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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)

Acid Fast

Rabid Moon
Protagonist (2014)

Acid Fast play really angst-y yet bouncy punk rock that is rooted as deeply in the Midwest sound as it is the Pacific Northwest. But here’s the thing: they’re not from Olympia or Minneapolis or Portland or Chicago; they’re from Oakland. But goddamn, if they don’t sound like a band that came up playing damp basements alongside The Soviettes, RVIVR, Mean Jeans, or The Brokedowns. At times it’s a bit imitative but that’s easily forgivable since it’s also incredibly charming thanks to the melodic male-female vocal tradeoff, and really rockin’ because of the fuzzy bass, driving drums, and spirited guitar.It’s the awesomely-named Hannah Conda’s presence on Rabid Moon that really keeps the album from treading too far into derivative wearisomeness. Although it works quite well when she is adding backups to Frank Mann’s best Blake Schwarzenbach-like lead vocals, the standout songs are the ones where she takes center stage. Songs like “Old Idea”, “Rupert”, and “Tease” are heart string-y numbers whose lo-fi melodies conjure memories of any number of female-fronted ‘90s alt-rock darlings as much as they do the modern masters like Gateway District.Rabid Moon strikes me as the kind of release that will either fly largely under the radar, … Read more

The Obits

Bed & Bugs
Sub Pop (2013)

Obits don’t offer many surprises on Bed & Bugs, but that’s never really been the expectation. In a long lineage … Read more

Perfect Pussy

Say Yes To Love
Captured Tracks (2014)

In 2010, it was Wavves. In 2012, it was Japandroids. Now, the vaginal Syracuse outfit Perfect Pussy is Pitchfork.com's newest … Read more

Noisem

Agony Defined
A389 (2013)

For all of the hype and bluster that was the so called "thrash revival" a few years later few bands … Read more

The Curtis Mayflower

Everything Beautiful Is Under Attack
Independent (2014)

The first studio release from The Curtis Mayflower titled Everything Beautiful Is Under Attack is a combination of talent, great … Read more

Brown Brogues

Triflin'
Stolen Body Records (2013)

The phrase "hanging out" can mean different things for different people. Some may use it to describe a night-in or … Read more

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One from the archives

Gholas

Загадка
Self Released (2010)

Post Metal is a pretty loaded genre tag. Most people (myself included) find it misleading. The idea relies on the idea that more effects on your guitars and a sense of dynamics and ambience equal being less than metal. Gholas are a band that seem to fit in this general idea of a genre. They play with a sense of ambience while still being heavy. The sense of dynamics is in full play as the songs can push you or meander simply by.This band follows the setup Isis started. But that is certainly not to say they are mere followers. They play a heavy, near-ambient style of metal. The songs flow together and seem to tell a story (hence the Isis notation). Each song float into the other as though … Read more

More album reviews

Pretty Boy Thorson & the Falling Angels

An Uneasy Peace
Kiss of Death (2013)

Have things finally turned around for Jesse Thorson, making the country-punk band sing a new song of joy and celebration? Of course not.Previously, the band didn’t play alt-country so far as they wrote punk songs to country lyrics—however, An Uneasy Peace definitely sees that paradigm shifting toward a fuzzier genre classification. Maybe it’s because Thorson now has an outlet for … Read more

Set and Setting

Equanimity
Sound Of Silence / Forcefield (2013)

I really enjoy how pretty “Through The Unhindered Break Of Day” is, and the idea that something so simple and borderline repetitive could somehow draw me in to Equanimity, the debut album from Florida’s Set And Setting, is a bit of a mystery until the album progresses and repeated visits with the record drive the point home; these calm and … Read more

Francis Cheer

Mapmaker
Well Sure Records (2013)

John Gerrard is an artist hailing from Calgary, Alberta and he is no stranger to the local music scene; having played in some heavier bands such as Alivia and Nikola Testla. He may be more recognized as both the man behind the art and the former base player of Victoria’s Northcote. Having followed most of the bands he’s been a … Read more

Beastmilk

Climax
Magic Bullet / Svart (2013)

Having appeared on our Top 5 Modern Goth Records list for 2013, it seems only right that we talk a little bit as to how bloody good Climax is. Because it is good. Really bloody good. Beastmilk aren’t breaking the mould with their cold, goth-tinged rock and roll but they sure are making it feel fresh and intoxicating. The Finnish … Read more

Against Me!

Transgender Dysphoria Blues
Total Treble (2014)

It's been a long time coming, but Against Me! have finally released their sixth album, Transgender Dysphoria Blues. It packs a hit harder than previous records. It's loud. It's powerful. It's full on rock 'n' roll! It took awhile for them to finally get the record to take off. Original recordings weren't cutting it which prompted the band to head … Read more

The Sensibles

A Bunch Of Animals
Rijapov (2013)

The opening track to The Sensibles’s first full-length album is entitled “Happy,” which may be the most self-descriptive name I’ve seen in ages. I was hooked immediately—not just from the first song, but from the first few exuberant drum beats. The Italian pop punk/punk rock band is still relatively fresh on the scene, having only released one 4 track EP … Read more

fragment.

Temporary Enlightenment
OPN (2013)

Immediately strikingly to the heart with the opening notes of “Cast Out” as if awakening people from sleep with this as an early morning clarion call, Fragment. effectively kicks off Temporary Enlightenment (the fourth proper full length album from this one man project) and launches what is arguably the best batch of music from this project; the overall sound on … Read more

Old Funeral

Our Condolences (1988-1992)
Soulseller (2013)

The history of Black Metal has been told ad infinitum. We know that groups like Venom, Posessed, Mercyful Fate and Sarcofago planted the seeds that stretched like a dark vine across Europe and taking hold in Norway. By now, we all know the story of groups like Darkthrone and Mayhem, but lesser known is the story of Old Funeral.The band … Read more

Audacity

Butter Knife
Suicide Squeeze (2013)

It didn’t take long for Mellow Cruisers to appeal. Butter Knives, the follow-up from California’s Audacity, though, seems to be more of a grower.A band quick-summed-up as power-pop (though that description lacks), the new record seems to miss that one-two punch, earworm aspect. Instead, the songs are a bit more complex, less predictable, and more varied from starter “Couldn’t Hold … Read more

Xiu Xiu

Angel Guts: Red Classroom
Polyvinyl (2014)

Xiu Xiu (pronounced “shoo shoo”) is a critically-acclaimed, Los Angeles-based, avant-garde duo. It’s comprised of founder James Stewart and Angela Seo, a member since 2009.Their melancholy, Bowie Low-esque sound can be heard in the music of contemporaries like Majical Cloudz and Grimes.Angel Guts: Red Classroom, Xiu Xiu’s latest release from Polyvinyl Records, makes up for Nina, their horrid, cringeworthy Nina … Read more

Moistboyz

V
Neverman Records (2013)

Moistboyz aren’t a particularly active group. The band, based around the duo of vocalist Guy Heller and multi-instrumentalist Mickey Melchiondo (aka Dean Ween), has only released five items in about twenty years. V is the third full-length in that bunch and, while the artists have aged, it’s clear they haven’t matured.The band plays an eclectic hard rock, with Heller’s sing-shout … Read more

Sunn 0)))

La Reh 012
Southern Lord (2014)

Long and arduous journeys can at times be a right of passage or ritual of progression or even metaphors for life in general, and the idea that this release marks my listening to SunnO))) for a mind-blowing almost 15 years (I bought The Grimm Robe demo from Aaron Turner at the Hydra Head table when day 1 of Hellfest 2000 … Read more

Various Artists

I Need You Bad
Polyvinyl (2013)

  Due to its liberal usage around ye olden music-critiquing biz, “garage rock” is one of those dicey descriptors that, should you choose to follow it, can lead you down a multitude of avenues. It can walk you knowingly into a crotch punching at the hands of the Candy Snatchers, leave you pleasantly surprised and smiling thanks to the likes of … Read more

200 Words Or Less

La+ch and Dustbuster

Hunter
Independent (2014)

It’s safe to say that everyone’s already getting a head start on choosing the song that will be most played this summer. Over the past few months, La+ch and Dustbuster of the band Coleman Hell have become increasingly popular on Soundcloud for their remixes of songs by artists like Katy Perry and Rihanna. But this time around, the duo has … Read more

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