Music Reviews

Caribou - Our Love

Our Love is Dan Snaith's fourth LP, and first in four years, under his Caribou moniker. Throughout the 10 tracks of the album, Snaith creates a rich tapestry of sounds that have a warmth and richness to them that envelops the listener at each turn. It's always quite amazing to find artists who can take the seemingly cold and calculating (computers, software programs, electronic equipment, and so on) and manipulate them to ultimately achieve a sound that offers a kind of 21st Century campfire warmth.


Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 2

Mass Appeal Records, 2014

It's a tense time in the world. We are constantly inundated and bombarded by selected news and pop culture controversies with the lines between the two becoming more blurred. It's increasingly hard to tell what's important or to discern when real news descends into just another form of entertainment for those who live to be outraged. Surely, there must be a saviour somewhere in the midst of this chaos, waiting to save us from this madness?
 


Ariel Pink - Pom Pom

"I genuinely worry for anyone who can sincerely enjoy this record" -My roommate, on Ariel Pink's latest endeavour

Oh boy, where to begin? Can a record be great and terrible, enjoyable and infuriating, really smart and incredibly stupid, all at the same time? If this was the goal of Ariel Pink's latest record Pom Pom, then good lord, has he ever succeeded.


Ace Frehley - Space Invader

Space Invader is ex-KISS guitarist Ace Frehley's newest release; it's the Spaceman's first solo LP in five years. While this album won't blast you off into space, you can be sure it will transport you back in time, a quantum leap if you will, into the body of a sexually-frustrated teenage boy.


Nancy Pants - Total Nancy Pants

Nancy Pants are a fuzzy pop band from Montreal. If you thought that name and description implied half an hour or so of imminent fun and sometimes silly times, then you were quite correct. There is simplicity and an immediacy to their songs and style that can make it easy to overlook the craft of the songwriting on their promising first record, Total Nancy Pants. This is a record that grabs your attention from the get-go and one that makes sure it doesn't lose you.
 


Lisa LeBlanc - Highways, Heartaches and Time Well Wasted

Highways, Heartaches and Time Well Wasted is the newest release by musician Lisa LeBlanc. According to LeBlanc, this six track EP was inspired by her travels through the U.S. in the beat generation tradition. It consists of five original tracks and her take on the American folk song "Katie Cruel". This EP surges ahead with a raw and at times grungy musical aesthetic, which is propelled by Lisa's powerful and pleading vocals. 


Dog Fashion Disco - Sweet Nothings (Rotten 2014)

Sweet Nothings is the seventh studio album from the freshly-reunited Maryland metal maestros, Dog Fashion Disco.

If the movie Three Men and a Baby starred George Clinton, Al Jourgensen, and Mike Patton instead of Guttenberg, Selleck, and Danson—that baby would have grown up to become Sweet Nothings. But that doesn't even begin to explain how eclectic this album is. A full detailed description of the audible influences would take much more than the few hundred words I've been allotted, so I'll try to sum it up like this:


The Bunny the Bear - Food Chain

Victory Records veterans The Bunny the Bear bring on the weird for their fifth studio album, Food Chain. As with previous albums, Matthew "The Bunny" Tybor takes on the lion's share—or "bunny's share"—of the songwriting responsibilities. After a short departure, Chris "The Bear" Hutka returns to lend his clean vocals to this sonic clusterfuck.


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