MUSIC REVIEWS

Jason Shand tackles the personal struggle of seeing the darker side of someone you love on The Petty Narcissist (Arctic Ocean). The title track of Shand’s second full length album delves into the emotions of knowing when a relationship is no longer good for either party. Shand explores these heavy …

The single “Whiskey Still” from Chris Ford’s SuBourbon Blues Project’s second album Where Concrete Meets the Grass is a rousing blast of gritty blues rock. Ford makes no pretensions to purist status, but his songwriting captures many of the genre’s tropes without ever sounding wearisome. Yes, you’ve heard songs like this before, …

Jonmosslol (the “lol” stands for “loneliness over love”, not what you were initially thinking) taps into a particular raw place with his single “BE ALRIGHT”, an aggressively titled song that upon listening to, you realize the spelling might be more indicative of a calming command versus an over enthusiasm. One …

Elizabeth Sombart enrolled at the Strasbourg Conservatory and first began studying piano at seven years old; her first public performance followed at twelve years old. She parlayed winning first prize at the National Piano and Chamber Music Awards into studies with renowned music teachers Bruno Leonardo Gelber, Hilde Langer-Ruhl, and …

Critics and pundits have labeled Ian Bouras’ music as everything from alternative, reggae, New Age, and world. I hear all that and more in his work. He’s long since moved on from the comparatively commonplace musical landscapes he explores over the course of A Cure for Reality’s fourteen songs, but …

This winter has been one of the more memorable in recent years for pop fans, with a virtual watershed of content pouring through the underground and the mainstream the same. Saying competition is hot just wouldn’t be doing this generation of talent justice; to break into the modern pop spotlight, …

Honestly, Kari Holmes doesn’t need much to sound like a truly divine force in a performance, but beside the delicate piano keys of “Making Heaven a Home,” she sounds even more provocative than she already would have. In her first full-length album When I See You Smile, this dedicated country singer …

There’s nothing quite like childhood enthusiasm to get the ball rolling in a kid’s pop jingle, and Max Hawthorne wisely utilizes as much at the start of his new single “A Tyrannosaurus For Christmas.” He doesn’t need a lot of bombast or virtuosity to set the pace in this track; …

In an almost post-theatrical fashion, Streaking in Tongues usher us forth into a church of poetry ala “Bigfoot and Little Women” that will soon expand across five additional tracks in their collaborative LP with U.P. poet laureate Marty Achatz, and for as brawny a runtime as this opening cut has …

Hitting us with everything he has in the chamber right off the top, President Hill is clearly not messing around when he kicks out the opening bars in “You Feelin It Shawty,” his all-new single currently out and available everywhere quality hip-hop is sold and streamed. Although he’s got a …