Album Reviews

She may not be reinventing the wheel, but the wheel she’s working with is pretty damn impressive.

Mitchell brings an attentive and critical focus, measured with a slight whimsy and caprice that rounds the oftentimes harsh edge of folk music, and delivers a brilliant, entirely cohesive and utterly striking work of art in Young Man In America.

The Decemberists are far better than We All Raise Our Voices to the Air would lead the average listener to believe, and hopefully their next studio release and tour will prove it.

Perhaps even more so than Mermaid Avenue, New Multitudes is a definitive tribute from four of Woody Guthrie’s most faithful latter day apostles to the beauty, poignancy and political poetry of the many sides of this genuine folk hero on the 100th year of his exuberant existence as an essential entity of the true American spirit.

On “Phantom In The Valley” lead singer/guitarist/song-writer Ethan Miller sings about “Dusty notes of music/at the far end of the world!” but you don’t need to travel all that way to find Howlin’ Rain’s inspiration.  Just head into your parents basement and dust off the milk-crates that host your big brothers mid 70’s “classic” rock albums from a time gone by.  This is a big meaty album, a return to arena rock pomp and excess; knowing that in advance will clue people into the pluses and minuses fairly early of Howlin’ Rain’s newest release The Russian Wilds. 

This stripped-down, mostly acoustic affair captures friends Caetano Veloso and David Byrne collaborating on each other’s catalog of songs, during the Brazilian musician’s week-long Carnegie residency in 2004.

On Leaving Eden, Carolina Chocolate Drops move music forward, paying homage to the past while remaining rooted in the present. The result is a thoroughly enjoyable work that challenges our definition of string band music.  

A significant contribution to the broadening genre of LA indie-pop, Princeton’s Remembrance of Things to Come leaves the listener anxious to hear where these four musicians are headed as they develop a consistent, rich and intriguing sound.

The North Mississippi Allstars' 11.11.11 Live is emblematic of this band’s understated approach to their career since reuniting for last year’s Keys to the Kingdom. Released with little fanfare through their own website, available as digital only audio and double DVD in economical packaging on their own ‘Sounds of the South’ label, 11.11 finds NMA embracing their collective role as contemporary heirs to the longstanding tradition of the blues.

While Tim Kasher’s ambition to create a fully realized concept album is admirable, the decision seems ill-advised. After all, we live in the modern age of iPod Shuffles, when music fans are increasingly shunning full-length albums in favor of individual tracks. As a result, the failure of I Am Gemini is partly due to the success of the album’s cohesiveness.

Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr is the musical equivalent of meatloaf with gravy, mashed potatoes and a cold glass of milk to wash it down with. Not too exciting, very predictable, but also very comforting and in the right mood, exactly what you’re looking for.

Recorded over the course of 2011 with local Austin luminary Danny Reisch in their Lone Star State hometown and mixed by indie veteran Peter Katis from his studio in Bridgeport, CT, this record relishes in its statement that “no strings or glockenspiels were touched during the making of this album", making it clear that Animal Joy is in no way an extension of Shearwater's celebrated "Island Arc" trilogy comprised of 2006's Palo Santo, 2008's Rook and 2010's The Golden Archipelago.

Sometimes the fun of scouring the Internet to discover unsigned talent is to see how long it will take for a particular diamond to get snatched up by a label because it is so obvious the singer or band is inches away from achieving this goal. It is just a matter of which label gets the clue first. Jillian Edwards is one of those artists and her latest release, Headfirst, is going to catch ears sooner rather than later

Say this for the Heartless Bastards: they know what their strongest asset is, and on Arrow, their latest, they leverage the absolute crap out of it. Erika Wennerstrom is a powerhouse front-woman under any definition, and here, she's full-fledged and aggressive, just sweet enough to keep from sounding acidic, but someone who can power her way through a weak song on the strength of her vocals and make a strong song positively explode.

It's hard to describe Taylor, nominally a bluesman but, like James Blood Ulmer or another inscrutable picker, he;s more a mutant of the genre. He' won't get lost in something primal — a repeated phrase, worked to the point of exhaustion like Richie Havens singing "Freedom" — or keep things even-paced and laid-back, yet he finds himself pocketed with menace and portent.

Nick Thorburn is more confident in his craft which is evident in his back to basics approach.  Thorburn's candor does not mean he has lost any of his trademark catchifisity (prolific catchiness). For Canadian born Thorburn, A Sleep & A Feeling comes out between Lincoln and Washington's birthdays, which is fitting because it might be Island’s Jay Treaty or even Emancipation Proclamation.

The opening of the Band of Skulls’ second studio album, Sweet Sour, is as much of a commanding introduction as it is a statement to the listener.  The first sound that is heard is nearly like a shockwave that is sent out as a preliminary warning sign just before the drums and guitar enter in epic fashion.  This identifies the seriousness and focus of Sweet Sour and that idea is completely carried forth as the record progresses.

On first listen to the new Dr. Dog album, Be The Void, the group’s inimitable exultation emerges almost immediately and that, along with a willfully primitive recording style, distinguishes this recording as much as their past work.

In spite of some heartfelt and at times sardonic indie-pop, Feel the Sound, which clocks in at under an hour, leaves one with a sense of being unfulfilled but not necessarily wanting more.

Hospitality’s eponymous debut album, short in length but strong in substance, presents listeners with a fun, refreshing and accessible listening experience.