Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Sep 26 Vol. 3

JAKE XERXES FUSSELL – The Old Beloved Path
The term “folk music” has come to include everything from Mumford & Sons to Phoebe Bridgers, but if we apply the Alan Lomax definition then only this guy’s the real deal nowadays. (8) 

RHIANNON GIDDENS – Hope Is The Thing With Feathers
Grammy-winning Giddens revisits her roots and the folk music of the Carolinas where she comes from. Her voice remains a force to be reckoned with. (8)

GODFLESH – Decay 
Industrial metal pioneers’ infernal, uncompromising, allegedly final album makes sure they go out with a bang. (7)

MAMA TERRA – Inner Space
Excellent jazz with a spiritual vibe, from Glasgow. (8)

THE MARY WALLOPERS – Paddywhackery
They make Irish folk music sound like rock ‘n’ roll, falling somewhere in the middle between The Pogues and Dropkick Murphys. (8)

THE ODYSSEY CULT – Volume Three
Psychedelic rock supergroup channels their inner Hawkwind. (8)

ORVILLE PECK – Mule
A masked gay country singer? Who got sober and sings about it? On paper this should suck but it’s actually great, dark and catchy and disturbing. (8)

PROTOMARTYR – Hotel Usona
I carefully listened to their third album in 2015 and the fourth one in 2017 and even though I liked them, I never really became a fan. The seventh one is an entirely different beast however, with an expanded sound going beyond post-punk towards something truly grandiose – in line with the “end of the world” concept. (8)

EMMA RUTH RUNDLE – These Killing Times
Like a cross between Chelsea Wolfe and a darker Tori Amos, Rundle gives the goths a great album to feel excited about, or be miserable with, which I guess in their case are synonymous concepts. (8)

SPIDERS – Crystal Eyes
I love these guys (and girl). Not to ovedo it with the "girl rock" references, but they do sound permanently stuck in 1979 like a cross between early Girlschool and early Blondie. (8) 

SAUL WILLIAMS – Leap Life
The experimental spoken word/abstract jazz pieces are a bit hard to swallow, but he makes up for it on the Faithless-like bangers. (7)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Sep 26 Vol. 2

THE LOUDER STUFF

ACCEPT – Teutonic Titans 1976-2026
Re-recording the old hits to celebrate their 50th anniversary with a list of special guests that looks like metal’s Hall of Fame (everyone from Phil Anselmo and Rob Halford to Kirk Hammett and Jeff Loomis is here). Of course we prefer the originals, but the material is so strong that you can’t go wrong with it. (8)

AUDREY HORNE – Achilles
The Night Flight Orchestra playing Iron Maiden covers, or vice versa. (7)

BEHEMOTH – I, Scvlptor
A few new tracks, a couple of re-recordings, and covers of Venom and Bathory classics. A welcome bridge between proper albums for the death/black behemoths. (8)

CHAT PILE – Who Loves The Sun
I’ve seen the words “sludge metal” being thrown around a lot when describing these guys, but really, they sound more like a cross between The Jesus Lizard and a funnier Korn, a combination I never thought could work this spectacularly. (8)

GREEN LUNG – Necropolitan
They often get compared to Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, but they’re really more Uriah Heep meets “Queen II”. Strong, catchy album by the UK’s best bet to develop a future metal festival headliner. (8)

KULTUR SHOCK – House Of Shock
I had no idea these guys were still around, I lost track of them 15 years ago. They’re still doing the “gypsy punk” thing that was popular at the turn of the century, and they’re better at it than most of their peers who are still around. (7)

PRESIDENT – Blood Of Your Empire
This is such an obvious fucking rip-off that I don’t care if these bandwagon jumpers are an industry plant or not, and the original they’re ripping off is not that great anyway. (3)

SLEEP – Hempispheres
They’ve always been all about rehashed Sabbath grooves and bad weed puns and that’s fine, but it’s just not the same without Matt Pike. (7)

VARIOUS ARTISTS –Yeah Man, It's Bloody Heavy!! Vol 2
Rise Above strikes again with another compilation of totally unknown British proto-metal bands that never officially released anything – all the recordings here were taken from 70’s demos. No idea how they unearth this stuff. (11)


THE OTHER STUFF

BRIAN FALLON – Not Bad For New Jersey 
The original “punk guy who also likes Springsteen”, The Gaslight Anthem’s Fallon is back with a catchy and practically AOR record – this is much more Bryan Adams than Ryan Adams and even features Def Leppard’s Phil Collen as a guest. (8) 

POKEY LAFARGE – Rent Money
I like this guy and his retro-Americana and the way he carved a nice little niche for himself. His songs sound they were created in the 1940’s, 1950’s, 1960’s, and 2030’s simultaneously. (8) 

ORQUESTA AKOKÁN – América
Really fun album by a Latin jazz/mambo big band featuring musicians from New York and Cuba. Play this at your next cocktail party. (8)

THE TUBS – Hard Life
Mentioning Bob Mould when talking about The Tubs is inevitable, but it goes deeper than the voice similarities – if it wasn’t enough that Sugar’s “If I Can’t Change Your Mind” seems to be the template for this band, now he’s quoting that particular song directly so apparently he doesn’t mind the comparisons. In any case it doesn’t matter much because this is probably the best British indie rock band around right now. (8)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Sep 26

THE LOUDER STUFF

BEARTOOTH – Pure Ecstasy
Nothing against the guy coming out, but this is softer/poppier than the last couple of very good albums. (7)

JOHN CARPENTER – Cathedral
He goes metal at almost 80 years old. But in some sense he was always metal. (8)

CRUMBLING GHOST – Four
English folk meets doom metal, and it kicks ass. (8)

MASTODON – Marrow Deep
You know the backstory so let’s not dwell on that. Is it good? Well, it’s not “Blood Mountain”, but it’s better than “Emperor Of Sand”. (8)

CHELSEA WOLFE – The Dark
Her most accessible and, ironically, brightest record is positioned somewhere between Evanescence and The Cure, this is goth pop/rock off the top shelf. (9)


THE OTHER STUFF

THE AFGHAN WHIGS – Soft Control
Contemporaries of the grunge scene and signed to Sub Pop but always an outlier, still going strong with their unique blend of hard alternative rock and classic soul/r’n'b. There never was anyone else like them, and there never will be. (8)

ALABAMA SHAKES – I Must Be Dreaming
A welcome return for their sweet soul music with a psychedelic rock edge. The lyrics are a bit angrier nowadays, but of course that’s expected in the midst of Trump version 2.0 – Obama was still President the last time they released an album. (7) 

PHOEBE BRIDGERS – Lost Weekend
Bridgers has wrangled a great album out of her personal life’s turmoil – lots of catchy melodies, enhanced by deep but often very funny lyrics. This one will be near the top of many lists comes December. (8)

LIAM HAYES – Dancing Backwards
I never liked Steely Dan so who would’ve thought I’d like lo-fi Steely Dan. (8)

JULIA HOLTER – Materia 
Experimental ambient pop, a companion album to 2024’s “Something in the Room She Moves”. If you liked that one, you’ll like this one too. (7)

RAY WYLIE HUBBARD – Reel 2 Reel 4 Real
If this octogenarian is supposed to be an outlaw country artist, then why does this album sound more like early '70s Stones doing a swampy Delta Blues thing? (8) 

ICE-T – Criminal Migraine
Strong start, strong finish, sagging a bit in the middle – would’ve benefited by trimming the 24 tracks down to 16 or 18 or something, but at his age it would be too much to ask for the manic energy and bravado of “O.G. Original Gangster” (possibly the best rap record of all time). Still, thumbs up. (8) 

LAMBCHOP – Punching The Clown
Kurt Wagner strips it down – no electronics, no Auto-tune on the vocals, just his nicotine-stained voice, a guitar, banjo provided by Bon Iver, and… choirs? Listbait for music critics in their 50s. (8)

MIKE D 5D – Thank you 
Former Beastie Boy returns to making music and he’s got his two sons with him. I’m sure he’s having lots of fun, but I won’t be giving this one too many spins. (6)

TY SEGALL – Chrome
Jammy, fuzzy psychedelic garage rock, this is one of his heaviest – and best. (8)

BILLY STRINGS – So Much For Goodbyes
Hadn’t paid much attention to this guy until now, basically because the stage name turned me off (a guitarist calling himself Billy Strings is like a chef calling himself Johnny Moussaka or an accountant calling himself James Balance-Sheet), so this one came as a revelation – not so much the virtuoso bluegrass playing and his crack backing band, which I expected, but the songwriting. A masterpiece. (9)