Zooey Deschanel (She) is best known for her roles in Elf and Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, while M. Ward (Him) is regarded as a guitar vitruoso amongst the new-wave of indie rockers. Volume One, their debut album as She & Him, is a throwback to old country and pop that reflects in Jenny Lewis’ recent old timey project with The Watson Twins.
It’s been some years since Carlene Carter began her music career consorting with Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds and The Rumour back in 1979. In fact, Stronger is her first album of original material since 1995, a work of renewed creativity inspired in its own way, like that of sibling once-removed of Rosanne Cash’s Black Cadillac, by personal tragedies to which the cd title refers.
Lots of people are complaining that Third doesn't sound like Portishead. These people are smoking crack. In fact, they're probably trying to smoke crack through their ears, which means the crack smoke is blocking out the music.
Tokyo Police Club has nailed the atmospheric dynamics, ringing guitars and emo sentiments confidently, but they are still way away from making serious dents in critics' ears.
YMSB marks their ten year milestone with the fifth installment of their adored live album series, Mountain Tracks. Mountain Tracks Five is a double disc offering sprinkled with “pickin and grinning” Yonder style.
After listening to the debut album (and first release by green-focused Parks and Records), one of two things must be true: Either the Randy Newman comparison is inaccurate or I need to reconsider my feelings about him. Or perhaps there is a third possibility: Carcrashlander gets very close to a line (that Newman crosses) which divides good from cheesy. One thing I know though, is that this album is really, really good.
Catching up with Glen Phillips, ex-member of Toad the Wet Sprocket, might surprise you with what he has to offer on his new EP, The Secrets of the New Explorers. He and friend John Askew decided to record six songs about a random subject that actually meant something to both of them: space travel. The result is a nice collection of songs, all with a “back to the future” feel to them. I can’t tell if it’s a sound that Phillips will continue to pursue, but the EP’s standout, “Solar Flare,” was worth the effort. Travel on.
Mudcrutch is not a Tom Petty album. Nor is it merely a novelty. It is rather the rebirth of a band that met an untimely end when coincidence and circumstance brought together what would later became Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers.
There's nothing on Saturdays = Youth that Johnny Cash could sing. The lyrics are bad poetry, and the melodies are completely forgettable. The only time the album works is when the band moves away from dull '80s pop, like they do on "Couleurs" and "Midnight Souls Still Remain."
Moby is a deep artist, but Last Night is a shallow album. This is Moby's tribute to his roots as a New York DJ in the mid- to late-'80s.
