Short Attention Span Record Reviews, June 2022 Vol. II

DAN REED NETWORK – Let’s Hear It For The King
Reed’s white-boy funk rock (Bon Jovi meets Prince?) gave us a couple of solid albums back in the day, but three decades later it sounds a bit dated. (6)

THE DREAM SYNDICATE – Ultraviolet Battle Hymns And True Confessions
I love these guys, especially when they go into a hypnotic Velvets/kraut groove like they do quite often on this album. (8)

MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD – Follow Your Heart
I loved the Beatnigs (late 80’s) and the Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy (early 90’s) and the first Spearhead album (mid 90’s) so much when they came out that, decades later, I still loyally check out every Franti release, but this pop-soul-EDM light stuff he’s doing nowadays doesn’t do much for me, unfortunately. (6)

S.G. GOODMAN – Teeth Marks
Kentuckian artist goes beyond country ballads and incorporates grungy rock elements in her sound, resulting in one of this month’s more exciting releases. (8)

MJ LENDERMAN – Boat Songs
It starts off with the best Weezer song in decades and continues with a decent southern rock ditty, the third track is alt-country, the fourth is in Dinosaur Jr. territory, and so it goes. (7)

NOVA TWINS – Supernova
Lots of hype around this one, mainly from UK-based publications who are always thirsty for something homegrown that’s newsworthy, but the truth is they’re not the new RATM, or the new Clash, or the new Prodigy, or the new anything significant, they’re just loud and look good and got some promising hooks and apparently that’s enough nowadays. Go ahead, call me a boomer. (7)

GREG PUCIATO – Mirrorcell
Ex-Dillinger Escape Planner shows off his diversity, moving with ease between Ozzy-esque mid-tempo rockers, Soundgarden time signatures, Massachusetts post-hardcore sludge, and electrogoth atmospherics. (7)

PORCUPINE TREE – Closure/Continuation
Prog-rock giants return after a 12-year hiatus with a slightly underwhelming effort – the long songs tick all the prog boxes, but they're somewhat lacking in the hooks department which is what made Porcupine Tree so great back in the 90’s and 00’s. (7)

RUBBER OH – Strange Craft
Pigs X7 guitarist in space rock experiment and I’m tempted to say “PIGS… IN… SPACE!!!” here, but really it sounds nothing like his day job, it’s more like Spiritualized jamming with XTC which is sort of awesome. (8)

JOAN SHELLEY – The Spur
Much revered folkie releases acoustic album of songs written during COVID lockdown on a farm with a baby on the way, performed with her husband on guitar. Some will find all this bucolically romantic and beautiful, others will cut off their ears with a rusty nail clipper out of sheer boredom. (7)

BARTEES STRANGE – Farm to Table
This is a nice record. “Nice” is the strongest word I can come up with to describe this indie rock/r&b hybrid, but that’s maybe because I’m 25 years older than your average music journalist who worships this. (7)

 

P.S. Stay tuned. Since we're halfway through the year I'm hoping to put together a special "halftime report" within the next few days, so check for updates.