Tagged: albumreviews

Former Alphastates singer Cat Dowling would seem to be a woman scorned on her debut album, The Believer . And while Hell hath no fury greater than this apparently, it is an album that would lead you to believe otherwise, providing little in the way of musical stimulation. Dowling strikes a moral pose on 'Somebody Else', declaring that "righteousness is everything in this bloody mess ", this sort of downtrodden angst an unfortunate symptom of tracks such as 'Somebody Else', 'Cruel' and 'Invisible'. While vulnerability and sympathy are intended they never quite hit home and to [...]

Having enjoyed Mount Kimbie’s previous Crooks and Lovers album and EPs, and had our ears turned inside out by their bass-twisting live show, we were excited to see they’d been picked up by Warp. The awkwardly titled Cold Spring Fault Less Youth finds the duo incorporating more live instruments and vocals into their mid-tempo dubs than before, with mixed results. Getting the minus mark out the way first, we’ve not yet warmed to hyped singer-songwriter King Krule, and hearing him slur unconvincing lyrics like “I killed a man” on the musically unremarkable You [...]

There's a lot that can be read into the title of R.E.M.' s 1988 major label debut. One can look at Green as a proud defense of the Athens band's growing left-wing ideology, or perhaps as a tongue-in-cheek reference to the lucrative contract it signed with Warner Bros. But looking back on the record 25 years later, the title might best be taken as an earnest acknowledgement of new beginnings, where a well-respected band turns a corner from its past and ventures eagerly into the musical unknown. Taken as such, R.E.M. couldn't have stumbled across [...]

Fleetwood Mac are restless. After dozens of songs, albums, tours, and RIAA certifications, you’d think they would’ve reached a point of satisfied complacency, like when a star athlete hits the twilight of his or her career and admits, “I’ve done it all it's time to retire.” Maybe Fleetwood Mac did, in fact, reach such a point after 2003’s Say You Will . The band announced an indefinite hiatus — its members diverting their concentration to their personal lives and solo endeavors. The Mac’s future was in question… But if Michael Jordan wearing a Washington Wizards jersey [...]

On her new LP as Pharmakon , Margaret Chardiet uses whatever tool she can to scrape the society off of your bones.  Abandon , her first album with Sacred Bones, opens with a blood-curdling scream that blends into a burning wash of pitch-matched noise. The feedback and grime are extensions of the human, all in the service of people "relinquishing control" and "complete psychic abandon." The four tracks of power electronics that follow burn and burrow, every gasp for breath filling the lungs with more soot and smoke, every exhalation fanning the flames. What's more, the music [...]

We live in an era where genres are so blended, there's actually something called "Astral House & Future-Funky" . If anything, all this musical cross-pollination means more under-served genres are getting their time to shine. Working off that mission statement, Portland's Sun Angle have deftly combined tropical, cumbia, psych-rock, and punk on their debut LP, Diamond Junk . The trio's concoction is so amalgamated, it exists solely as its own genre ("Tropical Psych Phase Punk"). Album opener "Raspberry" encapsulates their Frankenstein sound to perfection: a sweeping cumbia groove overflowing with passion and intensity rests [...]

During the indie rock revolution of the 2000s few bands have conjured the level of rabid fan devotion that The National have.  The Brooklyn septet return next week to quench our thirst with their new studio album Trouble Will Find Me . They've pulled out all of the stops this time around, recruiting such indie luminaries as Sufjan Stevens , Sharon Van Etten , St Vincent , and the Arcade Fire 's Richard Reed Parry to lend their varying talents. The themes of Trouble Will Find Me  will [...]

"A slow burning effort dripping with paranoia and heartbreak that combines elements of the anthemic with the subtle craft of storytelling and sees the group propel themselves past 2009’s critically acclaimed High Violet..." The National  |  Trouble Will Find Me Perhaps it is unfair to compare a band’s latest output solely against their back catalogue, after all, everyone evolves, but with the breakthrough Boxer and its successful follow-up High Violet expectations behind this, the New York quintet's sixth studio album, were always going to be exceptionally high. The 13 tracks [...]

"While solo projects aren’t always for everyone (just ask Ace Frehley), Rubin proves he’s a steady enough hand to steer. ..." The New Regime  |  Exhibit A Ambition is often a dangerous word for artists. Sure, creativity is a good thing (and hard to come by), but more often than not it seems many artists get a bit carried away. In this regard, The New Regime (TNR) is truly a strange beast. As the side-solo project of Ilan Rubin (NIN, Angels & Airwaves, Paramore), TNR deftly manages and blends his various genre experiences to create a [...]

"A slow burning effort dripping with paranoia and heartbreak that combines elements of the anthemic with the subtle craft of storytelling and sees the group propel themselves past 2009’s critically acclaimed High Violet..." The National  |  Trouble Will Find Me Perhaps it is unfair to compare a band’s latest output solely against their back catalogue, after all, everyone evolves, but with the breakthrough Boxer and its successful follow-up High Violet expectations behind this, the New York quintet's sixth studio album, were always going to be exceptionally high. The 13 tracks [...]

It took me quite a while to get into Daft Punk’s new single Get Lucky . At first I didn’t think it was that interesting, but after some time it made me realize that the new Daft Punk album didn’t need to be revolutionary to be fun to listen to. I was curious about the album, but as I’m not a diehard DP-fan, the extensive promotion for ‘Random Acces Memories’ didn’t do much for me. It became a [...]

They Might Be Giants have been around going on three decades now, and for better or worse, they’ve staked out their cult territory. But after years of kiddie albums, live albums, and just plain [rhymes-with-kiddie] albums, their new album, Nanobots, is the ... Continued

Back when JT was yet another boyband heartthrob, most analysts would have predicted, if they’d thought about it at all, that his solo career after N*SYNC would be n*consequential. So his transition from prefab menace to something like an icon ... Continued

You may have heard recently through the grapevine that a band going by the name “Lesbian” exists. Furthermore, it has no female members, which should add all kinds of confusion to your plate and make you look twice before clicking “play” on one of the internet's favorite pastimes. After all, it is difficult to look ... The post Album Review: LESBIAN Forestelevision appeared first on Metal Injection .

Shortly after the release of Nocturne, Wild Nothing is back with his Empty Estates EP, and it could just be his most captivating work to date.

Maintaining the title of Most un-Southern Rock, Southern Rock Band, The Features shine as only they can with this eponymous release.

• The Features - This Disorder

This is just what it sounds like when it’s done right; an indie rock record by those lately dearly missed lads after coming back around the block, two years older and two years wiser – still making bombastic, swaggering, melancholic rock music. But listen closer. This time they are subtly more perceptive, in composure, mainly The post The Boxer Rebellion - Promises appeared first on Nothing But Hope And Passion - NBHAP - Music Magazine & more .

While their finger-pointing is not nearly as poetically snide as say Alanis Morissette, their bitterness is intriguingly inviting.

Longtime Kiwi favorites return with sparse, psychedelic-progressive pop in a nearly 80 minute escape.

• The Phoenix Foundation - The Captain

★★★☆☆ The Black Dog mark their territory with an hour long warding off of intruders. For bark and bite, the veteran unit’s ambient techno, IDM and interstellar ordinance still doesn’t have to come at you in a blaze of teeth and slobber. The collection of astro bric-a-brac, as if to verify their whereabouts (and title), is intentionally charged with jolting the LP’s flow, but the unannounced changeability of sound does as good a job by itself anyway. "Atavistic Resurgence" grunts through electro with confrontation on its mind, representative of the sparse shunting together of [...]