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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)

Cayetana

New Kind Of Normal
Plum Records (2017)

Normally when I hear obvious shades of the 1990s, my first thought is straight from an ad campaign of the era: been there, done that. It’s an oversimplification, but you get the point. The real problem is mimicry instead of taking influence. Cayetana have some clear influences from the alt rock of my formative years, but they’re ultimately set in the now. It’s why New Kind Of Normal works.The self-released album is a mixed tempo journey, 12 songs over 41-minutes. It’s up and down, celebrating the positive and lamenting the bad, generally circling back to life’s mistakes and lessons learned (unlike the ‘90s, which were all about a spiraling cynicism). In “Mesa,” the first song of many to jump out, the song makes the best of a bad situation: “Together we make flowers out of weeds.” That’s an apt metaphor for the whole record’s emotional rollercoaster. The song itself features notable bass lines with scraggly, up-and-down vocal flare. Those moving vocal tones and bass leads define a lot of the sound, surfacing again in “Bus Ticket.” The band slows it down on “Easy to Love” or “Side Sleepers,” but the album is mostly in the middle, with power pop melodies … Read more

Crystal Fairy

Crystal Fairy
Ipecac (2017)

Buzz Osbourne has nothing left to prove. His band, Melvins have sustained the ravages of time and, perhaps even more … Read more

Nothington

In the End
Red Scare Industries (2017)

Few things are stable in this topsy-turvy world. One constant has been Nothington. With the release of In the End, … Read more

Jason Isbell

The Nashville Sound
Southeastern Records (2017)

Had Jason Isbell stopped making music after his run with the Drive-By Truckers, his output would have already been legendary … Read more

The War on Peace

Automated People EP
Independent (2017)

Imagine if the last few minutes of your life on a doomed Earth were spent dancing in a nightclub, as … Read more

Jessica Moss

Pools of Light
Constellation (2017)

Jessica Moss is a prominent member of the Canadian experimental scene, most known for her participation in the Thee Silver … Read more

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One from the archives

Mittenfields

Optimists
Independent (2015)

Optimists is the debut LP from Washington D.C. emo/indie-rock outfit Mittenfields. The band’s influences are immediately recognizable: Singer Dave Mann obviously listens to Modest Mouse and Arcade Fire, while the band’s three guitarists draw heavily from 1990s indie and emo classics like Mineral, Built To Spill, and Pavement. If you like those bands and want to hear the same sound again, great; but you won’t get much else when listening to Optimists. However, there are brief moments where the band actually builds on these influences and doesn’t just imitate them, and these saving-grace moments are signs that Mittenfields might be more than just another emo/indie band (but not quite yet). The band was founded in 2008, the only other thing Mittenfields put out was an EP back in 2011, and … Read more

More album reviews

Arcadea

Arcadea
Relapse (2017)

Remember that movie from the 80's where that little rocker kid got sucked into the video game and found himself on that desert planet, where he had to throw jewels into a volcano while battling flying lions that had lasers shooting out of their eyes?No?That's probably because that movie was never made. But if it had been, Arcadea would be … Read more

Rammstein

Paris – the special edition
Universal (2017)

Ah, Rammstein. Härte. Neue deutsche. Grinding metal guitars, brute masculinity, pyromania, double entendres, operatic sub-sonic vocals, wordplays galore and taboo subjects. In a live context, they burn – literally, being one of the few bands whose singer eventually deemed it necessary to become qualified as a licensed pyrotechnician and with fans on occasion having been carried out of concerts suffering … Read more

Do Make Say Think

Stubborn Persistent Illusions
Constellation (2017)

Do Make Say Think have left their stamp on the post-rock scene, starting from their debut, self-titled album, released in 1998, to the excellent Other Truths in 2009. It was with Other Truths that the band decided to take a break, never officially breaking up, but rather the individual members taking some time to pursue different projects. Thankfully, this came … Read more

Biosphere

The Petrified Forest
Biophon (2017)

How do you keep the creative juices flowing that allow for composition or creation of any kind of artistic work, and where do you find the drive to continue to push your own voice out amongst the screaming throngs? For some that drive comes from within and others from without, but when you are staring down the barrel of a … Read more

IIVII

Invasion
Consouling Sounds (2017)

Josh Graham has become something of a Renaissance man here in the past 10 years or so. As founder of Red Sparowes, and A Storm of Light, Graham has taken rock music and gave it an ambient / drone twist. His solo project IIVII, and new record Invasion, has taken Graham’s love of ambient music that much further with haunting … Read more

Thalassa

Bonds of Prosperity
Sige (2017)

Formless and endless. When dealing with drone music, these are two elements you need to take into consideration. With a deep understanding and experience of the genre and experimental music, Aaron Turner, of SUMAC and a myriad other projects, and William Fowler Collins collaborate in the avant-drone project Thalassa. Taking influence from the Greek mythology, and the primordial personification of … Read more

Naïve Sense

Self Titled EP (2017)
Independent (2017)

“If I am unable to transform you into a Naïve Sense fan, then I have not done my job.”So begins “Win a Trip to Vegas: Heavy Metal Bikini Contest/Men’s Support Group,” in a sound clip before the EP’s second to last track. It’s a bold proclamation for a bold EP that recalls the best elements of Refused but with a … Read more

Gold

Optimist
Van Records (2017)

GOLD is the brainchild of Thomas Sciarone, known from his work with occult doom act The Devil's Blood. Having released two very good albums so far, in Interbellum and No Image, they are now carrying down on the same dark path with Optimist. GOLD is a notoriously difficult band to pinpoint sonically. Sure, they exist within a rock setting, but … Read more

Demen

Nektyr
Kranky (2017)

To get a label's attention in this age is hard. Especially trying to do so through the traditional email approach. But for Demen, that method worked, and the folks over at Kranky were taken aback by the solo project of Irna Orm. Not much is known about Orm, other than she is behind the solo project Demen, and that she … Read more

Blessed

II (LP)
Coin Toss Records (2017)

It’s only been four months since I was struggling to determine what Blessed was doing on their first EP. I have come back to that record often. After four months it intrigues me as much as it did when I first heard it. Truth be told: I don’t have many records that can keep my attention that long. You can … Read more

Book Review

Cosey Fanni Tutti

Art Sex Music
Faber & Faber (2017)

Art Sex Music is more than a memoir. It is Cosey’s way of setting the record straight and clear up misconceptions about her and her roles in the creative projects she was a protagonist and often sidelined in. Cosey’s story is one of individuality, challenges, breaking down self-imposed and outer barriers, social norms and creating your own life, while dealing … Read more

Caves

Always Why
Specialist Subject Records / Dead Broke (2017)

Generally speaking, I’ve spent a lot of time the past half-decade (or maybe decade) listening to two subsets of DIY punk: gruff melodic three-chord arrangements, and pop-punk with soaring melodic layers. I won’t say I limit myself to that by a long shot, but it’s sort of what I gravitate toward. Caves are a UK band that fall somewhere on … Read more

Harvestman

Music For Megaliths
Neurot Recordings (2017)

Harvestman is Steve Von Till's musical bridge. Through his main band, Neurosis, he explores the experimental side of heavy music, while with his solo project, under his own name, he regresses back to the folk origin. Harvestman connects the two, firmly standing on folk ground, but also with an adventurous mindset, wondering into more diverse areas. Historically, Harvestman presented a … Read more

The Jesus And Mary Chain

Damage and Joy
ADA Records (2017)

Ever since The Jesus and Mary Chain came on the scene in the Mid-80’s with their tapestry of sound Psychocandy, and onto their 90’s fame recording with Hope Sandoval, the band has always reminded me of a couple of stoned uncles. You know, the ones your mom doesn’t think to highly of, but they are the coolest thing around because … Read more

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