Latest CD Reviews

Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul - Reviews

2008-10-09T14:23:00.002-06:00

All Music Guide
What's striking about Dig Out Your Soul is how its relentless onslaught of sound proves as enduring as the tunes.
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Hartford Courant
Noel Gallagher comes up with a half-dozen tracks as good as the classic-rock epic 'The Turning,' or 'The Shock of the Lightning,' which swaggers as confidently as Oasis did a dozen years ago.
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New Musical Express
More than anything else, there’s a feeling that Dig Out Your Soul might actually be their best album in over a decade. In other words, not quite the fabled, oft-promised “Best one since fookin’ "Definitely Maybe!"" but certainly the best one since fookin’ "...Morning Glory."
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The Streets - Everything Is Borrowed - Reviews

2008-10-08T09:16:00.002-06:00

musicOMH.com
More than anything it's just a relief to see this rare talent back from the brink, still, as always, one step ahead of the game
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New Musical Express
Skinner has consolidated everything he’s done before, chucked in where his head’s at now and come up with an album that, while lacking the visceral thrill of ‘Original Pirate Material’, is a minor masterpiece that will mean a lot to a more select bunch of people.
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The Guardian
Each listen reveals more light and shade, reaffirming Skinner's position as one of Britain's truly interesting stars.
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DJ Khaled - We Global - Reviews

2008-10-06T11:36:00.002-06:00

RapReviews.com
This results in a lot of victories but not a whole lot of personality, and the closest we get to seeing Khaled's soul is the fact he tends to favor putting the Southeast's finest from Pitbull to Rick Ross on his tracks.
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All Music Guide
Getting back on track, DJ Khaled's We Global corrects all the mistakes made on his disappointing sophomore effort "We the Best" and gets back to the high-quality control of his debut "Listennn: The Album."
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The New York Times
We Global is an orchestra of favor collecting, though slightly dimmer than the two albums that preceded it.
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Abe Vigoda - Skeleton - Reviews

2008-10-05T09:03:00.002-06:00

Pitchfork
Skeleton's flaws are few and often obscured by the album's mixing: Vidal's vocal adds an additional rhythmic layer, but his lyrical work is interesting enough to be more pronounced and less muddied.
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The Onion (A.V. Club)
Mostly, Skeleton is jagged and weird....But if you can take the knocks, the band is at its finest when embracing discordance.
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Prefix Magazine
Brevity is the buzzword throughout Skeleton. No track goes over four minutes, and five don’t even hit two minutes. But brilliance emerges within those constraints.
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Kellie Pickler - Kellie Pickler - Reviews

2008-10-04T09:09:00.002-06:00

Billboard
Teamed with new producer Chris Lindsey and with more time to create than she did in the rush following her run on "American Idol," Kellie Pickler's second album is another solid step toward country stardom.
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Los Angeles Times
There are individual moments of accomplishment, but the album is like a Whitman Sampler, with a sweet tidbit for listeners in pretty much any stage of a romantic relationship, leading to a fairly scattered emotional palette.
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The New York Times
"If those girls were being honest and have been where you’re at. I bet they tell you they wish they had their innocence back." But this is what passes for wisdom on Ms. Pickler’s tepid and forgettable new record.
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The Nightwatchman - The Fabled City - Reviews

2008-10-02T09:21:00.002-06:00

Entertainment Weekly
The Rage Against the Machine guitarist's remarkable transformation from purveyor of weapons-grade funk-metal riffs into introspective protest folkie yields even more impressive fruit on his second solo effort The Fabled City.
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Los Angeles Times
Morello's singing could inspire chuckles rather than revolution. But on The Fabled City, he and O'Brien have dressed it up enough to make it seem almost super at times.
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Rolling Stone
Lyrically, Morello still goes over the top, piling on biblical references and Dylanesque nonsense like "one-eyed crow, tappin' on the windowpane." But with a solid band behind him, he seems much more confident in his new role as a modern protest troubadour.
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Jennifer Hudson - Jennifer Hudson - Reviews

2008-10-01T07:22:00.002-06:00

Boston Globe
Despite its flaws, Hudson's debut comes on much like her "Dreamgirls" character, with admirable self-assurance and real-girl sensuality.
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Entertainment Weekly
None are exceptional, but they're all a sufficient delivery system for those spectacular vocal chops.
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Slant Magazine
By the time Jennifer Hudson gets back to good old-fashioned balladry, it's too late: we're saddled with the same Diane Warren song ("You Pulled Me Through") we've heard at least a dozen times before; a ridiculously trite and histrionic you-stole-my-man duet with fellow A.I. alum Fantasia ("I'm His Only Woman") we've heard at least a half-dozen times before; another Stargate/Ne-Yo concoction we've heard...well, you get the point.
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XX Teens - Welcome To Goon Island - Reviews

2008-09-30T15:03:00.002-06:00

PopMatters
Even if it’s not an instant classic, Welcome to Goon Island is a lot of fun, with its big booming drum cadences and excitable, yelp-prone voices.
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All Music Guide
It's a hook to beat all hooks in the middle of a desolate recording: a desolate recording that demands several listens to truly penetrate but has worthwhile payoffs subtly placed throughout.
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Dot Music
Ultimately, it's not that XX Teens throw everything including the kitchen sink at it, but rather that they drink everything under the sink and wait to see what happens. Welcome To Good Island is that kind of experience.
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Free MP3' (The Green Fields Of France, Meiko, The Afters, The Pink Spiders, Tricky)

2008-09-29T16:05:00.004-06:00

Free MP3':
The Green Fields Of France (featuring Josh Haden) (Exclusive Amazon MP3 Version)
Meiko - Boys With Girlfriends
The Afters - One Moment Away (Album Version)
The Pink Spiders - Busy Signals
Tricky - Past Mistake

Alias - Resurgam - Reviews

2008-09-29T15:59:00.002-06:00

The Onion (A.V. Club)
Resurgam is brimming with glacial, lucent, keys-driven beauty.
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All Music Guide
Alias has created his most welcoming and positive dream world on Resurgam, an album where the creaks comfort and the low cloud cover comes off as heavenly.
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PopMatters
Resurgam is pleasant and occasionally quite captivating ear candy from an artist who may nevertheless have to work harder in the future in order to remain distinct.
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B.B. King - One Kind Favor - Reviews

2008-09-29T06:00:00.002-06:00

Paste Magazine
Elegiac by intent, the record is awash in poignancy, radiating from the deeply felt guitar and vocal performances of the 83-year-old King and his supporting band (anchored by drummer Jim Keltner, bassist Nathan East and pianist Dr. John) and from the carefully chosen material.
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All Music Guide
Even if King winds up returning to his familiar slick, star-studded sound somewhere down the line, having an album as earthily elegant as One Kind Favor in his canon provides a fitting coda for one of the great musical careers of the 20th century.
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Rolling Stone
This isn't just B.B. King's best album in years, it's one of the strongest studio sets of his career, standing alongside classics such as "Singin' the Blues" and "Lucille."
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Kings Of Leon - Only By The Night - Reviews

2008-09-28T04:36:00.001-06:00

Observer Music Monthly
The dreamy 'Cold Desert' is the perfect maudlin end to this short, sharp, 42-minute, no-filler album, revelling in every miserable blues-rocker cliché as Matthew's guitar goes all shoegazey and then briefly threatens to turn the whole thing into a 'Purple Rain' wig-out.
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Entertainment Weekly
Throughout Only by the Night, frontman Caleb Followill wails forlornly about cheap thrills and true love while his two brothers (and a cousin) bash  out spooky, raw-edged riffs that rarely go where you expect them to.
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Sputnikmusic
As it is, it's a very fine record from a band who are seemingly growing in stature, confidence, and ability by the day.
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Mogwai - The Hawk Is Howling - Reviews

2008-09-27T08:27:00.003-06:00

Urb
The Hawk is Howling is Mogwai at its best.
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All Music Guide
At first, it's tempting to want all of The Hawk Is Howling to be as obviously powerful as its biggest tracks, but with time it reveals itself as one of Mogwai's most masterful blends of delicacy and strength.
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Observer Music Monthly
Masters at building tension upon tension then gently letting it go, their cyclical instrumentals are both sorrowful and consoling.
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Pussycat Dolls - Doll Domination - Reviews

2008-09-25T08:20:00.002-06:00

Billboard
The Dolls' bark is as big as their bite.
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The New York Times
Ms. Scherzinger’s small, flexible voice thrives in the programmed, computer-tuned R&B tracks.
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Slant Magazine
Like the Dolls's debut, "PCD," the new album could use a little more of that cabaret style and a little less of the anonymous, by-the-numbers R&B and dance formulas that have become the modern girl-group convention
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Glasvegas - Glasvegas - Teviews

2008-09-24T08:17:00.002-06:00

Observer Music Monthly
Praise indeed but then these hard-nosed softies are unique and this, make no mistake, is their "Definitely Maybe," the quintessential noise-pop set of the modern age.
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Dot Music
It's a gut punch of a debut, and one that makes you believe Glasvegas are one of those rare, rare bands who might just have that perfect record in them.
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New Musical Express
So believe it: this is the real thing, no-one’s crying wolf, not even Alan McGee.
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LL Cool J - Exit 13 - Reviews

2008-09-23T12:12:00.001-06:00

RapReviews.com
Even if this isn't a Grammy-winning album, it is actually better than most of the bullshit Def Jam has released this year, and if LL Cool J had a point to prove on Exit 13, he has made it in acerbic style.
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NOW Magazine
This reinvigorated 40-year-old (!) Queens loudmouth makes a somewhat fleshy final Def Jam album, but it’s well-chiselled compared to his last ugly, irrelevant albums.
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Dot Music
Though he falls short of wholly convincing, the heart is almost always in the right place: a refreshing change from 99 per cent of those more interested in the image, not the message.
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Nelly - Brass Knuckles - Reviews

2008-09-22T02:16:00.002-06:00

Boston Globe
Brass Knuckles is 14 songs long. All of them could be singles. None of them could be hits.
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Vibe
Brass Knuckles is standard Nelly fare.
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Rolling Stone
On his fifth album, he mostly sticks to that pop-rap formula, cranking his distinctly melodic flow to hyper-speeds and playing the good-natured hedonist on cuts like 'Party People.' But when he tries to come off hard on a handful of Dirty South brawlers, he ends up sounding generic
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Amanda Palmer - Who Killed Amanda Palmer - Reviews

2008-09-21T00:32:00.002-06:00

musicOMH.com
The album's not for everyone, but if her sound is to your taste, then it will prove a rewarding, delectable, necessary thing: one of this year's most consistently interesting albums.
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Boston Globe
What is both surprising and remarkable, then, is how unflinchingly direct, bracingly unfiltered, and wholly intimate the new album, which is out today, sounds and feels.
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Delusions of Adequacy
This is a wonderful piece of work from a talented, intelligent artist, put across with all the passion of someone who's spent a long time thinking about and living with the project.
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Dead Confederate - Wrecking Ball - Reviews

2008-09-20T12:43:00.001-06:00

The Onion (A.V. Club)
Ultimately, though, Dead Confederate's alt-country/grunge hybrid doesn't just feel like a compelling debut, it feels like a compelling new genre.
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Spin
The Georgia quintet's debut may appeal to My Morning Jacket fans, but songs like 'Heavy Petting' and 'Start Me Laughing' (which recalls Kurt Cobain at his nastiest) possess more growl than that comparison implies.
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The New York Times
A well-put-together debut album.
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Tindersticks - The Hungry Saw - Reviews

2008-09-20T06:04:00.003-06:00

The Onion (A.V. Club)
Tindersticks remains a champion at feel-bad soul strings, but those who've found the group's previous work oppressive might want to try again: Staples' vocals haven't changed, but with the music as pared-down as one of their impressionistic soundtracks, it's a new sound.
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Boston Globe
The years away may have recharged Staples's batteries, but the music itself sounds much the same, which is a good thing.
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NOW Magazine
The Hungry Saw may make Leonard Cohen’s stuff sound positively giddy, but it’s a positive turn for the Tindersticks.
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Pivot - O Soundtrack My Heart - Reviews

2008-09-19T00:01:00.003-06:00

The Guardian
Like all the best instrumental music, it's evocative stuff: the trio's multi-layered blend of vintage synths, skittering beats and crashing post-rock instrumentation keeps your mind's eye busy with images of futuristic cityscapes, gallant space troopers and, on the riotous title track, Jean Michel Jarre and Vangelis teaming up to battle Rage Against the Machine for sonic supremacy.
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Urb
Just some progressive musicians being…progressive. O Soundtrack My Heart is not for everyone, and that’s not a bad thing.
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Prefix Magazine
More than their previous efforts, this album exhibits the depth and experience that they have gained from such collaborations.
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Noah And The Whale - Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down - Reviews

2008-09-18T08:39:00.002-06:00

cokemachineglow
Earnestness is so damningly difficult to nail down, but Fink and his cohorts come as close as anything this year, displaying an aptness for cloying love songs minus the puppy dog eyes.
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musicOMH.com
It's gentle enough to be background music, lively enough to be worth listening to for the sake of it, and certainly an impressive achievement for a 21-year-old's debut.
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New Musical Express
If soft-hearted London folkies Noah And The Whale aren’t quite as deft with savoury rice, they’ve got the knack of balancing heart-melting, pupil-dilating ditties with words of chill bleakness down pat.
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Ne-Yo - Year Of The Gentleman - Reviews

2008-09-17T23:54:00.004-06:00

Los Angeles Times
It's no surprise that Ne-Yo sings about women on his excellent third album, Year of the Gentleman.
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Entertainment Weekly
On his third disc in as many years, the 28-year-old Southerner with the Michael Jackson falsetto not only wears his heart on his sleeve, he lets it bleed down his (no doubt high-thread-count) cuff.
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Rolling Stone
The 28-year-old singer-songwriter says his latest collection of heartfelt love songs is a tribute to the Rat Pack's pressed-suit style, but it's actually a superb concept album about what a great boyfriend he can be.
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James - Hey Ma - Reviews

2008-09-17T11:38:00.005-06:00

All Music Guide
James do have more quirks in their sound and plenty of quirks in Booth, who is always willing to act like a fool if it is in service of the greater good. These are the things that make Hey Ma a welcome comeback even for those listeners who may never have been big James fans.
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Q Magazine
James has surprisingly reunited for this equally surprisingly strong comeback album
The Guardian
No matter that he employs every possible cliche (and none more so than in the violin-choked Upside, in which he patronises immigrant labourers): once the guitars get rolling and Booth scrapes the sky with his tenor, you find yourself weirdly hooked.
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Lindsey Buckingham - Gift Of Screws - Reviews

2008-09-17T01:01:00.004-06:00

Entertainment Weekly
Buckingham remains the master of type A chamber pop.
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Boston Globe
Gift of Screws is only his fifth solo record. Perhaps that's why the singer and guitarist (who turns 60 next month) still sounds so vital and passionate, especially on the voluptuous, opening songs 'Great Day' and 'Time Precious Time,' where his luminescent riffs and nimble finger-picking shine.
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Rolling Stone
The sound under him is a wild roadhouse blues with the signature groove of old bandmates Mick Fleetwood and John McVie.
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Spin
Gift of Screws boasts a lot of attractive touches, from the lovely acoustic guitar of 'Bel Air Rain' to the crashing chorus of 'Love Runs Deeper,' but less polish would add some soul to the mix.
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The Subways - All Or Nothing - Reviews

2008-09-16T12:27:00.004-06:00

Hot Press
Triumphant sophomore offering from butch Vig-produced punk-pop outfit.
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New Musical Express
See, in All Or Nothing, The Subways haven’t just made a great record – they’ve vindicated everyone who still believes in the power and the glory of three chords and distortion pedals.
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musicOMH.com
The fact that they've managed to record an album so strong, consistent and downright impressive is proof positive that, after much promise, The Subways have come of age.
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Okkervil River - The Stand Ins - Reviews

2008-09-16T01:03:00.002-06:00

Entertainment Weekly
This Austin quintet follows 2007's "The Stage Names" with a second tour de force about the collateral damage of fame.
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Delusions of Adequacy
Remember those old days when everything was perfect, when you were happy and all was right in your world, The Stand Ins achieves this.
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Paste Magazine
Okkervil River itself performs here with an organic ease that’s dramatic without reaching for histrionics, continuing to tattoo its rough folkish flesh with Motown horns, power-pop overdrive and chugging New Wave bass.
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Fujiya & Miyagi - Lightbulbs - Reviews

2008-09-15T16:39:00.003-06:00

Observer Music Monthly
F&M have added intriguing textures to the Krautrock of 2006's Transparent Things.
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The Guardian
David Best again sensibly centres his whispered vocals upon texture rather than melody, with lyrics seemingly selected from a pool of pop-culture references by phonetic potential alone.
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musicOMH.com
Words are used minimally and to great effect.
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Calexico - Carried To Dust - Reviews

2008-09-15T11:10:00.006-06:00

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All Music Guide
Carried to Dust isn't just one of Calexico's most expansive albums, it's also their most balanced, channeling their experience and potential into a subtly dramatic, chiaroscuro tour de force.
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Paste Magazine
It’s tempting to think of Carried to Dust as a companion piece to "Feast of Wire."...And, like that distinguished predecessor, this one is a beauty from start to finish.
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Pitchfork
Ultimately, this is the type of record this band is suited to making, and it richly rewards repeat listening--details and melodies that seem buried or understated eventually come to fore, slowly revealed in a mixture of organic warmth, welcome variety, and subtle complexity.
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Nico Muhly - Mothertongue - Reviews

2008-09-15T09:30:00.002-06:00

Almost Cool
An exciting release that deepens with further listens, Mothertongue is a great step forward from Muhly.
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The Phoenix
It's a gorgeous performance that anchors Mothertongue with its strength and solemnity.
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The Onion (A.V. Club)
It's searching, quizzical, and filled with alternately fleeting and sustained passages of astonishing beauty.
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Dusted Magazine
What makes Muhly’s work particularly interesting then is not only his use of this style--comprehending the four movements of the title track is particularly vexing as bits of voices mingle and move at different velocities--but the use of the style in a dynamic way itself, reminiscent of Nyman’s compositions.
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Patty Loveless - Sleepless Nights - Reviews

2008-09-14T14:55:00.002-06:00

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Slant Magazine
Loveless has offered another unqualified masterpiece with Sleepless Nights and reasserted her place as one of the premier artists not just of the country genre but of contemporary popular music.
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All Music Guide
Loveless treats these songs without even a trace of nostalgia, but as the living embodiment of stories that not only transfer emotion, but reveal the hidden truths of love, life, sadness, grief, and wisdom gained by experience.
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Billboard
In lesser hands this collection of country classics might have been badly mishandled, but in the willing arms of traditionalist extraordinaire Patty Loveless and producer/husband Emory Gordy Jr., the past is brought to new life.
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Motorhead - Motorizer - Reviews

2008-09-14T08:16:00.002-06:00

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Pitchfork
Motorhead do what they do best: be Motorhead.
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PopMatters
It’s that intangible quality that Lemmy brings to every single Motorhead record, something the superb Motorizer has, ‘scuse the pun, in spades.
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All Music Guide
Motorizer falls short of essential and isn't quite in a class with Motorhead's best late-'70s/early-'80s output, but this album is definitely respectable.
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The Phoenix
Motorizer, much of which the band recorded at Dave Grohl’s Studio 606 outside LA, is Motorhead’s first studio album since... well, actually, only since 2006, when they released "Kiss of Death," which sounded pretty much exactly like this one (not to mention the 22 before it).
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Metallica - Death Magnetic - Reviews

2008-09-13T17:05:00.004-06:00

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The Phoenix
Of special note is the 10-minute instrumental 'Suicide and Redemption': listening to it, you almost forget that there are supposed to be words in rock songs, since it’s filled with building riffs, escalating volleys of tension and release, and moments of frantic drum abandon from Lars Ulrich that should do a lot to redeem his standing in Modern Drummer’s Drummer of the Year polls.
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Entertainment Weekly
Sometimes the album's mini-epics come off as we've still got it! stunts. But when it's working, the effect is like ceding your senses to a particularly well-engineered roller coaster in the dark.
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Uncut
Like all the best heavy rock albums, it suspends your disbelief, demands your attention and connects directly with your inner adolescent.
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Rolling Stone
The musicianship feels thrillingly live throughout, and nimble new bassist Robert Trujillo helps, even though he's mostly heard as a distant, ominous rumble.
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