Primus The Desaturating Seven ATO Records Whilst being apropos, I was certainly skeptical of a new Primus album that is entirely inspired by a children’s book. I’ve always enjoyed the dark side of Les Claypool’s writing; the social commentary, [...]
Black Pistol Fire Deadbeat Graffiti Modern Outsider Down and dirty, lethargic and healing, Black Pistol Fire’s newest album Deadbeat Graffiti can easily go head to head with the best albums of 2017. The twelve tracks on this album are [...]
Chris Rea Road Songs For Lovers BMG The return of Chris Rea, not that he disappeared or that it has been that long between records, but Road Songs For Lovers feels like a return. Not a comeback, just the return of a good friend. It is hard to [...]
Pearl Jam Let’s Play Two Republic Records/Universal Music Canada Not sure if you’ve heard, but in what may be the most exciting moment in sports history, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series last year, ending a 108-year drought. Having [...]
Shania Twain Now Mercury Records Throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s, Shania Twain was inescapable. Her reign over both pop and country music was fueled by a string of hits from her four records, including “That Don’t Impress Me Much”, “Up”, [...]
Jason Crosby Cryptologic Blue Rose Music You may not know the name, but you do know his work. Jason Crosby is an in demand session artist who has played with more artists than he can remember. To name a few, he has worked with Blind Boys of [...]
Blancmange Unfurnished Rooms Blanc Check Records Blancmange is Neil Arthur, or Neil Arthur is Blancmange. Since Stephen Luscombe left the band (the other original member) due to health reasons, Arthur has carried the torch and continued on under [...]
Cindy Doire Panorama Arté Boréal Panorama is Cindy Doire’s fourth solo album. Doire is one half of Scarlett Jane, a fantastic folk duo who have issued two multi nominated folk albums. Panorama is Doire’s third album recorded in French. Over the [...]
The Darts Me.Ow. Dirty Water Records The Darts return with their debut solo album, Me.Ow. They have previously released two ten inch EPs and those two EPs were issued as an album (The Darts, 2017). But Me.Ow. is their first full length album [...]
Keith Emerson Emerson Plays Emerson Emersongs/Cherry Red The music world lost Keith Emerson on March 11, 2016. What a huge loss it was. Many know him through his work with Emerson, Lake and Palmer, though he was also in The Nice, and Emerson, [...]
Escobar The Biggest Sound Dirty Water Records The Biggest Sound is the third LP from French rock and rollers Escobar. Coming off their widely-acclaimed sophomore release, Bird of Prey, the grunge-rockers take a page from the works of Nirvana and [...]
Michael Nau The Load Suicide Squeeze Sometimes, no matter how good you are or how hard you try — or both — you just have an extremely hard time making it. It can be any reason or combination of them: too little exposure, too much [...]
The Killers Wonderful Wonderful Island Records Wonderful Wonderful is The Killers’ fifth studio album, and their first in five years (Battle Born was released in 2012) . That does not mean they have not been busy during that time: there have [...]
Ummagma LCD Label Obscura/Somewherecold Records Ummagma is a duo based in Canada. The members are Canadian Shauna McLarnon (vocals) and Ukrainian born Alexander Kretov (instruments). The band have been releasing records since 2012, and have [...]
Prawn Run Topshelf Records Emo is the most difficult genre of music to review. Once you look past the genre’s title which easily carries the most negative connotation in music and the commercial pop music which was sold as “emo” in the early [...]
Various Artists SpongeBob SquarePants, The New Musical (Original Cast Recording) Masterworks Broadway/Sony Music Canada Where to even begin with this? The first thing to note is that SpongeBob SquarePants is a very funny show. As a father with [...]
IAMX Unfall Caroline International/Universal Music At the heart of all revolutions is a seed of madness, a frustrated intelligence that cries for transformation. In a time when electronic music was just entering the mainstream, Chris Corner was [...]
Low.Poly.Exception Nodal Point Gang Independent Nodal Point Gang, low.poly.exception’s debut album out on September 22, 2017, is self-described as “music for sad people” and “codewave” (a newly created term by Philadelphia-based musician, Neon [...]
Moses Sumney Aromanticism Jagjaguwar Moses Sumney has been on the music scene since 2014. In 2015 he issued his debut EP on cassette, Mid-City Island. The same year he issued a seven inch single “Seeds” b/w “Pleas” and finally 2016 saw the [...]
Van Morrison Roll With The Punches Universal Music It is hard to believe that Roll With The Punches is Van Morrison’s 37th studio album. The 72 year old singer is one of rock’s most prolific artists in rock today. His last album was 2016’s Keep [...]
Electric Youth Breathing Milan Records Sometimes it is hard not to pigeonhole a band based on its name. After all, the Toronto duo Austin Garrick and Bronwyn Griffin named their band after a Debbie Gibson album. With the electro-pop tag attached [...]
The Persian Leaps Bicycle Face EP Land Ski Records Everybody who thinks they have something to say about music at some point mentions originality. Sure, great, but what do they exactly have in mind? Something exceptional, never heard before, a [...]
Chelsea Wolfe Hiss Spun Sargent House Chelsea Wolfe manages to keep evolving her sound with every new release and that’s more than apparent in her latest effort, Hiss Spun. We’ve heard Wolfe master experimental folk, gothic rock and darkwave and [...]
Jon Langford Four Lost Souls Bloodshot Records I wanted to love this album. Jon Langford is a genius. This album was written and recorded in America during the Trump election — literally during and after the election. I thought this should [...]
