Album Reviews Archive
Album Review: Alicia Keys ‘Girl on Fire’
January 6, 2013
It seems like Alicia Keys can almost do no wrong at this stage in her career. She has established herself, earning respect to such a degree that listeners are willing to give her a chance no matter what she does. This affords her the opportunity for great musical freedom. Whether she is up to the
Album Review: Kid Rock ‘Rebel Soul’
January 5, 2013
Kid Rock had a strangely structured rise in rock music, starting off somewhere between genres and making the most of it with enormous sales to match his ego and image. In recent years though it feels like he has come to a plateau, and while the sales are still there his music hasn’t seemed as
Album Review: Neil Young and Crazy Horse ‘Psychedelic Pill’
January 1, 2013
Neil Young and Crazy Horse have been busy. After an almost ten year stretch of silence left fans in a state of withdrawal, the band has pushed out a pair of new concoctions in just one year, with the latest fix coming in the form of a Psychedelic Pill. Where Americana was a good, but
Album Review: Soundgarden ‘King Animal’
December 31, 2012
Of all the bands to come out of the pacific northwest in the grunge era, Soundgarden never truly fit in. They still don’t, and their music is still different from what is popular today, but it’s not dated. They haven’t put together a studio record featuring new music since the 90s golden age of alternative
Album Review: One Direction ‘Take Me Home’
December 23, 2012
It really doesn’t matter if this album is any good. Millions of people are going to buy it without reading a review or hearing more than one song, and an equal number of people are going to passionately denounce it with about the same level of ignorance. That’s the blessing and the curse of being
Album Review: Green Day ‘¡Dos!’
December 22, 2012
When I wrote my review for the first of Green Day’s three-part album release, ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tre!, I said that parts two and three would have to differentiate themselves in some way or the whole collection might be just about irrelevant. Putting out records in this way lends a band a great deal of
Album Review: Andrew Bird ‘Hands of Glory’
December 9, 2012
When Andrew Bird recorded Break It Yourself he found himself with a separate collection of songs along a slightly different theme, which wouldn’t have fit as well on that record. The followup EP, Hands of Glory, has a decidedly western slant to it, featuring Appalachian fiddle more strongly than the lush and soaring violin of
Album Review: Trey Anastasio ‘Traveler’
December 8, 2012
When Trey Anastasio made the decision to enter into the realm of indie rock, it can at least be said that he was in no way trepidatious about it. This album is so loaded with quirky ambience and atmospheric swells of strings that it puts bands like Arcade Fire and The National to shame, but
Album Review: Lupe Fiasco ‘Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1’
November 23, 2012
The title isn’t referring to a house party or a barbeque, but a statement made in the introduction about the malaise and lethargy of daily American life. “Food and liquor stores still occupy the block, while police and community watchmen justify why they shop.” Lupe Fiasco has a criticism for just about every aspect of
Album Review: Jason Aldean ‘Night Train’
November 23, 2012
As country singers go, Jason Aldean has a voice and a style that absolutely drip of stereotypes, laid on so thick as to seem like a caricature, but he’s so insanely good at it that nobody seems to mind that he might be playing it up a little. Maybe a lot. Night Train is his