Love Coma: Love Coma [Album Review]

Love Coma Love ComaSelf-Released [2020] Evidently, San Antonio, TX-band, Love Coma have some unfinished business. Formed in the early 90’s by Chris Taylor, Matt Slocum, and Chris Dodds, they released an album on the indie label Etcetera Records, Soul Rash in ’93. Slocum departed shortly to start the band Sixpence None the Richer with singer … Read more

Jeff Tweedy: Love Is The King [Album Review]

Jeff Tweedy Love Is The KingdBpm Records [2020] If you are looking for a silver-lining here in the eighth month of this long COVID fever dream, perhaps you can find some solace in the number of artists that have used this down time to push back against the surrounding darkness and shine the light of … Read more

Bruce Springsteen: Letter To You [Album Review]

Bruce Springsteen Letter To YouColumbia Records [2020] Bruce Springsteen, the very guy who wrote “Glory Days” about folk who spend their adult years looking back to the time when they were in their prime and their star shined brightest, should probably have seen this time in his life and career coming. Maybe it’s a little … Read more

The Mountain Goats: Getting Into Knives [Album Review]

The Mountain Goats Getting Into KnivesMerge Records [2020] The Mountain Goats’ singer/songwriter John Darnielle may be thought of by some as the poet laureate of all things nerdy due to entire albums drawn from the world of wrestling (Beat the Champ), Dungeons & Dragons (In League With Dragons), 80’s post-punk art rock (Goths), and obscure … Read more

Kathleen Edwards: Total Freedom [Album Review]

Kathleen Edwards Total FreedomDualtone Records [2020] Kathleen Edwards, Canadian singer/songwriter, returns after 8 years of relative silence with another fine album of exemplary folk/pop songcraft. Edwards had built a solid following with four solid albums, including 2012’s “Voyager,” which was produced by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. Edwards left music after touring that album with Vernon, … Read more

William Elliott Whitmore: I’m With You [Album Review]

William Elliott Whitmore I’m With YouBloodshot Records [2020] You would likely be forgiven if you mistook Iowa-based singer/songwriter William Elliott Whitmore for someone much older. While still in his early 40’s, Whitmore’s straight forward folk and country roots, would feel right at home alongside the decades old output of Woody Guthrie, Jimmie Rogers, or A.P. … Read more

Tom Petty: Wildflowers & All The Rest [Album Review]

Tom PettyWildflowers & All The RestWarner Records [2020] As the story has been told, in 1994 when Tom Petty released his second solo record, Wildflowers, he and producer Rick Rubin intended it to go out as a double-album. While his 1989 solo project recorded with Jeff Lynne, Full Moon Fever, had been the source of … Read more

Laura Jane Grace: Stay Alive [Album Review]

Laura Jane Grace Stay AlivePolyvinyl Records [2020] If 2020 had gone as planned, Laura Jane Grace expected to have recorded a new album with Against Me! by now, maybe spend the late summer and fall months on tour. But when the world shut down due to the viral pandemic, she found herself stuck in Chicago … Read more

Throwing Muses: Sun Racket [Album Review]

Throwing Muses Sun RacketFire Records [2020] When Kristen Hersh finds a certain metallic tonality on her electric guitar and settles into a steady driving groove with Throwing Muses’ rhythm section of bassist Bernard Georges and drummer David Narcizo, they tend to grind out a truly righteous noisy groove. And here on Sun Racket, the band’s … Read more

Sufjan Stevens: The Ascension [Album Review]

Sufjan Stevens The AscensionAsthmatic Kitty Records [2020] By now, fans of Sufjan Stevens have learned to approach each new project with an open mind. On his most successful effort to date, 2005’s Illinois, Stevens revealed the breadth of his musical interests, from indie folk to pop/rock all the way to showtunes with full orchestrations, and … Read more

Lydia Loveless: Daughter [Album Review]

Lydia Loveless DaughterHoney, You’re Gonna Be Late Records [2020] In the nearly four years since Lydia Loveless’ last album, Real, the country rock singer/songwriter has divorced her bass player husband, left her record company, and moved from Columbus, OH to Raleigh, NC, before writing and recording her new record, which has been released on her … Read more

Fleet Foxes: Shore [Album Review]

Fleet Foxes ShoreANTI- [2020] There are a handful of songs in the middle of this fourth album from Fleet Foxes that feel very much in sync with early expectations created by the folky, rural Americana, melody focused, harmony-rich albums, their ’08 self-title debut and 2011’s Helplessness Blues. “A Long Way Past the Past” relies on … Read more

Bob Mould: Blue Hearts [Album Review]

Bob Mould Blue HeartsMerge Records [2020] Bob Mould was raging against the machine a full decade before Rage Against the Machine was a band. Early albums with the Minneapolis-based punk trio Husker Du, including the monumental Zen Arcade, proved provocative and influential, due largely to Mould and drummer/singer Grant Hart’s penchant for writing fast, edgy … Read more

Semisonic: You’re Not Alone EP [Album Review]

Semisonic You’re Not AlonePleasuresonic Recordings [2020] Google the Minnesota power/pop trio Semisonic and the first listing will always be their big hit single for 1998, “Closing Time.” Of course, I don’t know this personally, but I’ve heard from some artist friends that writing a hit like that, where a fluky fun pop song written to … Read more

The Texas Gentlemen: Floor It!!! [Album Review]

The Texas Gentlemen Floor It!!!New West Records [2020] The first time I listened to The Texas Gentlemen’s newest release, Floor It!!!, I had a flashback to the summer of 1979. Something in the masterful instrumental prowess in the individual players and the band’s penchant for genre bending moves through funk, country swing, Dixieland jazz, and … Read more

Lo Tom: LP2 [Album Review]

Lo Tom LP2Self-Released [2020] Lo Tom’s 2017 eponymously-titled debut proved an unexpected delight. In an age of political and emotional dysfunction, it just felt so good to hear these long-time friends and musical collaborators get together in the garage with their guitars, turn up the amps and let it rip. Singer David Bazan of course … Read more

The Flaming Lips: American Head [Album Review]

The Flaming Lips American HeadWarner Records [2020] Described as a reflection on singer Wayne Coyne’s youthful upbringing in Oklahoma City, The Flaming Lips’ 16th album, American Head steps away from the bombastic sci-fi rock opera visions of 2002’s Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and last year’s King’s Mouth to make a record of more reflective, … Read more

DMA’S: The Glow [Album Review]

DMA’S The GlowInfectious Music [2020] In the half a dozen years that DMA’s have been together, they’ve proven to not only be productive, with an EP and now three full length albums to their credit, but also commercially viable in their native Australia and beyond. The band formed around three songwriters – singer Thomas O’Dell, … Read more

Kllo: Maybe We Could [Album Review]

Kllo Maybe We CouldGhostly International [2020] These cousins from Melbourne Australia, Kllo (rhymes with “flow”) return with a follow-up to their 2017 electro-pop debut, Breakthrough. As described in their bio, the two abandoned recording together late in 2018, following tours that took them around the world twice, unsure about their musical direction and focus. Drawn … Read more

Moby: All Visible Objects [Album Review]

Moby All Visible ObjectsLittle Idiot/Mute Records [2020] The fact that we’re talking about the 17th album by Moby says a lot. Few artists have the distinction of taking a music form often limited to the club scene – dance, electronica, ambient – and giving it mainstream relevance, earning pop radio airplay in the bargain. Early … Read more

Old 97’s: Twelfth [Album Review]

Old 97’s TwelfthATO Records [2020] The Old 97’s have been plugging away since forming in 1993, playing alt-country with such consistency that it might be tempting to take their musical strengths for granted. Picking up where cow-punk 80’s bands like Jason & the Scorchers and Lone Justice left off, singer Rhett Miller, guitarist Ken Bethea, … Read more

Bright Eyes: Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was [Album Review]

Bright Eyes Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once WasDead Oceans [2020] It’s been 9 years since the last album of new music by Bright Eyes, but singer Conor Oberst has been quite busy in the meantime. In 2016, he released an intimate solo acoustic album titled Ruminations, which was recorded only on guitar … Read more

The Chicks: Gaslighter [Album Review]

The Chicks GaslighterColumbia Records [2020] With women coming on strong in popular country music last year via strong feminist empowerment anthems from the Highwomen collaborative made up of Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires, Natalie Hamby, and Maren Morris, and Carlile’s collaborative production giving Tanya Tucker a career reboot, you had to know that we were due … Read more

My Morning Jacket: The Waterfall II [Album Review]

My Morning Jacket The Waterfall IIATO Records [2020] Back in 2015 when My Morning Jacket was releasing their well-received seventh studio album, The Waterfall, singer/songwriter Jim James reported that the band had recorded enough new music for it to be a double album. Like much of the MMJ oeuvre, that album was marked by the … Read more