THE LOUDER STUFF
THE BLACK CROWES – Happiness Bastards
The Black Crowes return in full “Exile On Main St.” cosplay, and it rules. (8)
EXHORDER – Defectum Omnium
Underrated NOLA thrashers who are at least partially responsible for Pantera becoming Pantera, widen their scope – “Year Of The Goat” starts as old-school Norwegian black metal, “Stolen Hope” and “Your Six” sound like early Soundgarden, and so on. The “Pantera groove” is still there though. (7)
JUDAS PRIEST – Invincible Shield
A follow-up to 2018’s excellent “Firepower”, “Invincible Shield” is another fantastic Priest album with Halford in top form, killer guitars, and songwriting that quite honestly is up there with all their classics. (8)
VLTIMAS – Epic
It’s the combination of David Vincent’s totally over-the-top vocals and Blasphemer’s trademark dissonant riffs that makes this black/death metal supergroup so much fun, you just can’t help pretending to be evil when you hear something like “Mephisto Manifesto”. (8)
THE OTHER STUFF
THE HANGING STARS – On A Golden Shore
Is it still “Americana” when played by Englishmen? Anyhow I like these Londoners, they have the whole Gram Parsons/Byrds/Burritos thing down pat already so now they’re expanding their palette to include more contemporary, poppier influences (think Sheryl Crow?). (7)
JULIA HOLTER – Something In The Room She Moves
Every time Holter releases a new album I stream it immediately, and every time I fail to get it: She sits somewhere between avant-garde, jazz, and pop, and if she would only allow her pop melodies to shine instead of hiding them under all the distracting stuff she’d be much closer to my tastes. (6)
JOHN LURIE – Painting With John
Music from the weird, funny and wonderful TV series which is certainly not about painting. My only complaint: It does not include the hilarious “Flea’s Walk” from the episode where the RHCP bassist visits his friend John. (8)
LOREENA McKENNITT – The Road Back Home
Live album focusing on McKennitt’s roots in the Celtic folk music tradition. Some of the songs you know from her studio albums, some are recorded by her for the first time. Beautiful. (8)
THE MESSTHETICS & JAMES BRANDON LEWIS – The Messthetics Αnd James Brandon Lewis
An excellent album occupying a strange place between jazz-fusion and post-rock, this one features a guitar shredder, a tenor saxophonist, and the rhythm section from Fugazi. Wrap your head around that. (8)
KACEY MUSGRAVES – Deeper Well
Expectations are always high from people who have previously topped the List and Musgraves does not disappoint, moving with ease between Fleetwood Mac soft rock, delicate country folk, and Laurel Canyon singer-songwriter poetry. (8)
ROSALI – Bite Down
A very strong country-rock record with a Neil Young/Crazy Horse flavor. Not to be confused with Rosalia. (8)
MARRY WATERSON & ADRIAN CROWLEY – Cuckoo Storm
A very strange but delightful little album that defies labeling and categorization. You can call it folk I guess (Waterson comes from a family considered folk royalty in England) but it’s much more than that, venturing into jazz and even Scott Walker weirdo territory at times. (8)
WAXAHATCHEE – Tigers Blood
One for the Year-End lists, this is probably Katie Crutchfield’s strongest album – more indie rock than Americana. (8)
No comments:
Post a Comment