Electric Six
Electric Six Switzerland [3/5] Throughout 13 mashed-potato rock songs that lump from silly power ballads to bluesy swingers, new wave toss-offs to disco-rock insanity, Electric Six’s resident raving carnival barker and notorious loverman Dick Valentine winks and jokes his way hoarse on a spiritual guided tour of the underworld, both literally (the haunted slow burner...
The Dears
The Dears Gang Of Losers [4/5] You probably never would refer to the Dears as original. Their last album, 2004’s No Cities Left, sounded like it was played by a crack band who had spent the past 10 years studying Suede albums while their singer wrote fan letters to Morrissey. For a follow-up, they continue...
Califone
Califone Roots & Crowns [2/5] Regardless of how much us reviewer-types like to over-analyze music in 150 words or less, when it comes down to it, listening to a record should be an enjoyable experience, not a chore. Unfortunately, that’s exactly how to describe the process of attempting to sit through Califone’s Roots & Crowns....
Badly Drawn Boy
Badly Drawn Boy Born In The UK [3/5] It’s an all-too-common story in the music industry: A talented but troubled artist writes, records and produces a CD’s worth of material and then abruptly scraps it and starts over-and Badly Drawn Boy, a.k.a. Damon Gough, fell victim to the same scenario, before refocusing and creating Born...
The Prize Fighter Inferno
The Prize Fighter Inferno My Brother’s Blood Machine [3/5] If you’re among the many fans blown away by Coheed And Cambria’s music but still puzzled by the elaborate sci-fi concept that ties together the band’s albums, singer/guitarist Claudio Sanchez’s solo project, the Prize Fighter Inferno, isn’t going to make your understanding any easier. Written and...
Owen
Owen At Home With Owen [5/5] He comes from one of Midwestern emo’s strongest family trees (Cap’n Jazz, Joan Of Arc, American Football, Owls), but Mike Kinsella’s had an equally strong solo run under the Owen moniker. Ironically, with his fourth solo album, Kinsella shelves two of Owen’s defining traits-bedroom recording values; beautiful post-folk juxtaposed...
It Dies Today
It Dies Today Sirens [4/5] It Dies Today have bitch-slapped the melodic metalcore genre with their newest effort, Sirens. With tracks ranging from the overtly melodic and catchy "Damsel Of Death" to the deliberate aggression of "Through Leaves, Over Bridges" and "Black Bile, White Lies," there seems to be something for every discriminating taste (those...
Beck
Beck The Information [4/5] Love or hate the music, you must admit: Few artists conceptualize an album as well as Beck. If he surprised some fans last year on Guero by reuniting with the Dust Brothers to update 1996’s sampledelic stunner Odelay, fewer still could have expected him to return to his slacker hip-hop roots,...
Bad Astronaut
Bad Astronaut Twelve Small Steps, One Giant Disappointment [4/5] Since their moody, experimental pop first emerged from Santa Barbara, California, in 2000, Bad Astronaut have enjoyed a small but passionate crowd-especially following the ’02 release of their celebrated Houston: We Have A Drinking Problem. But after three years of work on a new full-length, the...