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Album Reviews Archive

Album Review: Bassnectar ‘Vava Voom’

Bassnectar has been around for a while, and in the decade-plus that Lorin Ashton has been producing music he has been able to thoroughly explore many different schools and styles of not only EDM, but popular music in general. Vava Voom is mostly a dubstep album, but there are clear influences from other genres in

Album Review: Andrew Bird ‘Break It Yourself’

It’s rare that a musician comes along in popular music with a very wide range of ability, a true and pure artistry, and the willingness to package it all together for the world to enjoy. Even rarer still that the world should notice what it has been given, but Andrew Bird stands out. Bird is

Album Review: Bruce Springsteen ‘Wrecking Ball’

The first thing I heard about Bruce Springsteen’s latest album, Wrecking Ball, came from a friend of mine who said, “I don’t like Springsteen, but I liked this until I found out it was him, so I guess it’s good.” It’s not that Wrecking Ball doesn’t sound like Bruce Springsteen, because it does, but I

Album Review: Ben Kweller ‘Go Fly a Kite’

Go Fly a Kite is Ben Kweller’s fifth studio album, and the first that he has produced and released entirely on his own through his Noise Company record label. Kweller never did appear to need a whole lot of help crafting songs, so it seemed a logical and natural progression for him to take the

Album Review: Leonard Cohen ‘Old Ideas’

It has been eight years since Leonard Cohen’s previous album, and 45 years since his first release back in 1967. In all of that time not a whole lot has changed for the herald of hardship, and Old Ideas sounds a lot like Songs of Leonard Cohen, apart from a voice deepened by age. The

John Mayer 'Battle Studies' Album Review

In the time since Continuum was released, John Mayer has been better known for the hot ass he's sporting on his arm at any given moment more so than the music he's generating. Seriously, its like he's in some sort of insane competition with Derek Jeter and Justin Timberlake to see who can bag the

Album Review: Hard-Fi – Stars of CCTV

Grade: B+ | Genre: Brit Rock Summary: Hard-Fi is definitely better than the surface level tunes of the Bravery yet still needs to knock back a couple more pints to reach the cover-to-cover brilliance of Franz Ferdinand. The Mercury Prize for 2005 has officially come and gone with little known Antony and the Johnsons taking

Album Review: The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema

Grade: A | Genre: Electro-Pop Summary: Twin Cinema is totally self conscious free pop, that is challenging and piles on the layers of sound, creating a enticing buffet for the listener to slowly strip away. Is there a musical scene more on fire right now than the Montreal scene? After spending years profusely apologizing for

Album Review: Death Cab for Cutie – Plans

Grade: A- | Genre: Emo Summary: While Plans falls a shade shy of the shining brilliance of Transatlanticism, it is still a mesmerizing effort to consume. Fans worried that the group’s indie soul would be squeezed out the moment the pen hit the dotted line can stop wringing their hands. They are the same group