Grouper’s new LP — Grid of Points, out tomorrow via Kranky — is no Ruins, but its sparse pairing of multifaceted, ghostly voices with borderline-skeletal piano is nonetheless pretty engaging….
Album Reviews
655 Articles
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
The Claudettes fuse Chicago piano blues with the full-throttle energy of rockabilly and punk and the sultriness of ’60’s soul to write a thrilling new chapter in American roots music….
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
From the opening notes of singer/songwriter/guitarist Arkansas Dave’s debut album, you’re first thinking “am I listening to an old Molly Hatchet record?” but quickly, you realize there’s a lot here…
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Dave Lifton
1 Min Read
If you’ve ever wanted to know what Wanda Jackson duking it out with Shirley Bassey in an alley while Rosanne Cash, Sharon Jones and Amy Winehouse egged them on sounded like, look no further than Sassafrass!, the terrific new album from New Zealand’s Tami Neilson
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Justin Vellucci
1 Min Read
Just wow. The new self-titled LP from Reno’s Rob Ford Explorer, out earlier this month, is a potent gem, a heady amalgamation of jazz fluidity and math-rock specificity, and a…
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Justin Vellucci
1 Min Read
As Saleeha, the Australian-born, Vancouver-based Max Buchanan makes meditative, slowly unfurling soundscapes that, surprisingly enough, do not echo or mime fellow Vancouver-based ambient artist Loscil. I say surprisingly because, as…
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Justin Vellucci
1 Min Read
Ugh. The new Melvins record, I am sad to report, dear reader, is a bit of a trainwreck. It’s not that Pinkus Abortion Technician, out Friday on Ipecac, lacks ideas….
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
A worthwhile history lesson: Wreckless Eric is Mr. Eric Goulden. His recording career began in 1977 with the enduring ”Whole Wide World”. He was one of the original Stiffs, alongside…
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Justin Vellucci
1 Min Read
Well, turns out climate change — for those rational people who agree with the science behind it — might not be all bad, after all. Big Weather, the latest effort…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
This is really good. I mean REALLY GOOD. This second album from The Shelleye Valauskas Experience, History Of Panic, which is anchored by singer-guitarist Ms. Valausakas and Mr. Dean Falcone…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Vivian Leva’s voice is the sound of living tradition. Raised by parents who absorbed ancient tunes and ballads during visits to legendary old-time musicians, Ms. Leva grew up steeped in…
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Justin Vellucci
2 Min Read
The Lampshades, a trio of Pittsburgh-by-way-of-Altoona ne’er-do-wells, is nothing if not ambitious. It hasn’t always entirely been this way. Sunshine, its 2005 debut, was more of a catalog of by-the-numbers…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Singer Nina June is releasing her global debut album, Bon Voyage, the result of a 3 year long journey that began in a home studio in Amsterdam, going through France…
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Justin Vellucci
1 Min Read
It’s an engaging conceit — the folk balladeer’s whispy, sometimes almost stagy voice hovering over deconstructed, ambient soundscapes — and Eric Chenaux nearly pulls it off on Slowly Paradise, a…
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Rob Ross
2 Min Read
A songwriter, guitarist, bluesman, interpreter and performer for more than 50 years, Chris Smither has proven himself an American original. Recorded at the gorgeous Blue Rock Studios in Texas’ hill…
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Rob Ross
2 Min Read
In the same methodical way she takes apart engines and makes them roadworthy again, Erica Blinn constructs American rock songs, one earnest melody at a time. She forces Midwestern air…
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David Medsker
2 Min Read
Editors have written many great songs in the past, but this is the first time that they’ve written a jam.
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Rob Ross
2 Min Read
Jeffrey Gaines is a name you should be familiar with because he’s been putting out thoughtful, soul-clenching, highly personal and rewarding music for over 25 years. Alright is his first…
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Justin Vellucci
2 Min Read
The acoustic guitar scales dance with trickles of piano and the occasional tip-tip-tapping of drums, singer-songwriter Katerina Papachristou’s breathy vocals leading the way. It is a magical stew, one concocted…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
More a “mini-album” than full-length (but I won’t split hairs here), Unbreakable is the very powerful and touching debut from Ali McManus, a 21-year old singer-songwriter/pianist/guitarist from Detroit. It says…
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Dw. Dunphy
4 Min Read
The route to the Dukes of the Orient debut is complex, but the album is not.
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Justin Vellucci
1 Min Read
How this one flew under the radar is just beyond me. Released Jan. 26 by MIE Music, Ilyas Ahmed’s Closer To Stranger is a hazy-edged dream riffing on the notion…
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Rob Ross
3 Min Read
It’s not often that an artist will nowadays deliver a double album’s worth of brand new material; it’s even rarer when it’s a triple threat. More so, when an artist…
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Rob Ross
3 Min Read
Before we get to the heart of the matter, here’s a quick history/primer on Mr. Luther Russell, the marvelous Los Angeles guitarist/producer: he’s been recording since 1991, initially as lead…
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Justin Vellucci
2 Min Read
There’s much to celebrate about Pissing Stars, the second solo LP — out today on Constellation Records — from Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion co-founder Efrim…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Amy Rigby has been doing her thing since she was a member of The Shams (when I first saw her) and slicing through pop mediocrity from the time she released…
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David Medsker
3 Min Read
If there is anything holding the album back, it’s the insistence on a radio-friendly unit shifter.
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Rob Ross
4 Min Read
Dear God, this is amazing. Not because it’s Big Star – let’s make one thing clear from the outset: I don’t like live albums as a rule of thumb; I…
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Justin Vellucci
2 Min Read
I still remember the CD. My Mudhoney collection was fairly impressive in ’93, having dug deep into the band’s Sub Pop soil, but the disc I found at Vintage Vinyl,…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Jaguwar began life as a trio, formed in Berlin, Germany by OyÁ¨mi and Lemmy in 2012. Their drummer Chris signed up in 2014 to complete the current line-up; to date,…