Album Reviews

Nashville by way of Louisiana musician Chris Canterbury can’t be accused of false advertising with his latest, Quaalude Lullabies. Across nine tracks, Canterbury lays out songs of depression, loneliness and addiction with remarkable honesty. The template is set early with the opening track, “The Devil, The Dealer & The Dark Side Mastered,” with little more […]

Too often we hear the descriptors “highly anticipated” or “most personal yet” regarding album releases. Yet, in the case of rising activist singer-songwriter Danielle Ponder, the former certainly applies and while there is no precedent for the latter, Ponder’s mission has always been deeply personal. As a former public defender, turned musician she remains a […]

Dev Hynes has gone through many phases in his career. Whether it’s his time in the noise-punk band Test Icicles or the folk-inspired twang of his two albums as Lightspeed Champion, Dev Hynes is able to dive into any genre and make it his own. His most popular project is the neo-soul-drenched rock albums he’s […]

Sometimes you hear a band and all you can think is “How do do they do it?” Specifically, you wonder how the band can do it so well for so long. Clutch is a band that inspires that thought in its fans. The band has been around for 30 years, so it doesn’t require a […]

The newest release from the long-running, Los Angeles-based noise rock duo No Age has been percolating for a while and marks the first time the pair recorded and produced themselves without outside support.  The players, Randy Randall and Dean Allen Spunt, started recording People Helping People pre-pandemic but when the world shut down they lost […]

Looking back on Miles Davis’ return from his six-year hiatus in 1981, he quite clearly began to draw a sketch of the musical style he wanted to pursue for the foreseeable future. That’s What Happened 1982-1985: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 7 not only provides details and variations on that outline represented by his initial studio recording, The Man With The Horn, […]

Los Angeles’ Starcrawler, featuring Arrow De Wilde (vocals), Henri Cash (guitar), Bill Cash (guitar), Tim Franco (bass), and Seth Carolina (drums), have taken the “Rock is dead” pessimists to task ever since releasing their self-titled debut album in 2018. ‘Devour You’ followed just a year later and now the young quintet has creatively and seamlessly […]

We’re not yet sure how many albums will result from Terri Lyne Carrington’s new endeavor, as she developed a New Standards Lead Sheet Songbook that features 101 songs by female composers that will be published September 15 by Hal Leonard. Commensurate with this timing, we have this recording, Vol. 1, from her elite band and […]

If 2016’s Light Upon the Lake is set to be Whitney’s high-water mark, then they could do a lot worse. Sure, it will always be the breakthrough debut, and Forever Turned Around will probably always be seen as the sophomore stumble, even if it’s better than you remember, but Spark doesn’t do anything to sway […]

Anyone mystified by the release of a 2018 Remix of Pink Floyd’s Animals four years after the fact only needs to take note of the almost startling relevance of the songs on the 1977 album. Notwithstanding the use of a conceit similar to George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the topical pertinence is as provocative as the sound, both of which deserve […]

The newest album from the persevering Gogol Bordello, SOLIDARITINE, was written by frontman Eugene Hutz before the Russian invasion of Ukraine took place, but his songs directly connect as the artist has been writing about displaced people struggling in this world and coming together as humans for decades now.  The title of the album is […]

Rapscallion, the sixth album from the Melbourne-based outfit The Murlocs, dabbles in strong doses of 60’s garage, psych, and prog rock throughout the twelve tripped-out tracks.   The group is comprised of members who also participate in other prominent bands from the Melbourne scene. Ambrose Kenny-Smith (vocals, guitar, harmonica) and Cook Craig (bass) are members of King […]

“Whatever you do, do it with feeling.” Those are words to live by and few live them better than veteran Chicago bluesman, John Primer who is considered, along with Lurrie Bell, as one of the best traditional blues electric blues guitarists. If you’re unaware, the two-time Grammy-nominated Primer’s lineage is staggering. Before striking out on […]

After eight solo albums and more than a dozen records with the Old 97’s, it’s safe to assume you know what you’re getting with a new Rhett Miller album. That’s what makes The Misfit, his latest, so compelling. The Roots/Americana foundation that has been the defining factor of most of his music dating back to […]

Six decades and some forty albums on, not counting those he appeared on as a sideman or produced, pianist/vocalist/producer Ben Sidran releases an all-instrumental album. Even if you haven’t dug into Sidran’s solo material, you might be familiar with him as a close associate to his mentor, Mose Allison, or as a producer for the […]

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on the self-titled debut from Thee Sacred Souls, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

In recent years the trios and quartets of traditional gospel singers have sprung up from West Coast-based groups such as the Bay Area’s The Sons of the Soul Revivers to Vancouver’s Sojourners. Yet, if one were paying closer attention, one did first hear from The Harlem Gospel Travelers in 2019 when soul singer Eli Paperboy […]

The New Mastersounds, while new to this writer and maybe some of you, have been plying their craft of soul and funk for over two decades now through seventeen albums. If the band name is unfamiliar, at least a couple of the band members won’t be. Leader and guitarist Eddie Roberts was an integral member […]

On My Boy, Marlon Williams has a little more pep in his step than on previous outings. It may not be the equivalent of an ANOHNI going disco revelation, but to his credit, he got the voice right. Those two albums are still very different, but what Williams does manage to capture, more than on […]

After a five-year break from making new material together, Cincinnati rockers The Afghan Whigs return with its ninth studio album, How Do You Burn? The band’s third album since reuniting in 2012 was recorded at a distance during COVID lockdown, but it still sounds cohesive.  Sonically, How Do You Burn? is closely related to the […]