Album Reviews

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[...]

The Decemberists – What A Beautiful World, What A Terrible World

January 20, 2015

“But we’re not so starry-eyed anymore,” Colin Meloy croons on “Make You Better,” the surprisingly radio-ready lead single off The Decemberists’ seventh studio album, What a Beautiful World, What A Terrible World. Indeed, while the group broke through with its heady, academic – and, yes, geeky – brand of historically-literate prog-folk, this latest record finds the Portland, Ore. quintet embracing a simpler, gentler format. It’s hardly a surprising artistic shift. After finding success in the mid-Aughts with rock-operas about an old Japanese folktale and a woman’s unlikely romance with a forest-dwelling shape-shifter (2006’s The Crane Wife and 2009’s The Hazards of Love, respectively), Meloy conscientiously stripped down the group’s progressive approach and high-minded concepts. The result was the howling, rustic Americana of 2011’s The King Is Dead. But where King was stark, driven by loud beats and hard-edged alt-country textures, Beautiful World is lush and serene, heavy on ballads and slightly[...]

Belle and Sebastian – Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance

January 19, 2015

After a nearly five year hiatus, the Glasgow natives, Belle and Sebastian, reunite with the group’s ninth studio album, Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance. That’s not to say that the members of the band have not been keeping busy though.  In 2014, the lead singer Stuart Murdoch wrote and directed the film God Help The Girl, after making a soundtrack to the film with his musical side project of the same name back in 2009.  The film was way too quirky for my tastes, and I was really worried this new record would have the same effect on me, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was I wrong. Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance is sonically a breath of fresh air for Belle and Sebastian. While staying true to emotional lyrics revolving around personal struggle, the band is able to deliver a new record with some of the danciest[...]

Panda Bear – Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper

January 11, 2015

Since his 2007 album Person Pitch, Noah Lennox’s Panda Bear has been the gateway drug into Animal Collective. Both outfits feature the same qualities: zone-out repetition, upfront rhythms, a swirl of ineffable sounds, and summer camp sing alongs. Their success both lies in combining something confusing with something instantly gratifying, a perfect distillation of modern times. But where Animal Collective’s music seems to occupy a beautiful but more chaotic place, Lennox has always gone for the sweet spot. Originally too hesitant to bring his own songs into the group, Lennox did so upon the urging of other members, and it all eventually came to a head on Merriweather Post Pavilion. Now it seems like Lennox’s music as Panda Bear, at least popularity wise, has surpassed that of his band’s. Following 2011’s Tomboy, an album Lennox wanted to revolve around just guitar, rhythm, and drums, on Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper,[...]

Ariel Pink – pom pom

November 18, 2014

For all the thinkpieces, accusations of misogyny, and clickbait-facilitated outrage his words have inspired this year, LA rocker Ariel Pink’s message is quite simple. It’s not trolling or mean-spirited publicity-hounding so much as a deeply-felt need to tow the line for the rock ‘n’ roll outcasts. He is of a lineage with both Frank Zappa and Kim Fowley (the latter of which has two co-writing credits on this new record), contrarian sonic experimentalists with a knack for combining irreverent language, ingratiating melodies, and harsh noise experiments. The publicity campaign Pink launched this year around his new double album pom pom – which included everything from singing with a New York childrens’ choir to asserting in an interview, facetiously, that he was “raped in the ass” by a dominatrix – has proven oddly perfect for setting the tone of the record. While pom pom offers no apologies for Pink’s irreverent behavior,[...]