Music

I want to like Stormbringer more than I actually do. Well, that describes my feelings towards Deep Purple in general. But this one’s kind of an underdog: it marks uncharted territory for the band with the funk addition which actually…

I actually quite like these covers, particularly “Wax and Wane,” “No Ordinary Love,” and “The Chauffeur.” Problem is, they are “only” covers… and I’m going to go out and a limb and assume this isn’t a complete B-sides collection because…

Oh, boy. I have a new album to direct people to when showing them the worst the cliches of progressive metal. Epicloud features vocoder vocals, “epic” operatic backing vocals, constant switching between clean vocals and screams, loud as fuck, formulaic…

Aah, Dusty in Memphis is beautiful. Dusty Springfield’s voice is as soft as the warm air coming off a hot fire, and the string arrangements here decorate it in golden lace. The sitar at the end of “In the Land…

‘In Dust 3’ is a great downtempo album with mysterious female vocals and eerie alien ambiance. Cold beats and strange sounds popping up at random make this album an engaging listen.

Whew, Elder seem even more Black Sabbath-inspired than most stoner metal bands. Even the vocalist sounds like he’s trying to do his best Ozzy Osbourne impersonation. The guitarist plays slow, lurching Iommi-like riffs, though it seems that his guitar isn’t…

Walking Wounded is a surprisingly competent downtempo album often carried by active drum and bass beats that massage the mind while the dual vocals of Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn soothe your ears. It’s astonishing how well this vocal duo…

A great British folk rock album, but that sort of thing often isn’t for me. After listening to a lot of this stuff you get a bit tired of the same medieval vocabulary and woodwind instruments. They take you to…

Like my friend edl_mota said, Fever Ray curiously sounds like Donkey Kong Country ambiance. I feel like I’m in that Gloomy Gulch world in Donkey Kong Country 2 when I listen to this, which is a compliment since Forest Interlude…

With Shake Some Action, Flamin’ Groovies attempt a ’60s pop rock throwback in particular vein of The Byrds. If imitation is the greatest form of flattery, then Shake Some Action must be the most flattering album of all time, as…

Tusk Review Tusk is a pathetic follow-up to the previous two albums by Fleetwood Mac. And pathetic is the right word to use as Lindsey Buckingham, heartbroken after the events now permanently documented in 1977’s seminal Rumours album, is in…

Another promising artist falls after a fantastic debut. Whereas Florence + the Machine‘s debut album, Lungs, was an eclectic blend of styles, Ceremonials sticks to one producer and thus only one kind of sound: Loud. Ceremonials is monotonous in its…

How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful Release Date(s): May 29, 2015 How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful is a very mild comeback for Florence. After starting out as a fusion between the most enrapturing parts of Kate Bush and Siouxsie and The Banshees,…

‘Lungs’ is easily one of the best-written, most powerful pop albums of all time. With it, Florence + The Machine unquestionably outdo any of their influences. ‘Lungs’ deserves every bit of the praise it gets, if not more.

Florence + The Machine seems like a perfect act for the MTV Unplugged series, considering the band often utilizes a variety of string instruments in their songs. But somehow, every song on this album ends up being less interesting than…

In the running for the best Foo Fighters album. Being their first, it has a less-produced sound than their later albums and is essentially a garage rock album. Very melodic alternative rock with several great riffs and a lot of…

After Sonic Highways, you may have been inclined to believe that the riff-generating machine must have finally broken down, but if this EP is any indication it seems back up and running, even though it’s not at full capacity. The…

Similar pop songwriting ideals of the debut album, but the hooks are bigger and the production is cleaner. Loses the more lo-fi, garage-y, punk feel of the debut that made it so charming. Almost all songs are midtempo, and there’s…

On the Foo Fighters’s third album, Dave Grohl made a conscious effort to juxtapose the abrasive nu metal bands that had become popular during the album’s conception by making There Is Nothing Left to Lose the band’s most restrained album…

(Original publication date unknown) Oh ho, neighboring music nerds. So you want me to apologize for my love of Foo Fighters? Call them a “guilty pleasure?” Say the usual stupid image-preserving apologies like “I like them, but they aren’t objectively…

In some ways, Le premier bonheur du jour is a bit better than Françoise Hardy’s debut a year prior. The production values in particular are much improved and the album no longer sounds like it was recorded in a tin…

There was a hot minute when Red Medicine was my favorite Fugazi album. I was probably (and reasonably) overexcited about hearing them take such a stronger direction towards the noise rock they always flirted with. Indeed, there are some Sonic…

How can anyone not love "Steady Diet of Nothing?" Like every Fugazi album, it’s in the running for their best, for its own unique reasons.

Well, I don’t like Galaxie 500. Still, ‘This is Our Music’ has its moments—the biggest by far being "Fourth of July," a contender for their best song.

Gang of Four were one of the pioneering dance-punk bands of the post-punk scene. It’s easy to see why on Solid Gold, with its funky bass and catchy, repetitious guitar riffs. While the album is a consistently high quality, nothing…

Nightclubbing is kind of like the Kraftwerk of dub. Every note calculated, pulled off with robotic precision, and just generally soulless. In other words, I find it quite boring. I would call myself a robot lover too, though that usually only extends…

Nick Cave was 50 years old when he released Grinderman, a desperate bid at recapturing his youth with unsubtle noise-rock-by-numbers freakouts such as “No Pussy Blues.” It’s a midlife crisis if I’ve ever seen one, like an old man popping…

No Grizzly Bear album is well-rounded, but Shields comes closest. For the first time, its sonic peaks are worth traversing an album for, especially since they’re tactfully spread out.

Tonics & Twisted Chasers is an oft-forgotten Guided by Voices album, but it isn’t due to its quality. The album was originally a fan club-exclusive release and although it’s been reissued since, finding a copy is still difficult. It’s natural…

Riddle me this: Guided by Voices’s greatest strength is their ability to take you through a pop tour-de-force in a time compact way with their short (but never miniscule) songs that vary in style, commonly showing influence from ’60s pop…

Deathconsciousness is a hodgepodge of various musical styles such as drone, post-punk, shoegaze, and industrial. It’s the most transparent, forced kind of “experimentation” and doesn’t feel authentic. These genres never combine to create something new: Have a Nice Life merely…

One of the greatest nighttime albums ever made. A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular is Hooverphonic at their top-dollar best. A bit sad it’s their debut, as it means they only go down from here. Still, they had a ways to…

Hooverphonic Presents Jackie Cane is Hooverphonic’s first concept album. The album’s lyrics are meant to illustrate the story of a woman named Jackie Cane becoming a star, which distances her emotionally from her sister. As she begins to become increasingly stressed,…

I just want to chime in and say Turn On the Bright Lights sounds almost nothing like Joy Division, other than possibly Paul Banks’s freak-out vocal delivery at some parts, and a comparison that simple can find a parallel with other vocalists even…

Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) were a band primarily popular in the ’70s due to their unique combination of elaborate, classical instrument arrangements over combinations of light pop rock and progressive mini-suites. There’s no band quite like Electric Light Orchestra in…

Metamatic is Gary Numan without a background in glam/post-punk music. So, a lot less annoying and likewise more respectable. John Foxx doesn’t come off as a weird idiot, and the rhythm in his vocals is actually a bit menacing. He’s…

A general issue I have with genre-blending experiments is that they usually don’t deliver on their premise. John Zorn’s Naked City rarely does either, usually alternating between its jazz and grindcore instead of truly melding them into a uniform sound.…

‘American IV: The Man Comes Around’ is very frontloaded, but still contains some of the best country you’re likely to ever hear.

Other than this first sentence, I’d like everyone to note how I never bring up The Smiths anywhere in this little review of The Messenger. Well, people will be pleased to hear the whole album is done in Johnny Marr’s…

British Steel is Judas Priest‘s thickest, toughest-sounding album. It’s also one of their best—though I think Painkiller is more consistent in its greatness and equally valid for those descriptors. “Metal Gods” and “United” are the odd duds on British Steel, the latter…

Sorry Judas Priest nerds, but as someone who is one and thinks Rob Halford is an incredibly gifted and versatile vocalist, Jugulator is a good album. It’s heavy as fuck and darker than anything the band has done until now.…

Sad Wings of Destiny isn’t the best Judas Priest album, even though it’s good. The production job (even on the original release) is extremely flat. Halford’s vocals don’t soar like they would on later releases. The guitars are still indebted…

If you know me, you can guess that the baroque, traditional pop orchestrations on The 20/20 Experience have me pretty giddy. In particular, the album reminds of the direct influence old R&B and soul music has had on its modern…

Katatonia are a band often accused of “selling out,” which is kind of unfair when you consider the band’s departure from their first two death metal albums was because vocalist Jonas Renske lost his ability to growl due to vocal…

Katatonia gets consistently more commercial with Last Fair Deal Gone Down, adopting more of the time-tested “soft verse, loud chorus” pop songwriting. I don’t mind it if I like the songs enough, but I can’t put my finger on why…

I wrote for my Discouraged Ones review that it was my favorite Katatonia album, so I can’t help but be let down by a weaker offering when I wanted more of that same short-lived heavy gothic style. All Katatonia albums have some…

I’ll throw out that I’m not particularly into hip hop. Still, I’m personally tired of hip hop epics of misunderstood cult heroes from a relentlessly bleak hood life. That’s not to say it’s illegitimate or not a story worth telling—just…

‘Democracy’ isn’t as good as the two Killing Joke albums it’s between. However, it’s high-quality and consistent enough to be worthwhile.

At release, Hosannas From the Basements of Hell is the heaviest album Killing Joke (KJ) have ever released, which is quite an accomplishment considering what came before it. Both albums vie to be my favorite by the band. Still, Hosannas…

Killing Joke’s first album marches through abandoned city streets, waving a welcome banner for Armageddon.

Killing Joke 2003 is one of the most aggressive, genuinely angry albums I’ve ever heard. Very cathartic. When I’m in a shitty and pissed off mood, I find it difficult to enjoy music. But rarely, this and Big Black still work for…

Pandemonium is the true start of Killing Joke‘s second (and my preferred) phase. Going from their post-punk roots to fully embracing what had become of the industrial rock sound they pioneered, Killing Joke finally sound ironically at peace again being…

I can’t deal with Pylon. Where’s the intensity!? Where’s the fucking fury!? Killing Joke were a hoot; a bunch of old codgers more pissed off over… whatever—than any musician half their ages. Killing Joke used to be a pummeling, muscular,…

Revelations is Killing Joke‘s third album, and is the first that shows the band in a definite regression. It’s true that What’s THIS For…! was not up to the quality of their first album in terms of innovation or songwriting, but it wasn’t far…

‘The Singles Collection’ is probably the best introduction to Killing Joke but falls short of providing enough value for existing fans.

What’s THIS For…! is Killing Joke‘s second album and contains all of the muscle and fury of their self-titled debut, only with less synthesizers and a stronger emphasis on thick percussion with ritualistic drum patterns. Despite being the same amount of…

The classical string arrangements of “X” add a warmness and humanity that Klaus Schulze’s cold, bleak, now-vintage synthesizers couldn’t have hoped to achieve before. It’s just a shame they aren’t featured more often. Also: two hours? An ambient album is…

1986. “Don’t You Want Me” came out in 1981, and it’s one of the greatest synth pop songs of all time. Certainly better than any of Kraftwerk’s. “I Ran (So Far Away)” was 1982. “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”…

The reason I don’t like Kraftwerk is that they deliberately try so hard to make their music inhuman. There’s no humanity to be found in an indistinguishable vocalist blankly repeating “The Robots” into a microphone, tone or pitch never changing…

…And the Circus Leaves Town as Kyuss turn in from a career that was apparently quite tiring with their final album showing signs of exhaustion and a lack of inspiration. For example, “Tangy Zizzle” sounds like it would have only…