Album Reviews

Although she’s a California girl these days, don’t be fooled—Lissie still writes and sings about matters close to Midwestern life. And boy can she sing—her voice has an eerie quality of a transient churchgoer who needs no practice to call the angels down from the sky; her pipes are soothing and quite heavenly. The songs on her EP, Why You Runnin,’ offer a bit of folk, an ounce of soul, and healthy dose of realism that you just can’t deny, no matter what mood you’re in—a stunning and charming debut.

Both in their recordings and stage performances, Los Lobos take a child-like pleasure in their playing, so it makes perfect sense for them to produce a CD exclusively devoted to music from Disney movies. Los Lobos Goes Disney is not a children's album, however, but rather an album for the inner child–and music lover– in all of us.

Fans of Chad Smith's other endeavors, the funk/punk of Red Hot Chili Peppers and the generic hard rock of Chickenfoot, will find his Bombastic Meatbats project to be a surprise to say the least. It owes more to 70s fusion artists John McLaughlin and Herbie Hancock and jazz-oriented prog than it does to any mainstream rock influence.

When you hear the title phrase Mountain Meadows, you may think of pastoral fields growing high in the sky with peaceful ease, not so for this Canadian trio.  Elliott Brood has constructed an aggressive electric folk period piece that deliberates on, or at was least inspired by, the Mountain Meadow Massacre of 1857.  Things kick off hot and mean with the best track on the album “Fingers and Tongues”; guitars ring with confidence over a feedback drone and ghost-like backing vocals.