Pages tagged “album review”

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Gem Club: Breakers

Even in the after-glo of chillwave’s crest, nostalgia continues to be pervasive as a theme and aesthetic construct in contemporary indie pop. The warped and faded sound, loosed from its bedrock of vaguely-New Wave synthesizers has proven an effective, applied to chamber instruments.  read more

The Jayhawks: Mockingbird Time

Back in the 1990s, the Jayhawks were supposed to be huge. They’d plugged away for several years before releasing their breakthrough, Hollywood Town Hall, in 1992, earning the label alt-country more by coincidence than by actual sound. That album and its follow-up, 1995’s Tomorrow the Green Grass, honed the rustic harmonies and observational songwriting of Gary Louris and Mark Olson, who sang beautifully together about real people traipsing through the snowy Midwest. Although critically praised, the band never quite graduated from a cult to a mainstream act, which resulted in Olson leaving the band and Louris soldiering on and writing some embittered songs.  read more

Van Hunt: What Were You Hoping For?

For a while, Van Hunt was a well-connected industry type, writing and producing for pop singers like of Dionne Farris, Joi and Nikka Costa. He’s even managed by Randy “Pitchy Dawg” Jackson. But beneath his velvet-smooth, VH1-friendly lover man persona is a bit of a superfreak. His evocative arrangements have always shown touches of Prince and Peter Gabriel, he covered Iggy Pop on his sophomore album and recorded a third album so free-wheeling and unconcerned with genre or anyone’s hopes that he becomes John Legend 2.0 that his previous label refused to put it out it. The punk-inflected Popular can be found on the internet, but has yet to garner an official release, and Hunt left EMI on bad terms.  read more

The Besnard Lakes: You Lived In The City

It's tough to critique Besnard Lakes' You Lived in the City since I'm not even sure what to call it—in various news stories and press releases, it's been called a 12", an EP, a fully realized project, a lark. Whatever the terminology, one thing's clear, even from the very first seconds: It ain't half-assed. Being The Besnard Lakes and all, one of the most meticulous psych-rock bands in all of Canada/the world, one expects a certain attention to artful detail—even on a limited release...thingy, especially since the quartet hasn't put out a dud to speak of. In terms of craft, You Lived in the City delivers without question.  read more

Beirut: The Rip Tide

Zach Condon’s Beirut is in a funny position. He’s cut his teeth on staunchly outsider Balkan folk, but he’s also one of the premier indie-Billboard crossover successes. His band spans 11 members, but he primarily composes lighthearted, three-minute pop songs. He’s got all the trappings of a critic’s darling, but his pedigree has yet to position itself in the auteur company of singular songwriters like Justin Vernon and Will Oldham. With that propulsive buzz (and the fact that the third full-length in a career forms something of an arc) you might expect The Rip Tide to be a towering statement,...  read more

Jeff Bridges: Jeff Bridges

It’s a common question. If you could spend a night out drinking with if any fictional character, who would it be? My own answer always changes, but I can imagine enjoying a meandering midsummer’s night amidst clattering ten-pin rolls, endless White Russians and clipped roaches with The Dude. I can also imagine enjoying a drunken debacle where every drink laments lost love with Bad Blake or a straight whiskey roller coaster with Rooster Cogburn. And each of these amazing imagined evenings brings the problem of reviewing a celebrity album into focus. How does an actor make us forget their most...  read more

The War on Drugs: Slave Ambient

When all is said and done, Kurt Vile’s exit from The War on Drugs might be the best thing that’s happened to the band. Sure his songwriting talent can’t be understated, but the long-haired, post-hippy’s odyssey with the Violators and the success of Smoke Ring For My Halo has drawn a lot of attention to his past legacies, specifically the band he helped start. And The War on Drugs is still very much a band; helmed by Adam Granduciel, their post-Vile songs have kept them steady, and, as proven by the almost defiantly solid Slave Ambient, they can be memorable...  read more

The Ettes: Wicked Will

“Every time you smile, I can tell you’re just showing your teeth,” Lindsay “Coco” Hames snarl-purrs on Wicked Will opener “Teeth,” and it’s a apt and ominous m.o. for The Ettes’ fifth long player. Like The Dead Weather, Jay Reatard and The Black Keys, all acts that the Nashville-based trio has shared stages with, there’s an ominous cloud that hangs over The Ettes’ dirty pop. Producer Liam Watson (The Kills, White Stripes—seeing a pattern here?), who’s worked with The Ettes a few times in the past, has once again helped the band find just the right mix of front-porch swagger...  read more

Richard Buckner: Our Blood

I first discovered Richard Buckner as Son Volt’s opener around the time of Straightaways. Standing alone with a keyboard on a big, dark stage, Buckner seemed perhaps the only person capable of out-bleaking that era’s Farrar, and while the performance was undeniably affecting, it was an ash-stiff whiskey or hostile-strong coffee-grade acquired taste. Some miles later, Buckner’s dark night of the soul seems to have gotten more accessible. There’s brooding beauty stirring through Our Blood, but it drawls by light on melodrama. Songs like “Escape” and “Confession” capture Buckner in great voice, an earthy warble that matter-of-factly packages complex emotions...  read more

Dex Romweber Duo: Is That You in the Blue?

Dexter Romweber’s career has seen something of a resurgence of late, thanks in no small part to the reverence of superfan Jack White (who counts Romweber as a huge musical influence and has released a 7" and a live LP on his [White’s] Third Man imprint in the past couple years). But like many an underground rock icon, Romweber—who first started developing his cult fan base in the early 1980s with Chapel Hill rockablues twosome Flat Duo Jets—maintains a steely gaze (see any of his press photos) and inborn cool (see him live) to this day, despite the celebrity adoration....  read more