Brian Q. Newcomb 
Lana Del ReyDid You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean BlvdInterscope Records [2023] At several points on this monumental 9th album from singer/songwriter Lana Del Rey, she reports that “When you know, you know.” Yet after numerous listens to this album that no less than pop superstar Taylor Swift recently described as “brilliant” and … Read more
Depeche ModeMomento MoriColumbia Records [2023] By all accounts, Depeche Mode were unlikely to make their 15th album, “Momento Mori.” Tensions between the band’s two creative voices, Martin Gore and Dave Gahan became so intense during the making of their 2017 release Spirit, that producer James Ford had to kick everyone else, including the duo’s primary … Read more
U2Songs Of SurrenderInterscope Records [2023] A while back, it became cool for a significant moment in time for major touring rock acts to pause in the middle of their set and pull out the acoustic guitars and move to a couch on the edge of the stage to create an intimate concert moment, no doubt … Read more
Lonnie HolleyOh Me, Oh MyJagjaguwar [2023] Long before Lonnie Holley made any music, he had been discovered as a visual artist and sculptor, initially making sandstone carvings from discarded stone linings used for industrial molds, but later constructing found-art sculptures from junkyard detritus and things discarded by our consumer-driven culture. Holley’s childhood as an African … Read more
The Royal Arctic InstituteFrom Coma To CatharsisAlready Dead Tapes And Records [2023] The Royal Arctic Institute is a quintet of seasoned NYC musicians playing their own brand of cinematic, post-rock & jazz instrumentals, with nine titles of previous recordings available on their Bandcamp site. The 6-track EP that is From Coma to Catharsis comes a … Read more
Gramercy ArmsDeleted ScenesMagic Door Record Label [2023] Gramercy Arms is a NYC musical collective brought together around the songwriting of Dave Derby, who keeps the focus of this third album locked in on polished power/pop that’s inspired, as the band bio says, “by the artistic heyday of the 70’s and 80’s-era.” Derby sings, plays guitar … Read more
Philip SelwayStrange DanceBella Union [2023] Philip Selway, best known as the drummer in Radiohead, has released his third solo album revealing an affinity for the elegant and artful, technologically enhanced, somewhat experimental, larger than life arrangements that has long been part of his main band’s largest works. Surprisingly, Selway and producer Marta Salogni brought in … Read more
LuceroShould’ve Learned By NowLiberty & Lament/Thirty Tigers [2023] If that sturdy, fast drumbeat that opens Lucero’s new album doesn’t convince you they mean business by the time the crunchy rhythm guitars fall into place, perhaps that cowbell will do the trick. That sound, which conjures the classic rock ghost of “Mississippi Queen” by Mountain, is … Read more
Neutral Milk HotelThe Collected Works Of Neutral Milk HotelMerge Records [2023] Neutral Milk Hotel made two modest lo-fi releases in the mid to late 90’s that over time proved far more influential as the band’s cult status grew in spite of singer/songwriter Jeff Mangum’s reclusive radio silence. Loosely described as psychedelic folk and indie rock, … Read more
The ChurchThe HypnogogueCommunicating Vessels [2023] The stature and reputation of Australian indie/rock band The Church is such that with only one charting Top 40 hit to their name, “Under the Milky Way” from the band’s 1988 release Starfish, in 2015 and again in 2016 they shared a co-headlining tour bill with The Psychedelic Furs, the … Read more
InhalerCuts & BruisesGeffen Records [2023] The first thing anyone is going to tell you about Irish band Inhaler is that the band’s singer and rhythm guitarist is Elijah Hewson, the son of U2’s Bono, and the minute you have that information it’s almost impossible not to hear the vocal similarities. What all the debates about … Read more
FranLeavingFire Talk Records [2023] The sophomore release from Chicago-based band, Fran, finds vocalist and principal songwriter Maria Jacobson reflecting on the underlying philosophical values and thinking that people rely on to help make sense of their experiences. Inspired by reading Alan Watts’ “Wisdom of Insecurity,” which suggests a Zen-like acceptance that “impermanence and insecurity are … Read more
Shonen KnifeOur Best PlaceGood Caramel Records [2023] The Japanese female pop/punk trio that is Shonen Knife have been plugging along since the early 80’s, parlaying their novelty act status to a couple of major label releases in the early 90’s, including Rock Animals. Here on their 24th album, they are still plugging away, still pounding away … Read more
QuasiBreaking The Balls Of HistorySub Pop Records [2023] It appears to have taken a global pandemic to get Portland, Ore. power duo Quasi back into the studio 10 years after their last release. Surrounded by numerous end-of-the-world scenarios with no touring happening, it seemed the perfect time for the combined talents of Sam Coomes and … Read more
Yo La TengoThis Stupid WorldMatador Records [2023] This Hoboken, N.J., indie-rock trio have been faithfully plugging along for nearly 40 years, with a new release every few years offering their assessment of what was going on in the world around us. For instance, in 2020 as the pandemic was kicking all of our asses, Yo … Read more
The WAEVEThe WAEVETransgressive Records [2023] The WAEVE represents a new collaboration between Blur lead guitarist and second vocalist Graham Coxon and Rose Elinor Dougall, who was in the British pop girl group The Pipettes in the 00’s, before pursuing a solo career that included collaborating with Mark Ronson, performing on his third solo album, “Record … Read more
The ArcsElectrophonic ChronicEasy Eye Sound / Concord [2023] Had things gone as planned, we’d likely have gotten a follow-up to The Arcs’ fine 2015 debut album, Yours, Dreamily, by 2018, as the band reportedly put anywhere from 80 to 100 tracks down in the studio, recording even while they were out touring behind their first … Read more
The Bad EndsThe Power And The GloryNew West Records [2023] According to their bio, three of the guys in this so-called Athens, GA super-group formed while they were picking up their kids from school, or something like that. In a music town best known as the breeding ground for R.E.M., as well as the B-52’s, … Read more
CVCGet RealCVC Recordings [2023] Listening to Welsh band CVC’s debut Get Real is a lot like stepping into a pop/rock time warp machine set on the 70’s and early 80’s. It stands for Church Village Collective, borrowing their name from the village where the six-piece band formed in the south of Wales, near Cardiff. But … Read more
King TuffSmalltown StardustSub Pop Records [2023] On his sixth album, Kyle Thomas who performs under his original band name King Tuff, steps away from the guitar-driven garage-band power-pop that dominated their 2014 Sub Pop debut, Black Moon Spell, and the self-descriptive single “Headbanger.” Created as a love letter to the rural smalltown where he grew … Read more
Margo PriceStraysLoma Vista Recordings [2023] When Nashville singer-songwriter Margo Price made her debut in 2016 with Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, on Jack White’s Third Man label, the album went to No. 1 on the UK Country Album Chart, and she earned a Best New Artist Grammy nomination. Here on her fourth studio album, Price, her co-writer … Read more
Dave RowntreeRadio SongsCooking Vinyl [2023] 2023 is shaping up to be a big year for fans of the Britpop/alternative rock band Blur. While the quartet hasn’t toured since supporting their 2015 release, Magic Whip, Blur has already sold out one performance at London’s Wembly Stadium for this summer, and a second show currently on sale … Read more
Jeff Johnson & Brian Dunning Coming, GoingArkMusic [2022] Flautist Brian Dunning, who died last February at the age of 70, had a solid recording career before he collaborated with Jeff Johnson on the Celtic-influenced jazz/new age/progressive instrumental music for the Songs From Albion trilogy in the early 90’s, a series offered as a soundtrack to … Read more
Iggy PopEvery LoserGold Tooth/Atlantic Records [2023] Iggy Pop, sometimes called “the Godfather of Punk” for his role as frontman/vocalist with The Stooges, an early proto-punk band that formed in Detroit in 1967. Notorious for his over-the-top, shirtless, self-mutilating performances, it’s a wonder that Pop is alive at 75; the fact that he’s still releasing new … Read more
Belle And SebastianLate DevelopersMatador Records [2023] When novelist Nick Hornsby wrote that “Sentimental music has this great way of taking you back somewhere at the same time that it takes you forward, so you feel nostalgic and hopeful at the same time,” he tapped into a vibe that runs close to the surface in the … Read more