Album Reviews

Released on the same day as his offspring's second birthday, is indicative of the musician's timeless, quality-heavy chops. Rock is better for having Brendan Benson in its world.

Lower Dens hails from Baltimore, an important fact to consider when listening to their music.  It’s a trippy, synth-fueled and mystifying sound that alternates between pulsing, metronomic beats and more languidly buzzing slow burners.

Harmonicraft isn’t paint by numbers hard rock, but it also isn’t breathing life into arena rock at the moment.

While Pearl Jam has always had a strong pop sensibility to its arena-ready hard rock sound, Brad, the side project co-founded by Pearl Jam rhythm guitarist Stone Gossard, delivers full-on pop music, albeit with an intelligent, psychedelic edg

Call him over the top, call him excessive or even arrogant, but one cannot fault Rufus Wainwright for not trying hard enough and delivering with musical aplomb. The difference with Out Of The Game, however, is that he’s provided a cohesive work that exemplifies his talents, for the most part excises his overindulgence, highlights his sharp wit and exceptional musical skill.

he Lumineers is an incredibly impressive opening statement from a band with a lot to say, but who is determined to say it with a level of emotional integrity that is bound to resonate across genre.

Constantly experimenting with a mélange of sounds and styles, Aufheben finds the band cooly combining an instrumental hybrid of modern garage rock, moody electronics, eastern-influenced dub-lite, and Velvet Underground cool.

In the five years since his debut EP, CB Radio, Chris Burns has transformed from a loop pedal-wielding solo musician to front-man The inherent risk in such a change is to go from a raw, intimate sound to overproduced pop alchemy. In the case of Burns’ full-length debut, Out of the Well, those pitfalls are largely avoided.

Landline may not be the absolute best album in Laswell’s already impressive discography, but it’s pretty damn close. Landline is an emotionally resonant, musically diverse and vocally superior record that is easily one of 2012’s best.

Following the success of their 2008 debut, Jackson Square, which had Arkells touring with the likes of Pearl Jam and Them Crooked Vultures, the Ontario indie rockers garnered acclaim for their energetic live shows. Michigan Left, the band’s second full-length album, is an attempt to capture that stage show on record.

There will be hundreds of records to choose from on Record Store Day, and hundreds of hands pawing through them. Over in the 45 bins you’ll run across a box set that soul, funk and 45 fans that might be a bit much to process during the feeding frenzy, so here’s a heads-up: Never to be Forgotten: The Flip Side of Stax 1968—1974 brings together ten Stax 45s that are  both overlooked and memorable

Buried beneath the clunkiness of this project’s name is Spencer Krug, well-known as the noodling, keyboard-playing, co-leader of Wolf Parade.  Yep, you remember them: the versatile Canadian indie-rock outfit who rocked hard over the course of a handful of solid albums and EP”s before taking an indefinite hiatus last spring.

Noctourniquet is undoubtedly the most accessible Mars Volta album yet, one that replaces the overreaching bloat of their last two or three titles with the most DIY display of prog-rock dazzle since Adrian Belew toured with Talking Heads. If The Bedlam in Goliath was their Tormato, then consider this excellent outing to be their 90125. And I mean that in the best possible way.

Carnivale Electricos straight through represents one of the group’s famous Lundi Day concerts, playing the jambalaya funk til sun up.  Galactic are already ambassadors to the town, but now they add one more staple to their collection and in doing so show the rest of the world just how vital New Orleans is to the sound of life. 

Diamond Rugs' self-titled debut, out on Partisan Records, is a 14-song gem lined with country-rock wailing, Replacements’ punk stomping, and bluesy jazz riffs reminiscent of Exile-era Stones.  The sum of its’ parts, Diamond Rugs’ song-craft will also remind listeners of the various members’ main projects. 

It’s not often one hears a new recording that immediately grabs the listener as something to which you’ll need to listen over and over. However, Norwegian Ane Brun’s new (and eighth) album, It All Starts With One, does exactly that.

Herzog are a new band (much like Surfer Blood) that swims in the same waters of late 90’s indie guitar rock made popular by Modest Mouse and Built To Spill.  The guitars are layered and textured at times reaching arena ready levels while the grooves always seem incredibly bouncy.  The lyrics are secondary and at times buried to deep but focus on heartbreak or distance without ever becoming bitter. 

Ultimately, New Wild Everywhere just doesn’t go many places that the band hasn’t already gone, and instead gives glimpses into the exciting styles of other bands and influences without elevating those for Great Lake Swimmers.

With the Disco Biscuits existing in something of a musical purgatory these days, playing only large scale events like Camp Bisco and Mayan Holidaze, founding members Marc Brownstein (bass) and Aron Magner (keys) are focused squarely on Conspirator, the side project they developed in 2004. Enfolding guitarist Chris Michetti into a permanent guitar slot and calling on a rotating cast of talented livetronica drummers, the band just released Unlocked: Live from the Georgia Theater on SCI Fidelity.

Even though Young Hines might easily be presumed as just a clever stage name, it is in fact this band leader’s own name, given to him on account of him being the youngest of seven children. After listening to Give Me My Change and hearing the striking range of Hines' voice, it comes as no surprise to learn that he was once John Lennon in a Beatles cover band called The Roaches.