MUSIC REVIEWS

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 …

The act of listening to an album from front to back is still something more people than you think have trouble committing to; no judgment, of course, but the art of an album that is meant to be consumed in one sitting, front to back, is just about one of …

If you’re keen on the independent metal scene, you’ve by no doubt heard of the enigmatic tour de force that is Iva Toric. New or old, buckle up and strap in because a new single of hers has just dropped! Released just far enough off of the heels of its …

Mike Montrey has been moving up and down the Eastern seaboard over the last decade and change delivering his personalized brand of bluesy R&B soul far and wide. The New Jersey-based Mike Montrey Band’s latest collection entitled Searching for My Soul is a seven song excursion through Montrey’s songwriting world …