THE LOUDER STUFF
CARDIACS – On Land And In The Sea (1989, Remaster)
Re-release/remaster of what many consider the prog/punk/art rockers’ best album. Fans include everyone from Radiohead and Blur to Steven Wilson to Faith No More to Hammers Of Misfortune, and you can hear why. (9)
THE HU – Hun
It’s their best album, so they should’ve called it “Hu’s Next”. (8)
THE MENZINGERS – Everything I Ever Saw
If you like dive-bar, heart-on-sleeve American music equally indebted to Bruce Springsteen and punk (e.g. The Gaslight Anthem, The Hold Steady…) then you probably already know The Menzingers, who are trying to navigate middle age gracefully on this album. (8)
NORTH SEA ECHOES – How To Cast A Shadow
Matheos and Alder go to great lengths to make sure this doesn’t sound much like Fates Warning (and a song like “Villains And Saints” even brings to mind Kings X), but I still like to pretend that this is new Fates Warning music. (8)
TESLA – Homage
Cover versions of rock and soul classics (Queen, Bob Seger, Skynyrd, Creedence, Sam Cooke, Temptations, James Brown…) that don’t stray too far from the originals. Confirms Tesla as the classic rock band they’ve always been rather than the hair metal band they were marketed as 40 years ago. (7)
TORN OPEN – Torn The Fuck Open Vol 2 (EP)
One of the most promising young deathcore bands around right now. Keep an eye/ear out for them. (8)
THE OTHER STUFF
AMERICAN AQUARIUM – New Ways To Lose
It feels like every month there’s another low-budget Springsteen releasing what could very well be a pretty damn good Springsteen album. (8)
SHEARWATER – The New World
They have stayed under my radar even though this is their 12th album, and now I have regrets about that – this is a fantastic album, probably labelled “indie folk” or something but, in reality, much closer in spirit to Talk Talk than anything else. (8)
AARON LEE TASJAN – Get Over It, Underdog
Another solid effort from Tasjan in his signature Americana-meets-glam-rock-via-The-Beatles hybrid. Lyrically a little bit darker in places than previous efforts. (8)
YARD ACT – You’re Gonna Need a Little Music
Their first album easily made The List, their third reaffirms their status as one of the best post-Arctic Monkeys bands in the UK. (8)
VARIOUS ARTISTS – Where The Willow And The Dogwood Grow: Words And Music By Tom Waits And Kathleen Brennan
Tom Waits covers. All the tracks collected here are previously released, so nothing to surprise the true Waits connoisseur, but the list of artists contributing is impressive and diverse (Springsteen, Los Lobos, Diana Krall, The Blind Boys Of Alabama, Marianne Faithfull, Ramones, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Robert Plant, Joan Baez…). (8)
