Vagrant Who knew that tales of drug-addled teens could be so operatic? The Hold Steady’s “Boys and Girls in America” is a blistering rock ‘n’ roll album that merges the storytelling of Bruce Springsteen, the riffs of Thin Lizzy and the bleary-eyed stomp of the Replacements. The album title references Jack Kerouac’s “On the […]
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Oasis-Stop the Clocks
Epic If there were ever a better argument for Oasis being a singles band, “Stop the Clocks” pretty definitively would prove that Liam and Noel Gallagher are much more adept at penning three minutes of brilliance than whole albums. “Stop the Clocks” is a band-curated glance backward at what could be charitably described as […]
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Moby-Go: The Very Best of Moby
V2 In the liner notes for this Christmas-ready career-retrospective disc, Moby writes he’s baffled he’s had a career at all, claiming he’s “just a weird bald guy who makes music in his bedroom.” While that’s true, he’s also the one who helped propel electronica from club-only marginalization into a viable art form. Say what you […]
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TV on the Radio-Return to Cookie Mountain
Interscope One of the things musicians TV on the Radio do so well on “Return to Cookie Mountain” that they failed to do on “Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes,” is find a perfect way to present the band’s shambolic mix of poetry, New Wave, electro sampling and guitar by simply not caring. Each track is […]
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Dirty Pretty Things-Waterloo to Anywhere
Interscope Trying to put the looming legacy of the Libertines’ and former bandmate/rock star cliché Pete Doherty’ behind him, Carl Barat formed Dirty Pretty Things; “Waterloo to Anywhere” is their first release, and it’s proof that Barat was underrated all along. Though indie rock inspired by punk is quickly becoming yesterday’s shtick in Brit-rock, Dirty […]
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Charlie Hunter Trio-COPPEROPOLIS
Ropeadope Records Fuzzed-out, rock-infested, funk-strewn jazz: That’s what’s on “Copperopolis,” the latest album from Charlie Hunter, who remains one of the few truly innovative-yet-accessible jazz musicians on the scene today. With two familiar cats by his side’ Derrek Phillips on drums and John Ellis lending not only his always killer horn work, but also some […]
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Skerik’s Syncopated Taint Septet-Husky
Hyena Records “Husky,” the new studio album from sax man Skerik and his Syncopated Taint Septet, takes a few listens for the traditional jazz fan to adjust to it, but quickly becomes compelling. Skerik is becoming a mainstay on the modern jazz scene, having worked with the likes of Charlie Hunter, Ivan Neville, Stanton […]
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The Meat Purveyors-Someday Soon Things Will Be Much Worse!
Bloodshot Records If Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver were mean drunks, they would be The Meat Purveyors. When last I saw them six years ago in Dallas, Jo Stanli Walston was ripping through roots songs about pain and resentment as if she was confronting the audience for doing her wrong. Though the band has tempered that […]
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Long Distance Runner-The Fire of Cumulative Hours
Existential Sounds Perhaps the best argument for the melding of man and machine since Steve Austin went bionic is “The Fire of Cumulative Hours” EP from Long Distance Runner. Essentially a one-man show starring Portland-based K. Briggs, “Cumulative” marks a masterful DIY debut of breakbeat electronica, both imaginative and playful, like the best of DJ […]
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John Legend-Once Again
Sony Urban Soulful vocalist and ubiquitous music-video fixture John Legend follows his acclaimed debut “Get Lifted” with “Once Again,” an equally mellow sophomore album and one which doesn’t alter his proven formula so much as stretch it in subtle new directions. Legend is understandably more visible this time around and his terrific first single, […]