When offered the opportunity to review some country music for Popdose, I was excited. Our site does not have a bias against any particular genre (obviously), but it’s rather apparent…
CD Reviews
Tejano music so good that not even death could stop it, the Texas Tornados’ Esta Bueno is the first, unlikeliest, and best reunion album of 2010. The first time I…
Getting old sucks, but some things just get better with age — just ask Wendell Holmes of the Holmes Brothers, who has dealt with some of the health issues that…
Lifehouse fascinates me in many ways, none of them musical. For instance, who would have guessed these guys would still be around ten years after “Hanging by a Moment,” let…
I’ve been forced over the past few years to create a new gauge for music discrimination: good, bad and American Idol. I’ll leave the show bashing to someone else because,…
As anyone must be who follows pop entertainment, I’m a keen observer of trend cycles. Culture is a marketplace, and there are all kinds of practical reasons to keep an…
Though I’ve been a Bowie fan for just about as long as I’ve been a sentient human being (thanks, Dad!), I’ve only seen him live once and it was on…
The sixth and final chapter in the American Recordings collaborations between Johnny Cash and Rick Rubin is a direct conversation between a man and his maker.
Don Was (born Don Fagenson) and David Was (born David Weiss) grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, and met in junior high school in the 1960s. It was a…
On the back of the booklet in Gil Scott-Heron’s I’m New Here CD is a message. The message reads as follows: “There is a proper procedure for taking advantage of…
The cover of Robin Aigner’s Bandito says a lot about what’s inside, and that boils down to a nice sense of ambiguity. At first, the imagery of a rabbit preparing…
Jason Ringenberg might have a burgeoning career as the kids’ music cowpoke known as Farmer Jason, but fortunately for us all, he hasn’t forgotten his roots — which means, oh…
Great Big Sea’s SÁ©an McCann steps out on his own this week with Lullabies for Bloodshot Eyes, a solo collection whose title suggests the coolest kids’ album ever made, but…
I don’t know about everybody else, but I for one couldn’t be happier about the return of the ’70s flourish. You know, the urgent strings, the unnecessary but wholly welcome…
Ok, this is tough stuff. The tenth studio album from San Francisco’s the Brian Jonestown Massacre is a swirling psychedelic phantasmagoria. The band, best known to most people via their…
If there’s one thing you need to take into consideration when reviewing a release from Rhino Handmade, it’s this: don’t let yourself be overwhelmed with the presentation. This is a…
You know, between Yeasayer’s new album Odd Blood, and Shout Out Louds new one, Work(Merge Records), I may finally be taking a liking to this new-fangled music. Both bands have…
When you think of hip-hop, you almost certainly don’t hear the swells of an orchestra in your head — and when you think of turntables, your mind probably leads you…
If there was ever a genre of music that I really can’t stand, it’s country music. That being said, I have to say that the music gods must have a…
Dan Black rose to prominence by mashing up the Notorious B.I.G.’s “Hypnotize” and Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” but like fellow mixtape phenom Wale, he’s sharp enough to know you leave your sharpest…
This British four-piece has been a buzz magnet overseas for months, heavily dividing critics while drawing comparisons to hipster-friendly acts like Arcade Fire and Fleet Foxes. Now that their debut…
From a music biz standpoint, April Smith is a cutting-edge marvel, making good use of most (if not all) of the tools available to indie musicians; she’s recorded a Daytrotter…
Popdose writer Michael Fortes has developed a case of the warm and fuzzies after reviewing Juliana Hatfield’s new acoustic album, Peace & Love.
Rob Smith explores Sade’s first album in ten years, “Soldier of Love,” at Popdose.com.
The Brooklyn-based band (yes, another one!) Yeasayer garnered a lot of positive critical and public attention with their 2007 debut album All Hours Cymbals. Following rigorous touring in support of…
It may not be as much fun as its artwork implies, but that’s pretty much a matter of course when you’re talking about an album titled Genuine Negro Jig from…
A meadow. Sheep. A wild-eyed man with torn britches playing the flute whilst standing on one leg. All of those images occurred to me when I listened to the new…
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band has always been rooted in tradition, and at this point, the group is a tradition itself — to the point that quite a few of…
I have developed a reputation as someone who hedges his bets when it comes to criticism, and Peter Gabriel’s first full album in a very long while (since 2002’s Up,…
Like a lot of his peers, Wilson Pickett was primarily known as a singles artist; most people, if they remember his work at all, know him for “In the Midnight…