Imaginary Cities Temporary Resident Year-old Winnipeg duo Imaginary Cities are currently aiming straight into the heart of the collective consciousness of Canadian indie rock, with the recent release of their debut album and an upcoming slot opening for the Pixies on their 2011 Canadian tour. Signed last year during NXNE in Toronto, merely months after their formation, the band went on to play numerous UK dates, a number of other European shows, and more recently, SXSW in Austin, Texas. The [...]
Archive for Category: "Reviews"
Cage The Elephant – Thank You, Happy Birthday album review
Cage The Elephant – Thank You, Happy Birthday Since the first Cage the Elephant debut in 2009 they have re-invented themselves. Their new sound is not having just one sound in particular. Cage the Elephant is a mix of blues, retro and futuristic rock. During the two year gap, the band managed to record 80 new songs, 12 of which are on Thank You, Happy Birthday. Although they had a more subtle and retro-funky sound when they first started, Thank [...]
The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar album review
The Joy Formidable The Big Roar The Big Roar is the first full length album released by The Joy Formidable, a three-piece Welsh band. Dropped on March 15, 2011, the album features several songs that were previously released on their 2009 mini-debut entitled A Balloon Called Moaning. The trio is made up of energetic front woman Ritzy Bryan on guitar and lead vocals, Rhydian Dafydd playing bass guitar and singing backup, and percussionist Matt Thomas. Old friends from school, Bryan [...]
Britney Spears Femme Fatale album review
Britney Spears Femme Fatale Well, well, well. Looks like the excruciating humiliation of Britney Spears’s farce of a career is still dragging itself on like a mangled animal. Why won’t someone just put her out of her misery already? Actually, on second thought, it is this reviewer who is the miserable one, as Femme Fatale, Britney’s seventh studio album, sounds like a soup of computerized goop. On tracks like Till the World Ends, a glicky, glitchy programmed-robotic-club-cliché-headache, Spears’ voice has [...]
The Strokes – Angles album review
My first reaction to Angles, the latest offering from The Strokes, was “Whoa!… This is The Strokes?” What happened to the slushy chords? Where is the passionate rally call of Mr. Julian Casablancas (still the best name in showbusiness, incidentally)? It certainly starts with a surprise; Macchu Picchu, the opener, sounds more like it could be the work of Crystal Castles. Then, slowly, you begin to recognize familiar Stroke-isms – there’s Julian’s signature vocals, the “pop-rock” shining through slowly, then [...]
Wiz Khalifa – Rolling Papers album review
Wiz Khalifa Rolling Papers Rolling Papers is the third album released by Wiz Khalifa, a young rapper from Pittsburgh. The most recognizable track and perhaps most overplayed would be “Black and Yellow,” the unofficial Steelers anthem. It was the first single, released in the fall of 2010, meaning it had plenty of time to get massive airplay and become popular before Super Bowl XLV. The song while being very simple, succeeds in hyping up the listener and would be a [...]
Noah and the Whale – Last Night On Earth album review
Noah and the Whale Last Night On Earth Noah and the Whale are perfectly inconsistent. The constant change has been keeping their fans interested and will bring in new fans from different spectrums in this diverse musical world. Originally set to be called Old Joy, Charlie Fink eventually announced that the band was going to be calling it Last Night On Earth. The album talks about life being an on going traveling experience and there is never a time where [...]
Duran Duran – All You Need Is Now album review
Duran Duran All You Need Is Now Mark Ronson, a self-professed Duran Duran fan since his childhood (which is no surprise when you listen to some of his work), was hired to helm Duran Duran’s 13th album, armed with the intention of making it the rightful follow-up to 1982 classic ‘Rio’. The good news is, he has pretty much done it, while adding enough contemporary sounds to keep the music sounding fresh. It’s something of a relief that Ronson has [...]
Buck 65 – 20 Odd Years album review
Buck 65 20 Odd Years In a painfully honest myspace bio, Richard Terfry, aka Buck 65, talks about baseball, losing his virginity and how he came into a twenty odd year career of musical styling’s as far flung as folk and turntabilism. From Mount Uniake, one of those small Eastern Nova Scotia towns, Terfry has recently released his new album, entitled appropriately enough, 20 odd years, a collection of tracks from 4 separate EP’s he’s done, and the work seems [...]
Le Butcherettes – SIN SIN SIN album review
Le Butcherettes – SIN SIN SIN The female lead is nothing new in fact it would seem it has been a tad more prevalent in recent years. It has been done and done well with bands such as The Sounds, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Best Coast and The Kills being a few that spring to mind. It would seem that the next femme fatal band to go viral is on deck — Le Butcherettes. Hailing from Mexico, the band are [...]
