While the Debauchees songs and sound are admirably weird, there’s a certain stiffness in their playing that leaves me cold on a few tracks on this full-length debut.
Detroit rapper and producer Black Milk outright wows me with some creative, grimy beats set against some very personal stories on this latest full-length of his, No Poison No Paradise.
Sisu’s debut full-length features some pretty sharp choruses and vocal melodies. While I’m not in love with the album, I think this project is showing a lot of promise for the future.
I’ve been on the fence about many albums this year, but this is one of the few where I’m torn. For every great moment on the new Arcade Fire record, there’s one that falls incredibly short of whatever stylistic mark the band was shooting for. Rather than
On her debut, Rings, I was pretty impressed with the seductive songwriting and primal rhythms that made their way into the songs of Caren Mesirow, a.k.a. Glasser. While her music was obviously influenced, it was still really enjoyable. Interiors changes things in that regard, however. This time around,
Alternative rock outfit Cage the Elephant completely surprises me with a record of songs that have uniformly interesting production, energetic performances, memorable hooks, sharp melodies, and a pretty diverse array of instrumentation.
While Toxic Holocaust’s latest album is a fast, hard-hitting combination of thrash metal and punk, I think I prefer their earlier releases due to a total lack of surprises and variety on this one.
AFI’s Burials is the latest in a long string of uninteresting records from this California band. While I’m not a big fan of the group’s early stuff, at least LPs like Sing The Sorrow had a modicum of aggression or excitement. The radio-friendly records the band has
Canadian MC Shad’s latest album is one of his most ambitious yet. The guy spits his usual brand of clever, playful wordplay over some pretty bright, uplifting instrumentals, I wish the sadder tracks had more emotional impact, though.
