Green/Blue: Paper Thin [Album Review]

Green/BluePaper ThinFeel It Records [2022] I like it when a band is on a creative streak and they just keep rolling the dice. Minneapolis’ Green/Blue have just done that with their fantastically new dark and pulsing third record, Paper Thin. This album is really a rush because it follows their killer second album, Offering, which … Read more

Porridge Radio: Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky [Album Review]

Porridge RadioWaterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The SkySecretly Canadian [2022] The power of song is always something you hear people say but you can go searching far and wide sometimes to find music that really touches your core. Well, welcome to Brighton’s Porridge Radio and their third long player, Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The … Read more

Kevin Morby: This Is A Photograph [Album Review]

Kevin MorbyThis Is A PhotographDead Oceans [2022] This Is A Photograph is singer/songwriter Kevin Morby’s 7th album which once again is a record that captures his look at life with intelligent lyrics, complex arrangements and his calm as can be vocals. Since his gospel-folk delivery on the fantastic Singing Saw (2016), Morby has tweaked his … Read more

Kikagaku Moyo: Kumoyo Island [Album Review]

Kikagaku MoyoKumoyo IslandGuruguru Brain [2022] It is always better to go out on your own terms. So many times, things can implode and just leave a very unsatisfying “what if” scenario. How did your favorite musical artist call time on a career? Did a band member pass away? Did they break up? You just never … Read more

Wet Leg: Wet Leg [Album Review]

Wet LegWet LegDomino Recording Company [2022] “Excuse me?”, “What?” is the inquisitive back n’ forth question that gets repeatedly posed between Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers on the catchy single “Chaise Lounge” from the British indie band Wet Leg. Its surprise not surprised delivery tone is just one of the cool moments you will hear … Read more

Pinch Points: Process [Album Review]

Pinch PointsProcessMistletone/Exploding In Sound Records [2022] Melbourne’s Pinch Points released an excellent record of post-punk with their 2019 debut Moving Parts but their sophomore album, Process, takes their style of angular rock to another level. The band shines with their mostly shouted rotating female/male vocals as they deliver their opinion and bring more awarness to … Read more

Oso Oso: Sore Thumb [Album Review]

Oso OsoSore ThumbTriple Crown Records [2022] The surprise album release is something I really can get accustomed to because the adrenaline rush a music lover gets when you receive the news that you can hear a new record right now, that you didn’t even know existed a minute before, is off the charts. Oso Oso … Read more

Young Guv: GUV III [Album Review]

Young GuvGUV IIIRun For Cover Records [2022] In the spring of 2020, Ben Cook — a.k.a. Young Guv — was grounded in New Mexico due to the pandemic. Along with his bandmates, they quarantined and ended up staying for 9 months. The creative flow took place and the group produced not one but two records. … Read more

M Ross Perkins: E Pluribus M Ross [Album Review]

M Ross PerkinsE Pluribus M RossColemine/Karma Chief Records [2022] Colemine Records is best known for their soul and funk acts like Durand Jones & The Indications, Monophonics, and Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, but lately they’ve been putting out a lot of great records on their Karma Chief imprint. Whether it’s the psychedelic soul sounds of … Read more

Midnight Oil: Resist [Album Review]

Midnight OilResistSony Music [2022] The standing joke among those of us old enough to remember is that the opening months of 2022 feel a lot like the 80’s, with new music from Elvis Costello, Tears for Fears, and now Australia’s gift to the alternative rock world, Midnight Oil. When the band returned after a long … Read more

Guided By Voices: Crystal Nuns Cathedral [Album Review]

Guided By VoicesCrystal Nuns CathedralGBV Inc. [2022] If I asked you today to make me a list of current rock bands that have been putting out consistent albums over the last several years what names would you write down? Still thinking? Is Guided By Voices on your list and looking fairly lonely at the top? … Read more

Kendra Morris: Nine Lives [Album Review]

Kendra MorrisNine LivesColemine/Karma Chief Records [2022] Kendra Morris has been releasing music for over a decade, putting out several albums, EPs, and singles since 2011 while collaborating with the likes of Czarface and Chico Mann along the way. She joined the ever-expanding roster of Colemine Records imprint Karma Chief in 2021 with her excellent single … Read more

Spoon: Lucifer On The Sofa [Album Review]

SpoonLucifer On The SofaMatador Records [2022] With the release of Everything Hits At Once: The Best of Spoon and a summer tour opening for “The Night Running” amphitheater tour, with co-bill headliners Beck and Cage the Elephant, it felt like Spoon was poised in 2019 to step up to the next level. A new single, … Read more

Black Country, New Road: Ants From Up There [Album Review]

Black Country, New RoadAnts From Up ThereNinja Tune [2022] When Black Country, New Road released their debut (last year’s For The First Time), they were lumped together with a slew of new UK bands who mixed post-punk arrangements, prog-rock structures, and half-spoken/half-sung vocals—bands like black midi, Squid, Shame, Dry Cleaning, and Sorry (among many others). … Read more

Honey Radar: Play-Box Relay EP [Album Review]

Honey RadarPlay-Box Relay EPSelf-Released [2021] Lo-fi experts Honey Radar released this 8 song, 16 minute 12″ at the end of last year and it ranks right up there with the Philadelphia’s group best work to date. The band of course were originally focused on a follow up LP to their excellent Ruby Puff Of Dust … Read more

Elvis Costello & The Imposters: The Boy Named If [Album Review]

Elvis Costello & The Imposters The Boy Named IfEMI/Capitol Records [2022] Forty five years and 37 albums – give or take if we count all his collaborative efforts – into his career as a recording artist, Elvis Costello is a known entity, we have a good idea what to expect from him, which is usually … Read more

The Wombats: Fix Yourself, Not The World [Album Review]

The WombatsFix Yourself, Not The WorldAWAL [2022] While The Wombats, who got their start in Liverpool, have absorbed British pop and indie rock influences from across the last 5 or 6 decades, the trio’s brand of clever power-pop suggests a cosmic connection to acts as diverse at Big Star, Material Issue, and The Fountains of … Read more

Aeon Station: Observatory [Album Review]

Aeon StationObservatorySub Pop Records [2021] How do you ever follow up a record that is as highly revered in the indie rock world as The Wrens’ Meadowlands? The album was released in 2003 and then the band faded away for 18 years with sporadic news of fresh material every year, new album talk constantly being … Read more

Hushdrops: The Static [Album Review]

HushdropsThe StaticPravda Records [2021] Chicago-band, Hushdrops, are considered a supergroup around those parts, the trio perhaps better known for the folk they support in other settings. Guitarist and vocalist John San Jaun has played with Material Issue, Josh Caterer, The Webb Bros. and more, bassist Jim Shapiro was the original drummer with Veruca Salt, where … Read more

Velvet Starlings: Technicolour Shakedown [Album Review]

Velvet StarlingsTechnicolour ShakedownKitten Robot/SoundX3 Records [2021] Velvet Starlings is a 60’s infused garage rock ‘n’ roll band hailing from Los Angeles and the beach cities of Southern California. The band was founded by guitarist and organ player Christian Gisborne but now is rounded out with brothers Foster and Hudson Poling, who play drums and bass … Read more