SHARK-FIN AWARDS

Burn the Ballroom have been enjoying a pretty exciting career over the past ten-plus years. Starting off with You’re Already Mine, these rockers never hid the fact that they come into the studio with their heart on their sleeve, but finding that perfect middle ground between open-chest poetry and sharp, hard-charging rock beats …

Color My World from folk/country singer and songwriter Annette Adler is full of lush harmonies and riveting lyrics. Playing on her penchant for, well, colorful words, Adler’s angelic voice elevates the hues and honey-dipped melodies in this sing-along, reflective album. If you’re a fan of traditional country, these songs check several boxes. If you’re also …

James Raftery is loath to let a good song go to waste. He refined and recorded the nine song collection Tornado during the pandemic-prompted lockdown, but the songs first came to life during the writing for 2017’s Everything. These piano-inspired ballads strip away any self-indulgent gloss in favor of functional stylistic flourishes and a thorough …

Chesca made some pretty big waves with her single “Crocodile Tears” earlier this year, and in her new album Feel the Breeze, she brings the aesthetical concept behind the aforementioned track to a feature-length unlike any other I’ve heard in 2021. Rather than skewing simple pop with an unreal knack for …

The Cold Stares’ new album Heavy Shoes finds this dynamic duo in fine fettle. The band’s ninth collection in eleven years features a dozen tracks steeped in the imagery and traditions that have been their calling card since their 2010 formation. Guitarist Chris Tapp and drummer Brian Mullins built the band’s reputation …

Welsh based alt rockers, BOI, have released their debut album, Coron O Chwinc. The album is sang entirely in traditional Welsh, and the song titles list like a Rosetta Stone exercise. They say, Music is the universal language though, and BOI certainly exemplify that idea with the sheer power of …

In the new single from his EP Let the Light In, Vol. 2, titled “Let the Light In,” singer/songwriter Chris Donohoe seems intent on making) it known to critics that he’s not a run of the mill, one-dimensional player in the modern pop game. He doesn’t shelter his unchecked emotions behind …

Streaking in Tongues’ latest project, Slow Dancing with Bigfoot, is a collaboration with Michigan writer and two-time U.P. (Upper Peninsula) Poet Laurate Marty Achatz. The fifteen track collection marries Achatz’s verse with the aural landscapes that have been the father/son duo’s stock in trade since their first release in 2015. The …

I am a firm fan of Melanie Rogers’ latest single “R.U.O.K”. Her previous single release “Fever” played like a fresh breath of musical air during the pandemic and announced the arrival of a major new songwriting talent. I predict Rogers will not toil for long in semi-obscurity and will, with …

In a pop music world that is infatuated with pop culture, Trevor Drury dares to be different. His new song “Alice” is a complexity of honesty, riveting beat and lush, dreamy string arrangements. That’s not even half of it – Drury’s vocals bond together movie-star good looks and sensitive artistry. “Alice”, a song that Drury dreamed …