Year: 2014
Review: Marianne Faithfull – Give My Love To London
Marianne Faithfull = Grace Jones + Tom Waits … read more
Review: Loveskills – Pure
Loveskills = Metronomy + Washed Out … read more
Review: Maggie Bjorklund – Shaken
Maggie Bjorklund = Julie Doiron + Daniel Johnston … read more
Review: Malthusian – MMXIII
With members from Altar of Plagues and Mourning Beloveth, the band’s already got a great doom-type pedigree, but MMXIII is more of a batch of death and black metal with tints of the rotten kind of doom. … read more
Review: Mad Choice – Safety Net
The main reason to listen to this album over and over again would be for the opening track, “Swallowing A Shotgun”—combining elements of California skate punk and post-hardcore made for some heavy, mosh-inducing music. … read more
Review: Marram – Sun Choir
Let me just tell you, first, how much work was put into this album. Sun Choir features the children of the Light of Love Children’s Home, along with 10 other artists, including Owen Pallett of Arcade Fire and Scottish folk singer Margaret Bennett. … read more
Review: Matt Pond PA – The Lives Inside the Lines...
While a good chunk of Matt Pond PA’s repertoire can be a bit melancholic, The Lives maintains the more catchy and upbeat side of their work (aside from the song “Human Beings,“ which came across as a drawl). … read more
Review: Magik Markers – Surrender to the Fantasy
It’s the introspective turn into a fantasy realm, even if, instead of his grungy stuffed animals, it’s the evocation of some barefoot, unheated ’60s hippie collective walkup, with all the demonism and beauty that implies. … read more
Review: Marissa Nadler – July
While a bit cliché, Nadler’s voice is classic sounding, as if she could have come straight from a saloon in the 1920s with her loopy, sinister yet soothing soprano, making this an album I won’t dismiss. … read more
Review: Mark McGuire – Along the Way
Along the Way vibes off fluid instrumentation, sort of how “Aqueous Transmission” by Incubus creates a meditative, stoner track to get you in the zone. Once in this mystical environment of sound, the songs meld from these liquid tracks to sounds that are more similar to ’80s hair-metal, with an intense electric guitar dominating the melodies. … read more
Review: Lydia Loveless – Somewhere Else
I first pegged Lydia Loveless as some sort of simple female equivalent to Hank 3, but as I listened further, I realized she is much more than that. … read more
Review: Marshall Holland – And The Etceteras
One-man band Holland (this Bay–Area based maestro writes, produces, plays and sings everything himself) returns with a catchy, frequently funny and even poignant new record. … read more
