THE WHO: X Ambassadors THE WHAT: ORION (Interscope/KIDinaKORNER) THE WHY: Generally, I’m happy for the albums that land in my inbox daily but when an advance copy of X Ambassadors’ ORION presented itself, I was especially pleased. But be cool, I chastised myself: no matter how much I dig a band, there’s always the possibility that an output could suck. See […]

THE WHO: MISSIO THE WHAT: The Darker the Weather // The Better the Man (RCA Records) THE WHY: It seems that Missio has failed to make Loner v 2.0… …and that is a very good thing. With the release of the Austin, TX duo’s 2017 debut album, Loner, Matthew Brue and David Butler tapped into a blue/black-lit rebellion and angst that was uncomfortable […]

THE WHO: Bad Suns THE WHAT: Mystic Truth (Epitaph Records) THE WHY: Youth and young man/womanhood can be perilously tricky things but for two full-length albums (Language & Perspective and Disappear Here) Bad Suns have always managed to make the common angst of those conditions sound and feel as balmy as a top-down cruise up the Pacific Coast Highway. It’s […]

WHO: 8mm WHAT: Heart-Shaped Hell WHY: What your icy hot, undercover black heart sounds like. It’s never not been appropriate (dig the double negative) for musical and real-life duo Sean and Juliette Beavan to operate under the name of 8mm: the cinematic and noir-ish nature of their sonic rock doings has been their collective signature and why their music keeps […]

WHO: Emarosa WHAT: Peach Club (Hopeless Records) WHY: Ladies and gentlemen, we have a situation: Emarosa is dead. Here’s the thing: if you are an Emarosa fan, listened to 131 (their last album) and didn’t see this coming even a little bit, the general concensus is that you were not paying attention. I mean, come on: “Helpless,” anyone? The only […]

Welcome to our Album of the Week. WHO: morgxn WHAT: vital : blue (s t r i p p e d) EP WHY: There’s nothing inherently revolutionary about the art of stripping. Songs. The art of stripping songs down to less flashy or fussy bits of their original composition. It’s an endeavor that’s never truly necessary, but when utterly well done […]

Allan Rayman | Harry Hard-On | Rating: 8/11 | Harry Hard-On has something of a telltale heart. Not the kind from a murdered dead guy that haunts Allan Rayman with the drone of its constant postmortem beating. No, not like that: that would be weird. Instead, Rayman has flipped his mysterious script just enough to find himself a touch less shaded and […]