Mini Mansions | The Great Pretenders | Rating: 9/11 | Honestly, the jury has never really been out regarding whether they were a full-fledged musical offering as opposed to a Queens of the Stone Age side project of QOTSA bassist Michael Shuman: Mini Mansions have never been pretenders. Contradicting this sophomore record’s title is as cheeky a thing as anything else you’ll find on this […]
Until The Ribbon Breaks | A Lesson Unlearnt | Rating: 8.5/11 | Photo Credit: Debi del Grande | Welshman Pete Lawrie-Winfield had a dream: one of sonic nods to cinema and noir, to beats and the bedroom, and to satisfaction via less re-imagination (remixing/producing the works of others) and more personal creation. With mates Elliot Wall and James Gordon, on […]
In-Flight Safety | Conversationalist | Rating: 8.5/11 | Are icy tones and chilly guitars a Canadian thing? If so, then In-Flight Safety from Halifax, Nova Scotia remains true to national form on Conversationalist – their fourth release. But John Mullane (vox, guitars, keys) and Glen Nicholson (drums, percussion) offer up something of a beautiful dichotomy with a rich and thoughtful […]
U2 | Songs Of Innocence | Rating: 6.8/11 | Regardless of how you feel about being conspiratorially ‘spammed’, it happened. Granted, all other unsolicited media ending up in one’s inbox promptly gets the thumbs down/mark as spam treatment but, alas, this is what occurs when the biggest band in the world (U2) and a titanic of music delivery and technology (Apple) join […]
Interpol | El Pintor | Rating: 8.5/11 | When we first got the memo that the beloved, somewhat beleaguered New York City former foursome (now a trio: Paul Banks, Sam Fogarino & Daniel Kessler) known as Interpol had album #5 in their pocket, we had but one simple – yet very honest – request of them: Please don’t suck. After […]
Bishop Allen | Lights Out | Rating: 5/11 | Bishop Allen has had a successful run with cinema and great indie-pop songs over the last ten years. Sadly, their new record, Lights Out, has failed to do something new and agreeable. Lights Out is a great step in the right direction for the band’s musical talents, but it fails to exhibit […]
Beach Day | Native Echoes | Rating: 9/11 | Beach Day’s Native Echoes is probably the best sophomore record since Nashville’s Those Darlins followed-up their beautifully sloppy and crass country punk debut with 2011’s Screws Get Loose, an exercise in garage psychedelia channeled through the hipster artistry of New York’s Bowery in the 1970s. Beach Day have followed-up the hyper-fun-loving, hyper-sunny girl-group garage […]
