Kip & JJ Loui Show Me StateSelf-Released [2020] Show Me State is a country rock/Americana love letter from songwriters and spouses, Kip & JJ Loui to their home state of Missouri, with music support from members of The Bottle Rockets and Loui’s local club band, Diesel Island. Kip Loui has been a significant presence in … Read more
Steve Earle & The Dukes Ghosts of West VirginiaNew West Records [2020] In 2010, the worst mining disaster in American history happened at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia, killing 29 miners in the explosion. Early this Spring, an Off-Broadway play telling the story of the victims and their families titled “Coal … Read more
EOB EarthCapitol Records [2020] EOB is the moniker used by Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien for this debut solo venture, Earth, the music of which he has said was inspired by a year of living in Brazil with his family and, oddly enough, the 1991 album from the band Primal Scream, Screamidelica. While we’ve heard several … Read more
Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit ReunionsSoutheastern Records [2020] In one of the songs on Jason Isbell’s seventh solo album since stepping away from the Drive-By Truckers, the singer sings again about his struggle to maintain his sobriety, “It gets easier, but it never gets easy.” He could just as easily be describing the work … Read more
The Dream Syndicate The Universe InsideANTI- [2020] Generally speaking, I hate it when a press release for a new album suggests something like “this is what all the reviewers will be saying.” (I once reviewed a Meatloaf concert for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and after making a huge gaff, he told the audience what the … Read more
Lucinda Williams Good Souls Better AngelsHighway 20/Thirty Tigers [2020] Lucinda Williams has a remarkable, ragged, resilient singing voice, that is the perfect instrument for her honest, world-weary songs. I’m often reminded when I hear her singing that it was to Williams that Elvis Costello turned to in 2004 to share vocals for his song “There’s … Read more
Local H LifersAntiFragile Music [2020] It’s one thing to make compelling music as a hard rocking duo – just guitar and drums –delivering music that matters while holding an audience’s attention for 40 minutes during a live set, it’s a feat on an altogether other level to keep pulling that off for 30 years, as … Read more
X AlphabetlandFat Possum Records [2020] Of the bands that came out of the L.A. scene in the late 70’s and early 80’s, I tend to connect X with those bands that had a strong roots music connection that fueled their creativity. X arrived on the punk scene playing hard, fast sounds, sparked by the unique … Read more
Red Dirt Boys Red Dirt BoysSelf-Released [2020] Emmylou Harris has a way of picking great back-up players for her band. Nevermind that she sang with Graham Parsons, Mark Knopfler and nearly every major country and Americana act in the last b decades, but back in the day she had the Hot Band with James Burton … Read more
Brendan Benson Dear LifeThird Man Records [2020] Brendan Benson has the enviable position of being the other front man in the Raconteurs who shares the stage with Jack White, and the rhythm section of Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler. He shares half the vocals, plays guitar and somehow fades into the shadows every-time White steps … Read more
Fiona Apple Fetch The Bolt CuttersEpic Records [2020] The title of Fiona Apple’s fifth album is telling. Drawn from the British crime-drama “The Fall,” which featured Gillian Anderson as a detective who, discovering some shackles where a woman has been abused, cries out: Fetch The Bolt Cutters. Those words become a metaphor for an artist … Read more
Soul Asylum Hurry Up And WaitBlue Élan Records [2020] Soul Asylum came of age in the early 80’s in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul playing the same clubs as Husker Du, The Replacements, The Suburbs, who all went on to sign major label record deals. Led by singer David Pirner and guitarist Dan Murphy, … Read more
M. Ward Migration StoriesANTI— [2020] On the 10th solo album from M. Ward it’s unlikely that anyone who’s encountered his music over the recent decades is expecting any surprises. In the brief label bio, Ward describes this collection of Migration Stories as “characters in a dream,” which is also a way of describing the hazy … Read more
The Strokes The New AbnormalCult/RCA Records [2020] It’s been long enough since the band’s 2016 EP Future Present Past, which was little more than a solid single with a couple of extra B-sides, to have concluded that the return of The Strokes at the top of their game on a full-length release was not in … Read more
Watermelon Slim Traveling ManNorthernBlues Music [2020] Watermelon Slim, originally born as William P. Homans III, has come to his career in blues music by a unique path, which explains the nearly 30 years between his first recorded work and his next. A Vietnam vet, Homans tried farming, made a living as a truck driver, earned … Read more
Soccer Mommy color theoryLoma Vista [2020] On her fourth full-lenth album, Soccer Mommy (born, Sophie Allison) has used color coding to telegraph the emotional content of her songs, but her tactic of hiding her darker, emotionally charged lyrics in up-tempo pop melodies remains on “color theory.” In fact, her quick rise in popularity following the … Read more
Brian Fallon Local HoneyLesser Known Records/Thirty Tigers [2020] Brian Fallon’s freshly released third solo album, Local Honey, had to have been written and recorded prior to this period of physical distancing with much of the nation locked down in the forced intimacy of their homes. Yet, the eight songs here from Gaslight Anthem’s former lead … Read more
Lilly Hiatt Walking ProofNew West Records [2020] Nashville singer/songwriter Lilly Hiatt has known most of her existence that life is rarely just one thing. On her fourth album’s title track, she sings “I could tell you that it’s easy/but that wouldn’t be the truth/if you ever need to call me, well you know that’s walking … Read more
THICK5 Years BehindEpitaph Records [2020] The debut from Brooklyn-based DIY punk trio, THICK, was the perfect record to pick up as our country was shutting down due to the Coronavirus/COVID-19, bringing enough noise, angry energy and musical muscle to make the required lock-down relatively tolerable. No doubt, Nikki Sisti (voice/guitar), Kate Black (voice/bass, guitar and … Read more
Rookie RookieBloodshot Records [2020] The debut album of 6-piece Chicago band Rookie comes out of the box just dripping with references to a much earlier time in rock music history. From the opening crunchy guitar chords of “Hold On Tight,” it’s clear this band’s goals are to relive in a fresh way the musical highlights … Read more
Yumi Zouma Truth Or ConsequencesPolyvinyl Records [2020] The third full-length effort from the quartet of New Zealanders who got their start playing shows around Christchurch in 2014, finds the popsters delivering another album of light electronic dance grooves focused on listener friendly melodies. While the four no longer live close together on one continent, they … Read more
The DistrictsYou Know I’m Not Going AnywhereFat Possum Records [2020] For The Districts’ fourth full-length release, You Know I’m Not Going Anywhere, singer/songwriter Rob Grote withdrew to his bedroom with a guitar, a synthesizer, and a drum machine during a period of introspection and creative exploration while juggling “this desperate desire to escape and the … Read more
Stephen Malkmus Traditional TechniquesMatador Records [2020] Stephen Malkmus has been on a creative tear of late, releasing a band record with The Jicks in 2018 after four years away, Sparkle Hard, and an experimental solo record dabbling in electronica last year, Groove Denied. On his third release in as many years, Malkmus continues to experiment, … Read more
Sonny Landreth Blacktop RunMascot Label Group [2020] Sonny Landreth is a guitar player’s guitarist, much the way John Hiatt and John Prine are songwriter’s songwriters. Bob Dylan is one of the most beloved and respected songwriters of the modern era, yet back in ’87 he covered John Hiatt’s song, “The Usual.” Bonnie Raitt has written … Read more
The Proper Ornaments Mission BellsTapete Records [2020] After a few enjoyable listens to this fifth album from London’s The Proper Ornaments, I was surprised to pull up their bio on the label website and read that “this is not a retro band.” Now “retro” wasn’t a word that had come to mind while listening exactly, … Read more