Def Leppard Volume 3 (Box Set) UMG/Mercury Records If your band has been around for 40 plus years and produced monster hits such as “Animal” and “Photograph” back in your heyday, I guess you are entitled to put together a monster box set. Volume [...]
Six Organs Of Admittance The Veiled Sea Three Lobed Recordings Ben Chasny, or Six Organs of Admittance is one of those artists to whom you can attach only one label — expect the unexpected. Throughout his quite illustrious career [...]
Dennis DeYoung 26 East, Volume 2 Frontiers Music Last year Dennis DeYoung released the album 26 East: Vol. 1 which was originally to be his farewell to the music world. He recorded so much music that he was encouraged to split the project into [...]
Islands Islomania Royal Mountain Records The definition of Islomania is to have an enthusiastic obsession with islands, where the mere thought of being on a little world surrounded by water has one quivering with excitement. It’s an odd [...]
Green Jellÿ Garbage Band Kids Cleopatra Records Punk rock outfit, Green Jellÿ have returned with their fifth album, Garbage Band Kids. The 17-track record – their first since 2009’s Musick To Insult Your Intelligence By – features [...]
Liz Phair Soberish Chrysalis Records There are quite a few scenarios about what happens when your first record is proclaimed (and actually is) a true classic. Most of them are not so good for the artist in question. And Liz Phair could be a [...]
Various Artists The Problem of Leisure: A Celebration Of Andy Gill And Gang Of Four Universal Music The Gang Of Four were not only the most important post-punk band of its time, they stand as one of the most important bands of all time. Their [...]
Skids Songs From A Haunted Ballroom Cleopatra Records Despite reforming in 2018, Scottish punk band Skids seem to have been unfortunately forgotten. Having released two albums since reuniting, 2018’s Burning Cities and the 2019 follow-up, [...]
Atreyu Baptize Spinefarm Baptize is Atreyu’s eighth album, but their first since the departure of vocalist and founding member Alex Varkatzas who left the band in the fall of 2020. Ex-drummer and clean singer Brandon Saller has stepped forward [...]
PJ Harvey The Peel Sessions 1991-2004 UMe/Island A comprehensive re-issue campaign is underway to re-release all of PJ Harvey’s back catalog on vinyl across 2020 and 2021, so if you’re new to her music or looking to reconnect with it once again, [...]
Obed Calvaire, Bob Franceschini, Kevin Hays & Orlando Le Fleming Whole Lotta Love: The Music Of Led Zeppelin Chesky Records I went to jazz school and in a first-year jazz performance workshop, a guitarist bent a note in his solo, to which my [...]
Various Artists Still Wish You Were Here: A Tribute To Pink Floyd Cleopatra Records There have been a number of tribute albums recorded paying tribute to Pink Floyd and usually these take the form of artists covering one of their classic albums. [...]
Mercury Rev Snowflake Midnight (Deluxe Edition) Cherry Red Records Let’s put things straight where Mercury Rev is concerned: they are a prog rock band. However, instead of being part of the much-maligned branch of prog rock that deservedly [...]
The Reducers Live: New York City 2005 Rave On Records Hailing from New London, Connecticut, The Reducers produced some mighty fine music from 1978 until 2012. The band consisted of Hugh Birdsall (vocals, guitar), Peter Detmold (vocals, guitar), [...]
Betty Moon Cosmicoma Evolver Music Cosmicoma is Betty Moon’s 10th album, and her first since last year’s Little Miss Hollywood. To me, Cosmicoma is very much a continuation of Little Miss Hollywood, not exactly a part two, but a continuation. [...]
The Tragically Hip Saskadelphia Universal Music Canada Saskadelphia, the new Tragically Hip release, should not disappoint the many fans who have been anticipating hearing these five unreleased songs, once injected into various setlists spanning [...]
John Hiatt With The Jerry Douglas Band Leftover Feelings New West Records It sounds like the beginning of an old joke: two guys walk into a bar, and… but this is no joke. The ‘guys’ are two giants of Americana – singer-songwriter John Hiatt, and [...]
Robert Finley Sharecropper’s Son Easy Eye Sound There’s something about what some call ‘old-fashioned’ soul/blues/roots combo that just hits you right away and doesn’t let you go as long as the sounds come out. Just [...]
Mary Hopkin Live At The Royal Festival Hall 1972 (Reissue) Mary Hopkin Music This concert, and album, have a remarkable history. The show was originally designed as Mary Hopkin’s farewell to show business, thankfully that would not be the case, [...]
The Jailbirds Jungle Global Robot Global Entertainment One of Ontario’s hottest rock bands, The Jailbirds, has returned with its sophomore EP. Jungle is the long-awaited release following their 2019 debut, The Black River. Since then, the band [...]
Lord Huron Long Lost Republic Records After Lord Huron somehow managed to find new life on its 2018 record Vide Noir — a 1970s-inspired psychedelic journey through LA at dusk — it was anyone’s guess where the band would take its [...]
Violent Femmes Add It Up (1981-1993) (Reissue) Craft Recordings It is now 40 years on since Gordon Gano and his crew brought us their souped-up, brilliant musical vision of post-punk/new wave/whatever on mostly acoustic instruments. Some put [...]
John Linnell State Songs (Expanded Edition) Craft Recordings We have seen a number of reissues of late. These events usually coincide with a landmark anniversary of an album’s original release. Such is not the case with the expanded digital [...]
Morcheeba Blackest Blue Fly Agaric Records London-based Morcheeba once passed as a Thievery Corporation with actual songs, or a less jazzy Olive, or like Massive Attack without the paranoia and the politics. But whether it’s called downbeat, [...]
