Brad Mehldau Trio – Day is Done (2005) purchase this album You wouldn’t know it from listening to Day is Done Á¢€” or a lot of Mehldau’s other stuff Á¢€”…
Listening Booth
277 Articles
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
The Fabulous Thunderbirds – Painted On (2005)purchase this album Yep, those Fabulous Thunderbirds. Whether you’re a patron of the blues, or you just listened to enough FM rock in the…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
Jamie Cullum – Catching Tales (2005)purchase this album Cullum’s introduction to American audiences was last year’s Twentysomething, a pleasant, slightly quirky set of jazzish tunes that instantly established him as…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
Dar Williams – My Better Self (2005)purchase this album Dar Williams has written some great songs, and recorded some fine albums. I’m particularly partial to her bittersweet “When I Was…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
Fiona Apple – Extraordinary Machine (2005)purchase this album Once upon a time, just listening to Fiona Apple made me grit my teeth. This was during the Tidal era, when critics…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Pat Metheny – One Quiet Night (2003)purchase this album Not that I ever have what could rightly be described as a “rough day” — I mean, I make stuff look…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
My Morning Jacket – Z (2005)purchase this album Before listening to Z, everything I knew about My Morning Jacket had nothing to do with their music. They’re Southern! They have…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
John Cale – Black Acetate (2005)purchase this album Aside from one time when I listened to a Velvet Underground album (and I don’t remember which one), I have no experience…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
The Shout Out Louds – Howl Howl Gaff Gaff (2005)purchase this album I know, I know, I’m way behind the times on this; it was originally issued overseas in 2003,…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Various Artists – I Believe to My Soul (2005) purchase this album I’ve done it with increasing regularity this year, but I always feel a little uneasy when I buy…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Charlie Sexton – Cruel and Gentle Things (2005)purchase this album Charlie Sexton has been kicking around the business since 1985, when — at the tender age of sixteen — he…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
Depeche Mode – Playing the Angel (2005)purchase this album I think songwriters do an important job. By taking the multitude of life’s experiences and rephrasing them in ways that strike…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Tracy Chapman – Where You Live (2005)purchase this album My first reaction on seeing this was “Tracy Chapman still has a record deal?” My second was “Huh. Sounds like a…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
The Click Five – Greetings from Imrie House (2005)purchase this album A few seconds into this album’s opening track, “Good Day” (download), and I almost started to believe that the…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Ryan Shupe & the Rubberband – Dream Big (2005)purchase this album “PostHeeHawFunkadelicHipHopNewGrass.” That’s the type of music Ryan Shupe & the Rubberband play, at least according to them; this description,…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Jack’s Mannequin – Everything in Transit (2005)purchase this album A few frightening phrases which could be used to accurately describe Everything in Transit: 1. “Something Corporate side project” 2. “features…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Neil Young – Prairie Wind (2005)purchase this album Since rebounding from a decade of mostly disastrous albums with 1989’s Freedom, Neil Young has established a pattern for his releases: Loud…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Franz Ferdinand – You Could Have it So Much Better (2005)purchase this album Here are some descriptions I’ve read recently of Franz Ferdinand’s music: “Art-damaged rock.” “Churned-up art punk.” “Garage…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Blues Traveler – ¡Bastardos! (2005) purchase this album A funny thing happened to Blues Traveler on their way to obscurity: As John Popper slimmed down, the band’s songs did too,…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Sigur Rós – Takk… (2005) purchase this album So. This is what all the hype is about, I guess? I don’t get it. This music is nice and all, but for…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
Paul McCartney – Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (2005)purchase this album As I wrote last week, I wasn’t expecting much from this. McCartney albums can be pretty half-baked —…
Jeff Giles
3 Min Read
Nada Surf – The Weight Is A Gift (2005)click here to purchase this album I didn’t listen to the radio at all in 1996, so I’ve never heard Nada Surf’s…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
Bob Dylan – Live at the Gaslight 1962 (The Bootleg Series Vol. 6.5) (2005) Bob Dylan – No Direction Home: The Soundtrack (The Bootleg Series Vol. 7) (2005) I like…
Jeff Giles
4 Min Read
David Gray – Life in Slow Motion (2005) There was a time when I thought David Gray’s music was insufferably boring. Either I was wrong, or I’ve become insufferably boring…
Jeff Giles
4 Min Read
Shaw/Blades – Hallucination (1995) Though his work with Night Ranger and/or Damn Yankees never has or will win any awards for originality or subtlety, Jack Blades is, to me, sort…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
Mike Stern – Odds or Evens (1991) The words “jazz fusion” have become a sort of sneering code phrase for crappy instrumental music, but once upon a time, the genre…
Jeff Giles
5 Min Read
Eric Clapton – Back Home (2005) It’s been a long time since the world sat up and paid attention to a new album from Eric Clapton, and I guess he…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
I don’t know whether or not they still publish it, but when I was a kid, Marvel Comics had a title called What If? that answered questions like “What If…Spider-Man…
Jeff Giles
6 Min Read
Darden Smith – Sunflower (2002) Having spent large chunks of my life around musicians and other assorted music geeks, I’ve grown accustomed to a certain amount of bitterness with regards…
Jeff Giles
4 Min Read
Hootie & The Blowfish – Looking for Lucky (2005) Once, when asked to explain his fondness for Beavis & Butt-Head, David Letterman remarked that there was something comforting in knowing…