Album Reviews

Jeff Rosenstock – We Cool?

March 5, 2015

The opening lyrics on We Cool? are softly sung, “When your friends are buying starter homes with their accomplishments, drinking at a house show can feel childish and embarrassing. People glaring because despite what the advertisement said, drinking malt liquor doesn’t make you young.” This is an amazing preface to the overall tone of Jeff Rosenstock’s latest solo effort. Jeff Rosenstock is the former frontman and vocalist of the now broken up punk / indie group Bomb the Music Industry!  After the band’s breakup, Rosenstock has taken another stab at his own self titled solo project. I will admit, while I have heard off Jeff and Bomb the Music Industry!, I never really gave them a fair listen.  After listening to We Cool?, I am really starting to regret that. The most notable quality  on this record is the honesty in Rosenstock’s lyrics.  From the aforementioned first lines, the album[...]

Ghostface Killah and BadBadNotGood – Sour Soul

March 3, 2015

After the needlessly complex, multi-sectioned production on A Better Tomorrow, Wu-Tang fans probably want another album of live-instrument production about as much as the MidEast wants another W. Bush administration. But where the RZA’s work on Tomorrow was too often flowery and excessive, Sour Soul’s sparse, brooding beats mesh perfectly with Ghostface Killah’s trademark intensity. In fact, it’s some of the best production on a Wu-Tang record in years. For that we ought to thank BadBadNotGood – a superb instrumental trio out of Toronto, discovered first by Tyler, the Creator (who, interestingly, has his own jazz aspirations). Their work on Sour Soul runs the gauntlet from post-bop jazz to soul to trip hop and electronica, sometimes all in the same track. More importantly, they prove themselves masters of tone and texture: it’s some of the most head-spinning production this side of Portishead. As for Ghostface, it could nearly go without[...]

Dan Deacon – Gliss Riffer

February 26, 2015

I have always had mixed feelings for Dan Deacon. Admittedly, I did not get into his music until his 2012 album, America, was released and immediately started back with his first album,2003’s Silly Hat vs. Egale Hat. His early material is some really abstract, sometimes ambient, and generally weird music that is definitely not for everyone. One track on his first record, “Glass and Metal,” just features smashing and banging metal and glass with added post effects. But the samples he used on these albums were amazing, making the three records incredible sounding, each one its own unique experience.  As he released more albums and his time progressed, so did his sound. That growth is most notable on his his 2009 album, Bromst. On this album, Deacon stayed with some of his sample based tracks, but added a heavy amount of rhythm and melodies, making much of the material catchier. Despite[...]

Kid Rock – First Kiss

February 24, 2015

Believe it or not, Kid Rock turned 44 back in January, and he’s not sounding so young anymore. On First Kiss, his tenth studio album, the American Badass stays firmly planted in his front-porch rocker, offering up what might be the chillest, most country-infused music of his long and (somewhat) varied career. Of course it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. The Kid’s been moving toward Seger-esque rock ’n’ roll, southern rock and country ever since he sang about putting your picture away with Sheryl Crow, peaking with 2010’s classic rock achievement Born Free. But where Born Free was endearing – almost charming – in its simple, sunny authenticity, First Kiss often feels cloying and repetitive. On the retro boogie-rock of “Good Times, Cheap Wine,” Rock yet again reminds us what he likes – which, in case you forgot, is “good times, cheap wine (and) backbeat rock and roll.” Elsewhere, he’s[...]

Adventures – Supersonic Home

February 19, 2015

With no prior knowledge, you would probably have no idea while listening to the new Adventures album, Supersonic Home,  that this band was made up of members of the brutal hardcore punk band Code Orange. Three of the four members of Code Orange decided to ditch the heavy breakdowns and join with two friends to go for a new project, solely for the sake of having some fun. Sonically, the two projects couldn’t be more different. While this is the band’s first full length, the quartet has been releasing splits and EP’s since around 2012. With the help of Run for Cover Records,  Adventures’ first album is now available. While the sounds that Adventures bring on Supersonic Home are nowhere near groundbreaking, the band still managed to put together a pretty solid album. The strong point of Supersonic Home is definitely the songwriting.  The hooks on almost every one of[...]

Imagine Dragons – Smoke + Mirrors

February 17, 2015

Night Visions may have blown Imagine Dragons into the upper reaches of the stratosphere, largely on the heels of one unbelievably overplayed atomic-themed song, but a sizable chunk of music critics chided the young mega-stars for their safe, middling pop-rock approach, glossy production, and perceived lack of originality. Naturally, for LP No. 2, ID aimed for more “stripped back … rock-oriented” songs – a common-enough progression for groups in their position, taken by artists from MGMT to NIN. These shots at earthier, heavier and more stylistically diverse music is evident throughout Smoke + Mirrors. But they’re more decoration than excursions – means of dressing up songs that, at their core, are cringingly stale and uninspired. Opener “Shots” is unabashed dance-pop that hits cheese when aiming for cool, the trip-hop spaz of “Gold” falls back all too quickly on its big dull chorus, and ballad “It Comes Back to You” brings[...]

Drake – If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late

February 17, 2015

Last Friday, Drake surprised fans with a drop of his newest mix tape, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. Rumors of the Toronto-born star’s newest project surfaced back in late November, when NBA Raptors’ DeMar Derozan hinted that Drake was working on a new peroject that would be released in January. The end of January approached, to no avail, when P. Reign of OVO and Reps Up confirmed the rumors of the mix tape, calling it some of Drake’s best work. Drake remained silent regarding the news until the 12th, when he posted album art for the If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late on Twitter, teasing fans for another 24 hours before finally dropping the tape. If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late combines some experimental elements with other classically Drizzy ones, and the resulting sound is really refreshing. Staying characteristically true to his roots, the mix tape features[...]

Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear

February 12, 2015

Almost 2 years ago, Josh Tillman, better known as Father John Misty, released his first full length album, Fear Fun.  After countless recommendations from friends along with finding out that Tillman was the former drummer Fleet Foxes, I was pretty eager to give it a listen. It was a really solid album, and a lot of my friends loved it, but I wasn’t really sold on it. The psychedelic folk sound he brought to the table was interesting, but it was a bit too poppy and bouncy for me at times. The strong point of that record was definitely the songwriting and storytelling, but the presentation was really a turn off at points. Coming into this new record, I Love You, Honeybear,  I honestly wasn’t that excited about it. The sound of his last record had been done by bands before and after Fear Fun’s release, and I thought it[...]

Title Fight – Hyperview

February 4, 2015

The first time that I ever heard of Title Fight was in 2012 when I read a review bashing a single from the band’s new record, Floral Green. The write up stated the new track was a complete departure from Title Fight’s current sound at the time, and was not worth even listening to if you liked the band. Obviously, I had to go listen to the song, “Head in the Ceiling Fan.” From what I understood, Title Fight was a punk / post hardcore band, but this track was incredibly slow and dreamy. After hearing that song, I dug deeper into the band’s discography and really became a fan. When the band began dropping songs for new album, Hyperview, I was really surprised. These two new songs, first “Chlorine” and then “Rose of Sharon,” continued on the underwater sounding, dreamy path of “Head in the Ceiling Fan,” and the fact[...]

Bob Dylan – Shadows in the Night

February 3, 2015

Shadows in the Night is certainly one of Bob Dylan’s most confounding projects. From one of the greatest and most innovative architects of modern music – the man who redefined the scope and sound of what an artist could do, and stands still as the voice of the 1960s counter-culture movement – probably the last thing we would expect is a full disc of music that pre-dates his own towering influence, while also avoiding the music that informed most of his career – namely, folk, country, blues, gospel, and Americana. Instead, Dylan goes entirely pre-rock on Shadows, offering us 10 covers of traditional pop standards made famous by Frank Sinatra. But, as even the most casual observers know, Dylan is no stranger to throwing left field efforts. And he’d hinted at his inner Frank in more recent releases; see the slow-dance swooner “Soon After Midnight” from 2012’s Tempest, and the[...]

Cloakroom – Further Out

January 29, 2015

If you are at all into the somewhat relevant pop punk and emo scenes, you are bound to have heard of the record label Run for Cover Records, which is home to bands such as Tigers Jaw, Modern Baseball, Citizen, and Basement,  just to name a few.  One of the label’s more recent signings was the band Cloakroom, a trio of factory workers from Indiana. Cloakroom is one of those bands that is pretty hard to place into a single genre.  The way I heard it best described was slowcore, which seems incredibly fitting. The band is an amazing combination of alt rock, post hardcore, grunge, emo, and shoegaze that when combined, makes for an incredibly punchy, warm sounding record.  With countless bands trying to embrace this sound and seeming to come up short each in their own way (i.e. Title Fight, Pianos Become the Teeth, Whirr, Pity Sex, Nothing,[...]

Concreatures – Pretending to Swim

January 28, 2015

It truly goes without saying that the 90’s was an incredible decade for alternative music. Some would say it was the only decade for alternative music. The Brooklyn sludge rockers in Concreatures may have a thing or two to say about that. Their self-released debut album, Pretending to Swim, flows thick with 90’s influence but is not without its moments of contemporary bloom. The eight-track album hits hard, loud, and confident in all the right places; no doubt a modern alt-rock release to write home about. The album opener and single “White Noise” is a straight punch to the chest. In a hats-off to heavy gaze bands like Hum or Smashing Pumpkins, the song is thick and distortion-heavy, but also pleasantly melodic in the verses. It’s moments like this that give some of the album’s songs a good sense of dynamicity–the leads may be straight-up screaming, but that’s not to say the[...]

Marilyn Manson – The Pale Emperor

January 27, 2015

The Pale Emperor sure is shaping up to be the Marilyn Manson reinvention we didn’t know we needed. Facing a slate of lackluster records and diminishing stature in the mainstream media, Manson made a number of bold decisions leading into the recording of Emperor, his ninth studio effort. He parted ways with his longtime bassist-guitarist Twiggy Ramirez, choosing instead to record with Tyler Bates, an accomplished film-and video game-composer in his own right, having scored dozens of high-profile horror and action flicks. Perhaps more significantly, he largely abandoned whatever remained of his shock shtick, and stripped down his high intensity brand of industrial metal to a grinding, bluesy stomp. The LP opens with “Killing Strangers” – a knuckle-dragging death march over which Manson moans like a self-assured serial killer, sounding almost regretful as he proclaims, “You better run / cause we’ve got guns.” It could be a kiss-off to the[...]

Joey Bada$$ – B4.DA.$$

January 21, 2015

It was just two and a half years ago when Brooklynite wunderkind Joey Bada$$ got rap’s attention with his debut mixtape 1999. Stylistically an ode to the smooth, jazzy times of golden age hip hop, the mixtape was received fantastically and Joey was praised for conscious, prophetic lyrics about his life in Flatbush as a 17 and 18 year old. It was completely out of the ordinary for a 17 year old to have such a defined, retro identity. With a delightfully monotonous flow heavily influenced by DOOM, Joey’s voice fused effortlessly with the light, low-key beats of the project. Several of the instrumentals came from songs from this Golden Era that Joey sought to emulate, originally crafted by the likes of Lord Finesse and J Dilla. 1999 was also an important project because it showcased the talent of Joey’s friends, grouped together under the name Pro Era. The others proved[...]

Lupe Fiasco – Tetsuo & Youth

January 21, 2015

After announcing his departure from Twitter just earlier this week, the unusual Lupe Fiasco released his fifth studio album, Tetsuo & Youth, yesterday. The explanation for who or what “Tetsuo” remains just as much of a mystery as the man himself. Regardless of Fiasco’s decision to stray from the cultural mainstream, his music has not at all suffered. In fact, his desire for isolation might be what makes this album so effective. Tetsuo & Youth, compact with 16 tracks, makes use of historical knowledge to critique contemporary society, while remaining uncontrived. From reading the track list, and then taking a look at the features (among them are Guy Sebastian, Nikki Jean, and Ab Soul), I expected (and hoped) that this album would provide a fresh perspective in the hip-hop world. Thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed. Released back in November, the album’s downtempo first single, “Deliver,” resonates harshly. . Despite its catchy[...]