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Sandra McCracken

By Andrew Earles at 11:59 AM on October 1, 2006

Sandra McCracken’s Gravity | Love occupies that female-folk position between more obtuse artists like Megan Reilly and the shiny new rootsy pop you ﬁnd climbing the country charts. Even if you consider 2004’s Best Laid Plans a palatable ride, there are no sonic difﬁculties hindering her latest album from making a commercial impact. A songwriter’s songwriter, McCracken doesn’t feel the need to personally grace her album covers, nods to her religious faith in subtle lyrical turns, and proves she’s capable of creating Americana to rival recent outings from Tom Petty or The Jayhawks, especially on “Gravity,” “Traincar” and “Portadown Station”—the... read more

Lady Sovereign

By Brian Howe at 11:59 AM on October 1, 2006

If Missy Elliott were a tiny white chav, she’d be Lady Sovereign. With her beats de-grimed for American audiences, Sov doesn’t sound quite as explosive here as she did on her legendary demo tracks, but there’s no containing her charisma. Like countryman Mike Skinner of The Streets, the “biggest midget in the game” takes on the banalities of modern British life with irreverent wit: wage slavery on the slinky “9 to 5”; poor fashion choices on distended bounce track “Hoodie”; cranky neighbors on the ﬁlthy “Fiddle with the Volume”; and outdated stereotypes of Britain on “My England.” Albion subsides; Lady... read more

Gov't Mule

By Matt Price at 11:50 AM on October 1, 2006

Gov’t Mule just wiped the studio clean of any remaining shred of the boy-band era en route to knocking out its latest release. Lead singer Warren Haynes brings his bottomless voice to all 71 minutes of the appropriately titled High & Mighty, including soon-to-be fan favorites “Brand New Angel” and “Nothing Again.” The slightly downtempo “Million Miles from Yesterday” may be the best song on the album. With a gospel chorus backing Haynes, Danny Louis’ bluesy organ underscores the refrain “I’ve got to ﬁnd my way home.” Some jambands fall prey to the limits of a studio album, but Gov’t... read more

Old Crow Medicine Show

By David Marchese at 11:44 AM on October 1, 2006

Any band trafﬁcking in old-timey sounds risks crossing the ﬁne line between celebrating its inﬂuences and mummifying them. Working from a musical template that stopped evolving, oh, 70 years ago, OCMS manages to stay on the right side of this line on its sophomore disc. Ketch Secor’s originals sound comfortably at home among the traditional folk, blues and country numbers, and by investing his tunes with a puckish modern sensibility, they manage to avoid sounding mannered or fusty. While it’s unlikely that any of the new material will be mined by future generations the way Secor mines the work of... read more

Sparklehorse

By Rob O'Connor at 11:31 AM on October 1, 2006

Why do modern psychedelic artists insist on either whispering or singing in their airiest, whiniest falsettos? From The Flaming Lips to Mercury Rev to Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous, the effect is deadly. Linkous’ fourth full-length—recorded at home with a variety of guests (the Lips’ Steven Drozd and Dave Fridmann, Danger Mouse, Tom Waits on piano from an It’s a Wonderful Life leftover)—is another paradoxically claustrophobic affair that shoots for the ethereal stars while hushing itself into the broom closet. The playful “Some Sweet Day” and charging “Ghost in the Sky” scream for a singer to take command. You’re left with ornate... read more

Kasey Chambers

By Jeff Leven at 11:26 AM on October 1, 2006

Kasey Chambers is at her most endearing when she’s unguarded, carelessly slipping into a gentle rasp and writing confessional, windswept songs with the natural warble of real yearning. Unfortunately, unlike earlier efforts, Carnival offers relatively little of that directness, delivering instead glossy, bland production that primarily serves to underscore the fact that—by conventional standards—Chambers’ voice is usually too ﬂat and thin to sing anything approaching country music. Ironically, the number that works best is the haphazard pseudo-electronic waft of “Surrender,” while more familiar rootsy gestures feel either crassly forced or sadly anemic.... read more

Anne McCue

By Jon Young at 11:19 AM on October 1, 2006

Anne McCue seemed poised for big things after 2004’s Roll. The exciting album found the singer/guitarist mixing the emotional sizzle of Lucinda Williams (a McCue supporter) with Hendrix-style instrumental ﬂash, needing only a stronger identity of her own. Koala Motel, however, suffers from an attack of cold feet, as the Australian-born McCue often retreats to a smooth, more anonymous sound. While she’s captivating on the accordion-washed “Bright Light of Day,” a tender morning-after love story, her mild-mannered voice can’t salvage routine material such as the clunky seven-minute ballad “Shivers” or “Hellﬁre Raiser,” a plodding, Crazy Horse-lite rocker. Tantalizing ﬂashes... read more

Rock's Backpages Celebrates Fifth Birthday

By Brooke Marshall at 12:00 AM on September 29, 2006

Time to break out the cake and ice cream — or perhaps in this case, Cake, Vanilla Ice and Cream. The online rock journalism archive Rock's Backpages just celebrated its fifth birthday with a very special present: its 10,000th uploaded article. The website provides an extensive archive of articles from well-known magazines to obscure zines, including Billboard, Creem, Melody Maker, Mojo, Radio and Records and Rolling Stone. Rock's Backpages co-founder Barney Hoskyns wrote in an e-mail to Paste that he created the site as a way of facilitating research for music journalism. "I had the idea one day when someone... read more