If the world is shutting down around you, might as well try to make some music. The English band Wolf Alice were ensconced in a Brussels studio when COVID-19 made European borders close as decisively as heavy steel doors. They … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Blue Weekend
After a set of years that have been marked by misery — not only the global pandemic, but also the rampant corruption and malfeasance of the interlopers in the White House during the latter portion of the twenty-teens — I … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Jubilee
Sour isn’t an album for me, and I’m fine with that. Scratch that. Try again. I’m great with that. Olivia Rodrigo made her young fame bounding along the Disney treadmill, including a turn as one of the leads in the … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Sour
The short description of the new album Daddy’s Home is “St. Vincent does soul music.” More specifically, the shape-shifting modern-art-rock maestro looked to the soul and R & B music of the early nineteen-seventies, citing Stevie Wonder specifically but clearly … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Daddy’s Home
I suspect the Black Keys would be very happy if every one of their albums from here on in was simply a variation on their latest, Delta Kream. It makes sense. Why strain and struggle to write and record original … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Delta Kream
The town of Marfa was established in Southwest Texas, in the late eighteen-hundreds, because steam-engine locomotives needed a place to stop in their journey and replenish their water supply. A century and half later, the community endures. With a population … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — The Marfa Tapes
The new album from the Danish band Iceage finds them on a sonic journey that used to be fairly commonplace. Among the titans of college rock who ruled the left end of the dial through the nineteen-eighties, there are a … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Seek Shelter
Like a Stone, the new album from the Philadelphia band Remember Sports, gave me a beloved sensation that is all too rare for me now. It took me back to my college radio days — both iterations — when a band … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Like a Stone
I want to write about Julien Baker’s new album, Little Oblivions, without bringing up the singer-songwriter’s bandmates in boygenius. It’s so hard, though. Just like her cohorts, Baker spun away from that indie dream group with a readiness to expand … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Little Oblivions
The world shutting down brought out the productivity in Cloud Nothings. The Cleveland band have never been especially slack when it comes to recording new music. In the twelve years they’ve been banging out tuneful noise, they’ve only let more … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — The Shadow I Remember
Coffee for Two 