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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)

The Lawrence Arms

We Are the Champions of the World (A Retrospectus)
Fat Wreck Chords (2018)

The excitement of We Are the Champions of the Word (Retrospectus) is supposed to be the five new songs at the end of the 29-song collection. It probably is, but given how bands often release a Best Of before they breakup, this record feels more worrisome than celebratory. That’s just a personal feeling that views this as some kind of omen. Really, We Are the Champions is probably out now because the band has careers, kids and other things taking their time instead of writing new material. It’s been four years already since Metropole, daggum.So how is this “not a greatest hits” album, as the band so astutely puts it? Well, 75 minutes of any band is a lot. Add that it has 19 years’ worth of material, including a fair shake from The Lawrence Arms’ early years where they hadn’t quite solidified their sound, and it’s a little bit of a mixed bag. As a whole it’s a solid release, but I’m a punk rock child and my attention span has trouble with something this long. I think the band knew that would be an issue, putting old stuff in the middle and, essentially, arranging it like a double … Read more

Raging Nathans

Cheap Fame
Rad Girlfriend Records (2018)

This what pop-punk used to mean. On the record it’s clean and melodic, while the live show feels more aggressive … Read more

Geld

Perfect Texture
Iron Lung (2018)

Geld’s Perfect Texture is 11 tracks, 23 minutes, 41 seconds: walloping wallaby! I feel like I’m back in my initial … Read more

The Claudettes

Dance Scandal At The Gymnasium!
Yellow Dog Records (2018)

Do you like to be challenged every now and then? Just so that you are forced out of your comfort … Read more

Svalbard

It's Hard To Have Hope
Translation Loss (2018)

Some bands need a couple of albums to find their sound, their niche if you like. Other bands seem to … Read more

Kaada

Closing Statements
Mirakel (2018)

Whimsical/ˈhwɪm·zɪ·kəl, ˈwɪm-/adjectiveUnusual and alluring. Using imagination in a playful manner.This is admittedly, not a word that would typically be used … Read more

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One from the archives

Mastodon

Emperor of Sand
Warner Bros. (2017)

There have been few bands as exciting to watch their ascension into music legend than Mastodon. What's that you say? No, the term 'legend' is not hyperbole. Mastodon is just that good. And if there's any justice in this cold, cruel world, that legendary status will be hermetically sealed with Emperor of Sand.Emperor of Sand is mastodon's seventh full-length release and like previous albums is based around a very specific concept. In this case, the band takes on their biggest subject yet. Death itself. It would be nice if this were a hypothetical concept as with past albums, dealing with transcendental meditation and the like - but death and how we take it on and fight against it or how we deal with it as survivors once our loved ones … Read more

More album reviews

Exitmusic

The Recognitions
Felte Records (2018)

What gathered my eyes about Exitmusic’s newest album The Recognitions was not any previous knowledge about the group, but a shared name of a favorite book by William Gaddis. Gaddis’s book borrows heavily from religious text, poetry, opera; even the name borrows from the Clementine Recognitions: a religiously gnostic narrative featuring the Apostle Peter told through one Clement.In the Clementine … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Marriage Material

Making the Worry Worth It
Dirt Cult (2018)

I like this Making the Worry Worth It record. That should be all a review needs, right? I say that in part because this 9-minute EP is all over the place, style-wise. Marriage Material is a new group with members of Summer Vacation, Spokenest, Pinned in Place, and God Equals Genocide. It has some similarities to those bands, but each … Read more

Father Murphy

Rising: A Requiem for Father Murphy
Avant! Records (2018)

The mysterious figure of Father Murphy appeared as a spectre in the early '00s. Formed by, as the band claims, its children Freddie Murphy and Chiara Lee, the Italy based band has created a mystique around their musical investigations. Through the years, the figure of Father Murphy has remained elusive. Through the different records and EPs various facades have been … Read more

Miracle

The Strife of Love in a Dream
Relapse (2018)

Shake off the trenchant hold Depeche Mode has on dark sounding synth pop and Miracle opens up like a blooming flower. Sure David Gahan delivers more punch in his voice, and sure there’s a lack of Martin Gore's vibrato chilled melodies— aside from genre conventions monolithically constructed by Depeche Mode, Miracle is a more serious, mystical and cinematic variation of … Read more

The Breeders

All Nerve
4AD (2018)

When the Deal sisters re-assembled the lineup from their seminal Last Splash album for a 20th anniversary tour in 2014, they didn’t know how it was going to go. But, the tour went off without a hitch and any ill-will that seemed to exist between the Deals, drummer Jim MacPerson and bassist Josephine Wiggs appeared to dissipate into the ether. … Read more

Kitten Forever

Semi-Permanent
Independent (2018)

Kitten Forever are staples of the Twin Cities DIY scene. They also tour nationally and have received a good share of recognition for their unique merger of party punk and vitriol. Overall, the three-piece plays fuzzy, stripped down ragers that alternate between screaming frustration and bopping good times. Semi-Permanent is their fourth full-length and the general tone over the 11-song … Read more

Lotus

The Road To Calvary
Shield Recordings/Assault Records (2017)

Deep inside Belgium lies Lotus, the Powerbar of Antwerp hardcore. In early December Lotus released their particular blend of pessimistic optimism, paradoxically digestible yet equally unsettling. Steering modern hardcore trends away from cheap nihilism, The Road to Calvary bites down a vicious chunk of hardcore spirit that raises my pulse, burning the excess fat that clogs my record shelf.Within Lotus’s … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Neighborhood Brats

Night Shift EP
Taken By Surprise (2018)

It was such a disappointment to see Neighborhood Brats go on hiatus in 2015. I really enjoyed all their output to that point (a couple of EP’s and one full length). Luckily for me the band see the error of their ways and decided to start anew. With a new drummer and bass-player that is. That has not influenced the … Read more

Cheap Tissue

Cheap Tissue
Lolipop Records (2018)

LA’s Cheap Tissue bill themselves as rough around the edges garage punk, namedropping melodic yet understated groups like Radioactivity. While the general sound isn’t too far off the mark, the band’s take on high energy garage-fueled punk is more brash and spit-shined, showing more in common with acts like The Hives and New York Dolls. There’s more flash and posturing … Read more

High Priests

Spinning
Triple Eye Industries (2018)

When I first saw High Priests 3 or 4 years ago, I would have labeled them as stoner punk. While their press photos certainly still hit on that imagery, I’m not so sure that Spinning matches that descriptor in any sense. As for additional semi-relevant background info, the band has some recognizable faces from the punk scene: members and ex-members … Read more

Madensuyu

Current
Unday Records (2018)

I’ll start with a request for the reader: think about genres and how difficult it truly is to define music. It’s hard to hold in your head. Take metal for example. It is obvious that Black Sabbath is metal and so is Isis, despite how different they are. It isn’t as obvious how one turned into the other gradually. The … Read more

Jack White

Boarding House Reach
Third Man (2018)

Jack White has always been his own man. With The White Stripes, he cultivated a strong persona - turning blues guitar on its side and reworking what would normally be tired rehashed riffs and making them into something new and shiny for impressionable young ears.His first two solo albums, Blunderbuss and Lazaretto continued this tradition, giving the millennials a fresh … Read more

Various Artists

Starkweather/Concealment - Split
Translation Loss (2018)

After seven patient years Starkweather releases their third split Divided by Zero with Portugal’s Concealment. The two-song split cements itself with every listen as masterful. Like a vitamin, it’s not to be consumed on an empty stomach, or listened to with impatience. But brevity being the byproduct of vigor, and in summing up an emotionally exhausting 49 minutes of listening … Read more

Shame

Songs of Praise
Dead Oceans (2018)

Shame seems to have captured some buzz. They’ve had several clips in big UK publications and their debut was issued on Dead Oceans here in the States. The band plays forceful and somewhat haunting punk that’s brutal and harsh, but with heart and authentic emotion that seeps throughout the tough-on-the-surface songs. Sure the band screams out descriptive lyrics like “bathe … Read more

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