Album Reviews

There might not be a better match in the forward-thinking, hard-to-pin-down Ropeadope catalog than the Brazilian-born percussionist and composer Cyro Baptista. Few if any are more far-ranging than Baptista, currently a 20-year-plus member of Trey Anastasio’s band but one who has worked with Paul Simon to Yo-Yo-Ma and John Zorn, Herbie Hancock to Kathleen Battle, and […]

Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad is a band that is largely known as a reggae band. While that is a fair assessment, it is also an incomplete one. In its career, the band has incorporated a fair amount of psychedelic rock and soul into its sound. On the album Bright Days, the band even turned […]

2020’s What’s Your Pleasure? was a transformative album for Jessie Ware. It was marked by a spectacular burst in confidence, evidenced by the album’s seven singles, but somewhat miraculously, it actually warranted that kind of fanfare. As a dance album, few recent albums this side of Beyoncé’s Renaissance have been able to toe the line […]

Drummer and composer Mark Guiliana follows up his acclaimed 2022 the sound of listening with the arguably even more explorative Mischief.  His eight-year standing quartet of bassist Chris Morrissey, pianist Shai Maestro, and tenor saxophonist Jason Rigby recorded these tracks at the same session but took a more explorative, spontaneous path along the way.  So, […]

his week sees The National releasing First Two Pages Of Frankenstein, the latest chapter in their novelistic discography and first full album since 2019’s acclaimed I Am Easy To Find. This new collection of songs has the storied act rethinking their approach to the craft of songwriting and landing on a sound that uses sophisticated tones to add a sense of maturity to their child-like wonder of the world. 

When your recording career starts at such a young age, every new album feels like a first impression. Such is the case for 25-year-old Matt Maltese, who has been releasing boundary-pushing and vulnerable pop ballads since 2015 with each release since acting as a marker of growth for the young man both in musicianship and […]

Since 2018, guitarist Joe Marcinek has delivered unique live shows under the title of Dead Funk Summit, bringing together Melvin Seals (Jerry Garcia Band) for the ‘Dead’ and George Porter Jr. (The Meters) for the ‘Funk’. Now they enter the studio together for the first time, as Marcienck wrote eight originals for the group to get down with.

The German-born saxophonist Tobias Meinhart splits his time between New York City and Berlin. His 2019 album Berlin People introduced listeners to his Berlin-based band of the same name, a band that includes one of the premiere guitarists of this generation, Kurt Rosenwinkel. This group has toured extensively in Europe and South America and also […]

A million questions flood our heads when a legacy act like The Damned announces new music. We ask ourselves if this will be some sort of return to form or if the band will attempt to reinvent themselves in the pursuit of creative longevity. Some bands are able to stretch their imagination so thin that […]

Rickie Lee Jones’ Pieces of Treasure is a covers collaboration with Russ Titelman, her lifelong friend and producer of her two most noteworthy albums, her 1980 debut, Rickie Lee Jones and Pirates.

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on cursecursecurse, the new album from Wolves&Wolves&Wolves&Wolves, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

While it’s only been eight years since guitarist Neal Casal formed the ensemble after being tasked with providing incidental set break music for the “Fare Thee Well” concerts commemorating the 50th anniversary of The Grateful Dead, the group of instrumental firebrands – consisting of Dan Horne (bass), Mark Levy (drums) and Adam MacDougall (keys) – […]

Depending on the source, Savoy is being described as Taj Mahal’s first jazz album or just another approach to the blues, for which he is widely known. In any case, as he says on the jacket, this is all classic material, familiar songs “you would have heard at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem during its […]

Spectral Lines is the tenth album for the renowned singer, songwriter, musician, artist, and best-selling author Josh Ritter and it stands well apart from any of his previous works

With the weed smoke wafting around the Lower East Side, as tokers of all persuasions celebrated their high holy day of 4/20, the Bowery Electric was overtaken by a trio of ska/punk bands kicking up the stoner energy. 

The 90’s Britpop scene in the UK was all about promoting Britishness and “ladish” behavior and caused such a splash that some of those bands even spilled over to the U.S. (Oasis, Blur) though many that were hugely popular in the UK never saw a minute of airplay in the U.S. (The Bluetones, Ocean Color […]

He may have been born and raised in Michigan, but Joey Frendo has certainly soaked up the influences of Oklahoma’s Red Dirt musicians. A resident of the Sooner State since 2020, you can hear echoes of everyone from the Turnpike Troubadours to Leon Russell throughout his debut LP Bound for Heartache. Following up 2021’s Stone […]

n Between Thoughts…A New World The album sees the duo reinventing themselves once again by implementing moments of intimacy into the grandiose production

If there’s one aging but vital rock and roll songwriter/musician who doesn’t need a list of famous names to sell an album, it’s Ian Hunter.

The self-titled debut from Blondshell is an unfiltered look at a modern life littered with late-night self-reflection, bleakly humorous malaise, and poor romantic choices. Heavy doses of ’90s-tinged alternative rock mix with pop affections to create one of the more impressive debut albums in some time. Sabrina Teitelbaum started her recording career as BAUM but […]