Short Attention Span Record Reviews, May 2018 Vol. II

AMENT – Heaven / Hell
Pearl Jam bassist releases solo album, and this sounds EXACTLY like what you’d expect a solo album by a prominent Seattle grunge figure now in his 50’s to sound like. (7)

ARCTIC MONKEYS – Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino
“Tranquility Base” is the name of the spot on the Moon where the Apollo 11 landed in 1969. This album sounds just about as lively as a Hotel & Casino located there. (5)

AT THE GATES – To Drink From The Night Itself
A much stronger album than 2014’s “At War With Reality”, this is At The Gates REALLY showing their metalcore offspring how to do the brutal/melodic thing right. (8)

BEACH SLANG – Everything Matters But No One Is Listening
Both proper Beach Slang albums have made the Music Geek’s indisputably awesome year-end Lists in 2015 and 2016 respectively, so I guess that makes me a mega-fan. This collection of acoustic re-workings of older songs, however, heavily reliant on piano and cello and released under the moniker Quiet Slang, is interesting but sort of defeats the purpose by getting rid of the loud guitars and punk energy that made the band so great in the first place. (6)

BURN THE PRIEST – Legion XX
This is basically Lamb Of God revisiting their roots and releasing their own “Undisputed Attitude”. Includes covers of songs originally recorded by The Accused, Melvins, Big Black, S.O.D., Bad Brains, Sliang Laos, Ministry, Agnostic Front, Quicksand and Cro-Mags. If you’re a fan, you need this. (8)

CARLA BOZULICH – Quieter
Bozulich must be a very unhappy person, she’s been making some rather disturbing music since the Geraldine Fibbers days but this one reaches misery levels on par with Lou Reed’s “Berlin”. (6)

GRETCHEN PETERS – Dancing With The Beast
Peters releases one of the best country albums of the year: Top-notch songwriting, killer storytelling, subtle rock overtones, this is on par with Kris Kristofferson’s best work and anything Jason Isbell has released in the last five years. (8)

JESS WILLIAMSON – Cosmic Wink
Sort of like Patti Smith being in love and doing a Dusty Springfield tribute. (7)

LOREENA McKENNITT – Lost Souls
Not sure if it’s cool to like McKennitt and her somewhat cheesy new age Celtic folk but I do, she always manages to melt the cynicism away from my cold black heart. (8)

RY COODER – The Prodigal Son
Now in his 70’s and better known as producer of the Buena Vista Social Club and for his soundtrack work (e.g. “Paris, Texas”), Cooder here proves that he’s still one of the world’s top slide guitarists, delivering an excellent blues/gospel record with a strong political message. (8)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, May 2018

DYLAN CARLSON – Conquistador
Evoking cinematic images of tumbleweeds blowing across the desert and scorpions silently crawling out of dead coyote skulls, this not only fits neatly into the Earth/Carlson canon but is, simply put, epic! (8)

ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER – Rebound
Fact: The album took its title from a goth club in Athens that apparently left an impression on Friedberger. I haven’t been to Rebound in almost 30 years because I always felt miserable in there (but maybe that’s the whole point of goth clubs), the problem is I didn’t have much of a better time listening to this album. (6)

FATHER JOHN MISTY – God’s Favorite Customer
The hipster’s hipster decided that he wants to be Elton John. That’s not a bad thing. Leaked a month ahead of the release date, we might have to revisit this one. (8)

FRANK TURNER – Be More Kind
Turner’s most accessible production and a bunch of great songs oscillating between the political and the personal, sometimes poppy, sometimes punky, sometimes folky. I really love this guy. (8)

IHSAHN – Amr
Prog rock with a black metal heart and a healthy sprinkling of Carpenteresque synthesizers. (8)

JANELLE MONAE – Dirty Computer
The true heir to Prince’s throne as the most prominent figure in Afro-futuristic sex funk is a woman. Features special guests from the mythical (Brian Wilson) to the super-popular (Pharrell Williams). (8)

LOVE – Forever Changes (50th Anniversary Edition)
(10+)

PARKER MILLSAP – Other Arrangements
4th album by baby-faced Oklahoman with gruffy tenor voice and solid guitar chops, this one rocks a bit harder than his previous albums. RYIL either Johnny Cougar or John Mellencamp. (7)

RIOT V – Armor Of Light
I love heavy metal and Riot has always been one of my favorite heavy metal bands but going on without Mark Reale just doesn’t feel right, the production work on the constant in-your-face double-bass drumming here gets annoying after a while, and releasing the “Thundersteel” album with a different title for the fourth time doesn’t help things either. (6)

WILLIE NELSON – Last Man Standing
Yes he is, he’s 86 and this is his 67th studio album, it’s bittersweet and funny and an all-around great country record mostly about death, but actually he’s never sounded more alive than he does here. (8)