THE LOUDER STUFF
BLAAK HEAT – Shifting Mirrors
Rooted in metal but with a strong Middle Eastern flavour and healthy doses of everything from spaghetti western to surf, this French-American power trio delivers an album that’s intriguing, exciting and above all fun. (7)
FATES WARNING – Theories Of Flight
I just can’t get over how good this is. Best prog-metal album of the 21st century. (10)
GOJIRA – Magma
Another excellent effort from the French masters of “modern” metal. (8)
I SEE STARS – Treehouse
Just a super-compressed, ultra-triggered, auto-tuned piece of plastic (or bandwidth). They call this “electronicore” but basically it’s Linkin Park with all traces of testosterone removed. (4)
LETLIVE. – If I’m The Devil
Music for young people. It’s aggressive and melodic and catchy and a bit too emo for my taste and age. (7)
RIVAL SONS – Hollow Bones
The expected Led Zep worship. (7)
SWANS – The Glowing Man
Classic latter-day Swans, meaning it’s three weeks long featuring a bunch of tracks that last a couple of days each. It’s droning and repetitive and loud and scary and beautiful and forget all the hipster post-rock crap you’ve been listening to, this is the real thing. (8)
VIRUS – Memento Collider
Carl-Michael Eide is one sick puppy and “Memento Collider” sounds just like a sick puppy’s soul throwing up. Compelling but not necessarily pleasurable listening. (7)
ZEAL & ARDOR – The Devil Is Fine
A DIY, homebrewed hybrid of gospel singing, black metal blastbeats, Godflesh heaviness, Μiddle Εastern chants, hip hop beats, children’s lullabies, even some “Rain Dogs”-era Tom Waits guitar skronk, a bit all over the place but I’ll take this over Virus for kicks any day of the week. (8)
THE OTHER STUFF
BRANDY CLARK – Big Day In A Small Town
She writes songs for Kacey Musgraves and Miranda Lambert and keeps some of the better stuff for her solo records. Subject matter: Former beauty queens stuck in dead-end marriages, cheating husbands in one-horse towns, substance abuse, odes to deceased loved ones, the usual happy country fare. (8)
ELI PAPERBOY REED – My Way Home
Soul/blues shouter goes down ‘n’ dirty with a pure 60’s southern juke joint sound. By the way, the guy’s so white he makes Zooey Deschanel look like Oprah Winfrey but listening to this album you’d never believe it. (7)
ELISABETH COOK – Exodus Of Venus
Swampy country rock from a Nashville renegade. There’s been divorce, death of close ones, mental illness, substance abuse and rehab in Cook’s life and this album reflects the pain and darkness. (8)
FANTASTIC NEGRITO – The Last Days Of Oakland
THIS is what the blues should sound like in the 21st century: Angry, wild and funky. (8)
MAREN MORRIS – Hero
If you’re into that whole Taylor Swift/Kacey Musgraves pop/country hybrid you’ll love Morris, plus she says “shit” a lot and I like girls who cuss. (8)
NEKO CASE, K.D. LANG, LAURA VEIRS – Case/Lang/Veirs
All-star Americana female singer/songwriter team comes up with some beautiful, smart songs to light up your breezy summer evenings. (8)
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS – The Getaway
First time in 25 years without Rick Rubin at the helm and RHCP sounds like a totally different band, much more laid back and refined and focused on the melodies. Just goes to show how important the choice of producer is. (7)
THE LOUDER STUFF
ARCHITECTS – All Our Gods Have Abandonded Us
For post-Meshuggah chugga-chugga this is actually pretty decent. (7)
FATES WARNING – Theories Of Flight
Either you get it or you don’t. (10)
JORN – Heavy Rock Radio
Great track selection, plays like Wisconsin’s coolest jukebox in 1986 or the most drunken karaoke night ever. (7)
KATATONIA – The Fall Of Hearts
Turn off the lights, turn up the volume and let the darkness engulf you. Fuckin’ Katatonia. (9)
MELVINS – Basses Loaded
The usual Melvins wackiness with a twist: Rotating bass players – Krist Novoselic, Trevor Dunn, Jared Warren, Jeff Pinkus, Steve MacDonald and Dave Crover handle the low end on two tracks each. Did I mention it’s heavy as hell? (7)
NO SINNER – Old Habits Die Hard
Second album by blues rock band elevated above mediocrity only thanks to Colleen Rennison’s powerhouse voice. (6)
SKYCLAD – A Bellyful Of Emptiness: The Very Best Of The Noise Years 1991-1995
I’m going to be revisionist about this: They always were a bit of a one-trick pony even by heavy metal standards and Walkyier’s clever wordplay often lost out to his weak, barked delivery and a flat production that has certainly not withstood the test of time. Right, bring on the torches and the pitchforks. (7)
SUMAC – What One Becomes
I got a headache, but it’s a good headache. (7)
THE CLAYPOOL LENNON DELIRIUM – Monolith of Phobos
Psych-pop duo consisting of Primus mainman Les Claypool and Sean Lennon whose abstract guitar playing is more Yoko than John. (7)
THE LIVING END – Shift
Semi-hard rock the Aussie way, tough and catchy just the way I like it. (7)
THE SO SO GLOS – Kamikaze
Old school punk rock that owes quite a bit to the Clash. (7)
THRICE – To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere
This is much better that any melodic post-hardcore band’s ninth album has any right to be. (8)
THE OTHER STUFF
AUSTIN LUCAS – Between The Moon And The Midwest
This is top-notch country music that rocks with the best of ‘em by a guy who started out as a punk rocker. The great Lydia Loveless makes a cameo here. (8)
BOMBINO – Azel
Yet another Tuareg bringing the Sahara’s desert blues to the west, this one’s a guitar virtuoso and significantly more upbeat compared to the Tinariwen benchmark. (8)
CAR SEAT HEADREST – Teens Of Denial
This guy wasn’t even born when Pavement, Guided By Voices and the Pixies ruled college radio, but he does an excellent job capturing that era’s spirit. (8)
DANIEL ROMANO – Mosey
Romano goes way beyond countrypolitan for his third album and writes some gorgeous 60’s-influenced pop hooks, then shoots himself in the foot with the cheesy cheapo synthbrass orchestration. If he’d been born 50 years earlier and had Lee Hazlewood’s studio budget, “Mosey” might have been a masterpiece. (7)
ERIC CLAPTON – I Still Do
It’s an Eric Clapton record in 2016, what did you expect? (6)
HARD WORKING AMERICANS – Rest In Chaos
Back in 1994 I saw Todd Snider live and called him “the future of rock ‘n’ roll” but he turned out to be a world champion underachiever instead. That being said, his new band –a meat ‘n’ potatoes rock supergroup of sorts featuring a couple of Widespread Panic members– just released a stunner. (8)
MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD – Soulrocker
A kind of pop-reggae/EDM hybrid with a strong spiritual message. I liked Franti more when he was a Gil Scott-Heron-inspired angsto-political activist. (6)
NATACHA ATLAS – Myriad Road
Atlas throws jazz into her multi-culti western/middle eastern mix and ends up with an album that makes for wonderful late night listening. (8)
PAUL SIMON – Stranger To Stranger
Simon’s in top form here, both as a composer and as a storyteller. (8)
ROBERT ELLIS – Robert Ellis
This is so weird, I listened to this back-to-back with the new Paul Simon album and it turns out it sounds exactly as if a younger Paul Simon did a country album. (8)
THE HIGHWAYMEN – The Very Best Of
Sometimes the sum is lesser than its parts. (7)
