by Ryan Wolf | May 15, 2014 | Album Review
When The Pains of Being Pure at Heart debuted in 2009, the band endeared instantly. A song like “Young Adult Friction” felt wide-eyed and wistful, vividly realized and alive with youth. The tracks on Days of Abandon, the New York City act’s third...
by Ailsa Forlenza | May 14, 2014 | Album Review
There are very few new albums in 2014 that have struck me song by song. The War On Drugs’ Lost In The Dream and Porches’ Lost In The Cosmos are two of those. It pleases me to say that I have found a third. Sylvan Esso, comprised of former acapella-folk...
by Joe Speranza | May 13, 2014 | Album Review
It’s been a busy week for Patrick Carney. The Black Keys have just released their 8th (can that be right?) studio album, and he’s somehow managed to find time to reignite his old beef with Justin Bieber. While he’s correct in his opinion that Justin...
by Justin Amidon | May 13, 2014 | Album Review
C’mon Thunder, the new release from San Francisco’s Thunderegg, is the album we just might deserve. Full of lyrical real life experiences, as in the way they actually happen and not the way we thought they would happen, sometimes a creative licence is just a cop...
by Ryan Wolf | May 8, 2014 | Album Review
Names can be deceiving. In spite of their moniker, The Horrors are about as terrifying-sounding as a hot bath or a warm shower (which post-Psycho still might be scary for some). The band also isn’t light and effervescent enough to be described as Luminous, the...
by Ailsa Forlenza | May 7, 2014 | Album Review
Andrew Jackson Jihad is the type of group that can make you want to laugh and cry at the same time. Their lyrics are undeniably witty and hit you with a punch, and after settle in with a pinch of reality. Christmas Island, their latest album-length release, is both...
by Travis Kowalski | May 6, 2014 | Album Review
The Swedish-bred Lykke Li has an incomparable way of conveying her self-reflecting lyrics on I Never Learn, her third and final installment in what she describes as a trilogy about the whirlwind emotions of a young woman. As was the case for her previous two albums, I...
by Ryan Wolf | May 1, 2014 | Album Review
Damon Albarn, of Blur and Gorillaz fame, has always been a maverick, pushing pop music into fairly atypical, frequently imaginative territory. On his first full-length solo album, the legendary alt-rocker, working from a slower, more subdued, sonic position, has...
by Ailsa Forlenza | Apr 30, 2014 | Album Review
Mystic Braves is one of those groups that tend to ramble on. Since their last, self titled album, they haven’t quite figured out how to stray from their original sound, which is a western-influenced, rawhide feel. For starters, I’m not asking that a group...
by Travis Kowalski | Apr 29, 2014 | Album Review
If ARTPOP was a small trip into Lady Gaga’s creative mind that tried to combine art and pop culture into one musical form, then tUnE-yArDs’ new album, Nikki Nack, is a full on exploration of pop culture sweetly crafted into an unorthodox collection of rhythms...
by Matt Moretti | Apr 25, 2014 | Album Review
With the release of Young Thugga Mane La Flare, two of the biggest trap stars in the game in Young Thug and Gucci Mane take on a project full of banging club tracks. Young Thug is the up and coming Atlanta artist that has been making waves with hit club singles like...
by Ryan Wolf | Apr 24, 2014 | Album Review
As a newcomer to the land of Chad VanGaalen, Shrink Dust is quite the brazen introduction to the Albertan singer-songwriter’s musical ethos. Known for his imaginative lyrics, full of sci-fi world-building, offbeat preoccupations, and demented wordplay, VanGaalen...
by Ailsa Forlenza | Apr 23, 2014 | Album Review
Medeski, Martin, & Wood sure like their fair share of jazz guitarists. Recently, they teamed up with Nels Cline, who if you weren’t aware of, is the guitarist for one of the U.S.’ most famous bands, Wilco. On this collaboration, Woodstock Sessions Vol....
by Travis Kowalski | Apr 22, 2014 | Album Review
It was just four short years ago that Utah-bred quartet Neon Trees scored its first hit on the mainstream pop charts with “Animal,” and only two years since the group followed that smash with the irresistibly catchy “Everybody Talks.” The new wave pop group consisting...
by Matt Moretti | Apr 18, 2014 | Album Review
Pharoahe Monch’s PTSD provides a nice contrast from the usual super lyrical rap album. Monch has mostly been known for his lyrical dexterity and his technical rap skill, and as expected, that is all on display with this theme album. There is great variety in his...
