Album Reviews

[rating=9.00] On the surface, this may seem like an odd pairing of two legends. Their voices couldn’t be more different with Alvin’s low and rowdy baritone offset by Gilmore’s high lonesome warble. Consider also Alvin’s blistering blues guitar attack with Gilmore’s mellow folk-country approach. The liners pose these kinds of dream duets: Bobby Blue Bland […]

[rating=8.00] After a 17-year hiatus, Mazzy Star returned with the release of 2013’s Seasons of Your Day. The well-received album showed fans that unlike some new releases from artists whose heyday was in the eighties and nineties, Mazzy Star have stayed true to their sound without succumbing to modern influences. For the past five years […]

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on What A Time To Be Alive, the new album from Superchunk, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

[rating=8.00] Six albums in eight years defies the conventional laws of supply and demand for most bands. Even the most ardent fans might have a hard time digesting a catalog that would span a most regular band’s career. However, Parquet Courts, is not an average band and their new album, Wide Awake!, is a stark […]

[rating=8.00] Beach House have one of the most fitting names of any band in the world. Their chilled and washed out brand of dream pop invariably invokes summer’s sense of infinite calm and satisfaction that comes with sun and sea. But the Baltimore duo has always had an air of melancholy that seeps into the […]

[rating=9.00] From a persistent pop star pigeonholed by the nom de plume given him early on, to the Cougar-less blue-collar troubadour bent on asserting his social conscious as his career evolved, John Mellencamp has always been most concerned with asserting his integrity. Having achieved equal status with his prodigious peers — Springsteen, Fogerty, Willie Nelson, […]

[rating=7.00] There’s a temptation to label Peace, the latest album from Swedish blues-rock groovers Graveyard, as something of a comeback album. After all, it’s their first release since their reformation after breaking up, so technically, I guess, the label fits. Of course, “break up,” no matter how official it was, feels like something of a […]

[rating=7.00] There are few funkier than George Clinton. He is embarking on his final world tour with a new album to support, the first under the Parliament band name in 38 years. Titled Medicaid Fraud Dogg it is a sprawling/exhausting exploration of the deep recesses of Clinton and crews collective consciousness in 2018.    For […]

[rating=8.00] Grant Green, despite his untimely death in 1979 at age 43, was amazingly prolific, having released 37 albums.  At one point there were 15 unissued albums by 1971. Live at Club Mozambique, a 1971 performance, was released in 2006, exhausting the lot of unissued until now. So, fans of the underrecognized but supremely influential […]

[rating=7.00] Mentions of dreams are sprinkled through Radio Sounds, veteran Nashville guitarist Tony Keats’ debut album as a singer-songwriter. It’s fair to say Keats has been wanting to go in his own direction for some time now after spending a decade on the road in the Southeast, playing gigs and waiting tables, never losing sight […]