Music
Review: The Sounds – Weekend
The Sounds have released another album similar to their two most previous creations both in style and content. Indie folk influences with their typical electro-pop base won’t throw off or impress faithful fans. This album is about what you’d expect. … read more
Review: Schooner – Neighborhood Veins
Spooky country songs bleed into ’50s rockers and soulful harmonies accent slow ballads. Like I said before, this is what indie should be: With every chance they get Schooner exercise the freedom they’ve cultivated for themselves. … read more
Review: Saxon – Unplugged and Strung Up
Over the course of a 36-year career, Saxon have proven themselves to be the undisputed masters of heavy metal songwriting. Unplugged and Strung Up is a cavalcade of re-recordings, orchestrations and acoustic takes on a selection of Saxon’s greatest material. … read more
December National Music Reviews
National Album reviews for December 2013. … read more
Review: Said The Whale – hawaiii
Hawaiii is an album that sounds exactly like what you’d expect radio-friendly indie rock to sound like. This means that it’s just as likely that a preteen girl will play their music as it is that your mom will. … read more
Review: Psalm Zero – Force My Hand
It’s tough to rate the band on this debut single, because one of the two songs is a cover of Today Is The Day’s “Willpower,” which they transformed from its distorted, noise-metal roots into a gothic dirge with what the band calls “medieval vocal harmonies.” … read more
Review: Poor Remy – Bitters
Folk transforms into alt-country at the end of “Cave Eyes,” concluding the album pleasantly. Try this one out for a hiking trip or a day in nature. … read more
Review: Piano Interrupted – The Unified Field
The mix feels like a series of hymns performed in a discotheque, transforming a club-like atmosphere into an experience both spiritual and mind-expanding. … read more
Review: Phantogram – Self-Titled EP
There’s no real pretense here: All four tracks have been plucked from the new full-length, with the main single, “Black Out Days,” being the standout with its infectious chorus and striking rhythm. … read more
Review: Panama – Always EP
It is hard to categorize this Sydney-based quartet, fronted by the talents of the classically trained Jarrah McCleary, and having now listened to the original—and fairly mellow—versions of three tracks comprising this, their sophomore EP, I would say: “disco-lite.” … read more
Review: Ovlov – Am
Ovlov’s instrumental simplicity is reminiscent of indie-precursors like Pavement or Mclusky. The vocals have a bit of that post-punk whininess and the lyrics are, for the most part, indiscernible, but they do it well. … read more
Review: Orchestra Of Spheres – Vibration Animal Sex Brain Music
It’s clear by the title of the album that not even Orchestra Of Spheres know quite what to make of it. If you think that the electro-punk (another fitting definition for OOS) of LCD Soundsystem is too tame of a classification, then maybe this band is for you. … read more
