CD Reviews
Heart: Dreamboat Annie Live | Shout! Factory
Heart are fast becoming the world’s best classic-rock cover band.
By: BRETT MILANO
Goin’ Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino: Vanguard
This packed two-disc set gathers all the usual suspects and more for a Tipitina’s Foundation project to rebuild Domino’s Ninth Ward neighborhood in New Orleans.
By: CLEA SIMON
Joe Bonamassa: Sloe Gin | J+R Adventures
Six CDs into his solo career, this singer and six-stringer from upstate New York has hit his artistic stride.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Neil Young: Chrome Dreams II | Reprise
Don’t start wondering how you missed the first Chrome Dreams.
By: JEFF TAMARKIN
Ween: La Cucaracha | Rounder
Ween come out flapping and squawking on La Cucaracha.
By: PATRICK CATES
The Go! Team: Proof of Youth | Sub Pop
The Go! Team, from England, call their sophomore full-length Proof of Youth for good reason, but they needn’t have gone to the trouble.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Habib Koité and Bamada: Afriki | Cumbancha
That and his velvet voice complement the introspective mood here.
By: BANNING EYRE
John Fogerty: Revival | Fantasy
Fogerty is again in full command of his talent for blending heartfelt writing with irony-free meat-and-potatoes rock.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Mark Shilansky: Join the Club | self-released
This “club” is one anyone would be happy to join.
By: JON GARELICK
Steve Earle: Washington Square Serenade | NewWest
This is Steve Earle’s big hug to his new home town, New York City, and his new wife (his seventh), country singer Allison Moorer.
By: JEFF TAMARKIN
Bunny Ranch: Luna Dance | Transformadores
These garage-rockers from Coimbra, Portugal, get the music exactly right, and the quirks of language only make them more endearing.
By: BRETT MILANO
Stars: In Our Bedrrom After the War | Arts + Crafts
This is something of a letdown.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Résumé: Selected + Mixed by Citizen Crew: Citizen
The French labels Kitsune, Ed Banger, and Institubes have clogged dance bins with aggro, monochromatic, twitchy filter metal.
By: NICK SYLVESTER
Maga Bo: Confusion of Tongues | Soot
Brazil-based DJ and producer Maga Bo is a sound recordist by profession and a traveler by inclination.
By: SUSANNA BOLLE
Will.i.am: Songs About Girls | A+M
There’s something melodious and calm about Will.i.am’s third solo hip-hop/R&B album — but there’s also something boring about its euphonic electro-funk dolor.
By: ELLEE DEAN
Dashboard Confessional: The Shade of the Poison Trees: Vagrant
The people want their wimp back; he’ll meet them halfway.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Serj Tankian: Elect the Dead | Warner Bros.
Playing almost all the instruments and freed from the Goliath prog-metal of System of a Down, he gives full release to his inner clown parade.
By: KEN MICALLEF
Rudder: Rudder | Rudermusic.com
This New York City instrumental quartet hold their ground somewhere in among Morphine, Kraftwerk, Joy Division, and Bitches Brew–era Miles.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
The Cult: Born into This | Roadrunner
Let’s be viral.
By: JAMES PARKER
Two Gallants: Saddle Creek: An unhappy marriage of sounds
Adam Stephens and Tyson Vogel have long been trying for a sound that’s both earthy and artsy, Bright Eyes folk rock delivered with an aw-shucks squint.
By: DAVID BRUSIE
A Fine Frenzy: One Cell in the Sea | Virgin
A Fine Frenzy is 22-year-old Alison Sudol, an LA-based piano-pop prodigy who’s probably never heard a Fiona Apple song she didn’t love.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
The Donnas: Bitchin' | Purple Feather
The Donnas do what the Donnas do, and, hard as it may be to believe, they’ve been doing it for more than a decade.
By: MATT ASHARE
Victor Calderone: Evolve | Ultra
Victor Calderone ranks among the top house DJs, and his newest mix makes it clear how he got there.
By: MICHAEL FREEDBERG
Manu Chao: La Radiolina | Nacional/Because
Chao’s bold, kitchen-sink approach was unlike anything else.
By: JEFF TAMARKIN
Konono Nº 1: Live at Couleur Café | Crammed Discs
This band’s amped-up likembe (thumb piano) trance music put the trendy world-music subgenre known as Congotronics on the map.
By: BANNING EYRE
Herbie Hancock: River: The Joni Letters | Verve
Herbie isn’t fooling around — the guest stars are here, yes, but Hancock is stretching out, with languid, meditative takes on the Mitchell songbook.
By: JON GARELICK
Akron/Family: Love Is Simple | Young God
Already digested the latest from Devendra Banhart and Animal Collective and still hungry for more new freak-folk sounds?
By: MIKAEL WOOD
PJ Harvey: White Chalk | Island
As the next 10 songs in this cryptic gothic fairy tale unreel, she experiences a drug-induced nightmare, a moon tide of guilt, and, seemingly, death.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
UGK: Underground Kingz | Jive
Underground Kingz is not quite an instant classic, but it would be hard to deny that UGK have reclaimed their throne.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
Putumayo Presents Americana: Putumayo
Most of what you’ll find here is about as appealing as the disc’s candy-colored cover, which has got to be in the running for one of the ugliest of the year.
By: WERNER TRIESCHMANN
10,000 Laughs: The Best of the Boston Comedy Festival: Koch/High5
“People have to remember that there’s one big difference between Bush and Hitler,” he says. “Hitler wrote a book.”
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Minus the Bear: Planet of Ice | Suicide Squeeze
Minus the Bear are at their best when they let down their guard and allow a little heat to penetrate their Planet of Ice.
By: MICHAEL ALAN GOLDBERG
Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals: Lifeline | Virgin
On Lifeline, Ben Harper’s latest disc with the Innocent Criminals, the soulful slide-guitarist captures the feel of an intimate live concert.
By: BRETT SINGER
The Cinematic Orchestra: Ma Fleur | Domino
Though Ma Fleur repays close listening with an assortment of sonic riches, the album fades into beige room noise with very little encouragement.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Asmus Tietchens + Richard Chartier: Fabrications | Die Stadt
The result is this long, dark, atmospheric piece that unfolds and evolves at a glacial pace.
By: SUSANNA BOLLE
Simian Mobile Disco: Attack Decay Sustain Release | Interscope
After spinning and remixing everyone else’s tracks, Simian Mobile Disco are finally debuting their own.
By: ROQUE STREW
Get Ready, Here Come... The '70s: Shout Factory!
Okay, so they missed a few things, but Get Ready manages to be a whole lot of fun by ignoring the music that mattered.
By: JEFF TAMARKIN
The Subdudes: Street Symphony | High Street
It wouldn’t be a Subdudes album without a couple of accordion-led tunes or a soul ballad.
By: BRETT MILANO
Joe Henry: Civilians | Anti-
Joe Henry is an unlikely candidate for a protest CD, even one this subtle.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Erin McKeown: Lafayette: Signature Sounds
Give some of the credit to her crack back-up band, who move effortlessly between head-nodding hip-hop grooves and hopped-up big-band shuffles.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Travis Tritt: The Storm | Category 5
Georgia-born Tritt has always been a country musician with a rock-and-roll soul, but this time he’s put the accent on “soul” as a genre.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Donovan Frankenreiter: Recycled Recipes | Lost Highway
Lost HighwaySurfer-turned-musician Donovan Frankenreiter has a sandy beard, a warm old soul voice, and a sonic signature planted firmly in the 1970s.
By: WERNER TRIESCHMANN
Interpol: Our Love to Admire | Capitol
On their third album, NYC mood merchants Interpol don’t quite rest on the laurels of their 2004 major-label debut, Antics.
By: MIRIAM LAMEY
Blaqk audio: Cexcells | Interscope
Blaqk Audio is Davey Havok and Jade Puget of AFI doing an ’80s-inspired synths-and-beats version of the emo-inflected goth-rock.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Bill Callahan: Woke on a Whaleheart | Drag City
When Lou Reed left the lo-fi proto-punk of the Velvet Underground behind for the polished, poetic pop of his solo albums, devotees were devastated.
By: MATT ASHARE
Superbad: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Lakeshore
Teen movies have long used the funkiest black music to throw into relief the shenanigans of the nerdiest white guys.
By: CHARLES TAYLOR
Johnny Thunders: Who's Been Talkin? In Concert | MVD
He knew what he was singing: shortly after this concert, Thunders passed into history, leaving a tattered legacy and a messy stain.
By: JIM SULLIVAN
Cedric Burnside + Lightnin’ Malcolm: Juke Joint Duo | Soul Is Cheap
After a flirtation with hip-hop, R.L. Burnside’s drummer and grandson Cedric has returned to exciting, raw-boned blues.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Aesop Rock: None Shall Pass | Definitive Jux
Sometimes I don’t have one goddamn clue what misanthropic underground hip-hop king Aesop Rock is talking about.
By: RICHARD BECK
Mark Olson: The Salvation Blues | HackTone
The album shimmers with the sort of musical detail that keeps woe-is-me songwriting from sounding (entirely) like a pity party.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Merle Haggard: The Bluegrass Sessions | McCoury Music | Working Man’s Journey | Cracker Barrel
Merle Haggard has always been a keen observer of American thought and spirit.
By: JEFF TAMARKIN
Editors: An End Has a Start: Epic
Like Ian McCulloch in the early ’80s, Editors singer Tom Smith sounds old before his time, preoccupied as he is with our precarious mortal coil.
By: MATT ASHARE
The Bongos: Drums along the Hudson | Cooking Vinyl
Twenty-five years after its initial release, this cornerstone of American ’80s post-punk/new-wave sounds both innovative and quaint.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Bad Religion: New Maps of Hell | Epitaph
But if determination = quality, then Bad Religion are one of the best punk bands in the world.
By: BRETT SINGER
T.I. vs. T.I.P.: T.I. | Atlantic
In 1886, it was The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: dark versus light, yin versus yang.
By: DOMINIQUE HENDELMAN
Talib Kweli: Ear Drum | Warner Bros.
Ear Drum doesn’t reach the highs of that far more ambitious and sprawling album, but it’s a welcome return to form.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
Justice: † | Vice
Vice like the magazine or Vice like Miami?
By: ANDREW GRAHAM
VHS or Beta: Bring On the Comets | Astralwerks
The wordless, minute-long opener “Euglama,” though — that’s worth digging.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Laurie Anderson: Big Science | Nonesuch
One of the most important albums of the ’80s has been re-released with two appealing extras.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Sultan: Montreal | Yashitoshi
The first track of this CD establishes a taste in dance music that’s recognizably, authentically Montreal.
By: MICHAEL FREEDBERG
Kevin Drumm and Daniel Menche: Gauntlet | Editions Mego
At just over 28 minutes, Gauntlet might not seem all that imposing.
By: SUSANNA BOLLE
Common: Finding Forever | Geffen
Can you fault a Second City 35-year-old Gap-shilling rapper for wanting to make elevator hip-hop for Second City 35-year-old Gap-wearing yuppies?
By: NICK SYLVESTER
Magic Numbers: Those the Brokes | Capitol
The Magic Numbers are throwbacks to a time when pop was lighter than air.
By: WERNER TRIESCHMANN
Bishop Allen: The Broken String | Dead Oceans
It’s like a ride within a ride.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Judee Sill: Live in London: The BBC Recordings 1972-1973 | Water
If Judee Sill’s story isn’t fodder for a Lifetime TV movie, then nothing is.
By: JEFF TAMARKIN
Jason Anderson: Tonight | ECA
As a note on his Web site hints, New Hampshire–based singer-songwriter Jason Anderson will play anywhere.
By: CHRIS BROOK
Anchored in Love: A Tribute to June Carter Cash: Dualtone
Tribute albums are usually hit-or-miss, and this one honoring June Carter Cash is no exception.
By: WERNER TRIESCHMANN
Nick Lowe: At My Age | Yep Rock
It wouldn’t kill his integrity to have a Rockpile-style bash just once.
By: BRETT MILANO
Mae: Singularity | Capitol
Virginia Beach–based Mae play catchy, pretty pop-rock perfect for kids whose parents won’t let them wear their Death Cab for Cutie T-shirts to Sunday school.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Maria Schneider Orchestra: Sky Blue | artistShare
Schneider made history of sorts by winning a Grammy for 2004’s Concert in the Garden on the upstart Web-only artistShare label.
By: JON GARELICK
Big + Rich: Between Raising Hell and Amazing Grace | Warner Bros.
They once seemed capable of much more.
By: WERNER TRIESCHMANN
The Tuss: Rushup Edge | Rephlex
Things often are not as they seem — then again, often they are.
By: SUSANNA BOLLE
St. Vincent: Marry Me | Beggars Banquet
Clark’s soaring soprano is capable of hitting a Billie Holiday swoon just as easily as a sinister incantation.
By: CHRISTOPHER GRAY
Heavy Trash: Going Way Out with Heavy Trash | Yep Roc
At this point, Jon Spencer’s immersion in self-parody is complete.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Shivaree: Tainted Love: Mating Calls and Fight Songs | Zoe
The singer’s devotion to devotion defines the material.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Zap Mama: Supermoon | Heads up
Any similarities between Zap Mama 2007 and the group who bore that name in 1990 is purely coincidental.
By: JEFF TAMARKIN
Bill Morrissey: Come Running | Rounder
This disc marks the renaissance of New England musical poet Morrissey.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Shellac: Excellent Italian Greyhound | Touch + Go
The blueprint for Shellac’s attack is as straightforward as it is severe.
By: MICHAEL T. FOURNIER
Avishai Cohen: After the Big Rain | Anzic
Here’s hoping for a live tour.
By: JON GARELICK
Silverchair: Young Modern | Eleven
This thing is quite a feast.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Patton Oswalt: Werewolves and Lollipops | Sub Pop
Oswalt takes aim at Middle American targets in a conversational manner that suggests he knows he’s among friends.
By: RYAN STEWART
Matt and Kim: Matt and Kim | iheartcomix
Not unlike a bottled Frappuccino, Matt & Kim’s homonymous debut is better than no Matt & Kim at all.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
John Doe: A Year in the Wilderness | Yep Roc
The seminal American punk band X specialized in songs about love on the skids or on skid row.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Nick Drake: Family Tree | Tsunami
Family Tree is not a Ramones album.
By: JEFF TAMARKIN
Pan Sonic: Katodivaihe | Blast First
Pan Sonic’s Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen have lost little of their power to vex and amaze.
By: SUSANNA BOLLE
Fabolous: From Nothin' to Somethin' | Def Jam
Maybe he should spend less time spelling out his name.
By: DOMINIQUE HENDELMAN
Theryl “Houseman” Declouet: The Truth Iz Out | Self-released
It sounds as if the singer had been through some relationship trouble, or at least had been listening to a lot of later Marvin Gaye.
By: BRETT MILANO
André Previn: Alone | Emarcy
André Previn has been an acclaimed professional jazz musician since he was a teenager.
By: JON GARELICK
Travis: The Boy with No Name | Epic
Travis defy the very concept of surprise; their tasteful, tuneful guitar pop is about comfort and safety and always knowing what’s happening next.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Bonde do Rolê: With Lasers | Domino
You’re better off letting Bonde do Rolê drop their glorious little dumb bombs directly on your id.
By: RENÉ SPENCER SALLER
Papa Grows Funk: Mr. Patterson's Hat | Funky Krewe
The third studio album by this popular New Orleans funk/jam band is in a sense their first studio album.
By: BRETT MILANO
Lloyd Thayer: The Bumper Pool Diaries: Self-released
Local stringed-instrument devotee Lloyd Thayer completes his mission to record and release three albums in one year.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Culture: Two Sevens Clash | Shanachie
The prophecy of Apocalypse in the title single from this legendary session was enough to bring Kingston to a standstill on July 7, 1977.
By: AMANDA PRESTON
Transformers: The Album | Warner Bros.
If Transformers the film is a feature-length GM commercial with a sci-fi narrative, then Transformers: The Album is equally shameless.
By: MATT ASHARE
Savath and Savalas: Golden Pollen | Anti-
This is a gloriously glassy album brimming with Hispanic sounds and surfer-boy harmonies.
By: DAVID DAY
Joan as Police Woman: Real Life | Cheap Lullaby
Ex-Bostonian Joan Wasser spent more than a decade carrying other musicians’ trains.
By: RENÉ SPENCER SALLER
Fujiya and Miyagi: Transparent Things | Deaf Dumb + Blind
With Fujiya & Miyagi, things are not always as they seem.
By: SUSANNA BOLLE
Dolores O’Riordan: Are You Listening? | Sanctuary
Dolores O’Riordan won a place in alt-rock history for her yodel-streaked vocal stylings, not her penetrating insights.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
The Dynamites Featuring Charlie Walker: Kaboom! | Outta Sight
Live, Nashville’s Dynamites are a sweaty bathtub of bubbling, wall-to-wall funk.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Pharaoh's Daughter: Haran | oy!hoo
Thousand-year-old Sabbath songs, Hebrew- and Aramaic-language vocals, and Kabalistic poetry — exactly what comes to mind when you think hip downtown band, right?
By: JEFF TAMARKIN
The Beau Brummels: Beau Brummels '66 | Collectors Choice
This little oddity owes its life to a classically bad mid-’60s A&R decision.
By: BRETT MILANO
Brad Paisley: 5th Gear | Broken Bow
Paisley’s winsome 5th Gear is about as light as Miranda Lambert’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is dark — in a good way.
By: WERNER TRIESCHMANN
Sam Yahel Trio: Truth and Beauty | Origin
Sam Yahel’s expressive approach to the Hammond B3 organ has made him one of the most sought-after sidemen in jazz.
By: ADAM GOLD
Duke Robillard: Worl Full of Blues | Stony Plain
Everything on these CDs is played with total command.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Benni Hemm Hemm: Kajak | Morr Music
The language of twee-dom knows no borders.
By: DAVID DAY
The Go: Howl on the Haunted Beat You Ride | Cass
Fear not, Nuggets heads: on their new long-player, Jack White’s old bandmates in the Go sound as if they hadn’t heard a note of music made since 1972.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Von Südenfed: Tromatic Reflexxions | Domino
On the face of it, Mark E. Smith and Mouse on Mars’ Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma are an unlikely match.
By: SUSANNE BOLLE
Ozma: Pasadena | About a Girl
I wonder whether Ozma didn’t title their new album after their suburban Los Angeles home base as a way of distinguishing themselves from Weezer.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Tcheka: Nu Mondo | Times Square
The latest talent to emerge from the Cape Verdean archipelago adds new power and sophistication to an alluring national genre.
By: BANNING EYRE
The National: Boxer | Beggars Banquet
The National’s new vessel turns out to be a pirate ship.
By: MATT ASHARE
David Torn: Prezens | ECM
If you’re looking for a middle ground between Tool and John Coltrane, this is it.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
The Field: From Here We Go Sublime | Kompakt
Not since Akufen’s “My Way” has an album of microsamples achieved the status of high art.
By: DAVID DAY
Nancy Drew: Music from the Motion Picture: Nancy Drew: Music from the Motion Picture | Bulletproof
What do Ned Nickerson and the Nancy Drew soundtrack have in common? Neither gets in Nancy’s way.
By: JEFFREY GANTZ
Mavis Staples: We'll Never Turn Back | Anti-
This is an overlooked gem: soulful, beautifully performed, and socially relevant.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Cedric Gervais: Miami | Yoshitoshi
This set by influential French-born, Miami-based DJ Gervais lives up to its title.
By: MICHAEL FREEDBERG
Dizzee Rascal: Maths + English | XL
Boy in da Corner may be the classic Dizzee will be forced to chase for the rest of his career.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
Omar Sosa: Promise | Otá
What we get on his latest outing is more often Miles’d-up trancy electric Afropop than what you might think of as Afro-Cuban jazz.
By: JON GARELICK
Erasure: Lights at the End of the World | Mute
Heck, they could have made it on Mars.
By: JIM SULLIVAN
Rufus Wainwright: Release the Stars | Geffen
Despite Rufus Wainwright’s intentions, Release the Stars could be his most lavishly appointed disc yet.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Bokoor Beats: Vintage Afro-Beat, Afro-Rock & Electric Highlife from Ghana: Bokoor Beats: Vintage Afro-Beat, Afro-Rock & Electric Highlife from Ghana | Otrabanda
Pop music in 1970s Ghana was a collision of lilting highlife.
By: BANNING EYRE
Pela: Anytown Graffiti | Great Society
If more bands wrote music that sounded like fiction, they might deliver results as pleasurable as this.
By: SHARON STEEL
Ultra Naté: Grime, Silk and Thunder | Tommy Boy
On the cover of her fifth CD, Naté looks to-die-for in midnight-blue opera gloves and strapless gown. By: MICHAEL FREEDBERG
Jason Aldean: Relentless | Broken Bow
Jason Aldean is a young, earring-wearing hat act who plays the Nashville game the way it’s always been played.
By: WERNER TRIESCHMANN
Richard Thompson: Sweet Warrior | Shout Factory
Richard Thompson here returns to electric six-string, but Sweet Warrior finds him spinning epic yarns instead of heroic solos.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
The Jesus Lizard: Live | MVD
Yep, this is about how we remember it.
By: CARLY CARIOLI
The Fun Years: Life-Size Psychoses | Barge
In experimental music, there are constructs of noise and dissonance and there are landscapes of ambient textures.
By: DAVID DAY
Once: Music from the Motion Picture | Canvasback/Columbia/Sony Music Soundtrax
If you’re not sure where to start digging into the Frames’ expansive catalogue, start here.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Erol Josué: Régléman | Mi5
A vodou priest since his teenage years in Haiti, this singer-songwriter combines mysticism, groove, and myriad sonic surprises.
By: BANNING EYRE
The Fucking Champs: VI | Drag
These Bay Area boys have spent a decade-plus together wondering how many licks it’ll take to convince people that their instrumental heavy metal is no joke.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Sinéad O’Connor: Theology | Koch
Sinéad O’Connor in the confession booth?
By: JEFF TAMARKIN
John Prine and Mac Wiseman: Standard Songs for Average People | Oh Boy
When two buddies get together to sing and pick their favorite songs, the results are not always fit for public consumption.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Maria Muldaur: Naughty, Bawdy & Blue | Stony Plain
Forget about the camel already — there’s so much more to Maria Muldaur than “Midnight at the Oasis.”
By: JEFF TAMARKIN
KTL: 2 | Editions Mego
Titled Kindertotenlieder (“Songs on the Death of Children”), the piece premiered this past March, but the musical project took on a life of its own.
By: SUSANNA BOLLE
Gus Gus: Forever | Groove
This Iceland outfit’s fifth album says electronic club music — the kind created by DJs, not rock bands.
By: MICHAEL FREEDBERG
Rose Kemp: A Hand Full of Hurricanes | One Little Indian
Rose Kemp’s parents are mainstays of the English folk-rock group Steeleye Span.
By: BRETT MILANO
Ne-Yo: Because of You: Def Jam
If Ne-Yo wants to make a real mark, he’ll have to toss that hat.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
Cult Cargo: Grand Bahama Goombay | Numero
More than an hour of should-have-been superstars and preposterous amalgams of funk, soul, acid rock, and even a little gospel.
By: RICHARD BECK
Handsome Furs: Plague Park | Sub Pop
Playing Bruce Springsteen to Spencer Krug’s David Bowie, Dan Boeckner came across as the humble workhorse of Wolf Parade.
"What We Had," Handsome Furs
(mp3)
By: CHRISTOPHER GRAY
Marc Ford: Weary and Wired | Blues Bureau International
Ford staked his claim to fame as the Black Crowes’ first lead guitarist, but his second solo album has a more contemporary singer-songwriter’s sensibility.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Mary Weiss: Dangerous Game | Norton
“I don’t write hits,” sings Mary Weiss on her first — at 58 — solo album.
By: CHARLES TAYLOR
Megadeth: United Abominations | Roadrunner
Mustaine’s politics can tend toward the simplistic, but his playing doesn’t.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Miranda Lambert: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend | Sony Nashville
Now two albums into her major-label country career, Miranda Lambert has positioned herself as a female outlaw.
By: WERNER TRIESCHMANN
James Blood Ulmer: Bad Blood in the City: The Piety Street Sessions | Hyena
This time Ulmer was in a brooding mood.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
DJ Food and DK: Now, Listen Again! | Ninja Tune
You’d be hard-pressed to find such proficient and seemingly effortless mixing.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
Kenny Werner: Lawn Chair Society | Blue Note
Werner is probably best known as harmonica legend Toots Thielemans’s right-hand man, but Lawn Chair Society demonstrates his range as a pianist/composer.
By: JON GARELICK
Mando Diao: Ode to Ochrasy | Mute
The rollicking rock of Mando Diao’s Hurricane Bar, slotted the Swedish group somewhere among the Strokes, the Hives, and Franz Ferdinand.
By: EMILY ZEMLER
The Sea and Cake: Everybody | Thrill Jockey
Few indie bands are as consistent as this one — which means you pretty much know what to expect from a new Sea and Cake disc.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
!!!: Myth Takes | Warp
It’s been about a decade since singer Nic Offer left the punk rock of the Yah Mos behind for electronic dance grooves and deep-bass funk.
By: MATT ASHARE
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: Living with the Living | Touch & Go
Ted Leo is dad-like, his tenderness enthusiastic but ultimately more of a spectacle than the infectious ball of fire it’s supposed to be.
By: LEON NEYFAKH
Belinda Carlisle: Voilà | Rykodisc
Belinda Carlisle is about as French as a bag of “freedom fries.”
By: JEFF TAMARKIN
Shadows Fall: Threads of Life | Atlantic
Metal fans are a dogmatic bunch.
By: BEN RICHARDSON
Blonde Redhead: 23 | 4AD
There’s a supernatural spell of sorts woven through the songs on the new Blonde Redhead album.
By: KATHRYN PERRY
DJ Kicks: Hot Chip: K7
For years, the DJ Kicks series on the K7 label represented genre defining at its finest.
By: DAVID DAY
Grant- Lee Phillips: Strangelet | Zoë
The former frontman of mid-’90s psych-folkies Grant Lee Buffalo sings about the fountain of youth running dry.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Abram Wilson: Ride! Ferris Wheel to the Modern Day Delta | Dune
Young New Orleans trumpeter Abram Wilson sorts out his mixed feelings about his heritage in this suite of original pieces for Delta blues trio.
By: JON GARELICK
Tinariwen: Aman Iman | Word Village
With their third CD, Tinariwen prove themselves the standard bearers of desert folk rock.
By: TINARIWEN, AMAN IMAN
Ed Rec Vol. 2: Ed Rec Vol. 2 | Ed Banger Records
Mainstream French house might give you sugar-coated lollipops next Halloween, but Ed Banger is all apples and razor blades.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
Chris Whitley and Jeff Lang: Dislocation Blues | Rounder
Chris Whitley, so pale and thin it seemed he was compelled to lean under the weight of his resonator guitars, was a spectral figure in life.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: Baby 81 | RCA
The songwriting isn’t BRMC’s most memorable, but Baby 81’s noise-roots fumes are pretty thick.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Bang Gang: Something Wrong | From Nowhere
The only thing wrong with Something Wrong is the band name: Bang Gang.
By: MATT ASHARE
Ghostland Observatory: Paparazzi Lightning | Trashy Moped
In their native Austin, the blogger-approved outfit Ghostland Observatory play to sold-out crowds of sweaty hipsters and electro enthusiasts.
By: CHRIS BROOK
David T. Chastain: Countdown to Infinity | Leviathan
If liner notes like “a cool little Dorian intro starts this baby off” grab your attention, then David T. Chastain is your man.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Guster: Satellite EP | Reprise
Guster keep the good times rolling with an eight-song EP.
By: JONATHAN STERN
The Frames: The Cost | Anti-
The Frames play tense, elegiac folk-punk ballads that always sound as if they were reaching toward the epic.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Lura: M'Bem Di Fora | Times Square
This young Cape Verdean diva explores animated genres from her remote, African archipelago home.
By: BANNING EYRE
Julie Doiron: Woke Myself Up | Secretly Canadian
Canadian singer-songwriter Julie Doiron embarks on a bracing departure from her usual tender, acoustic confessionals with spare accompaniment and an understated æsthetic.
By: CHRIS PARKER
Slim Thug Presents Boss Hogg Outlawz: Serve and Collect | Koch
Crew records are notoriously awful endeavors.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
Jorma Kaukonen: Stars in My Crown | Red House
When Hot Tuna played the Somerville Theatre last fall, the set had as much laid-back country as it did blazing guitar jams.
By: BRETT MILANO
Watermelon Slim and the Workers: Wheel Man | Northernblues
The results of this year’s annual blues awards, the Handys, won’t be in until May, but expect this ex-Bostonian (né Bill Homans) to walk away with an armful.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
John Abercrombie: The Third Quartet | ECM
Twenty years ago, you might have associated guitarist John Abercrombie with the fancy firebreathing of jazz-rock fusion.
By: JON GARELICK
The Rosebuds: Night of the Furies | Merge
The title of the Rosebuds’ third full-length refers to Roman mythology, and the accompanying booklet sports Colonial American artwork.
By: MICHAEL ALAN GOLDBERG
Son Volt: The Search | Transmit Sound/Legacy
The usual rap against Son Volt is that the group adhere too tightly to roots-music orthodoxy — in other words, that they’re dead boring.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Youth Group: Casino Twilight Dogs | Anti-
It’s hard to nail down what makes Youth Group more compelling than other OC-approved mood merchants with guitars.
By: EMILY ZEMLER
Low: Drums and Guns | Sub Pop
On 2005’s The Great Destroyer, Minnesota’s Low made a dramatic break from the slowcore sound the trio had helped pioneer in the mid ’90s.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Salif Keita: M'Bemba | Decca
Mali’s most celebrated singer, Salif Keita, has long been a musical shape shifter.
By: BANNING EYRE
Kaiser Chiefs: Yours Truly, Angry Mob | Universal
If familiarity really did breed contempt, well, Kaiser Chiefs wouldn’t stand much chance of winning any new friends.
By: MATT ASHARE
Koko Taylor: Old School | Alligator
The title here is befits the kind of shouting, romping music this grand madam of the blues began performing roughly a half-century ago.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Devin the Dude: Waiting To Inhale | Rap-A-Lot
Why Devin the Dude hasn’t become the biggest rapper in hip-hop is one of life’s great mysteries.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
Cibo Matto: Pom Pom: The Essential Cibo Matto | Warner Bros./Rhino
You really can fit all of the hipster downtown NYC-by-way-of-Japan duo’s essential tracks on one disc without leaving anything out.
By: MATT ASHARE
Robert Glasper: In My Element | Blue Note
In a lot of ways, 28-year-old pianist Glasper’s band is right in the pocket of the modern piano-trio tradition.
By: JON GARELICK
Dubfire: Taipei | Global Underground
Those who saw Dubfire in Boston last September will be surprised by the sound of these two sets.
By: MICHAEL FREEDBERG
Stars of Track and Field: Centuries Before Love and War | Wind-Up
Stars of Track and Field make a sound much bigger than Belle and Sebastian's tidy twee-pop shuffle.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Adult.: Why Bother? | Thrill Jockey
Detroit electro-provocateurs Adult. continue to run away from the catchier, clubbier colors of their early work toward, as they put it, “uneasy listening.”
By: MICHAEL ALAN GOLDBERG
Shout Out Out Out: Not Just Saying Just Saying | Nrmls Wlcm
When word comes down that there’s a live electro-house band making the scene, techno purists like me groan.
By: DAVID DAY
The Mahavishnu Project: Return to the Emerald Beyond | Cuneiform
John McLaughlin’s groundbreaking Mahavishnu Orchestra never played the material from their most symphonic album, 1975’s Visions of the Emerald Beyond, live.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Vusi Mahlasela: Guiding Star | ATO
Mahlasela is among Africa’s best singer-songwriters, and here he delivers 16 largely acoustic-based tunes that span kwela, reggae, swing jazz, mbaqanga, and rock.
By: BANNING EYRE
Black Milk: Popular Demand | Fatbeats
After a 2006 that saw the loss of two local legends, D12’s Proof and J. Dilla, Detroit appears set for a banner year, with Black Milk leading the charge.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
Graham Parker: Don't Tell Columbus | Bloodshot
Graham Parker has averaged almost an album a year since his debut in 1976, and Don’t Tell Columbus isn’t appreciably different from any of them.
By: JEFF TAMARKIN
The Ponys: Turn the Lights Out | Matador
This Chicago-based foursome bring garage rock to life much the way the White Stripes did on their early albums.
By: CAITLIN E. CURRAN
Field Music: Tones of Town | Memphis Industries
Field Music frontman Peter Brewis loves a good pop song as much as the next chap.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Explosions in the Sky: All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone | Temporary Residence
Explosions in the Sky are certainly symphonic, and devoted to bigness in the absence of a vocalist.
By: RICHARD BECK
Tishamingo: The Point | Magnatude
There’s a new breed of smart, song-oriented Southern rockers, and Tishamingo, along with Mofro, are at the head of the pack.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Charlotte Hatherley: The Deep Blue | Little Sister UK
Every once in a while an album comes along that makes you wonder whether melody really is the only thing that matters.
By: LEON NEYFAKH
Caetano Veloso: CÊ | Nonesuch
Caetano Veloso is Brazil’s Bob Dylan, Burt Bacharach, and Paul Simon all rolled into one.
By: BANNING EYRE
The Autumn Defense: The Autumn Defense | Broadmoor
An amiable soft-rock duo comprising two members of Wilco, the Autumn Defense provide a refuge for alt-country traditionalists vexed by Wilco’s increasing artiness.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Maria Taylor: Lynn Teeter Flower | Saddle Creek
Singing in harmony with Orenda Fink in the indie-folk duo Azure Ray, Maria Taylor sounded so at home that it seemed a waste when the two pursued solo careers.
By: MATT ASHARE
Ennio Morricone: Morricone in the Brain: Blowing Your Mind | Bella Casa
Ennio Morricone finally received an Oscar this year.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
Dr. Dog: We All Belong | Park the Van
It comes as a warning of sorts: when Dr. Dog miss their mark, they miss it by a mile.
By: WERNER TRIESCHMANN
Mary Chapin Carpenter: The Calling | Zoë/Rounder
She’s still seeking a truce between the inner and outer forces that pull and tug.
By: JEFF TAMARKIN
The Roches: Moonswept | Savoy Jazz
This is the saddest and loveliest of all the Roches’ albums.
By: BRETT MILANO
Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective: Wátina | Cumbancha
The Garifuna people descend from shipwrecked Africans and Arawak and Carib Indians.
By: BANNING EYRE
Dennis Ferrer: The World as I See It | MVD
Dennis Ferrer now has a full-length CD out after a decade and a half of single-track releases, many of them hits.
By: MICHAEL FREEDBERG
Akira the Don: When We Were Young | Sic
This debut full-length from the only known Dalí-moustache-sporting Welsh MC is predictably volatile and refreshingly honest.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
Jeff Murphy: Cantilever | Black Vinyl
From Zion, Illinois, the Shoes were an odd combination of romantics and gearheads, combining classic-model pop songwriting with pristine sonics.
By: BRETT MILANO
Dean and Britta: Back Numbers | Zoë/Rounder
Just as Luna’s final album, Rendezvous (Jetset), was a portrait of a band facing an uncertain demise, Back Numbers is an album about moving on.
By: CAITLIN E. CURRAN
The Broken West: I Can't Go On, I'll Go On | Merge
Flournoy doesn’t seem concerned with demonstrating his originality.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Mike Dillon's Go-Go Jungle: Battery Milk | Hyena
The opening “Go-Go’s Theme,” with its heavy backbeat and bar-band tenor-sax theme, screams: “We’re jazz, but not boring!”
By: JON GARELICK
K-OS: Atlantis: Hymns for Disco | Virgin
In American hip-hop, nice guys don’t just finish last — they’re lucky to leave the starting gate.
By: FRANKLIN SOULTS
Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter: Like, Live, Lust and the Open Halls of the Soul | Barsuk
Jesse Sykes and her band conjure images of closing time at a dark tavern on a dusty street in a sleepy town.
By: CAITLIN E. CURRAN
Postmarks: Postmarks | Unfiltered
Like the lovelorn image of a sad-eyed woman looking off into the distance, Postmarks’ preferred mood is melancholy and their touchstones are French pop of the ’60s, or rather an idealized notion of retro Continental cool.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
Elvis Perkins: Ash Wednesday | XL
“I heard a sound when I was a child,” Elvis Perkins sings in “It’s Only Me,” a typically introspective folk-pop number from this debut album.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: Some Loud Thunder | Self-released
Too bad this Brooklyn-Philly-Boston indie act got tapped as early as they did for the Internet big leagues.
By: NICK SYLVESTER
Nick Warren: Paris | Global Underground
As a jet-setting resident DJ simultaneously in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, and Athens, and with a recording career already in place, Nick Warren has proved himself worthy of this two-disc DJ mix.
By: MICHAEL FREEDBERG
The RZA Presents: Afro Amurai —The Soundtrack: The RZA Presents: Afro Samurai — The Soundtrack | Koch
Even as the Wu-Tang continue to flirt with the idea of reuniting, the RZA has already started a new life as a film composer.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
Clinic: Visitations | Domino
Great rock and roll arrives in the oddest of ways.
By: WERNER TRIESCHMAN
Vieux Farka Touré: Vieux Farka Touré | World Village
Sons of musical icons, especially late ones, have both bloodlines and a lot to live up to.
By: BANNING EYRE
The Apples in Stereo: New Magnetic Wonder | Simian/Yep Roc
Interviewing Robert Schneider is one of the toughest gigs in music journalism, and not because the guy’s anything but a perfect gentleman.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Ruthie Foster: The Phenomenal | Blue Corn
Usually when an artist does a makeover on his or her music, the results are disastrous, but this 42-year-old Texas singer-songwriter is an exception.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Sean Price: Jesus Price Supastar | Duckdown
Like MF Doom before him, Sean Price has switched personae, reconfigured his style, and given his underground hip-hop career a second life in recent years.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
Midlake: The Trials of Van Occupanther | Bella Union
This foursome from Denton, Texas, met while studying jazz at the University of North Texas, but they went off in a totally different direction as Midlake.
By: CAITLIN CURRAN
Lifetime: Lifetime | Decaydance/Fueled by Ramen
After eight years of inactivity, this scrappy New Jersey band reunited in 2005, to the delight of the countless emo kids who’ve singled out Lifetime as a primary influence.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Norah Jones: Not Too Late | Blue Note
No, Norah Jones hasn’t turned into Lucinda Williams.
By: JON GARELICK
A Date With John Waters: A Date with John Waters | New Line
Valentine’s Day, with its heart-shaped boxes of chocolates and colorful candy kisses, is right up filmmaker John Waters’s kitschy alley, not to mention a perfect candidate for the auteur’s obsession with incredibly strange music.
By: MATT ASHARE
Glenn Jones: Against Which the Sea Continually Beats | Strange Attractors
One of my favorite shows of 2006 was Glenn Jones on solo guitar at the Lizard Lounge.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Ilkae: Bring Extra Dragons | Merck
If you’ve ever wondered what it was like to star in your own personal Mega Man video game for the original ’80s Nintendo system, Ilkae are here for you.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
Vietnam: Vietnam | Kemado
“We just wanted a name that had power,” says co-founder Michael Gerner in Rolling Stone.
By: FRANKLIN SOULTS
Deerhunter: Cryptograms | Kranky
From their MySpace quote (“the sadness of laughter”) to this album’s glorious failure to wed atrophied guitar drones with screw-it-all garage-rock propulsion, the Atlanta psych-rock act Deerhunter seem obsessed with paradox.
By: NICK SYLVESTER
John Mellencamp: Freedom's Road | Universal
John Mellencamp spent his last two studio albums in experimental mode, inviting Chuck D and India.Arie aboard 2001’s Cuttin’ Heads and digging into unvarnished country blues on ’03’s Trouble No More.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Matt Wilson's Arts and Crafts: The Scenic Route | Palmetto
Drummer Wilson could borrow a title from his old boss Russ Gershon’s Either/Orchestra: neo-modernism.
By: JON GARELICK
Jason Moran: Artist in Residence | Blue Note
"How can an abstract jazz artist say clearly how they feel and make an audience understand?” That’s the question Moran asks in the liner notes to Artist in Residence.
By: JOHN GARELICK
Bob Seger: Face the Promise | Capitol
“I will answer the wind,” Bob Seger sings in “Wait for Me,” a cut from his first new studio album in more than a decade.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
The Heartless Bastards: All This Time | Fat Possum
The Heartless Bastards are a Dayton trio fronted by Erika Wennerstrom, an extremely shy woman with the voice of a blues crooner.
By: DAVID BOFFA
Blaine Larson: Rockin' You Tonight | BMG
By the ripe old age of 20, Blaine Larsen had graduated from his Tacoma (Washington) high school and released two full-length country albums.
By: WERNER TRIESCHMANN
James Holden: The Idiots Are Winning | Border Community
In the compartmentalized dance community, James Holden’s debut full-length is a surprising departure from the progressive house that’s given him a following.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
Ghostface Killah: More Fish | Def Jam
For the second time in 2006, Wu-Tang’s Ghostface has released an album that makes it seem everyone else in the hip-hop world should be paying more attention to Ghostface.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
Bow Wow: The Price of Fame | Columbia
From its Illmatic-quoting cover to its boasts of “money stacks taller than the Empire State,” 2005’s Wanted was Bow Wow’s coming-of-age album, an opportunity for a youngster known to most listeners as a kiddie-pop novelty to prove himself a rapper worth considering alongside grown-up MCs.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
The John Doe Thing: For the Best of Us | Yep Roc
In the wake of X’s first break-up, John Doe distanced himself from whatever punk he had left in him and pursued a rootsier, more singer-songwriterly muse.
The John Doe Thing, "Hwy 5" (mp3)
By: MATT ASHARE
Tartit: Abocabok | Crammed Discs
Tartit are one of the best-known Tuareg roots groups in the world.
By: BANNING EYRE
Young Jeezy: The Inspiration | Def Jam
In anything resembling a normal world, Young Jeezy would be absurd, a caricature of a stereotype turned into a cartoon.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
Johnny Cash: At San Quentin — Legacy Edition | Columbia/Legacy
Johnny Cash at San Quentin was a huge hit in 1969.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Candy Butchers: Making Up Time | Good Morning Monkey
After treading the waters of Boston in the mid ’90s, the Candy Butchers — singer/guitarist Mike Viola and drummer Todd Foulsham — set off for New York City armed with an acoustic guitar, a snare drum, and inventive, well-crafted pop songs.
By: SUE BELL
The OC Mix 6: Covering Our Tracks: Warner Bros.
Since part of the well-oiled genius of The OC is its blatant appropriation of familiar teen-soap source material, it makes sense that the hit Fox series’s latest mix CD collects covers of tunes most of the show’s viewers likely already know.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
The Replacements: Don’t You Know Who I Think I Was?: The Best of the Replacements | Sire/Reprise
The Replacements have always been blessed with impeccably bad timing.
The Replacements, "I Will Dare" (mp3)
The Replacements, "Unsatisfied" (mp3)
By: MATT ASHARE
Darling Downs: How Can I Forget This Heart of Mine? | Carrot Top
Australia has always had a way of taking American genres and making them their own in a down-to-earth way, from the breeziness of singer-songwriter Paul Kelly to the power pop of the Hoodoo Gurus and You Am I to the garage rumblings of Lime Spiders and Jet.
By: ANDREW MARCUS
8Ball: Light Up The Bomb | 8-Ways
As a posse showcase masquerading as an 8Ball solo album, Light Up the Bomb has some pleasant surprises.
By: ANDREW GRAHAM
Hem: Funnel Clouds | Wavland
You’d be hard pressed to find anything written about Brooklyn’s Hem without the mention of at least one of three things.
By: SHARON STEEL
Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Live at the Fillmore East 1970 | Reprise
Neil Young was starting his transition from pop melodist to free-ranging noisemaker when he played these songs at New York City’s most famous rock hall on a bill with the Steve Miller Band and Miles Davis.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Libby Johnson: Annabella | Wrong
Earlier this year, this New York–based folkie had a handful of her songs featured in the Julianne Moore flick Trust the Man.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Snoop Dogg: Tha Blue Carpet Treatment | Geffen
That Snoop has made his best album since 1993’s Doggystyle is a painful reminder that the hip-hop ambassador has spent the majority of his career coasting.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
The Atlantics: Atlantics | Something Hot
The song title “Pop Shivers” tells you everything you need to know about the Atlantics: unlike many of the harder-edged, early-’80s Boston bands, these guys lived for the thrill of the hook.
By: BRETT MILANO
Reyes Brothers: Ghetto Therapy | Lightyears
Mellow Man Ace, who had the first hit Latin hip-hop single in 1989 (“Mentirosa”), and Sen Dog, of the seminal group Cypress Hill, are actual brothers.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
Bound Stems: Appreciation Night | Flameshovel
This young Chicago act maintain the dedication to instrumental texture foregrounded by Windy City post-rock acts like Tortoise and the Sea and Cake.
Bound Stems, "Excellent News, Colonel" (mp3)
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Brand New: The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me | Interscope
There’s no shortage of haterade for emo these days.
By: SHARON STEEL
Cowboy Junkies: Long Journey Home: Live in Liverpool | Zoë
Regardless of whether you think of this Canadian outfit as pretentious somnambulists or artful rock poets, they’ve carved out a grass-roots career since bursting onto alt-rock radio with a barbiturate cover of Lou Reed’s “Sweet Jane” in 1988.
Cowboy Junkies, "Sweet Jane" (mp3)
Cowboy Junkies, "Misguided Angel" (mp3)
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Sleepy Brown: Mr. Brown | Virgin
One third of the legendary Organized Noise production team, and best known for guesting on the upbeat, brilliant-if-overplayed “The Way You Move” from Big Boi, Sleepy Brown is no Pharrell muscling in on the real talents at the mic.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
Brian Setzer: 13 | Surf Dog
Sure, Surf Dog’s pushing Setzer’s 2005 holiday blaster, Dig That Crazy Christmas, again this year, but the real action has more to do with Old Nick than St. Nick.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Willie Nelson: Songbird | Lost Highway
At a secure 73, Willie Nelson’s not about to change to please a hot young alt-country buck, his taut touring band, or the sizeable audience of hipsters they might bring along with them.
By: FRANKLIN SOULTS
Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton: Knives Don’t Have Your Back | Last Gang
This solo debut from Metric frontwoman Emily Haines is a big departure for the Toronto-based art-school graduate.
Emily Haines and The Soft Skeleton, "Doctor Blind" (mp3)
By: JEFF BREEZE
+/-: Let’s Build A Fire | Absolutely Kosher
James Baluyut honed his indie-rock chops playing guitar in his older brother Richard’s mid-’90s band Versus, an underrated outfit whose lean, sexy jangle would’ve been well served by the blogosphere’s sponsorship.
By: MIKAEL WOOD
The Radiators: Dreaming Out Loud | Sci Fidelity
Like the other great album to come out of post-Katrina New Orleans, Allen Toussaint & Elvis Costello’s The River in Reverse, the Radiators’ latest consists mainly of songs written before the deluge.
By: BRETT MILANO
Martin Solveig: Defected In The House | Defected UK
This two-disc set is the third release for Solveig — one of Paris house music’s most important DJs — and the second in just the past year.
By: MICHAEL FREEDBERG
Keith Urban: Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing | Capitol
Australia-born Keith Urban is modern country music’s only real rock star.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Snowden: Anti-Anti | Jade Tree
“We are anti-movements,” Jordan Jeffares declares on the title track of Snowden’s debut.
By: SHARON STEEL
Veruca Salt: IV | Sympathy for the Record Industry
If the alt-rock/grunge revival has to begin — and it does, sooner or later — both simple justice and looping irony would be served if it began here.
By: FRANKLIN SOULTS
Saosin: Capitol
Love second-wave emo but can’t make it to New York this weekend for either of Texas Is the Reason’s sold-out reunion shows at Irving Plaza?
Saosin, "Seven Years" (mp3)
By: MIKAEL WOOD
Devon Allman’s Honeytribe: Torch | Livewire
Yeah, 31-year-old Devon Allman’s banking on the family name.
By: TED DROZDOWSKI
Francisco Mela: Melao | Ayva
The first tune,“John Ramsay” (named for theBoston drummer), begins with the maze of Lionel Loueke’s acoustic-guitar patterns.
By: JON GARELICK
Lyrics Born: Overnite Encore: Lyrics Born Live! | Quannum Projects
After just one solo record and a B-sides release, it might seem odd that Lyrics Born would bank on that rarest of breeds, the live hip-hop album.
By: MATTHEW GASTEIER
The Oohlas: Best Stop Pop | Stolen Transmission
The Oohlas are a blogger’s band, and not just in the traditional sense.
By: SHARON STEEL
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