Album Reviews Archive
Album Review: Lady Lamb the Beekeeper ‘Ripley Pine’
April 9, 2013
When I first heard of Lady Lamb the Beekeeper about four years ago I went looking for an album, but no proper record existed. It seemed inevitable she would get around to it, which she has, and at the time I looked forward to that for two reasons: First, because I hoped after listening to
Album Review: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds ‘Push the Sky Away’
April 6, 2013
For a man capable of anything, there is a whole lot of nothing going on with this record. That’s not to say that there is not immense talent being presented, or that Nick Cave’s poetry has fallen off. On the latter point he may have improved, at least to my taste, becoming a bit less
Album Review: Bruno Mars ‘Unorthodox Jukebox’
March 24, 2013
Bruno Mars is a different sort of pop star. It’s hard to define him strictly as being a “pop star” because he seems to command a higher level of respect, even though that is exactly what he is. It may only be an illusion then, brought on by his penchant to be a bit different
Album Review: Tegan and Sara ‘Heartthrob’
March 23, 2013
The sisters Quin have seemed to struggle to find the right balance between cutesy pop and emotional indie. Their latest volley is a lot like 2009’s Sainthood, but punchier and perhaps a bit more confident. They have been engaged in this balancing act for well over a decade now, and with their seventh studio album
Album Review: Dropkick Murphys ‘Signed and Sealed in Blood’
March 22, 2013
I’m going to be completely honest with you off the top: The expectation here is that this will sound like every other Dropkick Murphys album, which is something they can get away with because nobody else is really making celtic punk party music. It’s a surprisingly strong niche for one with so little room, where
Album Review: Atoms for Peace ‘AMOK’
March 21, 2013
Thom Yorke is a genius, or maybe just a bit odd. Not quite as odd as he looks, but odd enough to consistently surprise with the musical decisions he makes. About the only thing you can be sure of going into a new release– no matter what band he is playing with– is that your
Album Review: Green Day ‘¡Tre!’
January 20, 2013
If we’re being honest, the first two installments in Green Day’s back-to-basics trilogy, ¡Uno! and ¡Dos!, did not differentiate themselves enough to warrant the ambition of the band in releasing their music this way. ¡Tre! is where they absolutely have to prove that three albums were necessary, to make up for the heaps of filler
Album Review: Scott Walker ‘Bish Bosch’
January 19, 2013
Scott Walker has been making great music since the 1960s, but the similarities between his early work as a part of the Walker Brothers and the noise experiments he has crafted over the past couple of decades are almost none. Listeners who felt alienated by Radiohead’s transition from Pablo Honey to The King of Limbs
Album Review: Pitbull ‘Global Warming’
January 13, 2013
Calling an album like this Global Warming is like a statement of intent, either to destroy the world of pop music or– more likely– to heat things up a few kelvins on the dancefloor. It’s certainly not going to be an environmentally conscious album, because with an artist like Pitbull you kind of know what
Album Review: Ke$ha ‘Warrior’
January 12, 2013
Ke$ha is an interesting animal. She exists somewhere on the periphery of both terrible and great music, having already proven she is very capable of serving up either when she feels like it. For the most part, she seems to approach music in much the same way as she does life: by getting drunk and