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)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, July 22 Vol. II

BLACK MIDI – Hellfire
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, the third album by these weirdos is a cacophonous yet addictive mess that’ll seriously fuck with your head. (8)

IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT – Spirit Of Ecstasy
An extreme metal/jazz hybrid that won’t sound as revolutionary as its creators think to people familiar with John Zorn’s early 90’s projects like Painkiller and Naked City. WTF Award Of The Month goes to Kenny G.’s guest spot. (7)

LIZZO – Special
An excellent feel-good party album that feels like a fresh update on the early 80’s soul-funk of Michael Jackson and the Pointer Sisters. (8)

LERA LYNN – Something More Than Love
With folk/country roots but taking a more pop-friendly direction on “Something More Than Love”, Lynn’s new album comes across like a noir Kacey Musgraves. (7)

DAVID MICHAEL MOORE – Flatboat River Witch: 1994-2015
An introduction to the work of Moore, a mad scientist-type who builds his own instruments called things like the schizoid zither and the boing box, this is a delightful compilation album that defies categorization but will appeal to fans of cool outsiders like Tom Waits, Captain Beefheart, and Dr. John. (8)

JOHN MORELAND – Birds In The Ceiling
Moreland is a competent songwriter but by infusing his Americana with elements of electronica he muddles it up a bit this time. (6)

NINA NASTASIA – Riderless Horse
This is so sad it’s like Townes Van Zandt was reincarnated into a woman whose main goal in life is to create something more suicidally depressing than Lou Reed’s “Berlin”. In other words, it’s great. (9)

OCEANS OF SLUMBER – Starlight And Ash
Progressive doom/death metal band pulls an Anathema and goes full atmospheric alternative rock with electronica flourishes and a total focus on the melodic vocals. If you ask me it’s all for the best, but for a lot of the old fans I expect it’s, well, anathema. (8)

THE SADIES – Colder Streams
Probably their swan song since Dallas Good recently passed away, also probably the best album ever by this great, underrated Canadian band which is supposedly alternative country but often sounds like the best psychedelic rock band you’ve never heard of. (8)

TY SEGALL – Hello, Hi
Garage rocker takes a back-to-basics approach this time around – lots of acoustic guitars, staying away from the “everything but the kitchen sink” production approach of recent albums like “Freedom’s Goblin”, and it works. (8)

JACK WHITE – Entering Heaven Alive
More subdued than “Fear Of The Dawn” released earlier this year but the songwriting’s actually better, this album reminds everyone that Jack White is still a rock force to be reckoned with, and will be for years to come. (8)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, July 22

ALEXISONFIRE – Otherness
I never really got into emo so I wasn’t into these guys when they were sort of famous 15-20 years ago and I can’t compare “Otherness” to their previous albums, but as a standalone piece of work it fucking rules: Heavy, melodic, catchy and, well, emotional. Oh, and is it just me, or anyone else thinks that “Sans Soleil” could be a Sade song? (8)

AMENRA, CAVE IN, MARISSA NADLER – Songs of Townes Van Zandt Vol. III
Vol. III? Vol. III??? Why didn’t I know about the other two??? So, on this one, each band/artist tackles three Townes songs, and it’s on Neurot Recordings. Be forewarned though, it’s sounds more like Townes than like Amenra or Cave In. (8)

ARGENT – Hold Your Head Up: The Best Of
About time people rediscover this underappreciated progressive rock band from the late 60’s/early 70’s featuring Rod Argent and Russ Ballard – sounding in places like their organ-wielding contemporaries (Procol Harum, Uriah Heep), and in others like a cross between Queen and Kansas but predating both. (8)

NICK CAVE – Seven Psalms
Seven spoken-word “prayers” with Warren Ellis providing ominous ambient sonic background. Interesting, but not a must-hear addition to the Nick Cave canon. (7)

CONJURER – Pathos
Brilliant musical magpies, Conjurer pick up whatever they like from different metal genres (doom, death, black, sludge, post-hardcore) and create something totally their own. (8)

ERIC HILTON – Lost Dialect
For the most part, sounds like demos/ideas for the next Thievery Corporation album. (6)

RANDY HOLDEN – Population III
I discovered Holden’s LOUD proto-metal electric guitar monument “Population II” years ago via Julian Cope and his fantastic record reviews and, what do you know, a sequel comes along half a century later? This one goes to (11)

TEDDY & THE ROUGH RIDERS – Teddy & The Rough Riders
Produced by Margo Price, this album by a new country-folk-rock band will bring back memories of the Flying Burrito Brothers. (7)

ANDREW WEISS & FRIENDS – Sunglass & Ash
Taking his cues from Paul McCartney, Badfinger, and Elvis Costello, Weiss offers a 24-track double album filled with little power pop gems. (8)

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Blowing Free: Underground & Progressive Sounds of 1972
I love Cherry Red box sets! This 5-hour, 4-CD collection is a rocktastic affair featuring everyone you can think of from 1972: EL&P, Atomic Rooster, Edgar Broughton Band, Barclay James Harvest, Curved Air, Rare Bird, Family, Nektar, Hawkwind, Yes, and that’s just a partial tracklisting of CD1. (9)