// Category Archive for: Music Reviews

Patrick Wolf, The Bachelor

By Ann Clarke

Just when I didn’t think young musicians had anything left to offer (because they’re all either fake and talentless or just fashion plate hipsturds), along comes Patrick Wolf. Granted he is fashionable, and has done some modeling for Burberry, but he is quite alluring, and it’s nice work if you can get it! (It definitely helps finance some lucrative projects.) I had first heard Patrick by accident when stumbling upon the video for “The Magic Position,” and was immediately totally addicted. I rarely ever seek out a new artist, but there are times when something grabs you by throat and won’t let go until you give in, and with “The Magic Position,” such was the case.
(more…)

Underappreciated Album: Queen’s Sheer Heart Attack

By Christian Lipski

At first glance, Sheer Heart Attack‘s only claim to fame is that it’s the album with “Killer Queen” on it, which may even come as a surprise to people who thought that that was Greatest Hits I. But the album goes quite a bit deeper, and is one of my favorite complete albums from Queen, even above A Night At The Opera or News Of The World, both very popular albums. Sheer Heart Attack was Queen’s third album, and the first one to really peek its head out from the progressive-rock mire that the previous two had been firmly entrenched in. There were still some elements of fantasy and nods to prog rock, but they were kept at a tasteful level. What you got was a selection of catchy rock songs of the pop-, hard-, and arena- varieties.
(more…)

Jarvis Cocker, Further Complications

By Ann Clarke

I’m rather surprised Jarvis Cocker has already released another album since his self-titled one really wasn’t out that long ago. He must be on a creative spurt lately, since he’s been all over like the place like horseshit during a parade! Check out his five-day stint at a Parisian art gallery. He and his band exhibited themselves playing music under many different guises.
(more…)

Cheap Trick, The Latest

By Less Lee Moore

I haven’t bought a new Cheap Trick album since their 1997 self-titled release on the then soon-to-be-defunct Red Ant label. Now that I’ve copped to this embarrassing admission, the next one should be easier. I hate writing record reviews. That old chestnut comparing the ridiculousness of music writing to “dancing about architecture” worms its way into my brain and I start to panic. Panic turns to dread as deadlines quickly approach.

Look, it’s not that I don’t love the latest release from Cheap Trick (cleverly titled The Latest), it’s that I don’t know if I can properly convey how much I love it, or perhaps more succinctly, I don’t know if I can convince you to love it as much as I do.
(more…)

Foetus, Limb

By Less Lee Moore

For a discussion of the design elements of the 48-page Limb booklet, please read Ann Clarke’s review here.

For a discussion of the Foetus NYC documentary, please read my review here.

Those fans introduced to JG Thirlwell via The Venture Bros. might be surprised (or perhaps confused) by the unique listening experience that Limb, the new Foetus release, provides. If you already knew about the avant garde and experimental reference points which inspired the pieces on Limb, you’ll likely have a different perspective on it than I do. So I’m not going to front and tell you I was intimately familiar with Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, and John Cage before I heard this album.
(more…)

Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey, Here and Now

By Less Lee Moore

It’s been 17 years since Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey recorded an album together. The first time it was the Mavericks album in 1992 and as Holsapple notes, “[It] was recorded and mixed in one fell swoop; this one took a couple years and a hurricane to complete.”
(more…)

Flying Lizards, Fourth Wall

By Matt Keeley

The title of the most important (only?) Flying Lizards fan page is “They Were a Very Different Band,” which sounds about right. They’re most famous for their deconstructed cover of “Money,” featuring a disaffected, posh-sounding English woman demanding money while speaking the lyrics over prepared piano and the sound of a bass guitar being hit with a stick. The single was recorded for a grand total of 26 pounds. Basically, the band wasn’t ever meant to be a band.
(more…)

Tinted Windows, S/T

By Less Lee Moore and Noreen Sobczyk

A band with Bun E. Carlos and Taylor Hanson probably sounds strange (and horrifying) to those who think Cheap Trick has nothing in common with Hanson. As a fan of both bands, we were excited about hearing this album. Having James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins) and Adam Schlesinger (Fountains Of Wayne) as part of the mix could have rendered the whole affair nothing more than a poorly executed publicity stunt, but it really works.

So here is a track-by-track review…
(more…)

Sports: The Band, S/T EP

By Megashaun

In recent years, we’ve seen an increase in quality regarding the debut releases of bands. Now, there are many bands with such strong debuts that listeners can’t imagine how they can possibly get better. Toronto, Ontario’s Sports: The Band is certainly guilty of this. Their debut album, technically only an EP, sounds so mature you’d imagine the band has been together for ages instead of the few short years they actually have been around.
(more…)

Adanowsky, El Idolo

By Julie Finley

There is a recurring phenomenon when the offspring of a talented parent tries to come out with something creative and it just sucks. For example . . . anything that Sean Lennon has ever done, and that sums it up! So I never have high hopes from anyone that comes from a top notch pedigree, and the fact they were born into “connections,” is really irritating!
(more…)