Album Reviews

If you’ve ever wondered what Nick Cave fronting Morphine might sound like (and really, who hasn’t?) chances are it would be a lot like Whitney Walker’s latest, A Dog Staring Into a Mirror on the Floor. And from the album title alone you know this is not standard fare pop music. The New England-based singer […]

U.S. Girls, the experimental art-pop project of Toronto-based musician Meg Remy, has never been easy to pin down; shifting and evolving their sound with each album while Remy explores and toys with the nature and content of pop songwriting

The enduring Australian band’s twenty-sixth album, The Hypnagogue, might well be termed a return to form, except that, even as it incorporates new recruits, the band picks right up where it left off with 2017’s Man Woman Life Death Infinity.

Those familiar with the legendary bassist Buster Williams likely think of him in terms of his associations with Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Art Blakey, Miles Davis, and countless others. To these, this recent release, Unalome, a vocal album, may come as a bit of a surprise. Yet, through his storied career, Williams has also been […]

Shame’s third album Food for Worms is the invigorating third LP from shame and captures the band at a moment where they finally seem at peace with their newfound fame

On their latest release, Cracker Island, Gorillaz continues to dive headfirst into entirely new worlds and this time around, it’s more scenic than ever. 

Death Valley Girls have softened musically with each release, adding more pop influences, and digging more into the spiritual hippy cosmos of the we-are-all-in-this-together vibe. They also have continually improved, as Islands in the Sky is their best album to date.

Pianist Steve Okonski, the leader of his eponymous trio Okonski, teamed with drummer Aaron Fraser, also a member of Durand Jones’ band, along with bassist Michael Isvara “Ish” Montgomery in the Colemine label’s Loveland, Ohio studios

After more than two-decades fronting Eleven Hundred Springs, one of the Lone Star State’s most popular honky tonk bands, Matt Hillyer wasted little time turning over the page to the next chapter of his career. The band called it quits in 2021, and Hillyer is already out with a solo record, though admittedly one he […]

Those that have even dipped their toe into Blues music have likely heard of John Lee Hooker, one of the earliest to adapt Delta blues to an electric guitar. Starting his recording career in the 1940s, there is no shortage of recordings of Hooker’s work floating around. There is, however, a shortage of great sounding […]

On their third LP, That Texas Touch, The Tender Things continue their tradition of blending classic Outlaw Country music with elements of Lone Star groove for another remarkably satisfying record. Founded by Jesse Ebaugh in 2018 after leaving the Heartless Bastards, he pulled in some of Austin’s prime session players – with resumes that included work […]

Across 12 studio albums, Lucero has experimented with their sound, adding in horns at times while slipping in and out of country and punk rock to various degrees. But at the core of each and every record, the Memphis band has remained fiercely independent in their sound. Ben Nichols’ distinctive gravely vocals soaring over the […]

The clouds begin to part after a dreary winter in New York City and the sun makes an appearance for the first time in weeks. You walk outside and stare at its blinding power as its warmth illuminates your face. That juxtaposing feeling of a brisk wind as the sun beams down on your exposed […]

Talk about a labor of love. Iris DeMent’s “Workin’ on a World,” her seventh album, is a product six years in the making and comes eight years after her most recent album. The revered singer-songwriter, recipient of the Americana Music Trailblazer Award in 2017, has never shied away from speaking her mind.  Yet rather than […]

On Maxo’s new LP, Even God Has A Sense of Humor, the rapper explores those moments that take us out of solace and places them under a microscope to further understand why certain moments can snap us out of relaxation.

Preeminent contemporary jazz artist, ambassador, and impresario Christian McBride has built his stellar reputation in part by not being easily pigeonholed.

Trumpeter Josh Lawrence leads a quintet featuring the stalwart Posi-Tone rhythm section along with Willie Morris on tenor sax and Jason Tiemann on drums for select tracks for And That Too, his fifth recording for the label, a quick follow-up to Call Time, released in September 2022.

The Secret Machines’ newest release actually dates back to 2010 when the group started recording it in a unique, real-time fashion using a ‘first thought being the best thought’ rule for the session.

It’s a testament to Marshall Crenshaw’s persistence, not to mention his professional pride, that he’s secured the rights to his catalog as originally released on Warner Brothers Records. Issued on double-LP vinyl for RSD reissue in the fall of 2022–in which format it sold out–a 40th Anniversary Expanded Edition of his self-titled debut on compact disc reaffirms the value […]

To attempt to personify the newest release from Animal Collective’s Avey Tare would be futile, and a disservice to the music itself. Tare is gearing up to release his first body of solo material in four years, 7s was recorded in the shadows of mountains down in Asheville, North Carolina. Tare would rise out of […]