13 total search results
Sorority Noise – You’re Not As _____ As You Think
Review — March 27, 2017
What is emo? A classicist view may lend itself to sounds like The Promise Ring’s Nothing Feels Good or Weezer’s Pinkerton, which gave way to second-generation icons like Brand New. While The Promise Ring and especially Weezer never really quite built on the successes of their early records, …
White Reaper – The World's Best American Band
Review — April 17, 2017
You’d think that a band that titled their album The World’s Best American Band may be getting ahead of themselves. But not every band is White Reaper. They might have just done it.The second album from the Louisville, Kentucky natives somehow takes elements of ear-pleasing 70’s hard rock a-la …
L.A. Takedown – II (2017)
Review — May 1, 2017
You don’t need to have been to Los Angeles to best experience L.A. Takedown’s latest album, II. It’s an album that’s evocative of a time and place, though it’s one that may or may not exist. The fact that it’s almost entirely instrumental (save for some lightly sprinkled vocoder …
Jason Isbell – The Nashville Sound
Review — July 4, 2017
Had Jason Isbell stopped making music after his run with the Drive-By Truckers, his output would have already been legendary enough. “Outfit,” and “Goddamn Lonely Love,” alone are inches away from being modern standards. After a few promising records in the midst of a drugs-and-booze phase, Isbell got clean and …
Superchunk – What a Time to Be Alive
Review — March 26, 2018
The world feels like it’s coming apart at the seams, some new scandal or piece of terrible news hits daily, or sometimes with even more frequency. It takes more effort to simply keep up than it does just to be able to digest the news. The result is mind numbing. …
Hop Along – Bark Off Your Head, Dog
Review — May 28, 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 …
Young Fathers – Cocoa Sugar
Review — May 28, 2018
Every once and a while there will be an album that pretty much levels the musical plane, one that becomes an earworm in the most serious of ways, rendering everything else kind of secondary. For me, right now, that is Cocoa Sugar by Young Fathers.It’s hard to classify exactly what …
Kacey Musgraves – Golden Hour
Review — June 4, 2018
Let’s get it out of the way: Believe the hype. All of Kacey Musgraves’s records are the real deal – slices of contemporary country that don’t sound like shit and hint at something greater and more progressive. Hint no more. Golden Hour is Musgraves best and most fully realized record, …
Wye Oak – The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs
Review — June 4, 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 …
Maps & Atlases – Lightlessness is Nothing New
Review — June 11, 2018
Chicago natives Maps & Atlases first new release in six years shows them down a member and finding that their tightly constructed guitar and rhythm pieces turning up to something a little brighter and buoyant with synths taking more of a larger role in their sound. First single “Fall Apart” sounds just …
John Prine – The Tree of Forgiveness
Review — June 25, 2018
John Prine's first album of new material in 13 years is a great place to start with the legend’s career, as it kind of covers the ground of the sometimes funny, sometimes terribly sad songs he’s known for. Working with Dave Cobb (known for producing both Jason Isbell and Chris …
Courtney Barnett – Tell Me How You Really Feel
Review — July 2, 2018
Courtney Barnett’s output is usually a sure thing – which is why it’s strange her latest, Tell Me How You Really Feel is weirdly disappointing. It’s not bad, it just lacks the punch found on 2015’s Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit. “Hopefulessness” is a strange, …
