For the 16th album from of Montreal, principal songwriter and band leader, Kevin Barnes opted to make the album in isolation, playing all of the instruments himself. While Barnes often takes the band out on tour as a quintet and will likely do so this year, there’s no doubt that the music and lyrics reflect…
Twins Tegan and Sara Quin quite naturally tend to do a lot of things together. For instance, earlier this year they co-authored a memoir charting their teenage years, describing their early musical careers and how each of them came to terms with being gay, added to all the usual teen angst and woe, appropriately titled,…
Serve a Thirsty Moon completes a trifecta for Smug Brothers; as the LP represents the group’s third release this year following February’s Attic Harvest and July’s All Blur and Spark. The band’s creative surge is the result of adding members to the fold and with Serve A Thirsty Moon the group has become an official…
Seeker is Mikal Cronin’s fourth LP but he is probably known best as Ty Segall’s bass player. If you have been following the excellent solo work of Mikal Cronin you have become familiar with his more indie pop leanings of his last two excellent albums but Seeker brings back some garage rock from his debut…
I,I – the fourth album from Bon Iver – begins with “Yi” a 30 second smattering of electronic noise, voices, and an unsettling sense of dislocation, which would lead one to expect another album in the more experimental mode of 2016’s 22, A Million. But soon something more focused and something a lot closer to…
For the first time in some years, Liam Gallagher sounds hopeful on his sophomore solo outing Why Me? Why Not. Sure, the title of the record has attitude, which is expected with Liam’s projects, but what in the past might be thought of as arrogance now comes off as confidence. The rolling and big chorus…
The idea of a collaborative super-group of female country artists is hardly novel, but dates all the way back to early sing-alongs on the Grand Ol’ Opry, but was no doubt given contemporary commercial viability when Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris came together for “Trio” in 1987. And of course, for close to…
Black Pumas are another bright spot on the retro-soul scene as the duo of Adrian Quesada and Eric Burton offer up ten passionate tracks on their self-titled debut. It only takes the first two songs into the record of “Black Moon Rising” and “Colors” to realize the groups talents. The harmonizing on the chorus during…
On their 10th album, 36 years after their self-titled debut that included some of their best-loved songs – “Blister in the Sun,” “Kiss Off,” and “Add It Up,” Violent Femmes remain as delightfully raw, strange and potent as ever. Singer-songwriter Gordon Gano, who capitalized on his teenage anxiety, lusty imagination and a penchant for musical…
If you’re a fan of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard then you already know that being surprised is an actual key element of the band. For a group that seems to work tirelessly, they still have not ever churned out the same record over 15 studio albums in this short seven-year span. Infest the…
