THE LOUDER STUFF
DODHEIMSGARD – Black Medium Current
No longer possible to classify as black metal, they venture into everything from psychedelia to goth disco, and all of it is great. (8)
METALLICA – 72 Seasons
We need Metallica because someone still has to play stadium shows, but everybody (including Metallica) knows they simply can’t release anything as good as their 1983-1991 run ever again, and if you’d make a list of their top-40 songs ever, most likely not a single track from “72 Seasons” would be on it. (7)
MUDHONEY – Plastic Eternity
Grunge survivors still at it and punk as fuck, but with a sense of humor. (8)
NETHERLANDS – Severance
50% of this duo (Timo Ellis) used to be in Cibo Matto, and members of Gojira and Mastodon are superfans, and they’ve been going for a decade, and this is their seventh album and it sounds like Big Business meets QOTSA meets RATM, so why the fuck have I never heard of them before? (8)
POISON RUIN – Harvest
Now on Relapse, they have found an audience mainly among the metal crowd despite being a low-fi punk band influenced by The Wipers (a very good one, too). Maybe it’s the medieval thing they have going on in the lyrics. (8)
THE OTHER STUFF
FEIST – Multitudes
People will call this “intimate”, “introspective”, or something like that. I call it “a bit too quiet for my tastes”. (7)
SUSANNA HOFFS – The Deep End
Excellent covers album for this beautiful, supremely talented artist. Hoffs is good at the classic oldies (Rolling Stones, Leslie Gore, Yazoo) but shows impeccable taste in both selection and execution of the newer and/or lesser-known stuff (Coconut Records’ “West Coast”, Brandy Clark’s “Pawn Shop” etc.). (8)
JANA HORN – The Window Is The Dream
Minimalist folk with some jazz and Tropicalia influences. Great guitar playing, but no hooks I could hold on to. (7)
LONDON BREW – London Brew
An album inspired by Miles Davis’ jazz-fusion masterpiece “Bitches Brew” and featuring the Dream Team of London’s contemporary jazz scene, that falls a bit short of the colossal expectations it set up for itself. (7)
WEDNESDAY – Rat Saw God
We can call them countrygaze if you like, but if you prefer to keep things simple we can just agree that this album qualifies them as one of the best American indie rock bands around at the moment. And, because I’m ancient, they remind me more of the Geraldine Fibbers than the Drive-By Truckers (with whom they often get mentioned in the same breath). (8)
