Short Attention Span Record Reviews, June 2022

ANDREW BIRD – Inside Problems
A true artist defying categorization, multi-instrumentalist and renaissance man Bird jumps from chamber pop to jazz rock to indie with ease, sometimes within the same song. (8)

THE BLACK CROWES – 1972
A covers EP to test out the new line-up before the tour. Obviously all songs are from 1972 (Stones, Bolan, Rod Stewart, Little Feat, Bowie, and a fantastic version of The Temptations’ “Papa Was A Rolling Stone”) and fit the Crowes template well. (8)

CAVE IN – Heavy Pendulum
Recruiting Converge’s Nate Newton as the late Caleb Scofield’s replacement, Cave In release what is probably their finest work since 2000’s “Jupiter” – a beast of an album where fierce metal riffage meets prog atmospherics that wouldn’t be out of place on a Radiohead tribute recorded by Rush. (8)

CURRENT 93 – If A City Is Set Upon A Hill
I don’t have anything against post-industrial goth neofolk or whatever you call this kind of thing but I can’t stand this guy’s croaking voice, it doesn’t help control my overwhelming urge to suckerpunch any religious mystic I come across. (5)

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS – Welcome 2 Club XIII
More personal and less political than their previous three albums, this is another excellent effort from DBT who still sound their best when they’re trying to emulate a southern rock version of Neil Young & Crazy Horse. Despite being a Hood fan, I have to admit that this time around it’s Cooley’s songs that steal the show. (8)

FANTASTIC NEGRITO – White Jesus Black Problems
Award-winning blues artist releases concept album that includes very little blues, based on his family history. There’s funk, rock, and lots of experimentation here and it’s probably his best, certainly his most intriguing, work to date. (8)

CRAIG FINN – A Legacy Of Rentals
The Hold Steady frontman’s latest solo album shifts the sonic palette by adding a rich string section on several tracks, but once again the key element on this collection of songs is Finn’s superb storytelling and his ability to create fully formed characters within the format of a 4-minute song – and if you’ve ever fucked up in your life, you can’t help loving Finn’s losers and outcasts. (8)

MINA GAJIC & ZACHARY CARRETTIN – Confluence: Balkan Dances & Tango Nuevo
Married classical musician couple (Serbian pianist, American violinist/violist with Latin roots) brings together Marko Tajčević’s “Seven Balkan Dances” with Ray Granlund’s modern tango with extraordinary results. (8)

SASS JORDAN – Bitches Blues
Sexagenarian Canadian hard rocker (and first employer, back in the 90’s, of an unknown 22-year-old drummer called Taylor Hawkins) explores her blues side with a mix of covers and originals on this enjoyable album. (7)

NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND – Dirt Does Dylan
You simply can’t go wrong with a Bob Dylan tribute – the songs are so amazing that you just can’t ruin them even if you try, and his voice on the originals is so annoying that you’re probably going to sing them better than him anyway. But NGDB do a solid job, especially on their epic versions of “The Times They Are A-Changin’” (featuring special guests Jason Isbell, Rosanne Cash, Steve Earle and the War & Treaty) and “I Shall Be Released” (featuring special guests Larkin Poe). (8)

ANGEL OLSEN – Big Time
It’s unfair to compare Olsen to her peers, but this really sounds like a hybrid of Sharon Van Etten and Lana Del Rey gone full country and you’ll see it on many year-end lists in six months’ time. Probably not on mine, since I appreciate the vibe but was hoping for more hooks. (7)

FRANK SINATRA – Watertown
A Sinatra album unlike any other, this 1970 oddity sold poorly, almost killed his career, and remained forgotten for decades – it’s a totally depressing concept album about the loss and desperation of one man, created in collaboration with members of rock band The Four Seasons, and this new remaster should set the record straight: It’s actually really good! (8)

WILCO – Cruel Country
Their most “country” record in 25 years but it’s not particularly cruel, as a matter of fact it’s gentle and beautiful. Including the two saddest songs of all time, “The Universe” and “Many Worlds”. (8)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, May 2022 Vol. II

THE AMERICANS – Stand True
Never before has a band name been more in line with what that band actually sounds like – The Americans combine psychedelia, folk, and meat & potatoes heartland rock into one very neat package that is 100% American. (8)

THE BLACK KEYS – Dropout Boogie
Sticks to their tried and tested blues-based arena rock formula. (7)

HALESTORM – Back From The Dead
The songwriting’s OK but not spectacular, sort of like a poor man’s Disturbed. But damn, this girl’s voice is so powerful it should’ve been banned by the Geneva Convention. (7)

IBEYI – Spell 31
Afro-Cuban/French twin sisters live up to expectations of their multicultural background on new album, a mesmerizing, globetrotting collection of minimalistic soul/electronica/hip-hop/trip-hop tunes (plus a Black Flag cover!) featuring their unique close harmony singing. (8)

KENDRICK LAMAR – Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
A divisive album by the world’s best rapper, it focuses on trauma and recovery from a very personal perspective. I think it’s great. (8)

LYLE LOVETT – 12th Of June
There’s very little resembling country here, if you always thought of Lovett as a country artist but hadn’t actually listened to any of his stuff. This is more of a big band jazz/swing thing, and a highly enjoyable one at that too. (8)

KEVIN MORBY – This Is A Photograph
Why haven’t I heard this guy’s work earlier? What have I been missing out on? This is a fantastic album of Dylan-esque (both in sound and in quality) songs, epic in scope and vision, that I just can’t stop listening to. (9)

MOTOR SISTER – Get Off
Supergroup featuring Scott Ian, Joey Vera and John Tempesta but the real stars here are the two lesser-known band members, co-vocalists Jim Wilson (from the excellent, criminally underrated Mother Superior) and Pearl Aday (Ian’s wife, Meat Loaf’s daughter), singing their balls/ovaries off some really great no bullshit hard rockin’ stuff. (8)

JO QUAIL – The Cartographer
Roadburn Festival-commissioned composition in 5 movements by electric cellist finds the perfect balance between Igor Stravinsky and Sunn O))). (8)

THE SMILE – A Light for Attracting Attention
Honestly, I don’t understand why this is not a Radiohead album – Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood are 2/3’s of the band and it sounds just like Radiohead too. Not “The Bends”/”OK Computer” Radiohead unfortunately, more “Hail To the Thief”/”In Rainbows” Radiohead, but still. (8)

SHARON VAN ETTEN – We've Been Going About This All Wrong
A truly beautiful album by Van Etten – smart pop songs that are personal and at the same universal, with an epic production. (8)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, May 2022

THE LOUDER STUFF

AUDREY HORNE – Devil's Bell
They always sounded like a poppier Iron Maiden, but this time the NWOBHM flavor is a bit stronger. (7)

UDO DIRKSCHNEIDER – My Way
Look, we metalheads still love Udo, but we love him the same way we love the 14-year-old family dog we grew up with who’s now half blind, half deaf, and limping. Listening to him attempting to bark covers of songs we know from powerhouse vocalists like John Lawton, Tina Turner, Dio, Plant, Meine, Halford, Mercury, and Sinatra is entertaining but at the same time a bit sad. (6)

PRIMUS – Conspiranoid
This 3-song EP is prime Primus (sorry). (8)

RAMMSTEIN – Zeit
With a slightly different track sequence the return of the Teutonic Industrial Metal Giants could’ve been Album Of The Year, since the three opening tracks are also probably the weakest on the record and first impressions count. But the next eight songs will kick your ass extremely hard. (8)

RONNIE ROMERO – Raised On Radio
He just pulled a Jorn Lande – a covers album featuring hard rock hits from the 70’s and 80’s. His voice is a bit better than Udo’s. (7)


THE OTHER STUFF

3rd SECRET – 3rd Secret
It doesn’t sound at all like what you’d expect a band produced by Jack Endino and featuring Krist Novoselic, Matt Cameron, and Kim Thayil to sound like. Too quiet. (7)

RYAN ADAMS – Romeo & Juliet
Fourth album in 16 months coming just three weeks after the last one must be some sort of record. He says this is his “summertime” album and it certainly sounds more summer-y (i.e., jangly) than “Chris”. (7)

BLACKBERRY SMOKE – Stoned
An album of Rolling Stones covers mainly from the Sticky Fingers/Exile On Main St. era, a limited red vinyl release for Record Store Day from the world’s greatest living southern rock band. (8)

MIRANDA LAMBERT – Palomino
One of the best country-pop (or pop-country) albums of the year by the Queen of the genre. (8)

WILLIE NELSON – A Beautiful Time
May he live forever, releasing touching and funny country albums like this one every few months. (7)

OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW – Paint This Town
It’s impossible not to like this album of mostly uptempo bluegrass originals played with virtuosity and gusto. (8)

OUMOU SANGARÉ – Timbuktu
Western African artist and feminist icon blends traditional music from Mali with American rock/blues/pop influences and the results are spectacular. (8)

AARON SKILES – Wreckage From The Fire
Fans of Drive-By Truckers will love this – not only it sounds quite a lot like DBT’s best moments, but it features a couple of DBTs as well (bassist Matt Patton co-wrote the album with Skiles, keyboardist Jay Gonzalez also plays). (8)

SPIRITUALIZED – Everything Was Beautiful
Another drug-fueled fever dream like the Stooges and the Stones jamming with a gospel choir on Librium, this is the closest they’ll ever get to “Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space” (their masterpiece). (8)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Apr 2022

THE LOUDER STUFF

DREAM WIDOW – Dream Widow
Dave Grohl goes full-on metal embracing all the beloved cliches of the genre like he’d done with Probot, but a bit thrashier this time. This rules. (8)

ENVY OF NONE – Envy Of None
Alex Lifeson moves away from Rush territory towards synth-rock, with a female vocalist fronting his new band. Not bad, as long as you don’t expect proggy acrobatics. (7)

HELLACOPTERS – Eyes Of Oblivion
I really missed these guys and their pure, no bullshit, high-energy rock ‘n’ roll. A very welcome return. (8)

MESHUGGAH – Immutable
If you want to feel stupid all you need is to try and keep up with Meshuggah’s syncopation and polymetered riff cycles. But they still make you headbang, and this is one of their stronger efforts. (8)

ALDO NOVA – The Life and Times of Eddie Gage
Played this rock opera on a whim out of cheesy 80’s nostalgia, and it’s a surprisingly good melodic hard rock album. He can’t sing anymore like he used to, but still writes a mean tune. (7)

PUP – The Unraveling Of Puptheband
One of the best punk bands around, and they make the most fun videos too. (8)
    
JACK WHITE – Fear Of The Dawn
White’s hardest RAWKing album ever is a train wreck, but a fun one. (7)


THE OTHER STUFF

RYAN ADAMS – Chris
This album is a rocker, his best in many years featuring some fantastic songs, so let’s wait and see if it gets him un-canceled now that even Louis CK won a Grammy. (8)

CALEXICO – El Mirador
Americana favorites return to the Arizona desert, close to the Mexican border, to record what is probably their strongest album since 2003’s “Feast Of Wire”. This is perfect road trip music. (8)

FATHER JOHN MISTY – Chloë And The Next 20th Century
A very different FJM record relying less on the persona and more on a Randy Newman vibe with bossa nova and Gainsbourg-like French pop-rock overtones, good but takes a while getting used to. (8)

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS – Unlimited Love
It’s unfashionable to like RHCP but this is a pretty good album and their funkiest in a long time. A bit too long, at 17 tracks there’s unavoidably some filler here, but overall pretty decent. (7)

DANIEL ROSSEN – You Belong There
An impressive guitarist influenced by Nick Drake and Tropicalia-era Brazilians, Grizzly Bear co-frontman moves away from his day job’s indie rock towards a more dissonant but epic sound that brings to mind Van Dyke Parks and Scott Walker. Not an easy listen but rewarding. (8)

MOLLY TUTTLE & GOLDEN HIGHWAY – Crooked Tree
Top-notch songwriting on this excellent, virtuoso bluegrass record featuring a bunch of guest stars like Margo Price, Gillian Welch, Old Crow Medicine Show and others. (8)

WET LEG – Wet Leg
Punky, spunky, and funny, this is a great Gen Z record, and a couple of the singles are among the best, most infectious songs I’ve heard all year. It actually reminded me of the B-52’s, which I’m certain the members of Wet Leg have never heard of. (8)

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)