Recent reviews

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

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

Wye Oak

The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs
Merge (2018)

Wye Oak have never made the same record twice, and on The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs, it’s not about to change. Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack grow by leaps and bounds on each release, and this, their first proper studio album since 2014’s Shriek has them taking the synth heavy sounds of that record and Wasner’s excellent Flock of Dimes side project and bridging that with the hypnotic drum and guitars found on 2011’s classic Civilian in a way that sounds panoramic. “Lifer” sounds like a conservative synth track before it blows wide open into Wasner’s gargantuan guitar solo, while “Symmetry” sounds like a track from an 80’s action flick doused in nightmare fuel and lit ablaze. Wye Oak always make records worth checking out. Dig right in and stay for a while. This one is damn near untouchable. Read more

200 Words Or Less

Kacey Musgraves

Golden Hour
MCA Nashville (2018)

Let’s get it out of the way: Believe the hype. All of Kacey Musgraves’s records are the real deal – … Read more

Sleep

The Sciences
Third Man (2018)

Hendrix takes the stage with his band—right-handed guitar upside down, LSD stashed in his headband, visions of blue baize fields … Read more

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Young Fathers

Cocoa Sugar
Ninja Tune (2018)

Every once and a while there will be an album that pretty much levels the musical plane, one that becomes … Read more

200 Words 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 … 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

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One from the archives

Culprits

Demo
Independent (2007)

200 Words Or Less

Culprits is a band that you've likely never heard. What the hell is wrong with you? This New Mexico four-piece serves up five tracks of fast-paced and in-your-face hardcore in less than six minutes. The music is intense and the words are penned with quite the chip on the shoulder. "January 15th" is a minute blast of high octane hardcore that brings together the best of Outbreak, Striking Distance, and Internal Affairs. The hits don't stop there. "Broken Promises" is equally as blazing and lyrically brings to mind the emotional ramblings of Wes Eisold and Jacob Bannon. Culprits rip through a total of five tracks ending with "Goodbye/Good Riddance," the ultimate farewell statement to a failed relationship. If you're pissed off and love to rage than Culprits is for you. … Read more

More album reviews

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 band that have kind of been the butt of many black metal jokes for the best part of a decade. Dimmu Borgir make no apologies for their bombastic sound and on Eonian they fully embrace their theatrical side. Still, the … 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 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 … 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 and forceful. Think of those Ramones studio records and compare them to the live experience. Then throw in the pedigree of the band members here, splitting time in The Dopamines, The Slow Death, and The Queers. Two of those three … 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 stomping grounds of Lethbridge, Alberta, a place that must exist in Geld's stomping grounds of Melbourne, Australia. Back in Canada’s Loyal Order of the Moose community hall, standing in an awkward half circle, ceiling too high, among their powerful nasty … 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 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

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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

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