Short Attention Span Record Reviews, March Round-up

COWBOY JUNKIES – Songs Of The Recollection
A collection of covers (Bowie, Cure, Stones, Dylan etc.) getting the beloved Junkies treatment. (8)

DEATHSPELL OMEGA – The Long Defeat
French black metal visionaries create their most Norwegian/Hungarian-sounding album, and it’s epic. (8)

DESTROYER – Labyrinthitis
I still don’t understand why a band called Destroyer is not a KISS/Twisted Sister tribute act and instead play a sort-of-danceable electro pop/rock that caters to the Pitchfork crowd. Missed opportunity and shameful misuse of a good band name, not to mention false advertising. (7)

FUCKED UP – Do All Words Can Do
If your favorite Fucked Up album is 2011’s prog-punk behemoth “David Comes To Life” (and it might as well be), you just hit the jackpot – this is essentially a collection of non-album singles from that era, fitting nicely into the David narrative. (8)

THE HANGING STARS – Hollow Heart
I really loved these guys when they were a total Byrds rip-off, now they’re trying to find their own sound and they’re still OK. (7)

ALDOUS HARDING – Warm Chris
One of those albums that creep up on you, on first listen you think “Jeez, another lo-fi bedroom pop singer-songwriter, God give me strength”, and after a couple more spins you realize the tunes have settled cozily inside your brain and won’t leave. (8)

RAY WYLIE HUBBARD – Co-Starring Too
Veteran Texan outlaw country artist on second album of collaborations kicks serious ass once again, rocking harder than most rockers one-third his age. Stellar performances from many aging A-List guest stars (Willie Nelson, Steve Earle, Ringo Starr, Steve Lukather, Ann Wilson…) but it’s actually Lzzy Hale who steals the show. Oh, and he deserves extra credit for rhyming “reckless” with “redneckness”.  (8)

SHOOTER JENNINGS & YELAWOLF – Sometimes Y
Unlikely pairing of Americana star with a rapper who decides to actually sing ends up in an 80’s-flavored rock album that’s all over the place, but in a good way – sort of like a Cars/G’n’R/Don Henley/latter-day Floyd (Pink, not Pretty Boy) mash-up, except the final song which I think was aiming for a “Kill ‘Em All” vibe but ends up sounding like a lost NWOBHM classic. Which is what “Kill ‘Em All” wanted to sound like anyway, but that’s a whole different story. (7)

MIDLAKE – For The Sake Of Bethel Woods
If the idea of a crossover between early 70’s American folk rock and early 70’s English prog rock gives you wet dreams, you’ve just found your Album Of The Year. (8)

MAREN MORRIS –    Humble Quest
Where country and pop meet. (7)

SOUL GLO – Diaspora Problems
This year’s Turnstile, taking hardcore to extraordinary new places. (8)

TANYA TAGAQ – Tongues
A true mindfuck of an album, with Tagaq at her most political relentlessly attacking white Canada’s past colonialism and current complacency in her otherworldly voice over industrial beats and trip-hop noise. (7)

THE WEATHER STATION – How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars
A lot of people loved last year’s “Ignorance” but there’s a chance they’ll be disappointed with this companion album recorded at the same time – it’s totally bare/acoustic, with no discernible hooks, and more reminiscent of “Blue”-era Joni Mitchell than “Mirage”-era Fleetwood Mac. (7)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews - METAL SPECIAL

BORTS MINORTS & HUG VICTIM – Brut!
Do you miss Mr. Bungle? (8)

CROWBAR – Zero And Below
You know what you’re getting with a Crowbar album: heavy, sludgy, doomy metal. It’s like the Ramones or AC/DC, all their albums sound the same to the untrained ear, but I’m a professional so trust me when I say this is one of the better Crowbar albums. (8)

FEVER DOG – Alpha Waves
Totally missed out on this one when it came out a few months ago, just discovered it thanks to Vassilis Zacharopoulos at Metal Hammer Greece. An excellent slice of keyboard-soaked glam/AOR/hard rock late-70’s Midwest style, in other words it's striktly for konnoiseurs. (8)

GHOST – Impera
Look. They just keep getting better and better and this album is a masterpiece, OK? (9.5)

HO99O9 – Skin
Hailed as the next big thing this is a rap/punk/industrial aural assault, to be frank not that different from what Death Grips did in the 10’s, or what Atari Teenage Riot did in the 90’s for that matter. (7)

HOT WATER MUSIC – Feel the Void
Continuing their perfect streak of top-grade melodic punk rock. (8)

VEIN.FM – This World Is Going To Ruin You
If you ever wondered what Slipknot would sound like if they grew out of the hardcore scene rather than the metal scene, well, here’s your answer. (8)

ERIC WAGNER – In The Lonely Light Of Mourning
A fitting farewell from the doom metal legend, this posthumous solo album has a certain mid-90’s Trouble vibe to it. (7)

WARRIOR SOUL – Out On Bail
Another slice of competent punk rock ‘n’ roll like all his post-2008 releases. Of course he can never replicate the kick-ass awesomeness of the first three albums, but then again nobody can. (7)

CHIP Z’NUFF – Perfectly Imperfect
I’d say this is Enuff Z’Nuff leader’s love letter to The Beatles, but everything he’s ever done is a love letter to The Beatles anyway. And stop calling them "hair metal" already, you’ve been wrong about this for 30+ years! (8)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews - Mar 2022

ERIC CHENAUX – Say Laura
A strange little record, very hard to describe and even harder to enjoy, it’s like Chet Baker singing the most bonkers Bjork stuff. (6)

ROSALIE CUNNINGHAM – Two Piece Puzzle
Everything about Cunningham – her songwriting/chord change choices, her arrangements, even her clothes – are spot-on evoking a very specific niche vintage Englishness, a mythical world where Freddie Mercury stars in the BBC TV adaptation of a Lewis Carroll novel after raiding Julie Driscoll’s wardrobe. This is fabulous, darling! (8)

CHARLIE GABRIEL & PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND – Eighty Nine
89-year-old leads a classic jazz trio consisting of PHJB members through a bunch of standards and a couple of originals. Touching. (8)

GANG OF YOUTHS – Angel In Realtime.
If you like big-sounding indie rock (Arcade Fire, The National) you’ll probably love this. (7)

HURRAY FOR THE RIFF RAFF – Life On Earth
The departure from folk rock started with her previous album which explored her Puerto Rican cultural background and on “Life On Earth” she moves further towards indie pop, big choruses and all. (7)

CARSON McHONE – Still Life
Austin, TX born and raised singer/songwriter on solid Americana effort, RIYL Gillian Welch. (7)

MATT PIKE – Pike Vs The Automaton
Pike’s solo album sits somewhere in the middle between Sleep’s marijuana haze and High On Fire’s Motorhead-like wall of sound, but some songs drag on and on and on overstaying their welcome. (6)

SASAMI – Squeeze
An album can only be described as bipolar when almost half the songs sound like System Of A Down, almost half the songs sound like Sheryl Crow, and the rest sound like Trent Reznor producing/remixing a Sheryl Crow-fronted System Of A Down. (8)  

SARAH SHOOK & THE DISARMERS – Nightroamer
I’ve previously compared Sarah Shook & The Disarmers country punk to early Lydia Loveless, and I’ll stand by that this time around as well despite the indie rock leanings of the excellent new album. (8)

TEARS FOR FEARS – The Tipping Point
The vocals are surprisingly youthful for 60-year-olds and the production sounds like it cost a million bucks. If you miss 80’s (sm)art-pop bands like Talk Talk you’ll certainly enjoy this one. (8)