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Our latest album reviews, featuring the records we've most enjoyed (or not) over the past few weeks.

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Browse our album reviews according to score: Highest (9.5/10 or more) or Lowest (2/10 or less)

Brain Failure

American Dreamer
Thorp (2005)

Punk is a relative concept. In 1982, shaving your head into a mohawk and wearing studded jewelry was a symbol of rebellion. It was the aesthetic of a youth movement fueled by frustration with the status quo. It was a visual statement against suburbanite jocks listening to Bad Company and Styx. Today, the mohawk is a passing fad in hair fashion holding on to its last gasp of breath before getting boot into the realm of the uncool. The belts that once adorned Discharge and The Defects can be purchased at Targets in every strip mall across the fifty states. Everywhere you look you can see that punk fashion has been accepted by clothing designers, VJs, and pop stars. Punk has lost its shocking visual edge that was once an important part of its very existence. So why is a band from China, who wears studded leather and sports liberty spikes & bright red hair, making fun of kids who try to dress like old school punks? Brain Failure seems to have done just that in their song "Second Hand Pogo" on their new record. Perhaps I don't get it because I am pretty unfamiliar with the punk scene in … Read more

System of a Down

Mezmerize
Sony (2005)

Let me begin with a disclaimer. I don't mean to rant, but in general, I hate political bands. I can't … Read more

Foo Fighters

In Your Honor
RCA (2005)

"When someone comes up to you and asks which Led Zeppelin album they should buy, you should say 'Physical Graffiti'. … Read more

Multiple Authors

These Days

These Days
In Spite (2005)

"Hey, these dudes are seriously pissed." That's probably the initial thought that comes to mind when listening to These Days … Read more

Multiple Authors

These Days

These Days
In Spite (2005)

These Days took the time to build a following, and then just after they released their debut full-length, they decided … Read more

Spoon

Gimmie Fiction
Merge (2005)

Music elitists say that excellent music has not come out since the 70's; that the past thirty odd some years … Read more

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One from the archives

Massive Nightmares

Massive Nightmares
Independent (2024)

Right from the start, this EP sounds familiar. I can’t quite place the band I’m thinking of, but Massive Nightmares hit quickly in a warm and familiar way. They play punchy punk with a big dose of The Replacements-style rock ‘n’ roll. It’s killing me that I can’t place who, exactly, they remind me of, but members also play/played with Great Lakes USA, No Trigger, Save Ends, and David New Joy -- so maybe it’s one of them. Other sites have named The Lemonheads and The Gaslight Anthem too, which are all fitting descriptors. Anyway, back to the review. While the lyrics are serious and emotional, they also don’t take themselves too easily. The opening track, “Worth It,” has some backing “woos” that sound ad libbed -- in a “probably … Read more

More album reviews

Multiple Authors

Hollow Ground

Cold Reality
Organized Crime (2005)

I can't possibly make this a lengthy review. I can't! I've tried to think of creative ways to give my opinion on this piece of melodic, tough-guy hardcore, "in the vein of Comeback Kid, Hatebreed, and Terror." But I keeping finding myself back at that very phrase which sits mid-page on the band's bio that Organized Crime sent out. "...in … Read more

The Pogues

Ultimate Collection
WEA (2005)

I've never really been a fan of "best of..." collections. Too much of the time, they are released mid-career without justification or necessity, or to fill an unusually long gap between albums. Even more often, they are used as cynical marketing ploys, or worse, in order to milk the cash cow of any given artist whom lacks longevity. At times, … Read more

The Frames

Burn the Maps
Anti (2005)

The Frames are five Dubliners, with a handful of releases already. They use a variety of instruments, ranging from piano to horns and strings, effects, concepts and atmospheric layers shaping their music around human emotion often similar to that of Radiohead and Coldplay. The Frames is: Glen Hansard (Vocals/Guitar), Colm MacConlomaire (Violin/Keyboard/Vocals), Joseph Doyle (Bass/Vocals), Robert Bochnik (Guitar), and Johnny … Read more

Multiple Authors

Hollow Ground

Cold Reality
Organized Crime (2005)

An open letter to Hollow Ground and Organized Crime Records I'm not a detective or a mind-reader. I am neither Columbo, Criswell, nor Veronica-fucking-Mars. I'm just a guy who gets a meager paycheck working with kids that likes to review albums in his spare time. Don't make me search all over the internet for information on your band. Did you … Read more

Gang Gang Dance

God's Money
The Social Registry (2005)

Rare is music that can evoke a time and a place in the mind of the listener. Rarer still is when that time and place are of an otherworldly nature, subtle and peculiar, yet strangely settling. Of course, such music is often difficult to embrace, but with enough patience it is often the best. Gang Gang Dance's second LP, God's … Read more

Hangedup

Clatter for Control
Constellation (2005)

Every so often an album seems to come out of nowhere and totally blindsides you. This is one of those albums. I initially put this on with little knowledge about it other than the fact it was released by Constellation Records (home of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, A Silver Mt Zion, Fly Pan Am etc.) Within a matter of seconds … Read more

The White Stripes

Get Behind Me Satan
V2 (2005)

The very First time I heard White Stripes I honest to God thought I was hearing a Led Zeppelin bootleg. I walked into a record store and a minute later was telling a clerk "I'll take it". It wasn't Led Zeppelin. "I'll take it anyway". That was their sophomore album De Stijl, the album I still consider as one of … Read more

Colin Of Arabia

Illegal Exhibition of Speed
Rock Vegas (2004)

The first thing I noticed when pulling this CD out of the tray, was that it was one of those full size compact discs that only uses three inches in the middle. The outer ring of the disc was clear plastic. The image screened onto the disc looked pretty menacing with the clear background. I also noticed that the band … Read more

A Day To Remember

And Their Name Was Treason
Indianola (2005)

We've all done it - you mention a band unfamiliar to your friend and they'll ask "What does it sound like?" and being lazy North Americans we'll often reply with a barrage of noteworthy names just recognizable enough to wipe the inquisitive look from our hapless chum's face, and just obscure enough to retain "street cred" with the remainder of … Read more

Nine Inch Nails

With Teeth
Interscope (2005)

Pretty Hate Machine, The Downward Spiral, The Fragile - you name any of these titles to a Nine Inch Nails fan and they could probably give you a whole host of reasons why it's their favorite album. Then, of course, they'd inundate you with any number of words to describe front man/founder Trent Reznor: Genius, brilliant, twisted, brilliantly twisted genius … Read more

New Order

Waiting for the Sirens' Call
Warner Bros. (2005)

The past year or two have been interesting times for bands that mattered more in the 80's. In 2004, The Cure and Morrissey both released albums that earned them more attention (read: blind praise) than they'd seen in years. Apparently, 2005 marks New Order's turn. The term "washed up" once again comes to mind, but to me it seems like … Read more

Throwdown

Vendetta
Trustkill (2005)

Haymaker is one of the worst albums, hardcore or otherwise, I've ever heard. We're talking 'makes-Hatebreed-look-like-Converge' bad here. I honestly cannot fathom a duller, more cliched, and more mentally aggravating record ever coming out of any music scene (with the possible exception of post-rock). It was a harrowing, monstrous disappointment from a band who has managed to put out a … Read more

Bane

The Note
Equal Vision (2005)

Remember in high school when big ass dudes would ask you if you knew where the beach was, just so they could flex their muscles and say "that way"? I don't know if that made your underpants moist, but The Note is Bane flexing, and I am currently sitting in a puddle. Has Bane ever done anything bad? Ever disappointed … Read more

Four Tet

Everything Ecstatic
Domino (2005)

There is nothing quite like having to follow up a great record. 2003's Rounds was such an album; engaging, beautiful and charismatic. And for an electronica album, or "IDM" if you must, that was really something. Ironically, it was even released in the same month and on the same very label as Ulrich Schnauss's latest attempt to create the perfect … Read more

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Browse our album reviews according to score: Highest (9.5/10 or more) or Lowest (2/10 or less)