Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Dec 22 - Last One Before The List

BLACK OX ORKESTAR – Everything Returns
A fantastic album exploring traditional Jewish/Eastern European folk music in a post-rock context, by a band featuring a couple of Godspeed You Black Emperor/Thee Silver Mt. Zion members. (8)

THE COMET IS COMING – Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam
Very exciting jazz for people who don’t listen to jazz, this sounds more like Techno or Big Beat and features Shabaka Hutchings – probably the busiest/best sax guy around right now. (8)

THE COOL GREENHOUSE – Sod's Toastie
England keeps producing cool talk-sing angular post-punk bands that would probably make Mark E. Smith proud if he wasn’t such a misanthrope and a bit of a cunt, really, and these guys are among the most entertaining of the bunch. (8)

DUKE GARWOOD – Rogues Gospel
Mark Lanegan collaborator’s album will appeal to the same demographic that liked Lanegan’s work from “Blues Funeral” onwards. (7)

HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE – Overtaker
Incorporating ex-Vektor and Sabbath Assembly members into the Hammers line-up, Cobbett this time comes up with a thrash/power/prog hybrid that will please most metalheads. (7)

ISAFJØRD – Hjartastjaki
Hailing from Iceland and sounding like a hybrid between Solstafir (with Aðalbjörn Addi Tryggvason being 50% of this band) and Sigur Ros. (7)

TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS – Live At The Fillmore 1997
From covers of oldies from their rock ’n’ roll adolescence, to some of the band’s greatest hits reimagined, to introducing and jamming with mythical guests/heroes like Roger McGuinn and John Lee Hooker, Petty & Band were obviously having a blast on stage those evenings at the Fillmore 25 years ago, sounding like the best bar band the world has even known. (10)

THE PRESCRIPTIONS – Time Apart
Radiohead might have spent the last 20+ years deconstructing rock music, but apparently there’s still a lot of demand for what they used to do if bands like The Prescriptions try so hard to recreate “The Bends”. (7)

SILVERHEAD – More Than Your Mouth Can Hold: The Complete Recordings 1972-1974
6-CD box set containing everything (two albums, a few singles and demos, lots of bootleggy live recordings that you’ll listen to only once) ever put on tape by forgotten glam/proto-metal band whose frontman, Michael Des Barres, is better known as Pamela’s husband and the guy who replaced Robert Palmer in Power Station at Live Aid. Historically interesting (the bass player ended up in Blondie, the guitarist in Robert Plant’s band, Des Barres on McGyver), musically non-essential. (-)

JULIE TIPPETTS – Sunset Glow
Previously known as Julie Driscoll, this is her post-Brian Auger & The Trinity psychedelic masterpiece, recorded with her jazz musician husband in 1975 and now remastered. (9)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Nov 22

THE LOUDER STUFF

DEAD CROSS – II
Hardcore/thrash crossover with the occasional Dead Kennedys/Cramps surf-influenced guitar riff, Mike Patton fronting, and Lombardo on drums? What’s not to like?? (8)

ENUFF Z’NUFF – Finer Than Sin
Unstoppable, they just keep releasing albums at a rate unmatched by few other bands in the 21st century, and they’re all pretty good too – this one’s no exception, featuring their trademark hard rock/power pop blend, sort of like a metal version of the Beatles. (8)

L.S. DUNES – Past Lives
Emo supergroup is a “what if early My Chemical Romance was fronted by Cedric Bixler-Zavala?” proposition. (7)

SOEN – Atlantis
Recorded live in the studio with an 8-piece orchestra and backing vocalists, these prog metallers (if "Katatonia meets Porcupine Tree" counts as prog metal, that is) offer interesting reworkings of some of their best songs, a new track, and an impressive cover of Slipknot’s “Snuff”. Good stuff. (8)

MARC URSELLI’S STEPPENDOOM – SteppenDoom
If you discovered Mongolian/Tiverian throat singing via metal and The Hu, it’s time to grow up and upgrade to Steppendoom – Urselli’s a Grammy-award winning sound engineer & producer who has worked with everyone from Elton John to John Zorn, and on this project he brings together local throat singers with metal royalty like Matt Pike, Aaron Aedy, Johannes Persson, Steve Von Till, Trey Spruance, Dave Chandler and others. (8)


THE OTHER STUFF

RICHARD DAWSON – The Ruby Cord
I love Dawson and the fact that he’s totally bonkers, one minute creating strange folk songs about jogging or whatever and the next collaborating with Finnish metal provocateurs Circle, and he has even made The List, but there’s a big hurdle to overcome with “The Ruby Cord”– the opening track is a whopping 41 minutes long and doesn’t really get to the point until the 12-minute mark. If you can get past that, and you can stand his vocals which are certainly an acquired taste, the remaining 40 minutes are highly enjoyable. (8)

PJ HARVEY – B-Sides, Demos & Rarities
6-LP or 3-CD box set is a real treasure trove for Polly’s fans, and just as enjoyable as her best studio albums. (11)

LARKIN POE – Blood Harmony
Another excellent swaggering blues-based southern rock record from the Lovell sisters. Tons of kick-ass electric guitars, and smoky vocals like Paul Rodgers after oestrogen injections. (8)

FRANZ NICOLAY – New River
Solo album by The Hold Steady’s not-so-secret weapon, “New River” occasionally sounds a lot like his main gig (“Your Ode Played By French Horns”), but for the most part it ventures into wild diversions that are all over the place but lots of fun, from the 70’s Tom Waits boho of “It’s Dawn” to the Against Me! punk strut of “First-Person Spectacular”. (8)

ONE ELEVEN HEAVY – Poolside
If you’re in the mood for some Cosmic American rock in the Little Feat/Grateful Dead tradition… (7)

CAITLIN ROSE – Cazimi
Nashville veteran does her all-country/Americana thing well, with a glossy pop sheen that’s more late 70’s Fleetwood Mac than Lucinda Williams. (7)

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – Only The Strong Survive
Bruce does old soul covers from the Temptations to the Commodores, arrangements remain more or less faithful to the originals. (7)

COLIN STETSON – Chimaera I
This time around he goes full-on drone and gets some REALLY spooky sounds out of his sax. I think I’ll call him SunnO))) Rollins from now on. (8)

TRAMPLED BY TURTLES – Alpenglow
Innovators within a centuries-old music genre, bluegrass (so let’s call them nu-grass), this time around they enlist Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy as producer to beef up the indie rock credentials. (7)

WEYES BLOOD – And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow
Her voice is like chocolate sauce drizzled over choux pastry balls, her lyrics are deep, but her orchestral pop songs need a few more hooks. (7)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Oct 22 Vol. III

THE LOUDER STUFF

DISTURBED – Divisive
I finally figured out what bothers me about these guys: Almost every song is the same song, especially the vocal lines on the uptempo ones. But at least it’s a good song. (7)

GOAT – Oh Death
Masked Swedes on new and exciting stoned ‘n’ fuzzy psychedelic rock adventure, female vocals still grating. (7)

THE OTOLITH – Folium Limina
Like the proverbial phoenix, The Otolith rises out of Subrosa’s ashes with a superior slab of doomy post-metal featuring, of all things metal, a twin violin attack. Awesome. (8)

SAHG – Born Demon
Shades of Sabbath (naturally) and 80’s Ozzy on a solid heavy metal album. Best of all is their cover of an old Norwegian hit, “Heksedans”, in their native tongue. (8)

SERJ TANKIAN – Perplex Cities
I won’t stop repeating this: Cut the crap and get the band back together. (7)

WITCH FEVER – Congregation
Probably the most exciting punk debut to come out of the UK in a decade. (8)


THE OTHER STUFF

ARCTIC MONKEYS – The Car
Lots of strings and pianos make this album sound much closer to his other band, The Last Shadow Puppets, or even Burt Bacharach, rather than the anthemic rock Arctic Monkeys of the first five albums. (7)

CORY BRANAN – When I Go I Ghost
A great heartland American rock ‘n’ roll record, probably Branan’s best. Buddies Brian Fallon (The Gaslight Anthem) and Jason Isbell help out. (8)

DRY CLEANING – Stumpwork
Last year’s breakout stars return with a decent follow-up sticking quite closely to the original formula – coolly and slightly annoyingly talking (not singing) over angular Pavement-style guitars and Gang Of Four English white boy funk. (7)

SOUAD MASSI – Sequana
Former frontwoman of Algerian metal band Atakor, now exiled in Paris to avoid death threats by fundamentalists, releases a fantastic album where traditional Berber music meets chanson, rock, American folk, and even bossa nova, with producer Justin Adams (guitarist in Robert Plant’s band) doing a great job. Includes a stunning Arabic version of NIN’s “Hurt”. (8)

SLOAN – Steady
It’s a glorious year for power pop. (8)

TAYLOR SWIFT – Midnights
Look, in the 20-year-old debate about rockism vs. poptimism it’s been fairly clear which side my bread is buttered on. But I do have a soft spot for Swift, and this is another wonderful Swift album. (8)

THE UNTHANKS – Sorrows Away
A beautiful British folk album by a band featuring two sisters who sound absolutely magical on vocals. (8)

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Here It Is: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen
Released on famed jazz label Blue Note, this is a very good tribute album featuring a crack band of jazz musicians with Peter Gabriel, Iggy Pop, Norah Jones, James Taylor, Sarah McLachlan, Mavis Staples and others taking turns fronting it. (8) 

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Oct 22 Vol. II

THE LOUDER STUFF

BLIND ILLUSION – Wrath of the Gods
It’s sort of like Megadeth but with less annoying vocals and no born-again Christian crap. (8)

THE CULT – Under The Midnight Sun
This is not the hard rocking Cult of “Electric” and “Sonic Temple”, it’s actually closer to the post-punk goth Cult of “Love” but with extra strings, and it’s pretty good! (8)

LAMB OF GOD – Omens
This is a very good Lamb Of God album, i.e. a very good Pantera/Swedish melodeath hybrid. (8)

LITURGY – As the Blood of God Bursts the Veins of Time
Seriously fucked up music by and for seriously fucked up people. But black metal purists will hate this, again. (7)

VANILLA FUDGE – Vanilla Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin covers sounding like Deep Purple songs by a band older than both, but you can live without this. (6)


THE OTHER STUFF

2nd GRADE – Easy Listening
16 songs in 35 minutes by a band with ambitions to spearhead a power-pop revival. RIYL Big Star, Teenage Fanclub, The Posies. (8)

RYAN ADAMS – Devolver
His fourth album in 2022 (!) is given away as a free download and it’s punkier than usual. The guy’s in top songwriting form, too bad he’s still being cancelled. (8)

COURTNEY MARIE ANDREWS – Loose Future
A gorgeous album of spacious Americana by this talented singer/songwriter. (8)

BONNY LIGHT HORSEMAN – Rolling Golden Holy
Second album by indie-folk supergroup blurs the boundaries between traditional and contemporary folk music with a strong autumnal feel. (8)

JAKE BLOUNT – The New Faith
A fantastic album that’ll certainly make the year-end list a couple of months down the road – a minimalistic, Afro-futuristic concept album based on old gospel music and spirituals with a post-modern twist. I just can’t stop listening to this. (9)

JOHN FULLBRIGHT – The Liar
Fullbright’s approach to songwriting, a melting pot of country, rock, and pop, brings to mind another Oklahoman piano man, Leon Russell – when not verging into early Waits-ian whiskey-soaked territory. An all-around stellar album. (8)

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS – Return Of The Dream Canteen
Second (extremely long) long player from the Chili Peppers in 2022, meaning they’ve released 150 minutes of new music this year. This one’s the better of the two, funkier and more fun. But if they had released just one 50-minute album featuring half the tracks from this album plus the top 3-4 tracks from “Unlimited Love”, it would’ve been a masterpiece. (8)

TITUS ANDRONICUS – The Will To Live
Working-class indie rockers forego the Clash-isms of their previous album and go full-on classic rock in a “Who meets Alice Cooper” sort of way – a few months ago this guy twitted that he was going for a Mutt Lange vibe on this album, and I suspect he was only half-joking. (8)

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Sea Songs Sessions
Some of the top names in today’s British folk music (Jon Boden, Seth Lakeman etc.) join forces on this great collection of traditional sea shanties given the contemporary treatment. (8)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Oct 22

THE LOUDER STUFF

BEHEMOTH – Opvs Contra Natvram
The high-quality and misspelled majestic death/black metal we’ve come to expect from Nergal and co. never disappoints. (8)

CLUTCH – Sunrise on Slaughter Beach
It’s Clutch. It’s groovy and it rocks. (8)

DROPKICK MURPHYS – This Machine Still Kills Fascists
With co-vocalist Al Barr sidelined for family reasons, the rest of the Murphys go acoustic and use unreleased Woody Guthrie lyrics for an album that sounds un-Murphys-like and very Murphys-like at the same time. (8)

FRAYLE – Skin & Sorrow
Pretty good gothic doom metal with female vocals that fortunately take a 4AD ethereal direction rather than the dreaded soprano route. (7)

GOGOL BORDELLO – Solidaritine
A new band with only Hutz and violinist Ryabtzev remaining from the classic line-up but you wouldn’t be able to tell – it’s a very energetic effort, their most punk rock record since “Gypsy Punks”. (8)

KINGS OF MERCIA – Kings Of Mercia
Following August’s A-Z album Jim Matheos also releases a non-Fates Warning melodic hard rock album with vocals by FM’s Steve Overland who brings a strong AOR flavor to the proceedings, sounding very much like Lou Gramm in places. Classy rhythm section (Joey Vera & Simon Phillips), great guitar tone, quality songwriting. (8)

THE MARS VOLTA – The Mars Volta
Does not sound like The Mars Volta at all – gone are the extreme prog-punk pyrotechnics of the past, this time around they go for Santana-influenced, almost-conventional rock. (7)

MELVINS – Bad Moon Rising
Like Forrest Gump said, Melvins albums are like a box of chocolates – you never know what you're gonna get. This one contains, among other things, a 14-minute exercise in downtuned sludge weirdness called “Mister Dog Is Totally Right”, two of their catchiest songs ever (“It Won’t Or It Might”, “Hammering”), and a guest appearance by Earth’s Dylan Carlson. (7)

SLIPKNOT – The End, So Far
Not afraid to expand their sound and experiment, this time around Slipknot often put melody above heaviness and step up as tunesmiths. It sounds nothing like Stone Sour, by the way. (8)


THE OTHER STUFF
    
AL-QASAR – Who Are We?
Paris-based band raises hell on strong debut album, with a little help from friends like Jello Biafra and Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo adding oomph to Middle Eastern-flavored psychedelic rock. (8)

DR. JOHN – Things Happen That Way
New Orleans tradition meets country on the great Mac’s posthumously released farewell album. (7)

THE GODFATHERS – Alpha Beta Gamma Delta
Remember these guys? They were playing real British rock ‘n’ roll in the late 80’s when no one else was doing it. New line-up with only vocalist Peter Coyne remaining, but a surprisingly good album – looks at “Birth, School, Work, Death”, or at least “More Songs About Love & Hate”, in the eye without being embarrassed. (8)

JESCA HOOP – Order Of Romance
Hoop likes to hide her deep and eclectic musicality behind a childlike playfulness. (7)

MAKAYA McCRAVEN - In These Times
Jazz drummer/producer creates a gorgeous piece of work, going beyond “pure jazz” to incorporate all kinds of black music elements into his style. (8)

BETH ORTON – Weather Alive
The Queen Mother of what we’ve come to call “folktronica” is back with a beautiful, haunting self-produced record. (8)

SUEDE – Autofiction
I haven’t paid any attention really to these guys since Bernard Butler left the band in ’94 but this is an excellent album, more post-punk than the glam-infused Britpop I remember. (8)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Sep 22

THE LOUDER STUFF

FLOGGING MOLLY – Anthems
The world’s second best Celtic-punk band is back and, just like the world’s best Celtic-punk band, nowadays they increasingly sound like The Pogues. That’s a good thing, by the way. (8)

THE HU – Rumble Of Thunder
Me – What’s the name of the band playing now?
My mate – Hu.
Me – The name of the band.
My mate – Hu.
Me – The band playing now.
My mate – Hu is playing now.
Me – That’s what I asked you, who is playing now!
My mate – That’s what I said!
Me – You said who?
My mate – I sure did.
Me – So tell me the name!
My mate – Hu.
Me – The name of the band.
My mate – Hu.
Me – The band playing now!
My mate – Hu!
Me – For fuck’s sake, are you a mongol or something?
My mate – No, but they are.
Me – Who?
My mate – Yes.
Me – What do you mean Yes are mongols, they are the greatest prog band of all time! But I’m not talking about Yes, I’m talking about THIS band playing now, the metal one with the weird instruments.
My mate – Hu.
Me – Fuck it, I give up.
(7)

KING’S X – Three Sides Of One
An impressive return to form for the Beatles-infused progressive hard rock trio, especially given the 14-year hiatus and serious health problems of all members – of course they can never top “Out Of The Silent Planet”/“Gretchen Goes To Nebraska”, but then again no one can. (8)

MACHINE HEAD – Of Kingdom And Crown
I’m torn between this guy’s annoying opportunism and his ability to write a mean fucking metal song when he wants to. In any case, this is probably his best album since “The Blackening”. (8)

OZZY OSBOURNE – Patient Number 9
Tons of guests (Iommi, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Zakk Wylde, Josh Homme…), and a welcome “Bark At The Moon”/“The Ultimate Sin” pop-metal vibe on most tracks. (7)


THE OTHER STUFF

THE AFGHAN WHIGS – How Do You Burn?
Their best post-reunion album, “How Do You Burn?” is a dark, energetic, eclectic piece of work that firmly establishes the Whigs within the top tier of 90’s college rock survivors. (8)

EZRA FURMAN – All Of Us Flames
The trans Bruce Springsteen is back with a new album that proves she really is The Boss. (8)

TOMMY McLAIN – I Ran Down Every Dream
Legendary swamp-pop musician from Louisiana is 82 and hasn’t released an album in 40 years, but guests like Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Ivan Neville, and Van Dyke Parks are helping out on this one and it’s fantastic. (8)

MUSE – Will Of The People
A hodgepodge of Gary Glitter glam, Queen pomp, metal shredding, and disco beats, extremely populist but quite fun. (7)

DANIEL ROMANO'S OUTFIT – La Luna
Canadian Americana/indie cult hero goes full-on Townshend and creates epic rock opera. Miraculously, he pulls it off. (8)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Aug 22

RYAN ADAMS – FM
As the title implies, his third album for 2022 is a very radio-friendly affair. There are many Ryan Adamses but this one, the mostly uptempo jangly one, is my favorite. (8)

A-Z – A-Z
Ray Alder and Mark Zonder (A-Z, get it?) team up in new group. Of course it has a strong Fates Warning flavor, of the “Parallels” progmetal/AOR type, and that’s fine. (8)

LEE BAINS & THE GLORY FIRES – Old-Time Folks
If you’re looking for the perfect cross between Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Clash, you’ve just found it! Awesome band, awesome album, produced by David Barbe (Sugar bassist and long-time Drive-By Truckers producer). (8)

BEYONCE – Renaissance
Touted as a masterclass in the history of club music and it probably is, the problem is I really fucking hate club music, and clubs. (6)

SIMON JOYNER – Songs From A Stolen Guitar
Outsider Americana singer/songwriter offers a collection of stark, dark, beautiful songs. (8)

BRANKO MATAJA – Traditional And Folk Songs Of Yugoslavia
An oddity from 1974 by Yugoslavian immigrant, re-released. Playing solo on his custom-made guitar, Mataja created some spookily gorgeous sounds. (8)

CASS McCOMBS – Heartmind
A strange album that’s hard to categorize, somewhere between Americana, psychedelia, and pop. Contrary to most albums that have their best songs at the beginning and the end, this one has its strongest material right smack in the middle. (8)

AMANDA SHIRES – Take It Like A Man
An emotionally raw, deeply personal album from Shires chronicling the ups and downs of her marriage to Jason Isbell (whose guitar playing features on several songs here), it sounds less southern rock and more Memphis soul than her previous efforts. (8)

SUN'S SIGNATURE – Sun's Signature
Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser returns with a strong EP that’ll brings tears of joy to the eyes of 80’s/90’s 4AD fans. (8)

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Ladies Sing The Boss: The Songs of Bruce Springsteen
A collection of previously released cover versions of Bruce Springsteen songs by female artists, and sung from a female perspective. Some of them you’ve definitely heard before (e.g. Patti Smith’s “Because The Night”), some you haven’t. Features Lucy Dacus, Soccer Mommy, Cowboy Junkies, Lucinda Williams, Anna Calvi, Emmylou Harris and many others. (7)