review Archive
07 Feb 2024
Capsule Reviews for February 2024: Reissues
Today I’ll tell you about five albums from the distant past, newly reissued and deserving of your attention. Steve Cropper – With a Little Help from My Friends Guitarist Steve […]
02 Feb 2024
Album Review: UFO — Lights Out (2024 Expanded Edition)
For rock fans, there’s something bracing and life-giving about ‘70s hard rock. At that point in its evolution (so to speak), hard rock was at the apex of its melodicism, […]
31 Jan 2024
Book Review: Pull Down the Shades
From the perspective of a North American alt-rock fan of the 1980s, there was a general sense that some interesting things were happening musically Down Under. At the highest level, […]
28 Jan 2024
Album Review: David Greenberger & the Huckleberries – Universal Preservation
David Greenberger is a most singular artist. His music features his spoken-word vocals, backed by spare, tuneful instrumentation. This set is based on conversations Greenberger had with residents of two […]
27 Jan 2024
Album Review: David Microwave Javelosa – Cyber Steam Cabaret
Pick up this record and give it a quick look; you’ll be forgiven if you mistake it for Crosby Stills Nash & Young’s Déjà Vu. The cover art explicitly aims […]
22 Jan 2024
Album Review: Shiva Burlesque – Mercury Blues + Skullduggery
Independent Project Records continues its dazzling campaign of thoughtfully curated compilation/reissue releases with Mercury Blues + Skullduggery, a 21-track set of music from L.A.-based Shiva Burlesque. With a sound vaguely […]
21 Jan 2024
Album Review: Two Faces West – Postcards From Lonely Places
As a direct result of the manner in which it was made, Two Faces West’s debut album is – in the words of the group – “a stylistic mess.” The […]
20 Jan 2024
Album Review: Frank Clare – Admiratio Magna
One man’s new age music is another’s neoclassical. On his debut release, pianist and composer Frank Clare aims for the latter. The crystalline and unadorned piano textures that grace this […]
19 Jan 2024
Album Review: Kula Shaker – Natural Magick
With a swirling, heady and supercharged approach, Kula Shaker is back. Darlings of the ‘90s Britpop scene, the group led by Crispian Mills made some of the most appealing music […]
13 Jan 2024
Album Review: The Ophelias — Bare Bodkin
From a musical perspective, psychedelia’s heyday was the period between the mid- and late 1960s. The style’s influence, however, has endured since then in the form of various artists’ reinterpretation […]