Album Reviews

[rating=8.00] Although pianist Brad Mehldau spends the greater portion of his time on his main pursuits, that is, playing with his trio and in a solo format, his outside collaborations aren’t much less intense. Or provocative for that matter: witness Nearness, a live duet album with saxophonist Joshua Redman or  Taming the Tiger, a pairing […]

[rating=6.00] Six years since their debut album, the Cloud Nothings are back with Life Without Sound, their most polished album to date. Frontman Dylan Baldi has historically had a lead foot on the songwriting accelerator, releasing albums in rapid succession, that is ,until he began writing Life Without Sound. Baldi took his time perfecting the […]

[rating=8.00] Regardless of his guise, the one thing that’s consistent about Tommy Stinson’s musical career is his proficiency for pure, unabashed thrash ‘n’ roll. It was nurtured as a core member of The Replacements and then spun off with his solo forays, his support stints with Soul Asylum and Guns N’ Roses, and his various […]

[rating=8.00] The legend that is Taj Mahal released a time capsule of acoustic country, folk, blues in Labor Of Love, his first offering in four years and 47th record to date! Housing classic Mahal favorites like “Stack-O-Lee”, “Walking Blues”, and John Hurt penned personal favorite, “My Creole Bell”, but the succulence is the atmosphere. Clearly […]

[rating=8.00] Hang opens like Mick Jagger covered in glitter telling you to just be yourself. Foxygen’s fourth official record picks up where they left off. The last song on their previous album …And Star Power, is this gentle 70’s tune that would fit somewhere right between the Stones’ “Wild Horses” and “Angie.” It’s titled also […]

[rating=8.00] As one might expect of a collective of sorts, Band of Heathens worked their way into the spotlight fairly quickly. It wasn’t that they had any grand designs, or even any thoughts about becoming a band in the first place. What initially began as a series of Wednesday night jam sessions at a club […]

[rating=9.00] In 2014 the duo of Killer Mike and El-P put out RTJ2, the second album of their Run the Jewels partnership and quickly jumped to success and national critical acclaim. Now on their third release the duo up the ante for their protest rhymes, swaggering boasts and wide ranging beats; the album is a […]

[rating=9.00] Coming on the heels of a pair of musical detours — Undercover, a set of songs that found them re-imaging some of their favorite cover tunes, and last year’s Ladies & Gentlemen, an album that featured several high profile guest singers of the female variety, Laws of Gravity finds the Infamous Stringdusters doing what […]

[rating=6.00] For the last few years the Oklahoma based freak rock outfit The Flaming Lips have been dabbling with pop music history. From their reinterpretation of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band to their recent Miley Cyrus partnership, yet the group have stayed quiet with their own releases since 2013’s downer, drug fueled break up […]

[rating=9.00] From the opening measures of I See You, it is clear that London trio The XX have broken their mold. “Dangerous” is a big, layered pop song with a dancehall beat and a “Thriller”-esque bouncing bassline. It still has some of the band’s trademarks, such as the sultry intertwining vocals of Romy Madley Croft […]