Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Mar 25 Vol. III

BAMBARA – Birthmarks
Is there such a thing as cinematic post-punk goth? (8)

HOLLY COLE – Dark Moon
My favorite jazz singer is back with her beautiful husky voice and wonderful interpretations of some classics you might have heard before from Fred Astaire, Gil Evans, Audrey Hepburn, Dionne Warwick, Elvis Presley, Peggy Lee etc. plus some quirkier choices. (8)

LUCY DACUS – Forever Is A Feeling
The first solo album by a member of boygenius after 2023’s triumph is a bit hit-and-miss, with arrangements leaning more towards pop than rock (even Taylor Swift springs to mind) and lyrics that sometimes read like a horny highschooler’s attempts at poetry. (7)

DEAFHEAVEN – Lonely People With Power
They bring the metal back and it’s a triumph – you still have shoegaze-y guitars pop up here and there but this is their heaviest record in at least a decade, reminiscent in places of second-wave Norwegian black metal like Emperor and Enslaved, and they seem to be at the peak of their songwriting powers. (8)

KINKY FRIEDMAN – Poet Of Motel 6
I first got to know Friedman (R.I.P.) as a humorist from pieces in National Lampoon magazine, then I discovered his detective novels, and had no idea about his music career even though it preceded his writing career (probably because at the time I had no interest in country music whatsoever). His presumably final album is the most country-sounding album you’ve ever heard, but what sets him apart is of course the pen – scaling down the humor this time and replacing it with touching ruminations on life and death while avoiding (or subverting) the genre’s cliches. (7)

JIM GHEDI – Wasteland
Rooted in the traditional folk sounds of the British isles but given an experimental twist, this one will certainly appeal to people who liked Lankum’s masterpiece from 2023. (8)

EIKO ISHIBASHI – Antigone
Japanese avant-garde artist better known from her collaborations with people like Jim O’Rourke and Merzbow and from scoring films for Ryūsuke Hamaguchi goes back to her “pop” roots. Of course in this case “pop” means Scott Walker and Joni Mitchell, not Taylor Swift. (8)

ALISON KRAUSS & UNION STATION – Arcadia
Krauss has a successful solo career and works with Robert Plant but The Union Station are a whole different ballgame, to a large extent thanks to Jerry Douglas’ dobro playing.  New guitarist Russell Moore adds some great harmonies and the occasional lead vocal on what will probably prove to be the best Bluegrass album of 2025. (8)

MASTERS OF REALITY – The Archer
I’ve always loved Chris Goss, the first new music in 16 years breaks away from the heavy riffing of the past but it’s just as fun. (8)

PERFUME GENIUS – Glory
I admit I haven’t been paying much attention to this guy over the past 15 years and I really don’t know why, but “Glory” is a glorious album, toying with the tropes of indie rock, classic rock, and pop and coming up with something altogether original. (8)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Mar 25 Vol. II

JASON BOLAND & THE STRAGGLERS – The Last Kings Of Babylon
This guy made The List with his previous album, a bonkers sci-fi concept album. He now returns to Earth with a shit-hot record full of country-rock barnburners. (8)

KEVIN DRUMM – Sheer Hellish Miasma II
What the fuck did I just listen to? (-)

LONNIE HOLLEY – Tonky
Post-blues that often moves into Massive Attack-style trip hop by cult artist who remains agile at 75. (8)

IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT – Goldstar
Masked technical death metal virtuosos on their most accomplished album to date, their avant-garde-leaning compositions finally resembling songs rather than just aiming to impress. (8)

JAPANESE BREAKFAST – For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)
Nice, but I still don’t get the hype. (7)

MY MORNING JACKET – Is
21st century hippies bring in A-lister producer Brendan O’Brien who probably shouldn’t have gotten rid of that beloved MMJ reverb. (7)

SANHEDRIN – Heat Lightning
A lady you wouldn’t mess with on vocals and bass backed by a couple of hooligans on guitar and drums, this is traditional heavy metal in its purest form channeling early 80’s Riot and Maiden and all sorts of good stuff. (8)

CANDI STATON – Back To My Roots
Octogenarian soul legend literally goes back to her roots with a solid gospel-influenced record. (7)

TOBACCO CITY – Horses
Young band with two singers, male and female, seeks to recreate the old Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris country rock magic and does a pretty decent job of it. (7)  

STEVEN WILSON – The Overview
After spending years on detours into everything from metal to synth-pop, Wilson goes back where he started and unabashedly embraces 70’s-style space-prog once again. (8)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Mar 25

THE LOUDER STUFF

CHRISTIAN MISTRESS – Children Of The Earth
These guys have previously released a couple of albums I truly love, among the best heavy metal of the 2010’s. This time around they add some hippy-ish moments to their NWOBHM sound, like Diamond Head covering Jefferson Airplane. (8)

CRYPTOSIS – Celestial Death
An interesting combination of prog, blackened death metal, and thrash, with keyboards. People will make comparisons to Vektor and Blood Incantation but I’m old enough to remember Nocturnus. (8)

THE MEN – Buyer Beware
A great American punk rock album, if we are very specific about the definition of “American punk” so its history starts with The Sonics, morphs into the Dead Boys, evolves into The New Bomb Turks and The Bronx, and then stops before it becomes Against Me! or Turnstile. (8)

PAINKILLER – The Equinox
A follow-up to “Samsara” which was released just a few months ago, by legendary grind/noise/jazz trio (John Zorn, Bill Laswell, Mick Harris). More electronic/drum ‘n’ bass than their early 90’s incarnation, just as extreme. (7)

VENAMORIS – To Cross Or To Burn
Mrs. Lombardo releases strong goth/trip hop album featuring her husband and his friends (Alex Skolnick, Gary Holt) like you've never head them before. (8)


THE OTHER STUFF

PATTERSON HOOD – Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams
Drive-By Trucker goes solo on an autobiographical album. Lots of guests from the wider Americana universe, great songwriting, and arrangements that are much quieter than DBT (with the exception of one track, “The Van Pelt Parties”, where he’s backed by Wednesday, the most DBT-influenced young band out there). (8)

JASON ISBELL – Foxes In The Snow
On his first post-divorce album Isbell leaves the band out of it and goes solo acoustic, just him and his guitar. Some great songs here (“Eileen”, “Gravelweed”, “True Believer”…), but I like him even more with The 400 Unit doing the E-Street Band thing behind him. (8)

ANTHONY JOSEPH – Rowing Up River To Get Our Names Back
If you like “Holy Terror”-era The Last Poets when their spoken word was backed by a world-class funk band featuring Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, and Bill Laswell, then check out this London-born poet’s latest. (8)

BOB MOULD – Here We Go Crazy
Mould often gets called the granddaddy of The Pixies and Nirvana and on this late-career gem he indeed finds the perfect balance between noisy guitars and bittersweet melody. Again. His most instantly gratifying since the Sugar days. (8)

THE TUBS – Cotton Crown
Wow. Put Richard Thompson, Johnny Marr, and Bob Mould in a blender and you’ll get this. I dunno, the combination of jangly guitars and heavy lyrics does something to me. (8)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Feb 25 Vol. II

RICHARD DAWSON – End Of The Middle
Often classified as a folk artist, Dawson is really in a league of his own sounding like a cross between Captain Beefheart and Tortoise and with an uncanny bard’s ability to tell stories that feel personal, universal, mundane, and extraterrestrial all at the same time. (8)

THE DELINES – Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom
The low-key Muscle Shoals country soul sound and Amy Boone’s gorgeous voice are ideal for late-night listening, but it’s Willy Vlautin’s lyrics that are the real revelation – not only a good musician but an acclaimed author in the Raymond Carver vein, he puts his skills to good use here with stories about the down and out. (8)

DREAM THEATER – Parasomnia
Portnoy’s return to the line-up coincides with a strong album that will thrill prog metal fans, but whether this sound can still be described as “progressive” after 35 years of it is debatable. (8)

CHRIS ECKMAN – The Land We Knew The Best
His former band The Walkabouts were making Americana popular (especially in Europe) before the term even existed in this context, and Eckman still excels at it now that he’s actually living in Europe. (8)

SETH LAKEMAN – The Granite Way
One of the best contemporary English folk artists, and probably the most rock ‘n’ roll one (no surprise that he’s served on Robert Plant’s and Van Morrison’s backing bands) on one of his strongest solo sets, inspired by the stories and myths of his native Devon. (8)

JAMES BRANDON LEWIS – Apple Cores
One of the great contemporary jazz sax skronkers in top form. The rhythm section kills it too. (8)

PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND – Preservation Brass: For Fat Man
New Orleans traditionalists/revivalists dedicate a joyous album to their recently deceased drummer. (8)

NADIA REID – Enter New Brightness
Folk-pop that somehow reminds me of a hybrid between Laura Marling and Chantal Kreviazuk even though it shouldn’t. Her voice is soothing to the soul. (8)

SQUID – Cowards
With Black Midi breaking up and Black Country New Road in the process of transitioning, Squid are left alone to fly to flag for British talk-singing post-punk. But they also sound reluctant to do that, venturing more and more into art rock. (7)

SPIDERS – Sharp Objects
Nordic rockers return and this time they pump up their Detroit/Australia-style garage punk rock with some late-70’s NYC vibes – I can hear traces of Blondie, The Ramones, even Richard Hell/Stiv Bators/Johnny Thunders in here. (8)

SHARON VAN ETTEN & THE ATTACHMENT THEORY – Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory
People will say that Van Etten has gone electronica but, really, this is post-punk and sounds more like Joy Division/Siouxsie than anything else. (8)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Feb 25

THE LOUDER STUFF

THE HELLACOPTERS – Overdriver
A very welcome return for these guys and their brand of infectious, high-energy rock ‘n’ roll. Now, where’s Gluecifer so they can tour together? (8)

THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA – Give Us The Moon
Another tasty platter of AOR cheese from and for Toto-loving metalheads. (8)

PENTAGRAM – Lightning In A Bottle
How’s it possible that this guy's still around? In any case even with a new line-up backing him Liebling can still kick the ass of any young doomster, and this new album is groovier - not exactly Clutch, but think Trouble’s “Manic Frustration”. (8)

REVENGE – Violation.Strife.Abominate
This is so fucking evil-sounding I can’t stop laughing. The combination of undecipherable strangled screaming, a guitar that scrapes meat off bones, and a drummer that sounds like he just threw his kit rolling down a staircase is not for everyone, but it’s refreshing to listen to some black metal that just spews hatred without any highbrow pretensions. (8)


THE OTHER STUFF

LILLY HIATT – Forever
Americana stalwart decides to rock a little bit harder this time around with excellent results. Catchy and fun! (8)

LARKIN POE – Bloom
Like an estrogen-fueled hybrid between AC/DC and the Allman Brothers, the Lovell sisters bring on the guitars and kick some serious ass. Again. (8)

ROSE CITY BAND – Sol Y Sombra
Twangy, slightly psychedelic country rock that sounds like it was recorded in 1969. RYIL The Flying Burrito Brothers, New Riders Of The Purple Sage, that sort of thing. (7)

ANNA B SAVAGE – You & I Are Earth
A beautiful, largely acoustic record that sounds like a 32-minute-long love letter to a new lover as well as to her adopted home of Ireland. Lankum’s producer does a stellar job of bringing out the best in songs that were great to start with. (8)

TUNNG – Love You All Over Again
Very English-sounding folktronica. (7)

THE WEATHER STATION – Humanhood
As always everyone will bring out the Joni Mitchell references, but to the Geek’s ears it sounds more like Sarah McLachlan. This is also a compliment. (8)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Jan 25

ETHEL CAIN – Perverts
Having received critical acclaim with a gothic Americana debut, Ethel Cain decides to alienate all the fans she won with an industrial/noise follow-up. (7)

EMEL – MRA
One that I missed from earlier this year because Emel dropped the last name (Mathlouthi) just to mess with me. I love this NY-based Tunisian and this album turns out to be one of 2024’s best world music albums, merging Arabic sounds with EDM and hip-hop and featuring guest female MCs from Mali, Iraq, Ukraine and Nigeria. (8)

GOUGE AWAY – Deep Sage
Another one I missed from earlier this year, which would have probably made The List! An impressive hardcore attack knowingly nodding towards 90’s indie rock and melodic flourishes. (8)

BRIDGET HAYDEN AND THE APPARITIONS – Cold Blows The Rain
Noise/experimental artists ventures into folk, recording eight traditional English, Irish, and American songs dating from the early 20th century, with mostly acoustic drone-y accompaniment. She’s from Yorkshire, and sounds like it. (7)

KENDRICK LAMAR – GMX
Better, and more fun, than his last one. Probably the best hip-hop album of the year. (8)

THE LAST POETS & TONY ALLEN ft. EGYPT 80 – Africanism
Septuagenarian proto-rappers re-record tracks off their first couple of albums from the early 70’s with contributions from Fela Kuti’s legendary drummer and a bunch of jazz cats. They sound totally different but just as fresh and exciting. (8)

PAINKILLER – Samsara
Wow, didn’t see this one coming – legendary grind/noise/jazz trio (John Zorn, Bill Laswell, Mick Harris) return to the studio after a 3-decade hiatus. They still sound as extreme as their grandchildren (e.g. Imperial Triumphant) and Zorn’s sax skronk is pure joy. (8)

SOUL COUGHING – Ruby Vroom [30th Anniversary Edition]
One of the best debut albums of the 90’s gets a revamp with unreleased and rare tracks. A truly unique band. Doughty’s smartass hipster persona remains highly entertaining, the rhythm section of Sebastian Steinberg and Yuval Gabay grooves like a motherfucker, and the sampler guy’s work still sounds innovative 30 years later. (10)

WHITE DENIM – 12
Not a very smart idea to release a great album in December after all major print and online music publications have already compiled their year-end “best of” lists, but this is exactly what happened here – a fantastic “70’s-soft-rock-meets-90’s-indie” record will probably go unnoticed. (8)

VARIOUS ARTISTS – The Devil Rides In: Spellbinding Satanic Magick & The Rockult 1967–1974
A 3-CD compilation that manages to fit in everyone from Atomic Rooster, Coven and Comus to Genesis, Curved Air and the Easybeats under totally arbitrary but fun imaginary genres/labels like “Phantom Sabbaths”, “Popular Satanism”, “She Devils”, “Evil Jazz”, and “Beelzefunk”. Brace yourself for an overdose of Hammond organ and a few bongos. (11)