Underrated tongue in cheek

Overrated.

At times, it sounds like someone’s uncle picked up a guitar and started performing in a studio where a door was left unlocked. In other songs, it sounds like the Sweet we’ve come to know for decades. He drifts in and out of some slick fuzzy jams but also seemingly confuses his audience. I’ve never loved any of his work as much as I did during his mid nineties prime but this is not a terrible album by any means.

This one isn’t as good as their last album which hovered near perfect, but it’s still really good. The moody folk vibe they churn out stays well intact even if it drifts a little too close to sleepy time tea land toward the end. I did love the last track, Mexico, however. Great mood music.

Pink Lemonade is one of my favorite songs so far this year, and while I didn’t dislike the album overall as much as many reviewers, it does seem Bay tried a little too hard on this one. Where Less was more in his previous work, here he crosses genres and cranks up the bass to deliver some experemintation we could live without. Not to mention, the dialogue is inside jokey and unfortunate. Looking forward to his next release...

This album is creative and innovative. It’s a great listen all the way through. It’s my favorite Editors album to date and deserves more than the mediocre and sometimes dismal reviews it’s seen thus far.

Parquet Courts were always a band I felt very indifferent about. A lot of their stuff is very noisy and disconnected. This album, however, is by far their best work to date and is actually enjoyable and fun to listen to! One of the best entries of the year thus far.

This album is such a letdown after a long wait. It’s conceptual, yes, but feels like Tom Waits doing a poor Leonard Cohen impression.

The only bright spot on the whole thing comes from a track called “Four Out of Five” which gets four out of five stars. The rest hovers between two and three.

It’s a shame I was looking forward to this one. Meh.

I disagree with the majority on this one. This is my favorite album by We Are Scientists and the replay ability is 🙌

Ever reliable, Sarah’s shook and her Disarmers are back with a very well done album full of Self deprication, torment, and heartbreak. “Lesson” is a really cool song. “Damned If I Do, Damned If I Don’t” is all attitude. There’s a replay ability here as well. Overall, very solid.

It doesn’t all come together, but it turns out to be quite a catchy yet caged little indie kitch. “Easier to Love” is a great song, and there are others which make for a promising career in sight.

It never quite reaches its potential, but it provides great promise for their future. A hidden gem called “Stay” was a standout for me. It almost feels a little like Paramore’s latest album but without the extra zing.

I loved the album. A solid balance between ballad and ballblasters, The Wonder Years craft one of their finest pieces of art. The title cut is great, preceded by a great honest song called, “It Must Get Lonely” and it never loses steam. Check it out!

Ever the genre in flux, Escape the Fate have always been an anomaly that are hard to pinpoint for me. With “I am Human” they once again frustrate me. The first half of the album takes metal licks and marries them with Cathy riffs that work well in their favor especially with tracks such as “I Will Make It Up to You” but the second half selves into unnecessary schlock rock that creates an uneven bad taste that doesn’t quite recover until the final track.

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Hands down their best effort, Jukebox the Ghost take simple melodies and drive them to unexpected places with a very catchy key laced vibe that is infectious at times, melodramatic at others. Still this pep in their step cant be denied. They have taken songs like “Everybody’s Lonely” and spin themselves something special with this one.

Not a bad little jaunt. Catchy little ditties, aren’t they?

Jack White must have been bored of earth sounds, so for this album he decided to take a spaceship to another galaxy and brought back a sound that’s out of this world.

Unfortunately it doesn’t all work. When you’re as talented a musician as White, melody can take a backseat to experimenting sometimes and with Boarding Hose, this couldn’t be more true.

While there are bright spots here, they are sprinkled throughout in a hodgepodge of WTF.

“Over and Over and ... read more

Each song is different from the next, yet there is seamless transition through each song. This his finest creation, as he weaves his way through this blissful turnpike.

As aging genius weirdos go, David Byrne has the slight edge over Morrissey after listening to American Utopia and comparing that with whatever that was that Morrissey released last year. Oddly enough, they both lead off with songs about dancing. Byrne, however, classically infuses his bizarro lyrics over synth tempo and a buffoonery of instruments that leave unexpected findings with each chorus, even though one should always expect the unexpected with DB.

This was an extremely painful half hour of nonsense I will never get back. Not the Hot Snakes charm I used to know. Not worth the wait at all. All the critics must have lit a few before listening.