The latest from Toronto’s 9yrs blends modern rock angst with radio-ready songcraft.
Album Reviews
Five albums into his solo career and English-born, New York-bred Edward Rogers delivers a grand slam of a release with this offering, Kaye. Dedicated to the late, great Kevin Ayers…
For whatever reason, intuition told me even before I heard a note of this album, that this was going to be something special. Not because I have a predisposition for…
Angelique Kidjo does not like being placed in the “world music” ghetto. She believes that all music belongs to the world and that everything starts from Africa — so the…
I don’t know anything about this band from Vancouver, B.C., but upon first listen, The Shilohs self-titled sophomore album has shades of another melodically-infused band’s maiden release… Of course, I’m…
This band from Santa Barbara delivers a very strong album; this being their sophomoric effort. And this second album comes a decade after the band had split – glad to…
I don’t know how this escaped being recognized as a vitally important piece of work in a time of major musical landscape shifts. But let’s first remember who leads this…
Smith refuses to play it safe with the follow-up to her Juno-winning debut.
True redemption is earned, and Glen David Andrews proves it with his latest album.
This very interesting album is credited to The Peter Ulrich Collaboration, instigated and led by the original percussionist for Dead Can Dance. Here, Mr. Ulrich is multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, aided…
Chicago-based singer-songwriter Andrew Belle, recently unwrapped his second full length album, Black Bear. The ten-track collection is awash in atmosphere and does have a “soundtrack-style” feel in many of the…
On what is traditionally known as Tax Day here in the US (aka, the worst day of the year), in her home country of Canada, Dinah Thorpe declared it her…
Rock River, the new solo album from Deena Shoshkes of New Jersey’s The Cucumbers, is a breath of fresh pop air that I welcome. For someone who’s put out great…
This album, of which a performance called “Look Behind You” is based around, is a highly personal memoir by Irish singer/songwriter SteafÁ¡n Hanvey. Released in 2013, Nuclear Family is about…
I keep getting lucky in hearing melodic, thoughtful and American music, which has been my taste for a while. Yet again, a warm new voice is heard in Noah Gundersen,…
The music on this album is fantastic. Great sounding; great arrangements, so many delicious nuances in each track – a gloriously lush album. Good, strong lyrics abound – these are…
Some artists claim to be deeply personal, but present only cloudy snapshots of their inner thoughts. Kind of like reading a diary only on days when the owner went to…
There is a very fine line between “clever” and “cutesy” – and cutesy usually winds up smarmy and annoying, especially when it comes to music. Sarah Dooley, however, knows how…
This is one of those happy moments of discovery – an unknown young band is recommended to you; you listen and you immediately connect with what you hear. Lion’s Den,…
There’s been much discussion around the ostensible death of American rock music. Where are all the garage bands? The amps that go to 11? The “old time rock ‘n’ roll”…
I was as surprised as anyone when it was announced in early 2012 that Peter Buck would be releasing a solo album and even more surprised that he would be…
If you’re like me, you’ve sort of missed that easygoing, loungey, ethereal pop sound that was circulating in the 90s indie scene. Artists like Sean Lennon (his first album, Into…
Certain albums, for me, are forever attached to a memory – sometimes good, sometimes bad. When I first bought/heard Workbook in the summer of ’89 on Virgin, it was an…
Les Claypool is a national treasure. There, I said it. It’s a sentiment that’s been on the tip of everyone’s tongue and on the rictus of their lips since Claypool,…
When a band reunites, it’s often a good thing. When they reunite and record new material, it’s an even better thing. It’s more interesting, however, when they record new versions…
Durham, N.C. has been good to Curtis Eller. Ever since the reigning banjo king of the East Coast’s ”Antique-Garde” relocated to North Carolina from New York City a few years…
Nine times out of 10, if I heard a group of people were going around recording musicians’ performances live to 78 using a vintage direct-to-disc recorder, I’d roll my eyes…
An unknown name to many rock fans, Michael Bloomfield was the Greatest Rock Guitar Hero. That means Stevie Ray Vaughan, Hendrix, Clapton, Page, Beck and all others can step aside….