MUSIC REVIEWS

Sometimes, a simple slew of guitar strings summarizes the tone of an entire composition long before lyrics ever enter the picture, and though it can certainly be said that there’s more to Watershed’s title track than its guitar part, this doesn’t make its intro any less spellbinding. In this first of …

After decades in the dark, grunge has been flexing some serious influence over contemporary rock and hip-hop in the last couple of years, and this influence is definitely heard in the new album Disease of the Mind by Staytus. URL: https://staytusmusic.com/ BANDCAMP: https://staytus.bandcamp.com/album/disease-of-the-mind Staytus doesn’t reflect any sense of confidence …

New Jacobin Club blends an unholy mix of horror movie imagery, Lovecraft-influenced subject matter, and hard rock ingenuity into a memorable ten song stew entitled Empire of Dis. It’s the band’s sixth album and their first in nearly a decade, but don’t let that mislead you. New Jacobin Club hasn’t lain …

It should be said that the majority of Sun King Rising’s life has been devoted to being an artist. Without being informed of as much, you can detect his investment in his work when examining his new album Signs & Wonders, and specifically songs like “Lanterns on the Levee,” “Low Wine …

Louis Siciliano and Mauro Salvatore’s MUMEx Duo has carved out a rather impressive global niche for themselves in modern jazz unlike any other. One often encounters this sort of language in reviews, however, and you can immediately pin it down as customary journalistic puffery that has little, if anything, to …

If you’re one to commiserate on the changing of the seasons, Ludlow Creek’s latest album Which Way Is Forward? is here just in time to keep the good energy of summer chugging along into the fall. Packed with twelve tracks and over an hour of musical content, Ludlow Creek is …

Telling a story with lyrics isn’t all that hard to do in the grander scheme of things, but to take material that isn’t just instrumental but in fact composed by someone else – not to mention one of the greatest to ever pick up a pen – and illustrate something …

Cutting us with big melodies in “Anything” or exploiting a minimalist concept in a larger-than-life way with “Bitch,” Barista seeks out a higher level of tonal communication in the new album Justice Now that is hardly common in rock music contemporarily. There’s a lot to explore in this record, and …

Making the jump from French pop to music in English can be a tall order, as the general expectations of each market can differ greatly. Thankfully, in recent years, the lines have become significantly blurred thanks to artists such as TV Girl and Belle & Sebastian, and pop music has …

Springy and as bright as a rising sun, the opening salvo of string melodies that chime through the air after pressing play on the new single from Roots Asylum, “Shuckin’ in a Cornfield,” is a brief but meaningful introduction to a simple, barebones Americana tune fashioned with a deeply evocative …