Articles By: Nouran Sedaghat 
I just want to hold hands and eat ice cream, listen to good music, and have a good day.
Junip – Junip album review
When a band takes a 12 year hiatus between formation and releasing the first album, it’s probably safe to say they aren’t too interested in rushing things along. Such is the case with Swedish folk-psychedelic outfit Junip, who, despite forming in 1998, have just released their second, self-titled effort. As you might expect, the best way to characterize it is, well, slow. The album, a mere 10 tracks but still clocking in at 42 minutes, creeps along in an airy [...]
Read more →New Found Glory – Mania album review
New Found Glory are putting the punk in “pop punk” with their latest release, Mania. The 6-song EP is a Ramones tribute album, as indicated by its title which harkens back to the Ramones compilation album Ramones Mania, and features covers of classics like “I Wanna Be Sedated” and “Rock and Roll High School.” If nothing else, the album is loyal and accurate. The covers featured on Mania are pretty much exact copies of the original tracks — simply a [...]
Read more →Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Mosquito album review
A friend of mine who had never before been exposed the Yeah Yeah Yeahs once heard Fever to Tell blaring through my headphones, only to describe it as heavy metal. The statement, a horrendous misattribution, still goes to show just how far the New York trio has come from their roots. The band’s fourth album, Mosquito, a self-described take on the genre of soul, is markedly toned down but somehow remains distinctly their own proving them chameleons that are in [...]
Read more →Cold War Kids – Dear Miss Lonelyhearts album review
Much unlike their namesake, California’s Cold War Kids are an example of having a goal and setting out to get ‘er done. Following the departure of original guitarist Jonnie Russell and addition of former Modest Mouse member Dann Galluci, the band, who, as they put it, “strive to make albums about the human experience” are back with a fourth studio album, Dear Miss Lonelyhearts that does just that. A concept album inspired by Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts, Dear Miss Lonelyhearts [...]
Read more →Soosh – Colour Is Breathe album review
Some artists will use their words and their instruments to steer your feelings in a certain direction. Others will make the sounds and leave it up to you to paint the emotional picture all on your own. As you might expect with a stage name like Soosh, Soroosh Khavari, and his album Colour is Breathe, fall firmly into the latter category. Colour is Breathe is an 11 track effort of what might be best described as soundscapes, under the self-identified [...]
Read more →The Wonder Stuff – Oh No…It’s The Wonder Stuff! album review
Two things Bowie’s first album in 13 years has confirmed: first, that the category of aged British rock acts trying to make albums for today’s music scene has apparently become a thing; second, that the ability to pull it off successfully is a distinction pretty much reserved for him. Good news for enthusiasts of the man behind hits like “Space Oddity,” but perhaps a rather unfortunate revelation for bands like The Wonder Stuff whose 9th album, Oh No…It’s The Wonder [...]
Read more →Campfires – Tomorrow, Tomorrow album review
They say it’s all in the name, an adage that Chicago-based indie outfit Campfires seems to have taken to heart. Their debut full-length album, Tomorrow, Tomorrow, with its self-tagged lo-fi noise-pop billing, screams rusticity with every note and flickers as warm and balmy as the namesake of the band who created it. The album’s sound is fairly consistent — something that band member Jeff Walls readily owns up to as a deliberate move, describing the album as having a new [...]
Read more →David Bowie – The Next Day album review
Robert Frost once wrote that nothing gold can stay, but he obviously never encountered David Bowie. In the face of a music scene rife with neon-haired starlets and robotic voices over beats that may as well be alien greetings for all the musicality they embody, Bowie has managed to emerge, some 10 years after his last foray into the musical ring, indubitably victorious. But really, is anyone surprised? The Next Day is Bowie’s 24th studio album and it shows in [...]
Read more →They Might Be Giants – Nanobots album review
Forget breaking up — it’s growing up that’s hard to do, and some bands will stop at nothing to avoid it. After all, that desire is pretty much what the entire punk movement was founded on. Although They Might Be Giants doesn’t exactly fit the bill of the punk scene, they, too, have exhibited a reluctance to grow up over their 16-album run, most recently by making their living with albums aimed at children. And although their latest album, Nanobots, [...]
Read more →Hollerado – White Paint album review
Pop-punk had a great life in the early 2000s and its back, with a twist, courtesy of Canadian-born indie-rock Hollerado. The band’s third album, White Paint, combines a carefree, bittersweet lyrical style with an intriguing and comfortably indie level of musicianship to create a revival of pop-punk that is friendly today’s most disaffected of hipsters. With a sound reminiscent of fellow Canadian indie staples Tokyo Police Club, Hollerado’s White Paint is young, loud and fun. Tracks are energetically led by [...]
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