MUSIC REVIEWS

“Time to Die” isn’t a particularly cheerful song, but anyone who loves passionate music will flock to Iva Toric’s latest single. It’s the second release from her looming new album Dead Reckoning and confronts her anxieties about eventual death head-on. She’s crafted an extraordinarily dynamic musical arrangement, as well, and …

The first panic attack of my life smacked me in the mouth eighteen hours after my mother died. I napped on my couch all day after getting home. Sleep eventually became impossible when my back hurt enough and I arose from my cushioned tomb and headed to the bathroom. INSTAGRAM: …

Los Angeles-born and Philadelphia-based singer/songwriter Brian Shapiro and his band aren’t interested in entertainment alone. Their latest album It’s Amazing! follows their 2021 debut All That We See in several ways and its desire to leave a lasting impact on listeners rates high among them. Multiple sources fuel that hunger for such a transformative …

Not Ashamed’s single “In Spirit and Truth” is more than a contemporary Christian song. The Irish four-piece embraces their faith without embarrassment, but they’ve likewise succeeded in writing a song that embodies some of the finest human virtues. We long for transcendence, to live beyond the limits our humanity imposes …

Crash Taylor’s 2022 album Retired Outlaw is another release we can thank COVID-19 for. Taylor’s written songs since he was ten and has since recorded many times but didn’t decide to release his first album until the pandemic caused him to consider it. Taylor is a writer as well and his lyrics …

Where a lot of his contemporaries seem to have a problem overthinking the Americana they’re weaving into their music, Pete Miller has no such issue in his new single “A Light out There,” the first release to bear his name in the byline. There are no fireworks here, nor a …

“I wanted you to know / If you choose to know, there is time for a change / It is written in your soul,” pleads Alex Krawczyk in the powerful “Remember,” one of my favorite songs from her new album Le Olam. Krawczyk’s lyrical protagonist is desperate to get through to …

In the title track from his debut EP Written in Whiskey, Larry Jay isn’t asking the audience to hear him, but instead putting his voice front and center where we have no choice but to bask in the glow of its melodic presence. This urgent desire to take his place at …

Shadowman, Robin Kelly’s sixth album release, remains very much the New Zealand songwriter’s album despite the cadre of five-star talent supporting him. Singer Sonia Wilson and guitarist Nigel Gavin playing alongside Kelly is a big deal, the mid way point of Shadowman might fall apart with it, but Kelly’s talents are the …

Random Parade’s most recent album release Never Meant to Last is a nine song collection continuing the Southern California band’s ongoing evolution. They’ve toured with seminal 80’s acts such as The Fixx and Missing Persons while echoes of Joy Division and The Cure, among others, are present in their music. …