforts have demonstrated a commitment to an assertive, dense, and kaleidoscopic worldview. While Indigo Meadow stays firmly rooted in these stylistic conventions it also offers some nuanced texture. By downsizing to a four piece the band has granted greater influence to producer and live mixer John Cagelton, resulting in a vibrant, compelling album with fresh production clout.

Wahlfedlt and crew have crafted a layered goth/pop, industrial-light release that could have kids breaking out the black leather and massacre as soon as they spin Crusher.

Josh Rouse has delivered a record which plumbs the depths of the ups and downs of love and life with surprising richness and delicacy. While much of the material is more cheery than not, even the more wistful material—namely the closing title track—is imbued with a beauty that evokes tears of joy if anything, rather than sadness. Rouse has a way with melodies that draws you in and The Happiness Waltz is filled with melodies you will likely get stuck in your brain for a long time to come.

Following the dissolution of both his marriage and his first band, The Black Lillies’ founder Cruz Contreras spent a year on the road as a truck driver for a stone company in East Tennessee. Thus, after playing more than 200 shows in 2012 upon the release of The Lillies’ critically acclaimed debut, Contreras has lived a relentlessly nomadic existence. With its mix of pedal steel guitar, banjo, and crystalline harmonies, the melancholic and modern Appalachia-meets-Americana sound of second LP Runaway Freeway Blues is firmly rooted in the wandering spirit of a restless heart on the run.

The Ash & Clay, the latest album from The Milk Carton Kids, is no-frills, utterly simple folk music, and it is beautiful. Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale use nothing more than acoustic guitars and their effectively intertwining vocals to tell a series of tales that are both timely and timeless. The emotions are expressed subtly, the subjects are deep and the payoff is big. If you long for a return to the old days of folk music, then this is your ticket to happiness.

After a good decade embedded in electric brimstone both with the Seeds on such masterpieces as Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus and Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! as well as the pair of aces conjured with his short-lived blues-punk outfit Grinderman, the Australian modern rock icon returns to the tender subtlety of 2003's Nocturama or, better yet, 1997's brilliant The Boatman's Call as songs like opening track "We No Who U R", "Water's Edge" and "We Real Cool" testify.

Puscifer’s Donkey Punch The Night offers a few unique tunes and a cover worth listening to once, but as a whole, the EP is the most lacking studio product Maynard James Keenan has put out in recent memory.

Billy Bragg calls this latest set the follow-up to Mermaid Avenue he never made, and he’s right: a single listen confirms Tooth & Nail tops anything he’s recorded since those 1997 sessions with Wilco, which drew from Woody Guthrie’s poetry archive and yielded 47 songs and a trio of exceptional albums. The difference this time lies in the words, which belong to Bragg and not Woody, though his spirit turns up in a cover of “I Ain’t Got No Home” from Tooth & Nail, interpreted in the way only Bragg has mastered.

Listening to a They Might Be Giants album can be a bit like homework. That's probably not what the two Johns (Linnell and Flansburgh, respectively) envisioned when they started the band over thirty years ago. By now though, as the duo have released their 16th studio album, Nanobots, there's no denying that it takes some work to fully appreciate this band.

Eric Clapton has spent the better part of his solo career populating his albums with the material written by composers he admires. It would be safe thinking Clapton would devote the debut recording on his own label with a clutch of self-penned tunes, however on Old Sock, Slowhand continues in the vein of standards he mined on its predecessor Clapton.

Satellites, Skiggy Rapz’s newest album, showcases the 29 year-old’s fast-paced flow and intriguing and inspirational lyricism. The album, although classified as R&B, came off with a definite frat-rap feel, perfect from the upcoming summer months. Tracks like “Follow”, which features jazzy background instruments, and “Put It On”, which sounds remarkably similar to Macklemore, are fit to be played on a beach with a Corona in hand and neon bathing suits parading around.

When you have a genuine rock icon like Robert Plant not only taking a shine to you but covering two of your songs and making them infinitely better than your originals, perhaps its a non-verbal cue to completely step up your game. This is the conundrum faced by Duluth, Minnesota slow-core greats Low upon entering the creative process for their latest LP, The Invisible Way

Maybe the most impressive thing about Screaming Females – besides leading lady Marissa Paternoster's well-documented shredding chops – is the consistency of the group's output. Since lunging out of New Brunswick, New Jersey's sweaty-basement party scene in 2006, the trio has released five full-length studio albums, not a clunker among them. On Chalk Tape, their second studio EP, the Females continue to solidify their reputation for delivering wickedly efficient DIY rock

Dormarion sounding like that of “a man figuring out exactly who he is” is not exactly a good thing. Given the variety of the songs, the record lacks cohesion, which translates to an often frustrating listening experience. The bright side, of course, is that Lerner is still young and early enough on in his career to one day truly discover himself and reach his full potential.

Their relative youth, occupancy on the eminent Merge Records roster, and previous involvement in punkish outfits, they are also critically alluded as country music for the cool crowd, a band that even the bearded and cynical can get behind and support.

Between the steady, slightly scratchy vocals of Pete Quirk, the generally upbeat songs and the lyrics which traverse an emotional landscape that’s as broad as the Asian landscape, the latest release from The Cave Singers is an all around compelling effort.

The seemingly unlikely pairing of Adam Green and Binki Shapiro is a curious one. Adam Green of “Moldy Peaches” fame teams up with Binki Shapiro with her sultry and sometimes even smokey vocals. In their debut self titled album Adam Green & Binki Shapiro, they try their hand at the seemingly crowded genre of ‘60’s throwback pop’ and for the most part, succeed in creating a fun little album full of strange love songs. It’s a welcome distraction, but doesn’t leave a long lasting impression.