Recent reviews

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

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

Slapshot

Make America Hate Again
Bridge Nine (2018)

What pisses the supremely tolerant off? Intolerance. What pisses Slapshot off? Edgebreakers, trainwrecks, narcissists, whiners, whingers, hypocrites, the mentally weak, and quitters! Slapshot lists, tackles, hip checks, and pins this notion of kindness to the boards, praying for full on donnybrook. They are Brad Marchand staring at one of theSedin’s, asking for a tilly; they are Sean Avery screening Martin Brodeur like the lovable douchebag prick he is. And just like hockey tolerates its measured violence, and rule breaks, Slapshot questions our enforced niceness. They call to attention America’s aptitude to be an ass when needed. It’s a given! Be nice, treat people with respect, blah, blah, blah… 'What if they continually don’t deserve it?'Make America Hate Again is an angry call note for the dying idea of equality of hate. It ultimately comments on America’s optimal tension of opposites. The country is all about appearing different than everybody else, including each individual citizen, so the desire to differentiate between each individual likely produces some strong feelings of dislike. And Americans achieve this, more or less, ranging from pet peeves to rank skepticism. 'Everything’s fake, we fight amongst ourselves, we need to united in our hatred,' sums it up!Careful, Slapshot … Read more

Dinosaur Eyelids

Left Turn on Red
Independent (2017)

Dinosaur Eyelids may have an bizarre moniker (where did they come up with it?) but their music is far from … Read more

Chain Cult

Demo 2018
La Vida Es Un Mus Discos Punk (2018)

I don’t know much about Chain Cult – and sometimes that’s a good thing coming into a band. Instead of … Read more

Orphanage Named Earth

Re-Evolve
Dilapidated Records (2018)

Orphanage Named Earth is Polish band that plays romantic crust. I'll explain later on what to expect, but let me … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Courtney Barnett

Tell Me How You Really Feel
Mom + Pop (2018)

Courtney Barnett’s output is usually a sure thing – which is why it’s strange her latest, Tell Me How You … Read more

Monolithe

Nebula Septem
Les Acteurs de l'Ombre Productions (2018)

Concept albums are hardly a new thing but for French band Monolithe and their seventh record, the conceptual aspect has … Read more

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One from the archives

Tar...Feathers

Make Way for the Ocean Floor to Fall to the Surface
Release the Bats (2006)

How many Swedish bands do you listen to? Wouldn't your friends think you're way indie if you told them you're diggin' on this sick Swedish band that produced their album on a laptop? You guessed it, my obscure band-loving friends, Tar...Feathers is straight out of Göteborg, Sweden and yes, they recorded Make Way for the Ocean Floor to Fall to the Surface on a laptop. That being said, let's get down to business. Tar...Feathers is the nom de guerre of Marcus Nyke, the creator, songwriter, and artist of the group. Make Way for the Ocean Floor to Fall to the Surface is a 100% DIY effort. After Nyke wrote the songs, a couple of his friends helped to write bass and drum parts. Nyke also took the task of album … Read more

More album reviews

Teenage Bottlerocket

Stealing The Covers
Fat Wreck Chords (2017)

Many have commented about loving the idea behind Teenage Bottlerocket's all-covers record Stealing The Covers, and even though cover albums usually have everyone sending the puke emoji as a review, I have to agree with the majority on this one. Bottlerocket aren’t a parody band and they aren’t as disillusioned as people think; this record was a super clever idea … Read more

Jesse Dayton

The Outsider
Blue Elan Records (2018)

Powerful, bottom heavy, but good headlamps. She loves to look good, but also can build an engine; loves fancy dress, yet plays in the mud. She’s drive-able in the city, and capable of off-road adventures. As much as country music loves the Daisy Duke, and the General Lee, symbols stereotypically good, The Outsider locks into enough country to forgive its … Read more

200 Words Or Less

John Prine

The Tree of Forgiveness
Oh Boy Records (2018)

John Prine's first album of new material in 13 years is a great place to start with the legend’s career, as it kind of covers the ground of the sometimes funny, sometimes terribly sad songs he’s known for. Working with Dave Cobb (known for producing both Jason Isbell and Chris Stapleton) Prine focuses on the mundanities of everyday life, and … Read more

Pinned In Place

Rubbernecking at the Gates of Hell
Reflective Tapes (2018)

I’ve been debating how to describe this one for a while. Pinned in Place aren’t exactly happy campers, but compared to most of what I’ve been reviewing lately their music feels downright optimistic with the sunny guitar lines and harmonies that define their sound. That said, the record is named Rubbernecking at the Gates of Hell for a reason.The opening … Read more

The Smith Street Band

More Scared of You Than You Are of Me
Side One Dummy (2017)

There’s something oddly humbling and comforting about listening to the Smith Street Band, it’s like they’re that hometown band you watched put on shows in garages and living rooms growing up. It just feels like you know them—their lyrics are very real and they as people are very much real, which overall creates this very humbling, raw effect to their … Read more

Rotterdam Ska Jazz Foundation ft. Bosco

Big Horns EP
WTF Records (2018)

Just look at the name of this band. Any associations? Mine was: ah, Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation, Killimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, must be working along the same lines. And in a way it is. This band delivers exactly what they promise: a blend of ska and jazz. And in doing so sounds nothing like the other two bands, so you can … Read more

Gulch

Burning Desire to Draw Last Breath
Independent (2018)

Here we go, something horribly maniacal approaches. An out of focus haunt looking like a Goya sketch funnels all the screaming souls from hell at the threat of a Gatling gun and an itchy trigger finger. In their place we as Listener fall into the gap. Each song features a compendium of heavy drum beats, variations of style and groove, … Read more

DeeCracks

Sonic Delusions
Pirates Press (2018)

DeeCracks don’t reinvent anything, but they don’t regurgitate it either. There’s a lot of Ramones behind the experienced Austrian band, but they utilize familiar techniques like harmonies, solos, and even a surf instrumental to mix it up. It’s the kind of music that many bands try to pull off, but fail. It doesn’t sound like they’re aping their predecessors, but … Read more

Feed The Cat

Never Press Rewind, Except...
Independent (2018)

Feed The Cat is skatepunk band from Toulouse, France. Never Press Rewind, Except… is their second release after the EP Kick The Fat. Their sound is undeniably skatepunk. For some reason I'm reminded of Smartbomb. Not the most well known of all skatepunk bands, but Feed The Cat has the same vibe. Musically it's slightly different though. Skatepunk in my … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Maps & Atlases

Lightlessness is Nothing New
Barsuk (2018)

Chicago natives Maps & Atlases first new release in six years shows them down a member and finding that their tightly constructed guitar and rhythm pieces turning up to something a little brighter and buoyant with synths taking more of a larger role in their sound. First single “Fall Apart” sounds just as slick and rubbery as singer/guitarist Dave Davison’s … Read more

Abstracter

Cinereous Incarnate
I Voidhanger Records (2018)

Loads of bands that I follow or followed start out pretty heavy and during their career start to get (a bit more) mellow. Sometimes this evolution is only marginal, sometimes a band is almost unrecognisable after a few albums. Abstracter evolved as well over the course of their albums. Instead of mellowing down their sound, they have evolved in another … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Wye Oak

The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs
Merge (2018)

Wye Oak have never made the same record twice, and on The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs, it’s not about to change. Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack grow by leaps and bounds on each release, and this, their first proper studio album since 2014’s Shriek has them taking the synth heavy sounds of that record and Wasner’s excellent … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Kacey Musgraves

Golden Hour
MCA Nashville (2018)

Let’s get it out of the way: Believe the hype. All of Kacey Musgraves’s records are the real deal – slices of contemporary country that don’t sound like shit and hint at something greater and more progressive. Hint no more. Golden Hour is Musgraves best and most fully realized record, one that transcends country, or any genre really, with the … Read more

Sleep

The Sciences
Third Man (2018)

Hendrix takes the stage with his band—right-handed guitar upside down, LSD stashed in his headband, visions of blue baize fields and purple skies are immanent. The experience is underway. "Voodoo Child" ends, bongos rip, drums roll, Jimi feedbacks and chaos continues behind him. “Oh say can you see, by the dawn’s early light” Jimi’s acid wash jeans match his acid … Read more

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