MICHAEL NAU POPFLY SUICIDE SQUEEZE RECORDS So many artists are currently getting into that kind of languid musical stream that crosses a number of musical borders and PR people and critics attempting ease of use, label it as singer songwriter. [...]
FENNE LILY WIN WIN NETTWERK MUSIC GROUP Brooklyn via Bristol, England singer-songwriter (whatever that term implies these days) Fenne Lily is no newcomer. With four albums under her name (Win Win being the latest) and quite a number of [...]
STRAWBS STRAWBS 50 YEARS ON – GRAVE NEW WORLD LIVE WITCHWOOD RECORDS April 26 – 28, 2019, The Strand Theatre was the place to be in Lakewood, New Jersey, to celebrate 50 years of the Strawbs. It was an incredible weekend and that was [...]
TONY IOMMI FROM THE DARK BMG The godfather of heavy metal itself, Tony Iommi, has returned with his fourth solo album, and fist under his full name, From The Dark. With Norwegian singer, Jørn Lande (Masterplan, Ark, Beyond Twilight, Vagabond, [...]
ART D’ECCO SCHEELE’S GREEN PAPER BAG RECORDS/SUB POP Art d’Ecco comes out swinging with Scheele’s Green, the enigmatic Victoria, British Columbia artist’s fifth LP. D’Ecco continues to grow and evolve the magnitude of sound with each album [...]
CAROLINE MARIE BROOKS LIGHT AND MATTER OUTSIDE MUSIC Light And Matter is Caroline Marie Brooks’ second album, following her debut solo album, Everything At The Same Time, released in 2022. Of course, she is one third of The Good Lovelies, but [...]
SABATON LEGENDS BETTER NOISE MUSIC Some people stumble onto great music naturally. Some require a stray earworm from a passing car window as they munch on their street meat, tapping to Shazam. Some let an unhinged streaming algorithm swallow [...]
BOY GOLDEN BEST OF OUR POSSIBLE LIVES (DELUXE EDITION) SIX SHOOTER RECORDS When we reviewed the original edition of this album back in February, we subtly posed a question whether this album on the edge of country, pop, Americana, rock (and pop [...]
DARREN HAYMAN I’M YOUR TEAM AUDIO ANTIHERO Darren Hayman, who to many eccentric pop fans is probably best known for his work with left field pop-rockers Hefner, just might be currently one of the most prolific musicians around. Besides [...]
SO FAINT SO FAINT BEETLE BOMB RECORDS A chance studio meeting and 10 years of friendship that ensued this time around produced a seemingly unassuming, but quite an empowering album, that is So Faint. That chance meeting in a Vancouver studio was [...]
BRIAN ENO ANOTHER DAY ON EARTH & DRAWN FROM LIFE (REISSUES) OPAL RECORDS In 1988, Brian Eno set up his record label, Opal Records, which had evolved from the management company he and his wife (Anthea Norman-Taylor) set up (Opal Management [...]
EXPLODING FLOWERS ALPHABET WINDOW MERITORIO RECORDS You don’t have to invent (or re-invent) the wheel, in this case, a microphone, guitar or any music related thing for your music to be good a truly listenable. You possibly just need to [...]
ELLA THOMSON TRIUMPH AND SADNESS MR BONGO RECORDS A great, brilliant sound never goes away, and the one that characterises the classic deep soul of 60s and 70s is certainly among them. Not many artists today either venture (or sometimes have the [...]
FONTAINES D.C. DOPAMINE CHAMBER XL RECORDINGS Dopamine Chamber is Fontaines D.C.’s fifth album, following 2024’s hugely successful Romance. There was a lot of pressure for the band to live up to the expectations set by Romance, not only did they [...]
LEVELLERS LEVELLING THE LAND WARNER/RHINO RECORDS Back in 1991, I was a poor student attending University Of Toronto, so I could not afford CDs, but I could afford cassettes. So, I purchased this album in that format and wore it out. It is a [...]
BILLBOARD STYLE PULL OF THE MOON GOOD ENGLISH RECORDS Very often, side projects turn into vanity projects, with all involved trying too hard to sound different than they usually do. Brooklyn’s Billboard Style is a side project of Ben [...]
LUCY DREAMS LIVE AT WIENER KONZERTHAUS SONICWAVEARTPOP Before Lucy Dreams released their most recent studio album, VVVVV, they performed it, in its entirety in concert. This live album, which was released with absolutely no fanfare or publicity, [...]
ANN WILSON & TRIPSITTER CONSECRATED GROUND LABEL LOGIC There comes a point in a rock legend’s career when the temptation is to look backwards—to revisit the songs, sounds, and moments that made the artist famous. Ann Wilson has never seemed [...]
REUBEN AND THE DARK IF YOU KNOW ME, YOU KNOW MY BROTHER PULLING UP ARROWS RECORDS Calgary’s Reuben Bullock and his Reuben and The Dark have never been easy to categorize, even though quite a number of critics have been comparing them with [...]
TEENAGE FANCLUB DO NOT DARE TO DREAM MERGE RECORDS Being decades on the music scene, with fans needing extra fingers to count your albums, your music is bound to change, with one question being essential there – is the quality changing for [...]
GROWING PAINS DANIEL LOVES MANDY FOREVER PHOTO FINISH RECORDS Labeling band’s music has become a very hard job for PR people, as artists and bands these days keep crossing the strictly formulated terms that are supposed to describe the [...]
TWIN TEMPLE DOOMED LOVERS PENTAGRAMMATON RECORDS Roy Orbison never dabbled in demon worship… as far as we know. But if he did, it’d sound like Twin Temple’s latest album Doomed Lovers. The husband-and-wife duo are no strangers to controversy. [...]
DEATH VALLEY GIRLS WELCOME TO EARTH SUICIDE SQUEEZE RECORDS Death Valley Girls’ Welcome to Earth isn’t your typical grief record. It’s like Hanna-Barbera’s Josie and the Pussycats having an existential crisis. The album was born from the ashes [...]
GENESIS FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION ESOTERIC RECORDINGS/CHERRY RED RECORDS It is March 1969, and an album from a new band appears in record stores. The band is Genesis and the album is From Genesis to Revelation. It is a clever title, but sadly [...]
