Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Mar 26 Vol. II

THE BLACK CROWES – A Pound Of Feathers
Stones-ey, AC/DC-ey, and with Hammond organs and female backing vocals providing a Stax-ey feel, this is the Crowes in top form. Get down! (8)

THE DELINES – The Set Up
Let’s call this Americana Noir, shall we? (8)

LAMB OF GOD – Into Oblivion
Probably their strongest album since they moved from Roadrunner to Nuclear Blast over a decade ago: Killer riffs, Randy Blythe in top form, and some very welcome noise-rock influences that make this sound like Pantera channeling Jesus Lizard. (8)

THE MESSTHETICS & JAMES BRANDON LEWIS – Deface the Currency
A fantastic quartet operating where free jazz and post-punk intersect, this one features a post-bop sax player, a guitar shredder, and Fugazi’s rhythm section. Their debut almost made The List in 2024, the follow-up is probably even better. (8)

MITSKI – Nothing’s About To Happen To Me
Like a gothless Lana Del Rey, or Taylor Swift for adults. (8)

REIGNING SOUND – Time Bomb High School (2002, reissue)
Reissue of a hidden garage rock/power pop gem. Like early Stones before Jagger/Richards started writing their own songs, even though these guys wrote their own stuff. There’s an inevitable hint of Big Star here too since they were from Memphis. (8)

TANYA TAGAQ – Saputjiji
Canadian Inuit (what we used to call “Eskimo” before it became politically incorrect) multidisciplinary artist (musician, actress, writer…) releases anti-war album and it’s really intense, like Diamanda Galas produced by Trent Reznor when he was still a cokehead. (8) 

TINARIWEN – Hoggar
Desert blues pioneers return with a sound that’s a bit more intimate, like friends jamming on a cool night around a campfire in the Sahara. (8)

TOP JIMMY AND THE RHYTHM PIGS – Pigus Drunkus Maximus (1987, reissue)
Peers of The Blasters, Lone Justice, X, and Los Lobos back in the 80’s, these guys were a big attraction on the Los Angeles club scene, drawing fans like David Lee Roth and Tom Waits to their performances. Their only album, a gritty old-school underground drunken rock ‘n’ roll affair, has been out of print for decades, so here’s your chance to glimpse at a universe that existed parallel to hair metal. (8)

WITCHCRAFT – A Sinner's Child
5-track EP following last year’s excellent album, this blends all facets of the band – from the doomy opener to acoustic acid folk to “poppier” tunes like the title track. (8)

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Help (2)
A great star-studded compilation album to benefit the War Child charity, recorded over a week at Abbey Road Studios. High-profile contributors offering unreleased originals or interesting covers include Arctic Monkeys, Damon Albarn, Depeche Mode, Fontaines DC, Pulp, Olivia Rodrigo etc., but it’s Arooj Aftab and Beth Gibbons who shine the brightest, making “Lilac Wine” (you probably know Jeff Buckley’s version) and The Velvet Underground’s “Sunday Morning” respectively their own. (9)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Mar 26

BILL CALLAHAN – My Days Of 58
I don’t get this guy. I’ve tried, really tried, this is his third or fourth album I convince myself to listen to after reading rave reviews and I still don’t get it. To my ears, this is just Temu Lou Reed. (6)

CONVERGE – Love Is Not Enough
Their previous album (a collab with Chelsea Wolfe) was majestically epic, this one goes straight for the jugular – a relentless hardcore thrash attack that bands half their age have tried and failed to replicate. (8)

CROOKED FINGERS – Swet Deth
Never really got into this Archers Of Loaf-associated side project the first time around, but this return after a 15-year hiatus could turn out to be the best “indie dad rock” album of 2026 with some super-catchy tunes. Special guests include Sharon Van Etten and some dudes from Superchunk and The National. (8)

GOGOL BORDELLO – We Mean It, Man!
The line-up around Hutz has slightly shifted this time around but the most noticeable change is in the production – more polished, some keyboards, some programmed beats, but underneath it all it’s still the same good old tabor-style, disco-radikal-transglobal immigrant punk from the gypsy part of town. (8)

HALLAS – Panorama 
Old-school progressive rock from these Swedes, with Wishbone-Ish guitarmonies and a 22-minute long opening track that would make Yes proud. (7)

TIGRAN HAMASYAN – Manifeste
An extravagant blend of jazz-fusion, prog-metal, and Armenian folk. The guy has made The List before for good reason. (8)

HEN OGLEDD – Discombobulated
One of the weirdest records you’ll enjoy this year, this supergroup of sorts uses folk as a springboard to reach unexpected soundscapes that are at the same time fantastical and political. (8)

IRON & WINE – Hen's Teeth
A companion album to 2024’s “Light Verse”, this continues Sam Beam’s streak of consistently solid folk rock albums. (8)

KARNIVOOL – In Verses 
Australian progressive metal band returns after a 13-year hiatus. The combination of the sound plus the long wait means they can now officially change their name to KarniTool. (8) 

MARIACHI EL BRONX – Mariachi El Bronx IV
The Bronx is one of the best punk rock bands of the 21st century, and this alter ego of theirs is one of the best mariachi bands north of Tijuana. (8)

RITUAL ARCANA – Ritual Arcana
Doom power-trio supergroup featuring Wino on guitar, the ex-singer from Moth (Wino’s wife, I think?) and the drummer from Black Lips. You can probably imagine what this sounds like. The vocals are the weak link here, since there are many more capable female vocalists around nowadays doing this occult/doom thing. (7) 

THE STUDIO 68! WITH DANI TURNER – Rollin'
These guys are really channeling 1968 with their Hammonds and their flutes and their nonsense hippy lyrics and a female soul rock belter up front. I can totally picture them raising hell in a club in North London with various Austin Powers-looking guys in the audience dancing. Groovy, baby! (8)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Feb 26

THE LOUDER STUFF

BACKENGRILLEN – Backengrillen
Members of Refused team up with free jazz musician Mats Gustafsson for an impressively noisy debut album where troglodyte doom riffs meet sax skronk, like a dingier Stooges on amphetamines. (8)

THE DAMNED – Not Like Everybody Else
A cool covers album with a strong 60’s emphasis (Pink Floyd, Animals, Lovin’ Spoonful, Yardbirds, Stones, Stooges, Kinks…), basically a send-off to Brian James since these were his favorite bands growing up. Amusing to note that Dave Vanian, who always had a bit of Jim Morrison in his delivery, now in his old age sounds more like Roger Daltrey. (8) 

EARTH // BLACK NOI$E – Geometry Of Murder: Extra Capsular Extraction Inversions
Earth’s earliest ultra-doom recordings from 1991 (featuring Kurt Cobain’s vocals on one track) remixed by and fucked around with by hip-hop producer – he messes with the tempos, adds drums etc. (8)

PELICAN – Ascending 
4-track EP featuring instrumental tracks previously released as B-sides, plus a version of a track from their last album but here with vocals. RIYL the Hydrahead back catalogue. (7)

VARIOUS ARTISTS – You’re No Big Deal: Grunge, the U.S. Underground and Beyond 1984-1994
4-CD box set: CD 1 focuses on the precursors (Green River, Meat Puppets, Husker Du, Malfunkshun, Pixies, Replacements…), CD 2  on (mainly) Seattle 1988-89 (Mudhoney, Bundle Of Hiss, Babes In Toyland, Scream, Tad, Skinyard, Mother Love Bone…), Disc 3 focuses on the 1990-91 explosion (Sonic Youth, L7, Breeders, Dinosaur Jr., Pavement, Hole, Screaming Trees…), Disc 4 on the aftermath of the major label raid (Temple Of The Dog, Stone Temple Pilots, Superchunk, Melvins, Veruca Salt…). There’s nothing by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, or Alice In Chains, but the inclusion of two early Soundgarden songs plus semi-forgotten personal favorites like Celibate Rifles, Seaweed, Poison Idea, NoMeansNo, Cop Shoot Cop, Wool etc. make this a highly enjoyable nostalgic listen. (11)


THE OTHER STUFF

ANNABELLE CHAIRLEGS – Here’s Waking Up
Produced by Ty Segall, and you can tell by the fuzz-drenched guitar on the Austin-based act’s garage-y third album. (8)

IMARHAN – Essam
Algerian Desert blues heroes add subtle electronica elements to the guitar-based sound with glorious results. (8)

CHRIS LYONS – Painters Street
A record released in December 2025 that sounds like it came out in March 1973, a throwback to the FM soft rock of that era, all folky shuffles and Rhodes pianos. (7)

LUCINDA WILLIAMS – World’s Gone Wrong
An excellent album by Williams, one of her best and most political – rootsy rock ‘n’ roll in the vein of Tom Petty, her unique voice up front and center and backed by an extraordinary band now also featuring guitarist Marc Ford (Black Crowes, Burning Tree). (8)

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Keep Me in Your Heart: The Songs of Warren Zevon
I’m a fan of tribute albums but Zevon was such a unique songwriter that it’s almost impossible to come up with a new angle that’s not just respectful, but as interesting as the original. Some of the participants, a lot of which you won’t have heard of, do a better job than others. (7)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Jan 26

THE LOUDER STUFF

BELL WITCH & AERIAL RUIN – Stygian Bough: Volume II
The kind of doom metal that makes Candlemass sound like Blink-182. It only includes four songs, but each one has a runtime of two days or something. (8)

DIE SPITZ – Something To Consume
I somehow missed this when it came out a few months ago. It starts out all grungy but then on the third track takes a sharp metal turn, and it’s four baddies that look like they’re still in their teens, and it’s on Third Man Records, so a lot to like here. (8)

FUCKED UP – Grass Can Move Stones Part 1: Year of The Goat
First part of a triple album (Part 2 expected in April 2026, Part 3 in October 2026) that will close their epic “Zodiac” cycle of releases. It’s the awesome prog/hardcore hybrid you’ve grown to expect from these guys who never release anything getting a grade below (8).

GLUECIFER – Same Drug New High
When The Hellacopters returned I made a wish for a Gluecifer comeback, and apparently Santa Claus is real because this is what I got for Xmas. (8)

SOEN – Reliance
A groovier Katatonia. (8)

ZU – Ferrum Sidereum
If you ever wondered would happen if Tool replaced vocalist James Maynard Keenan with saxophonist Colin Stetson, here’s your answer. (8)


THE OTHER STUFF

THE BLUES BROTHERS – The Lost Recordings
Live recording from 1978, released to support a Blues Brothers graphic novel. Doesn’t add much to the myth, and the sound quality is rather poor. (6)

DRY CLEANING – Secret Love
Even though the whole “Brit talk-sing post punk” thing seems to have deflated, Dry Cleaning managed to release the first good album of 2026. (8)

MELODY’S ECHO CHAMBER – Unclouded
An interesting combination – essentially psychedelic rock, but laced with Yé-yé and 60’s French pop elements. Elegant but with a bite. (8)

SLEAFORD MODS – The Demise Of Planet X
By now everyone should know what they’re getting with a Mods album, their aggro electro-punk usually quite witty and amusing. It’s not for everyone but the faithful will enjoy this. (8)

MARTY STUART & HIS FABULOUS SUPERLATIVES – Space Junk
This one came out several months ago during Record Shop Day 2025 but I just got my hands on it – I’ve been into this fabulous country band for a few years now and they’ve even made The List, but this is their first instrumental album and it’s… surf rock??? Dick Dale would be proud, and so would The Ventures. (8)