{"id":23018,"date":"2022-05-25T05:30:13","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T09:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=23018"},"modified":"2022-05-25T09:50:11","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T13:50:11","slug":"hundred-word-reviews-for-may-2022-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/25\/hundred-word-reviews-for-may-2022-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundred-word Reviews for May 2022, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

I present five more reviews, in capsule form. Three of these are new releases; two are archival titles. All are deserving of deeper investigation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Alice Austin \u2013 <\/b>Goodnight Euphoria<\/b><\/i>
\nLos Angeles-based singer-songwriter Austin has crafted a supremely satisfying slab of rock with Goodnight Euphoria<\/i>. Her innate sense of pop songwriting is combined with expertly textured rock arrangements, and a production aesthetic that doubles down on the spiky, wiry feel of \u201890s alternarock. Guitars roar, but they\u2019re placed into a musically hypnotic context that balances subtlety and power. The music defies simple genre pigeonholing, and there\u2019s something here for most tastes. The songs have immediate appeal, yet gradually unfold to reveal themselves more fully. Though she sounds almost nothing like them, for me Austin has kindred spirits in A Camp<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Charlie Winton \u2013 <\/b>The Soul and the Shadow<\/b><\/i>
\nThe jangle of \u201860s acts like The Byrds and \u201880s bands like Long Ryders continues to provide inspiration for artists today. Raspy-voiced troubadour Charlie Winton may well be one of those who has drawn from the ideas those groups put forth. A heartland-style rocker with a sounds that will warm the hearts of anyone who\u2019s spent quality time with albums by The Band or Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Winton is a solid songwriter. The Soul and the Shadow<\/i> (a Jungian allusion, perhaps?) are emotionally engaging and tuneful. The record features expert production (and loads of instrumentation) by Scott Mathews<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Nick Piunti \u2013 <\/b>Heart Inside Your Head<\/b><\/i>
\nThere\u2019s something about Detroit. Sure, Motown was responsible for countless classic songs, but the rock end of things in Motor City has long been characterized by a harder edge: MC5, Stooges, Amboy Dukes, Alice Cooper. Combining that quality with a strong melodic sense, Nick Piunti is nominally a powerpop artist. But his work deserves recognition beyond that narrow slice of the musical landscape. With a hoary voice reminiscent of Mike Viola, Piunti writes hook-filled rockers and delivers them with verve and passion. There\u2019s no artifice or filigree on Heart Inside Your Head<\/i>, and absolutely none is needed. Long live rock!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Bobby Cole \u2013 <\/b>A Point of View<\/b><\/i>
\nWhat would happen if you combined Mel Torme, Tony Bennett and Dean Martin? If you\u2019re lucky, you might get somebody like Bobby Cole. A breathtakingly expressive pianist, Cole could sing circles around his contemporaries. Drawing from countless styles, Cole made a stunning album, A Point of View<\/i>, originally released in 1967. That was perhaps a bit late for the style in which he was working. The album did well in New York City but was largely unheard elsewhere. A new Omnivore reissue adds 13 bonus tracks that showcase Cole\u2019s versatility and range. Listen and be dazzled, moved, thrilled, entranced.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Muffs \u2013 <\/b>Really Really Happy<\/b><\/i>
\nAfter making delightful retro-garage with The Pandoras, Kim Shattuck put The Muffs together as a vehicle for her sharp songwriting and wonderfully expressive vocals. \u201cPop punk\u201d often gets a bad rap as inconsequential, and often deserves the criticism. But The Muffs rose above such concerns, making some of the best music to come out of that scene. The economical trio of Shattuck, bassist Ronnie Barnett and drummer Roy McDonald was at the top of its game \u2013 that\u2019s saying something \u2013 with 2004\u2019s Really Really Happy<\/i>. A new Omnivore reissue adds 19(!) Shattuck demos that display her genius in slightly less-finished form.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I present five more reviews, in capsule form. Three of these are new releases; two are archival titles. All are deserving of deeper investigation. Alice Austin \u2013 Goodnight Euphoria Los […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23012,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,49,62,64,65],"tags":[4842,4839,4841,4840,1622,3981],"class_list":["post-23018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jazz","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-reissue","category-review","tag-alice-austin","tag-bobby-cole","tag-charlie-winton","tag-nick-piunti","tag-omnivore-recordings","tag-the-muffs","cat-42-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-64-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23018"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23037,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23018\/revisions\/23037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}