This new album from Bob Woodruff is only his fourth in a 22-year recording career and it’s a fine statement as to what patience and skill in songwriting can do. …
Album Reviews
655 Articles
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Rob Ross
2 Min Read
I’m not going to pretend to be cool, professional or objective – this album is simply stunning. And for all the right reasons. If you could find a single place…
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Rob Ross
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Quite a formidable pairing (hmmmm…) – Django Haskins of The Old Ceremony and Gary Louris of The Jayhawks team up on a knockout project now known as Au Pair (“oh,…
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Rob Ross
2 Min Read
Confessedly, I’ve been a fan of Brett Harris’ since I first saw him perform at the Big Star Third concert in Central Park, New York in 2013, never mind the fact…
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Dw. Dunphy
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Singer-songwriter navigates love and loss without doing disservice to either.
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Rob Ross
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Very much in that new vein and crop of ’80’s-influenced synth-pop comes the third release from Ithaca, New York’s Jimkata, a trio who know that part of the key to…
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Justin Vellucci
1 Min Read
Tortoise’s The Catastrophist, the mighty Chicago jazz-rock outfit’s first record in seven long years, will leave longtime listeners — after 25 years, there are many — in two minds of themselves….
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
The opening guitar attack of Modoc’s new album, Automatic + Voluntary, wakes you up like a splash of ice cold water – sounding like Mission Of Burma, then spinning into…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
The first – and most striking thing – upon first listen to Brian Cullman’s The Opposite Of Time is how much he reminds me of Lloyd Cole (one of my…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Sparse, clean and yet filled with color and feel, Delusions, the new album from Seattle native (and current Chicago resident) Andy Metz covers the musical canvas quite brightly. Considering this…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Now this is really something – since forming eight years ago, Sultans of String’s music has hit #1 on national radio charts in their native Canada, and have received multiple…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Some performers have a way with re-imagining and interpreting a song; some know how to give a great song a greater canvas; some can take a mediocre song and make…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Kicked Out of Eden is only the second solo release by Javier Escovedo, who most people know as one of the founding members of The Zeros, The True Believers and…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Old Man Canyon is really the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist/singer/songwriter Jett Pace; this is the Vancouver-based outfit’s second release and debut full-length album and on first listen, I’m immediately brought back…
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Ann Logue
2 Min Read
In 1997, Ry Cooder worked with World Circuit, a record label based in London, to record some of Cuba’s great musicians. The idea was to capture their hits of the…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Let’s get this straight right off the bat – this is very, very good. Shimmering guitars and melodies; hooks and a clean, crisp sound. This young trio from Birmingham, Alabama…
Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Usually, I really have a hard time with Christmas songs, mainly because a) I can’t digest Christmas for the obvious reasons and b) the songs are always the same God…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
It’s a pleasure and refreshing to see and hear so many newer bands taking a direct, no-nonsense approach to rock and roll again – there’s been too much of this…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
After nine albums, Austin’s Shurman are now gearing up to drop a monumentally fine piece of music with East Side Of Love, their tenth, and arguably, most personal record. Driven…
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Justin Vellucci
3 Min Read
Kurt Cobain’s first solo record — recently released 21 years after his 1994 suicide and paired with a suspect ”documentary” film project of revisionist mythmaking and iconography — is a…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
It’s comforting to know that after thirty-plus years, there are still some bands who know how to make great, fresh-sounding and meaningful music. Such is the case with New Jersey’s…
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Rob Ross
2 Min Read
Internet cats have become a phenomenon over the last couple of years – I think we’re all familiar with the hilarious “I Can Haz Cheezburger”/Lolcats site or, of course, Grumpy…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Call it what you will – “alt country”, “americana” and any amount of hyperbole, but Jared Rabin’s debut solo album, Something Left To Say, is wonderful. This Chicago singer-songwriter, who…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
2 Min Read
Though Gideon King’s band sounds more like a digital music publication than a collaborative group of musicians, “City Blog” is actually an amalgamation of who’s who when it comes to…
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Justin Vellucci
1 Min Read
Inconsistencies, dagnammit! I want to really, really like, to love, to adore The Turbosonics‘ new CD, Tres Gatos Suave, a meaty slab of surf from one of Pittsburgh’s mightiest purveyors of the form. But,…
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Dave Lifton
1 Min Read
New Orleans-based Nigel Hall has given us a debut album that shows a solid command of ’70s R&B and funk.
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
This seven-piece (!) Brooklyn-based outfit comes with a Broadway/theatre pedigree, as it’s driven by Kyle Jarrow, an Obie-award winning writer and his wife, lead singer, Lauren Worsham, who’s a Tony…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
How I missed this on its release in early 2014 is beyond my comprehension, but after seeing them a few nights ago on PBS’ “Music City Roots: Live From The…
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Justin Vellucci
2 Min Read
You’ve got to hand it to Canadien Carey Mercer, the principal performer-songwriter behind the baroque pop outfit Frog Eyes, whose Pickpocket’s Locket LP is licking ears these days around these parts:…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
This is rock and roll, the right way – the way we first experienced it as kids – songs about women, life, aggravation – at a breakneck pace and full-on…