Wax Moon Hello Morning Independent There is always a musical element that presses exactly the right button with every listener. It could be a good guitar lick, a synth line or, say, a string arrangement. For quite a few listeners, it is a set of [...]
Cathal Coughlan Song Of Co-Aklan Dimple Discs If you are able to name one of the cult artists from the Irish music scene, the name of Cathal Coughlan would be probably one of the first to come to mind. The albums he made in the ‘80s and [...]
Kalbells Max Heart NNA Tapes For many fans of what can be called sophisticated pop/rock, a combination of Belle & Sebastian and Stereolab would be a dream come true. An additional accent on harmony vocals and jazzy overtones would definitely [...]
Thorin Loeks In This Place Independent Making travelogues in musical form sounds exactly like something a singer/songwriter should do. You are presenting an outlook on what you see before you while you’re more or less constantly on the [...]
Jason Collett Best Of Arts & Crafts When Broken Social Scene burst on the scene at the turn of the millennium, the band made a huge splash due to the fact that the collective itself had contributions from such a diverse, talented and [...]
Lana Del Rey Chemtrails Over The Country Club Polydor/Interscope There are two things Lana Del Rey doesn’t shy away from. One is saying exactly what she thinks, the other is trying to come up with best music she can. From the moment she [...]
J. Hatfield J. Hatfield Independent Going down the Americana road these days can be quite a rocky trip. After all, there are so many artists trying to combine various musical strands, particularly if roots/country and rock are included. In many [...]
Adam Beattie Somewhere Around The Bend Independent For many, Americana means that such music has to come from the US. Fortunately, that genre has been around for a while and has certainly surpassed the borders of the country where it originated. [...]
Michael Feuerstack Harmonize The Moon Forward Music Group Montreal singer/songwriter Michael Feuerstack has dropped his latest release, Harmonize the Moon. Usually, such records are like food constructed out of simple ingredients. You really [...]
Black Nash Black Nash Ramp Local So, what do you do when you get out of the army after five years? You record an album at home, of course! Well, that is at least what Jody Smith, aka Black Nash has done, and resulting in his self-titled album. [...]
Lydia Luce Dark River Independent Nashville is changing. No, it isn’t the quality of musicianship. Whether you like it or not, the Nashville sound is one of the best around. It is the change that spells diversification, though it could be [...]
Lilys A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns/The 3 Way (Reissues) Sundazed Shoegaze caught on, particularly in the British Isles in the early ‘90s, went down for a while and then returned in the new millennium with full force around the world. Of [...]
Creedence Clearwater Revival Pendulum/Mardi Gras (50th Anniversary Half-Speed Masters) Craft Recordings Creedence Clearwater Revival or CCR, if you will, ruled the airwaves and record players when psych rock was on the rise and prog rock was [...]
The Band Stage Fright (50th Anniversary Edition) Capitol Records The latest reissue from The Band Stage Fright, is a prime example of many things. Firstly, it is example of an album that was unjustly quite down-rated by critics when it was first [...]
Aaron Lee Tasjan Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! New West Records Aaron Lee Tasjan is certainly a name that is somewhere in the back of the memory files of music fans. After all, as his official biography describes, he went from “his glam rock [...]
Tele Novella Merlynn Belle Kill Rock Stars Smart pop music with engaging lyrics is not just the sole property of British bands like Belle & Sebastian and Camera Obscura. Latest proof–Texan duo Tele Novella and their brilliant album [...]
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah New Fragility CYHSY, Inc./Secretly Distribution For a while now, we haven’t heard much about Clap Your Hand Say Yeah. There could be a few reasons for that. First of all, they’ve had no proper album release [...]
Belle And Sebastian What To Look For In Summer Matador Records Those that did not have the chance to see Belle and Sebastian live might question how both their musically and lyrically intricate material would transfer to a live performance. [...]
Coco Reilly Coco Reilly Golden Wheel Records The number of current artists trying to channel music from the bygone years of rock grows by the day. In most cases, they try to mimic certain genre or genres concentrating more on style than [...]
Nils Frahm Tripping With Nils Frahm Erased Tapes Saying these days that the music of an artist belongs to the category of modern classical doesn’t mean much, mainly because the word ‘category’ sticks out. Many of such artists, [...]
Smudge All Stars Smudge All Stars Pegdoll Records Back in the ‘90s, an Australian rock band called Smudge, was raved about by Lemonheads main man Evan Dando. Frankly, quite a good band that should have had more exposure. Smudge All Stars? [...]
Luca Wilding Luca Wilding Abbey Records Another new day, another singer/songwriter, another debut EP. Sounds too familiar? In most cases, yes. In others, however, you sense that there might be something substantial on its way. Luckily for London [...]
The War On Drugs Live Drugs Super High Quality Records When The War On Drugs released their rightfully acclaimed Lost In a Dream album back in 2014, they were confirmed as certainly one of the best bands of the last decade. A Deeper [...]
JORDAN REYES SAND LIKE STARDUST American Dreams Records Ambient country might be a relatively new category for some, and it seems to be developing in popularity. After listening to Sand Like Stardust, new album by experimental artist Jordan [...]