Recent reviews

Our latest album reviews, featuring the records we've most enjoyed (or not) over the past few weeks.

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Browse our album reviews according to score: Highest (9.5/10 or more) or Lowest (2/10 or less)

Girls Aloud

The Sounds of Girls Aloud: The Greatest Hits
Polydor/Universal (2006)

In this day and age of "indie" bands selling to kids and having number ones left, right, and center, one could be forgiven for thinking that pop music in the form we saw for most of the mid 90's and early noughties is a thing of the past. Luckily, with this collection of singles Girls Aloud have reminded us of some of the most infectious and well crafted music of the last few years. Having gone from being a band formed on American Idol forerunner Pop Stars: The Rivals and being derided in the music press as another sign of the death of "real" music by the likes of the NME to the darlings of the broadsheets, tabloids and music press. In three albums and fourteen singles they have become the pop artists that it's cool to like no matter what you listen to. All of this comes as no shock when you listen to the music. The Sounds of Girls Aloud: The Greatest Hits starts with what comes across as the best start to any record - greatest hits or otherwise - of the year, a quick fire rat-a-tat of debut single "Sound of the Underground" followed by the … Read more

Microwaves

Contagion Heuristic
Crucial Blast (2006)

I don't think I've ever heard an album come from this far out in left field and still come together … Read more

Greg Graffin

Cold as the Clay
Anti (2006)

Nearly a decade ago Bad Religion's Greg Graffin released his first solo effort, the miscellaneous American Lesion (miscellaneous because you … Read more

Woods

How to Survive In/In the Woods
Release the Bats (2006)

How to Survive In/In the Woods isn't the easiest CD to review, because to put it bluntly, it's not the … Read more

Brand New

The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me
Interscope (2006)

Reviewing albums isn't an especially technical task. Anyone can do it. But, when you are piecing together your thoughts for … Read more

Kaada

Music for Moviebikers
Ipecac (2006)

There are few artists from the last few years that I have enjoyed more than John Erik Kaada. Woefully under-informed … Read more

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One from the archives

Joyce Manor

40 oz. to Fresno
Epitaph (2022)

Joyce Manor is one of those bands that I always follow, a band that shaped my tastes in my earlier years of digging into pop punk/emo subculture. Let’s say I would like to thankgod, ‘cause 2022 is a year where a lot of good stuff is coming out and unfortunately 40 oz. to Fresno is not so good for me. Well it's not an easy task to review one of your favorite bands as they put out bad stuff. The previous works like Million Dollars To Kill Me and Cody were good stuff and I would guess this may be a factor for the band, having its own "burden" on meeting expectations. Also writing in quarantine times seems not a good fit for everyone, maybe Joyce Manor. As revealed on … Read more

More album reviews

Crime in Choir

Trumpery Metier
GSL (2006)

Remember the days when you and your buddies would get together in your mom's basement to play Dungeons & Dragons? You'd clear the table of Radical Software magazines, set your game up and to make everything perfect you'd put on some King Crimson, Yes, or Goblin records. Don't remember those days? Well that is because you are a twenty-something year … Read more

mewithoutYou

Brother, Sister
Tooth & Nail (2006)

Is every member of mewithoutYou of the Christian faith? Beats me. I know that the lyrics portray the group as a Christian band, but said term manifests nothing of the actual music. So what does Christian music sound like? Jesus harmoniously praying to his Father? Dead Poetic? Christmas carols? Fuck, man. I don't know. mewithoutYou's music has always attracted me … Read more

Shook Ones

Facetious Folly Feat
Revelation (2006)

2006 has seen the release of plenty of outstanding records from melodic hardcore bands, and as the year is coming to a close you might think the best of the best have already graced us with their presence. If so, then think again. Shook Ones' Facetious Folly Feat has defied all expectations and lands at the top of the heap … Read more

Up and at Them

Demo
Independent (2006)

Up and at Them are four kids playing hardcore music. No frills, no fashion, no hideous lyrics about suicide or emotions. Just straight-up hardcore; it recalls Sick of it All and Comeback Kid and is delivered with a distinct lack of irony that is strongly welcome in a music world where "irony" is so often used to excuse poor musicianship … Read more

Tom Waits

Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards
Anti (2006)

What are your criteria for a good album, a good record, a good song even? For me, the criteria are many; but there is one that really separates the great records from the good records and that is the ability of a piece of music to elicit a significant emotional response. That tiny requirement means a world of difference. It … Read more

Tom Waits

Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards
Anti (2006)

I'm not going to lie to you. This review isn't going to be unbiased. It isn't going to be impartial. It isn't going to be neutral in any way, shape, or form in the way that all good reviews are supposed to be. I'm a big Tom Waits fan; so much so that in 1999, I spent over a thousand … Read more

Palehorse

Amongst the Flock
Bridge Nine (2006)

During the late 90's there occurred a revival of the youth crew sound that had dominated the hardcore scene during the mid-80's up through the early 90's. Today, we are witnessing what I consider to be a revival of the mid-90's metallic hardcore scene. A significant number of bands are stating influence from the likes of Earth Crisis, Integrity, Undertow, … Read more

Foo Fighters

Skin and Bones
RCA (2006)

Though I can't speak for my colleagues, I find it isn't unusual for an album to be given a great review or a poor review, only to find that a few months or a year down the road, my thoughts have changed about said album, and I find myself wishing I had reviewed it differently. So when I gave the … Read more

The Cheats

Life's Short...
Da' Core (2006)

When bands attempt to emulate the punk rock sounds of the late seventies, there are a couple elevators to enter. The first elevator travels in the direction of older bands at a trajectory so similar to them, it's scary. Scary good. If the newer band had released their songs in the past, they would be remembered alongside bands like The … Read more

American Heritage

Millenarian
Translation Loss (2006)

I want to say, before I get to my actual review, that I give out a lot of high scores in my reviews because I would much rather write about a record that makes me stoked to listen to music than something that I hate after one song. And American Heritage is a band that I am constantly stoked about. … Read more

Roddy Woomble

My Secret is My Silence
Pure (2006)

In 2005, following Warnings / Promises, Idlewild finally decided that they were a rock band all along and that the folk edges that had been working their way in since The Remote Part were just a side track to their rock band credentials. The result of this epiphany was that there was room for Idlewild to do both a rock … Read more

Agent

I Wouldn't Trade That for Anything
Iron Pier (2006)

I know many of you out there don't remember the grunge explosion of the early to middle 90's. After Nirvana's "sudden" success, major labels swooped down on the rain drenched city of Seattle and signed everyone from Soundgarden to Seaweed in hope that maybe their label would find another alternative rock goldmine to strip for all its worth. Well, for … Read more

MSTRKRFT

The Looks
Last Gang (2006)

MSTRKRFT (Master Craft, for those of you who - like me - didn't catch on right away) is the brainchild of Death from Above 1979 bassist Jesse F. Keeler and producer Al-P. An electronic two-piece in the same vein as veterans Daft Punk and relative newcomers Hot Chip, the pair first made their name by flexing their mixing muscles on … Read more

Jeremy Enigk

World Waits
Lewis Hollow (2006)

If you're not familiar with the name Jeremy Enigk, I have only one conclusion: you've been living under a rock for quite some time. Enigk is best known as the frontman for Sunny Day Real Estate - a band whose reputation should precede themselves - and The Fire Theft - an offshoot project of Sunny Day Real Estate. In addition … Read more

Reviews by score
Browse our album reviews according to score: Highest (9.5/10 or more) or Lowest (2/10 or less)

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