Recent Articles in CD Reviews
Lana Mir – ‘Lana Mir’
She may now be based in NY, but since she was born in the Ukraine, Lana Mir must have overcome quite a few obstacles to get to the stage of being known as a standout singer/songwriter in our current downtown scene.
Arcade Fire – ‘The Suburbs’
Win Butler has a heart like a wheel, and with Arcade Fire’s third studio effort, has taken his and the celebrated Montreal septet’s wanderlust to the street where you live. Like the Houston neighborhood of Butler’s childhood that inspired it, The Suburbs is a quietly devastating and infinitely gracious mid-tempo rhapsody in beige.
Best Coast – ‘Crazy For You’
Relentlessly delicious, the debut effort from California’s Best Coast is the ultimate elixir for what ails your warm-weather soul. Breezy, gritty and alive with endless sunkissed charm, Crazy For You is a perfectly distilled lo-fi nugget of heartsick boredom and Los Angeles in the late afternoon.
Freak Owls – ‘Taxidermy’
Freak Owls is sweet-voiced Brooklynite Josh Ricchio, who pens songs that sparkle and hum with the quiet mastery of a poet.
School of Seven Bells – ‘Disconnect from Desire’
Disconnect from Desire, School of Seven Bells’ follow-up to Alpinisms, sees the trio moving into a new and exciting direction. Some of the band’s iciness has dissolved—though not too much to eradicate the compelling mystery of their music—and the overall effect is a sound that is shinier, warmer, and more forthright.
Rat Wakes Red – ‘Acres’
Rat Wakes Red may sound like the name of a punk band belting out three-chord, angsty anthems, but this act is quite the opposite, and the haunting, charmed surprise is partly what makes RWR, and their latest release, Acres, stand out.
Ed Kowalczyk – ‘Alive’
In the mid-‘90s, Ed Kowalczyk found massive success as the lead singer and songwriter of Live – a group famous for its ultra-melodic, chest-beating, arena-rock radio classics “I Alone” and “Lightning Crashes.”Along the way, however, amid serious inner-group tensions and lawsuits, the popular quartet disbanded…
Coockoo – ‘Cosmoventura’
“Ne Discotheque”, an electro-rock stomper with a whip smart tempo, ranks as one of the most captivating opening tracks I’ve heard in ages by an act entirely to me, and it definitely paves the way for the surprises you’ll hear from this young Moscow band (yes, as in the vast Russian city), on their album, Cosmoventura.
Delphic – ‘Acolyte’
It’s been a while since I’ve written about dance rock and how revolutionary it can be when done right. It seems like just yesterday we were being wowed by Franz Ferdinand and the oodles of bands that washed ashore with their tide.
How to Destroy Angels – ‘S/T EP’
Trent Reznor has always been a moody, mood-obsessed gearhead. So it should come as no devastating surprise that his first major creative output since hitting the pause button on Nine Inch Nails after 20 years and taking vows, is a little nacht music…
