MUSIC REVIEWS

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 …

Compared to how it was just ten years ago, there’s just not the kind of emphasis on guitar in rock music as there used to be, but that isn’t preventing artists like Jordan Wolfe from using the six-string as a catalyst for charismatic songcraft this winter at all. Contrarily, Wolfe’s …

Self-aware but prepared to acknowledge his faults through the beauty of his lyricism, Eric Colville brings us into the opening track and title cut of his new album Philadelphia with arms wide open, seemingly ready to greet anyone at the door with a melodic magic that comes in second to none this …

Ezra Vancil knows about turning lemons into lemonade. The Texan singer/songwriter persevered against the odds and earned his living as a working musician and songwriter before the ongoing pandemic shattered live music and creative opportunities. Vancil absorbed this devastating blow as well as possible given that The Family Songbook, his then …

There are a lot of rock bands trying to get as spacey as the surreal pop movement has been getting on both sides of the dial in the past couple of years, but others like Winchester Revival have been more dedicated to getting straightforward and efficient with everything they produce. …