Archive for the ‘Music Reviews’ Category

Old Ideas – Leonard Cohen (Sony)

Leonard Cohen surely had nothing left to prove, but this album, his first for seven years, and self-described as a ‘manual for living with defeat’, emphatically underlines that he remains a vital and unique recording artist.  Old Ideas is delicate, curmudgeonly, wryly humorous, instrumentally organic and instantly gratifying. That’s a lot of different aspects of distinction and yet they somehow... Read the full story

Craig Finn – Clear Heart Full Eyes (Vagrant)

Craig Finn, singer and songwriter for American indie-rock saviors The Hold Steady, is adept at writing songs about having his daily life colored by the fact that he is, first and foremost, “in a band”. It’s been his identity, his point of reference and the source of many of his most goofily triumphant songs with The Hold Steady. But from the first song on this solo album, Apollo Bay, (which incidentally... Read the full story

Suzy Connolly – Night Larks (Laughing Outlaw)

Filing the debut solo album from Sydney guitarist and songwriter Suzy Connolly on the melodic guitar-pop shelf next to artists such as Aimee Mann and Matthew Sweet, who it turn draw their inspiration from Big Star and The Beatles wouldn’t be offensive to any of those artists. But there are moments on her debut album when she manages to transcend her musical lineage and come up with some surprising... Read the full story

Ruthie Foster – Let It Burn (Fuse)

While Ruthie Foster is best known in her home town of Austin, Tx, it makes perfect sense that she chose to make this album in New Orleans, with a cast of musicians from the musically resurgent Crescent City. Foster who performed at last years Bluesfest and Byron Bay, continues to build a great reputation that can only be enhanced by this album. The dominant sound on this album is the Hammond B3 of... Read the full story

The Black Belles – Self Titled (Third Man/Fuse)

If The Black Belles didn’t exist then they would have been invented – but it would have taken a particularly mischievious pop culture manipulator to have given birth to this four-headed monster. Depending who you believe that devious maverick might have been Jack White of the White Stripes. The question remains whether White discovered them fully formed or created them in a carefully orchestrated... Read the full story

Mockingbird Time – The Jayhawks (Rounder)

There is an undeniable joy in the blending of the voices of Mark Olson and Gary Louris.  In their first album as The Jayhawks in many years that joy comes flooding back in the opening track, Hide Your Colors. The song literally leaps from the speakers in a rousing cavalcade of harmonized voices that has you recalling, with enthusiasm, their first series of albums, before Olson and Louris went their... Read the full story

Elsie – The Horrible Crowes (Shock)

Deriving their name from the protagonists in a particularly nasty 12th Century Scottish poem, The Horrible Crowes is the side-project for The Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon, teaming with his guitar tech, Ian Perkins. While Fallon is one of the more authentic voices in new American rock, owing his styling to equal parts Springsteen and The Clash, on this album he narrows his focus and substitutes... Read the full story

The Blackbird Diaries – Dave Stewart (Roadshow)

Dave Stewart is best known as the male half of Eurythmics and as a producer adept at sprinkling fairy dust over other people’s recordings. He’s had considerable success at both these endeavors, and has a reputation as a delightfully bonkers collaborator, but he’s had limited exposure as a solo artist. In fact, this is his first solo outing in 13 years. This album has you wondering why he has... Read the full story

Be The Morning – The Marines (Laughing Outlaw)

The Marines debut album is the product of a lengthy gestation leading to a hot summer spent in a rented workman’s cottage somewhere outside of Sydney. It would also appear that it is the product of a collection of very tasteful record collections. Not that they are simply mimicking those high quality record collections, but there’s no denying that musicologist listeners are likely to spot strains... Read the full story

Future Universe – Ron S. Peno and the Superstitions (Fuse Group)

It’s taken a long time for Ron Peno to get around to releasing a solo album, and even now he’s chosen to attach a band to the project, not just in name but in musical collaboration, and, it feels like, in spirit also. The songs on Future Universe were written by Peno and guitarist Cam Butler, although at times you feel like the ghost of (the very much alive!) Jimmie Webb may have floated through... Read the full story

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