These two disks collect 34 songs from across the band’s three decade career, and there’s barely a stinker in the bunch.
Produced by Englishman Peter Walsh, chosen by the band for his recent work with Simple Minds and Scott Walker, Heyday gives the quartet a brighter, more lush sound than ever before, with strings and horns enhancing a few tracks.
Love it or hate it, the sonics of Seance make it an album that’s one of the band’s most distinctive.
The Blurred Crusade takes the guitar-heavy new wave sound of its debut Of Skins and Heart and reshapes it, beginning the process of evolution into what would become the Church’s sonic signature.
It sounds like a young band with talent to burn eager to get its ideas down on vinyl as quickly and energetically as possible.
Former teen pop star Robyn should have been an also-ran, a one-hit wonder from the 1990s, but her talent and abilities prevented her from such a fate, and her new album is evidence that she is one of today’s best artists.
There’s no reason in the world that fans of the Elephant 6 crew, XTC, the Green Pajamas or Robyn Hitchcock wouldn’t clasp Barbeau to their bosoms, especially not after hearing the marvelous Psychedelic Mynde of Moses.
Thousand Watt Stare releases their debut ep
Maxos Le Gervoïde has found in his music both means of poeticizing and channeling his storytelling but also pulling towards something wider than the little slice of province he springs from. But for the language these songs should be universal, as the themes are accessible to anyone.
After nearly three decades in the music business, Steve Wynn once again reaffirms his mastery of straight-up rock & roll on Northern Aggression, his latest LP with the Miracle 3.
The Austin quintet hasn’t expanded the boundaries of its jangle-heavy garage pop sound, but it has sharpened its songwriting skills considerably.
Rising from the dank netherworld of Delaware, Ape! is an exciting new addition to the ever-expanding tree of Sabbath-genome metal. Any fan of mid-fi doom and deserty shred will love this release.
When guitarist/songwriter Kurt Bloch retired the Fastbacks, it didn’t lessen his commitment to witty punk/pop.
Did anybody really expect a band as intense and volatile as Killing Joke to last 30 years?
It has a big, fat bass sound that stands out on nearly every track, rivaling the guitars for dominance and giving the album coherence.
A merely good album that still manages to put me in greater awe of its creators, as it makes more apparent than ever the slippery and mercurial nature of their writing and recording process.
The record uses the terminology of stage magic to take the listener through the Transcendental Argument for God’s existence, with each song covering a different aspect of the philosophy.
Thirty-six years after its release, Paul McCartney & Wings masterpiece receives the deluxe edition treatment it so rightly deserved, and serves as the beginning of a reissue campaign of his 1970s solo work.
Husker Du: The Story Of The Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock is the first book to tell the tale of the legendary Punk Rock band.
An incredible slab of searing garage perfection that leaves you totally breathless and wanting a whole lot more!
K Recs continues their magnificently diverse output with a slice of neo-sludge and retrodelia with this burnt offering by Chain & The Gang. Sparse, hiss-laden soul hooks here adorned by poppy and understated male/female vocals.
Does Write About Love promise not just the status quo, does it slyly allude to a degree of revelation we’ve never seen in the work of Belle & Sebastian before?
Five years after the New Line album, the band has returned with its strongest effort yet.
From the sound of Legacy, the fifth album from Belgian ensemble Hypnos 69, leader Steve Houtmeyers has two albums in his collection: King Crimson‘s In the Court of the Crimson King and Pink Floyd‘s Wish You Were Here.
A remarkable debut from a woman who is just beginning to discover how much she has to say.
There are lots of young musicians trying to capture this kind of guitar-driven spike-pop sound and not doing it nearly as well.
In The Seven Dreams, the debut from Goldbug, jazz and experimental music weave themselves so closely together they don’t recognize their own limbs.
Excellent songs prove that there is more under Hewhocannotbenamed’s mask than the cartoon character he portrays with THE DWARVES.
The tracks collected on A Bureaucratic Desire For Extra Capsular Extraction represent the first recorded utterances of the entity known as Earth.
Thirty-five years after it ceased formal operations, The Beatles‘ Apple Records roster receives the proper retrospective it has so sorely deserved.
It plays this timeless mix of early 70s metal, prog and drone rock as it invented it – there’s not a whiff of nostalgia.
Everything that you love about completely over-driven garage punk is white hot on The Soupcans first release, a cleverly packaged casette on the tiny DIY Cramped Spaces Cassette Registry label.
Steampunk as a musical style is more difficult to define, as there are as many variations as in fiction and film.
Cheetah Chrome tell’s his “Dead Boy’s Tales” with his new autobiography.
Live in Europe showcases his mastery of the kind of soulful blues/bluesy soul that helped make BB King and Albert King legends.
This stuff is raw, in-your-face hardcore punk that also doesn’t skimp on the melody and catchiness to go along with its youthful energy.
Voltaire collects many of his funniest, most accessible tunes on Spooky Songs For Creepy Kids, the soundtrack to your kids’ next trick-or-treat walk.
These first seven singles are arguably Morrissey’s best; they hinted at a promise that his legacy of the Smiths would be equaled by a uniformly engaging solo career.
Having evolved from the With the Beatles-obsessed Poppees, you’d think Sorrows would have an equally fervent Fab Four jones.
Without a scrap of lyric, the songs manage to be incredibly lyrical, singing images pleasantly into the mind’s ear. The attentive listener is transported into splendid harbors of bright and comforting light and shade, to the point where the texture of the music is almost palpable to the touch.
Acid Mothers Temple continually release challenging music that is striking in its originality and integrity.
Had the album been released in this form, I would argue that it would had just as much of an impact upon the scene.
Walker concentrates on gritty blues and soul balladry, with a veneer of sophistication barely covering seething emotions.
Tea and Sympathy displays a band with a strong grasp on creamy melody and bittersweet romance, taking gentle guitar pop and giving it a more substantial weight than its soft, breezy veneer would at first lead one to believe.
After a four year break, Jay has returned with his best laundry list of ridiculous ways to kill him the last 50WTKM offering.
Lost in the Trees debut with an evocative album with folk and orchestral style that is both heartbreaking and glorious.
The point of Live at Roadburn 2007 isn’t so much the addition of any live energy – it’s to sum up the band’s recent era.
Descending is all about atmosphere and drift, but that doesn’t mean it’s boring.
Working a sort of sweet spot located between Doug Sahm and Rockpile, the Grasshoppers eschew trendy production/arrangement tricks for simple, straightforward writing and performances.
This is, amazingly, the first released music by former Jawbreaker and Jets to Brazil vocalist/singer/guitarist/songwriter Blake Schwarzenbach since 2002.
