// Category Archive for: Reviews

Tindersticks, Claire Denis Film Scores 1996 – 2009

By Michelle Patterson

How I judge whether or not a soundtrack feels organic to its cinematic equal is whether or not it can stand on its own. This does not determine whether or not it is good—the apparent strength of the music isn’t a question—but if it can genuinely remind me of the film when I am listening to it in the quiet of my own bedroom or on the chaotic bus to work.

The clearest role of the soundtracks as experienced in the Tindersticks‘ Claire Denis Film Scores box set is as passive listener. This music stands on its own, without its marriage to the visuals; better yet, it imports another sense of value when associated with an entirely new set of identifiers, all depending on the situation of the listener.
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Iggy Pop, Roadkill Rising . . . The Bootleg Collection: 1977 – 2009

By Less Lee Moore

Who is the target audience for Roadkill Rising, Shout! Factory‘s four-disc “official” Iggy Pop bootleg collection? Fans get excited about concert albums; diehards and lifers hoard bootlegs like those suffering from OCD. Certainly the latter will be thrilled by the improved quality of these remastered bootlegs.

However, trying to determine if Roadkill Rising will appeal to non-Iggy Pop fans is an exercise in futility. I can’t imagine not being a fan of Iggy Pop so I am incapable of thinking like one.

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Booker T & The MGs, McLemore Avenue

By Matt Keeley

Look, you’re busy, I know that. If you don’t feel like reading this whole thing, just read the next sentence, and you’ll know the truth:

McLemore Avenue by Booker T & The MGs is a fucking amazing album.
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Sloan, The Double Cross

By Jemiah Jefferson

Canadian four-piece Sloan is one of the world’s most enduring cult-item bands (for everyone living outside Canada, that is; in the wily north, Sloan has been a ubiquitous source of pride for a large part of their twenty-year history). There’s a reason for this continued affection, slavishly on display at any of their raucous, friendly live shows: Sloan is a known quantity, and all ten of their albums lie on the spectrum between pretty damn good and iconically brilliant.
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The Definitive Miles Davis on Prestige

By Magda Underdown-DuBois

For the most part, I tend to be attracted to bluesy lyrics that grip my gut and pull me involuntarily into sound and words. Instrumental jazz, like classical music, usually blends into background for me. Yet, I was introduced to the trumpeter/band leader Miles Davis by a dear ex-housemate, whose taste for adventure extends from Frank Zappa to Hot Chip. With that recommendation in mind, I committed to the experience of a two-disc set—The Definitive Miles Davis on Prestige.
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Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs, No Help Coming

By Danny R. Phillips

Country music as a genre, in my self-deluded opinion, has been on a downward, pop-infused shit spiral since the 1990s Garth Brooks era, culminating in the current supremacy of Carrie “Screech” Underwood and Taylor “Let’s Go To The Mall” Swift.

I feared all was lost, that the world would be contented with pop songs passed off as country because they contain one of the following things: a fiddle, a steel guitar, or the word “y’all.” Then I heard Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs latest release No Help Coming. Rejoice traditionalists; this record is for you.
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Bob Dylan: The Never Ending Narrative 1990 – 2006

By Paul Casey

Despite my trepidation that The Never Ending Narrative, which documents Dylan’s commercial and critical comeback, would be another super cheap cash-in akin to Bob Dylan World Tour 1966: The Home Movies, I was pleasantly surprised. Sure, it is still pretty cheap—the most direct interview subjects are a pair of engineers—but unlike that earlier movie, it actually has Dylan music! Although it is not exactly overflowing with it, there is just enough to hold things together. The majority of the film is taken up by a series of music journalists, most of who specialize in discussing Bob Dylan. Most of these are entertaining, clearly know their subject, and help disguise the film’s shortcomings.

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The Definitive Bill Evans on Riverside and Fantasy

By Paul Casey

“I believe that all people are in possession, of what might be called a universal musical mind. Any true music speaks with this universal mind, to the universal mind in all people. The understanding that results will vary, only insofar as people have or have not been conditioned to the various styles of music, in which the universal mind speaks. Consequently, often some effort and exposure is necessary in order to understand some of the music coming from a different period or a different culture, than that to which the listener has been conditioned.

I do not agree that the layman’s opinion is less of a valid judgment of music than that of the professional musician. In fact, I would often rely more on the judgment of a sensitive layman than that of a professional, since the professional, because of his constant involvement in the mechanics of music, must fight to preserve the naivety that the layman already possesses.”
—Bill Evans

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Life: Keith Richards with James Fox

By Magda Underdown-DuBois

If one has ever heard Keith Richards interviewed, one knows his stories are amazingly well remembered for a man who was rumored to exist only through artificial means. The front flap of the dust jacket of Life explains this memoir of Keith Richards’ life completely and succinctly, “This is the Life. Believe it or not I haven’t forgotten any of it. Thanks and praises Keith Richards.”

Expected was a standard rambling account of drugs, sex, and rock & roll. Instead, what was delivered displayed a coherent story of Tolkien-inspired male friendship; awkward yet endearing fumbles through art, business, and parenting; a tribute to those who didn’t survive; and music of all genres soaking into the words, like the mixed odor of tobacco and whiskey.
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Foo Fighters, Wasting Light

By Danny R. Phillips

I’ll say it right now: In my opinion, the last few Foo Fighters records have not been, shall we say, stellar. And I will add that I stopped buying them after There Is Nothing Left To Lose, my personal belief being it exposed two things that threw a monkey wrench (sorry, corny song reference there) into the works.
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