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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)

Hop Along

Bark Off Your Head, Dog
Saddle Creek (2018)

Hop Along have been on a tear since the release of their 2012 debut, Get Disowned and came to proper prominence with 2015’s Painted Shut, a showcase of a young band coming into their own, and placing the extraordinary voice of singer/guitarist Frances Quinlan center stage. It’s a low-key classic in it’s own right, so the release of Bark Off Your Head, Dog comes with some high expectations. Happily, it doesn’t disappoint.The nine-song collection adds some new hues to Hop Along’s rapidly kaleidoscoping sound – the rawboned riffs of the first single “How Simple,” the acoustic guitar and strings of the gorgeous “How You Got Your Limp” and the funky-mathy rhythms of “The Fox in Motion”. Then there’s some littler experiments: “What the Writer Meant” starts with brushed drums that break into a gorgeously power-pop chorus while “Look of Love” fucks with some serious psychadelic-era Beatles harmonies. Bark Off Your Head, Dog is album that pushes Hop Along forward, showing band striving to find what’s possible in their sound, opposed to making something that sounds like them. It makes sense – that’s never quite been their DNA. Hop Along sound a bit restless here, but that’s why it works. It’s … Read more

Baptists

Beacon of Faith
Southern Lord (2018)

Canadian hardcore is a weirdly veiled style. Like Canadian politics, it is highly deferential, often distinctly so. This means it … Read more

Dimmu Borgir

Eonian
Nuclear Blast (2018)

For Dimmu Borgir, who haven’t released a full length album in over seven years, Eonian marks a shift for a … Read more

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 … 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

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One from the archives

Doomtree

No Kings
Doomtree (2011)

It’s not hard to find something to say about Doomtree. The 7-headed monster has enough disparate characters that I could fill the proverbial pages here without even addressing No Kings, their second official full-length. The band recently made some internet waves with the mash-up Wugazi project—which is where I’ll start since the opening track, “No Way,” begins with a guitar bit and chanting vocals more akin to post-punk than to any hip-hop crew. If there’s one thing Doomtree has always been willing to do, it’s jump around in styles. Their previous full length ran over twenty tracks and this mishmash caused some pacing issues, making it feel way too long without a solid flow. The 12-track approach here works to their favor. Instead of the vocal tracks and instrumental intermissions, … Read more

More album reviews

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 zone? Some say the best things in life happen just there: outside of your comfort zone. Although there is reason I like to stay inside that zone (it is quite comfortable there, after all) I enjoy the musical challenge of … 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 have stumbled upon their sound from their very first rehearsal. Their career is not defined by a grand steps from album to album, but rather by refining their craft on each album. Small changes to better their music a little … 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 to describe an album written around final moments before death, but somehow, in the hands of John Erik Kaada, it becomes more apropos with each listen. Closing Statements is about those final words, breaths and thoughts but remarkably eschews the … Read more

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

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