Album Reviews
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Album Review: Tomorrow Forever for Matthew Sweet
There was little to expect from power pop ’90s rocker Matthew Sweet coming into this year: He was living in a new home for the first time in 20 years, suffering from writer’s block, six years removed from…
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Album Review: So You Wannabe an Outlaw? Steve Earle knows how
If there is one thing Steve Earle knows, it’s trouble. The long-time Nashville recording artist taps into his checkered past on this his 21st record, So You Wannabe an Outlaw. Earle has always seemed to be…
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Album Review: London Grammar finds its sound on Truth Is a Beautiful Thing
Listeners who enjoyed London Grammar’s album If You Wait will find similar qualities on its new release, Truth Is a Beautiful Thing. The British trio settles comfortably into the sound it established with its debut:…
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Album review: Gone Now proves Bleachers know you too well
Bleachers may only be on its second album but Gone Now feels like something you have known for a lifetime. Gone Now Bleachers June 2 Jack Antonoff started Bleachers as a side project to his…
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Album review: Roger Waters stays angry on Is This the Life We Really Want
Twenty-five years between albums may seem like a long time, but when you’re the father of the most successful concept albums in the history of rock music, who’s going to rush you? Roger Waters is back…
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Album Review: Alt-J smooths out its jittery grooves with Relaxer
If you were violently put off by the sound of Joe Newman’s voice on the first two Alt-J albums, the band’s new release, Relaxer, might not change your mind. Newman’s vocals make the British band…
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NYC’s MisterWives Connect the Dots from debut to sophomore album
Sophomore albums are a tricky thing. A band often runs the risk of either sounding too similar or veering too far from its original sound. On Connect the Dots, MisterWives manage to masterfully push their…
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Album Review: New Order travels through 40-year catalog on new live album
When listening to New Order’s new live album, NOMC15, it’s phenomenal to think that most of the band has been playing together for more than 40 years. The reminders come in the tightly orchestrated introductions…
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Album Review: London’s Pumarosa gets supernatural on debut album, The Witch
Listening to “Dragonfly,” the opening track on Pumarosa’s debut album, it’s easy to imagine how the song could fill the abandoned Italian theater in which the band honed their sound. With bass riffs that would…
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Album Review: Alex G trades tech for a banjo, strings and piano on Rocket
My favorite quality of Alex G has been how he could consistently write diverse songs with such a succinct lo-fi sound; usually through an arsenal of unique vocal melodies and cheap noisy recording equipment and synths. Rocket…