Album Reviews

The Beautiful Girls: Water

To follow the success of We're Already Gone, The Beautiful Girls decided to move ahead by looking behind, filling in their new American audience with Water, a compilation of tracks pulled from those earlier releases between 2002 and 2004.

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The Slip: Eisenhower

While Eisenhower may eventually prove to be just another step in a larger, ongoing Slip journey, it proves to be the band's monumental achievement nonetheless. Not so much for it’s distinction from previous efforts, but for proving that a fledging band that debuted with such spark could persevere, and ultimately, a decade later, change the way you look at rock.

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Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood: Out Louder

Eight years following A Go Go, Out Louder pairs the groove kings together once again. Melding the sonic style of John Scofield with the groove heavy sound of MMW, these musicians easily found common ground. In fact, they sound as if they have played together for years.

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The Capitol Years: Dance Away the Terror

Reverb-laden vocals on the austere title track set a tone to match the doom and gloom associated with The Stills’ debut, but just when you think The Capitol Years has gone all Interpol, the band rips down the shroud to show you their shrine.

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Bobby Bare Jr.’s Young Criminal’s Starvation League: The Longest Meow

One of Nashville’s favorite sons, Bobby Bare Jr. has done it again. Pulling a who’s who of indie rock and roll together, the Young Criminal’s Starvation League churned out a bright album with The Longest Meow. Eleven musicians including Jim James, Patrick Hallahan, Carl Broemel all of My Morning Jacket, crafted the eleven track album in just eleven hours at Nashville’s Ocean Way Studios.

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Birdmonster: No Midnight

On their debut album No Midnight, Birdmonster has succeeded in producing a work that ought to please fans of generic indie rock – while not particularly challenging them.

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Thea Gilmore: Harpo’s Ghost

The latest offering from acclaimed British singer-songwriter Thea Gilmore isn’t that far of a departure from her Avalanche or Songs From The Gutter releases – full of quality songs and equally high levels of musicianship.

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Beck: The Information

Beck takes one of his biggest risks with this latest effort, but he often sounds bored and un-inspired, forcing many songs to crying for guitar. This should have been released as a ten song ringer, instead The Information suffers from “dud overload.”

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Shearwater: Palo Santo

Vocal dramatics are the essence of Shearwater's forurth album, Palo Santo, with vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Meiburg consistently exposing a forever-fluctuating line between kitten purr and banshee wail.

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