Post Tagged with: "Reviews"
PJ Harvey – Let England Shake album review
Polly Jean Harvey has now become one of music’s constants; her albums gleefully anticipated and released to almost universal acceptance, regardless of how far off the beaten musical path she careens. As if the title hadn’t already betrayed its orientation, ‘Let England Shake’ is Harvey’s political album (and her eighth studio album), where issues of national anxiety and identity are explored by the songstress in what she has termed collectively “a song cycle.” On what may be her best album, [...]
The Vivian Girls – Share the Joy album review
The Vivian Girls share the joy. The Vivian Girls hit us with their third album after their self-titled debut and “Everything Goes Wrong” with “Share The Joy”. The three girl Brooklyn born band are new, fresh and lo-fi which can do very little harm in the local ever so indie scene. Share the Joy grasps on to a concept and collects as a whole which was not as present in the girls’ previous albums. Share the joy is packed with [...]
Del McCoury & The Preservation Hall Jazz Band – American Legacies album review
American Legacies is a joint effort released on April 12th, 2011 by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the Del McCoury Band. Both groups represent an American born musical genre rich in history. The Preservation Hall in Louisiana was founded in 1961 to preserve the unique bayou sound of New Orleans jazz. Since 1963, the Jazz Band has toured continuously all over the world to introduce people to their traditional music. The band has not only kept the old alive, [...]
Whitesnake – Forevermore album review
Whitesnake’s latest release Forevermore is the band’s eleventh album and its release coincides with a European tour. I first listened to it on a long drive home. The opening track, Steal Your Heart Away, is classic Whitesnake: heavy, hard and loud, and when I heard it, I had great expectations. Sadly, most of the rest of the songs are hardly distinguishable from one another. Uninspired arrangements with the same bridges and riffs, predictable lyrics and a theme so saccharine I [...]
The Shivers – More album review
Pure blues, grit, and in the midst of what sounds like a stumbling, intoxicated live performance, two-piece New Yorkers, Keith Zarriello and Jo Schornikow, or The Shivers, tremble through thin songs with aching vocals and shaking, lucid drums. With their new album, “More,” dropping on May 10th, The Shivers have been accumulating a pile of upcoming tour dates around the states and Pitchfork’s calling them “some of the most talented and compelling song-crafters in recent years releases.” That’s not necessarily [...]
Iron & Wine finally get interesting on Kiss Each Other Clean
Iron & Wine – Kiss Each Other Clean Iron & Wine have always been something of a lost cause. They’ve constantly been just on the cusp of greatness, with some truly beautiful songs, but over full albums they usually fall flat. Iron & Wine is actually one man by the name of Samuel Beam. On past albums, this has been rather obvious; the sound of the band has been one of sparse folk music, with lovely plucked guitars and Beam’s [...]
Joan as Police Woman – The Deep Field album review
Do not be fooled by the titled first track “Nervous,” for “The Deep Field” positions itself at the other end of the spectrum. For Joan as Police Woman fans, this album can definitely be seen as a more confident accomplishment for Joan Wasser. Two prior albums were inflicted with grief and pain; each respectively dealing with the loss of her lover, Jeff Buckley and her mother. “The Deep Field” still contains the scars of afflicted distress; after all, the song [...]
Company of Thieves – Running from a Gamble album review
Company of Thieves begins where we left off two years ago with “Ordinary Riches,” bringing back their amalgamation of attitude-filled rock, country and jazzy-funk to electrify “Running from a Gamble.” But this time, building on their strengths and with more stories to tell, and a brazen attitude to boot! Company of Thieves’ fresh and edgy front woman, Genevieve Schatz has already made a name for herself in the indie community. Furthermore, this album solidifies her triumph of becoming an icon [...]
Gorillaz – The Fall album review
“Finally someone let me out of my cage, now time for me is nothing cuz’ I’m counting no age.” Introduced to Gorillaz during my junior high school years I have enjoyed seeing their progression from their self-titled album to their latest, The Fall. What originally had me hooked to this group was its Alternative Hip-hop feel as it went through songs such as “Clint Eastwood” and “Rock the House,” both of them featuring the amazing flow of Del tha Funkee [...]
TV on the Radio’s Nine Types of Light album review
I always get nervous when one of my favourite bands releases a new album. A bad release can retroactively ruin my perception of the band overall, and in this day and age, when it takes at least two years on average for an artist to release new material, there are few greater disappointments than a less-than-stellar album after years of hype – especially an album as strong as TV on the Radio’s last album, Dear Science. Its combination of musical [...]
