Short Attention Span Record Reviews, October 2019

AEROSMITH – Rocks (Remastered)
It’s one of the 10 best hard rock albums of all time so if you don’t already own it, get it NOW. Good remaster, you can taste the sleaze when this version is playing. (10)

ART ALEXAKIS – Sun Songs
Everclear leader, recovering junkie and recently-gone-public-about-it-MS-patient Alexakis releases solo acoustic album and it basically sounds like a so-so Everclear album without electric guitars. (6)

DANNY BROWN – Uknowhatimsayin
More streamlined than the experimental, claustrophobic “Atrocity Exhibition” which made The List back in 2016 it’s also much-much funnier, with Brown delivering killer lines with the razor-sharp precision of a world-class standup comic over some classic hip-hop beats. (8)

KEFAYA & ELAHA SOROOR – Songs of Our Mothers
Traditional folk songs from Afghanistan given the jazztronica treatment from a bunch of London-based multi-culti expats. Very interesting. (8)

LIFE OF AGONY – The Sound Of Scars
“River Runs Red” means so much to so many people (yours truly included) that recording a sequel 25 years later is a high-risk move, especially since the band moved away from the old-school NYHC roots that fueled “RRR” almost immediately after releasing it. Nevertheless, this is a great “alt-metal” album on par with all LOA albums that followed the legendary debut. “RRR” it’s not, but it will do. (8)

LIGHTNING BOLT – Sonic Citadel
Lightning Bolt are one of the great mysteries of life: Two dudes creating such loud obnoxious noise with unintelligible vocals on top isn’t supposed to sound so awesome, especially on the seventh album and 20 years after the debut. And yet here we are, ”Sonic Citadel” is fun and catchy and, you know, loud and obnoxious and noisy. (8)

MENZINGERS – Hello Exile
Is “Punk Rock That Sounds Like Springsteen” a genre? In any case, if you like the Hold Steady or the Gaslight Anthem then you’ll certainly like these guys too, even though I doubt they’ll ever top 2012’s “On The Impossible Past”. (7)

NATACHA ATLAS – Strange Days
A bold move into pure jazz territory from Atlas, who fronts a killer backing band with her trademark Middle Eastern vocal acrobatics. (7)

NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS – Ghosteen
We all know that alongside a handful of others (Neil Young and Bob Dylan, most notably) this guy has total immunity and anything he releases will always be immediately hailed as a masterpiece, but I’m not yet sure that “Ghosteen” is really a masterpiece because I haven’t listened to it enough, and the reason I haven’t listened to it enough is because I find another album about the loss of a child incredibly difficult to listen to. (-)

NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THE DEAD THINK – No One Knows What The Dead Think
2/3 of Discordance Axis are on this so you know what you’re getting: Ultraviolent, fast and furious, chaotic grindcore. Fans of the genre will love this, even if it doesn’t exceed the highs reached by Gridlink (same vocalist) which made The List back in 2014. (7)

RICHARD DAWSON – 2020
It’s impossible to pin down Dawson, but I will compare him to Bob Dylan even though he sounds nothing like Dylan – it’s just that they are both world-class wordsmiths rooted in the folk tradition, who write great songs they try to sing themselves despite having voices that are (to be polite about it) an acquired taste. “2020” is Dawson’s hookiest, most pop album to date, if you dare call “pop” something as weird and twisted and abrasive as this. (9)

OPETH – In Cauda Venenum
I liked this more than I liked any Opeth album in over a decade. I still liked them more when they had death growls. (8)

STURGILL SIMPSON – Sound & Fury
The WTF album of the month comes from country music’s savior who just released an album containing exactly 0% country music: “Sound & Fury” is synth-rock that for the most part sounds like LCD Soundsystem covering ZZ Top’s “Eliminator”. (7)