Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

  8Ball is a Memphis rapper who has been around for well over a decade, dropping joints intermittently throughout. LIGHT UP THE BOMB is an ambitious project that results in what is arguably his best work to date.8Ball is Dirty South, from beginning to end, with an emphasis on Atlanta ...

Graceful songs to commit suicide to.That’s pretty much my take on Air’s POCKET SYMPHONY the first listen I had with it.  I wasn’t sure if I felt melancholy or like going to sleep for a while.  Either scenario, this album should have been packaged with a prescription for Zoloft.Nicholas Godin ...

Anthony Hamilton is The Man. I put SOUTHERN COMFORT on two days ago and can't get it out of the player, not that I've tried. He’s got that Bill Withers’ groove going, the one that isn't always the current big thing but never really goes away either. This is what ...

Any Trouble was blessed with the good fortune to release their debut album, WHERE ARE ALL THE NICE GIRLS, at about the same time that something called “MTV-MUSIC TELEVISION” began to broadcast “music videos” on a relatively new medium named cable TV. Any Trouble’s curse was that they did not ...

The Arcade Fire somehow make a church organ and an accordion sound cool and hip on their latest album Neon Bible, a follow-up to their 2004 critically acclaimed Funeral.  Think of sounds that echo Bowie, U2 and perhaps a little bit of Bruce, then throw in a little Talking Heads ...

You have got to give James Alexander credit. The Bar-Kays had a gig as a Otis Redding’s concert band and a monster radio hit titled “Soul Finger” on the charts when the band, and Redding were tragically killed in a plane crash in the mid-1960s. Alexander, ironically, missed the plane, ...

With their first release, Blindswitch hits a home run.  Singer David Litvinsky’s selections are filled with unique and catchy chord progressions that will spin inside your head well after the music stops.  Blindswitch may be just what you need to fill that catchy Pop Rock hole in your life.Blindswitch has ...

I can’t say I had high expectations when picking up Surprise Party, the first CD by a relatively unknown Bob Burger. No surprises here; a complete waste of an hour. Well, maybe not a complete waste, but pretty close.This Tom Petty “wanna be” has many songs that echo Learning To ...

Danan Healy, as we are told, has a master’s degree in opera and has been through basic training in the U.S. Army. This seemingly conflicting background is well-exhibited in THE OTHER SIDE, Healy’s first full length CD release (and the follow-up to her debut EP, 2005’s YOU NEED MORE LOVE).Healy ...

This is not a comedy CD! The Dane Cook Tourgasm CD is a sampling of modern rock bands that is sure to make music fans happy, but leave those expecting comedy a little confused.  This is the most important thing to know about this project.  As one of the most popular comics today, ...

Newcomer to the R&B scene, Darien Brockington showcases his soulful voice on his first full length release, "Somebody to Love."  Although the album can become a bore after the midpoint and is not exactly spell-binding, Brockington proves that he has the potential to become a force to be reckoned with ...

I'm gonna say at the outset that Dave Holt seems to be a pretty good guy. NOW OR NEVER!, the latest release by the Dave Holt Band, is an aural business card, if you will, for a band from the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania area which plays a wide range of ...

Too Close, Too Far is the University of Pennsylvania freshman Dave Patten’s first album.  The most striking element of this freshman’s, freshman album is its deep, raspy, rough and unrestrained sound.  Another bit of this album that surprised me was its contemporary sound and subtle themes thereof, if anything it ...

I’m guessing a “laud” is the instrument Cole Coleman is holding on the CD art reproduced above. Honestly, I couldn’t tell when that instrument was used (besides the moments specifically listed on their Myspace page), as opposed to the guitars he’s listed as playing on his collaboration with vocalist/keyboardist Lynn ...

Dirty Looks was an improbable Staten Island, NY power pop trio which was signed to iconoclastic British record label Stiff Records after playing only ten gigs. It seems odd that such things used to happen; oddly enough, they still do, though that is another story. In any event, their self-titled ...

Not everyone agrees with me, but even if you call this crass commercial pandering (and I don‘t), this seems like a pretty cool concept. Toyota had an idea to market to a younger urban market and invested in a hip-hop label. Scion Records (named after the selfsame Toyota vehicle) has ...

Warm up your CD players or get those Ipods ready folks.  If metal music is your thing, then Djizoes: (Pronounced “Jesus” and yes the colon is part of the name…) should be added to your list.  Formed in 2002 in wonderful Geneva, Djizoes: has managed to get immediate attention for ...

Listening to “Rocket Man – Number Ones” was like breathing in a beautiful memory.  As each song began, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and happily sighed as the music washed over me. As the arrangements drew me in with a smile, the musical journey began – a ...

Esteban has been an established guitarist for several decades, toiling in the new age and smooth jazz markets and overcoming a great deal of circumstantial adversity along the way. While BEST OF ESTEBAN is not the type of collection that is going to make your heart race if you are ...

Former SNL cast member Finesse Mitchell shows why he belongs on the sketch comedy circuit in his recently released DVD Snap Famous, a showcase of his standup comedy. Although the 50 minute set had its high points, Mitchell’s stand up routine was nowhere near as entertaining as the various characters ...

By track 3, “Summer in the City”, I was aware of the fact that this album was going to be cover heavy.  Incognito’s BEES+THINGS+FLOWERS is an acid-jazz lover’s perfect cover album of older generation hits.  The Lovin’ Spoonful, Earth, Wind & Fire, and America all get a new jazz/fusion treatment ...

  If there is a country music radio programmer out there who isn't under the sway of some corporate monkey two thousand miles away, I have a suggestion for you. Pick up the new self-titled CD by Jerry Adam and go to Cut Three and play Adams’ version of “Would ...

PILLAR OF STONE by Joelle isn't bad. Not at all. I looked at the cover, and I thought, “Uh oh.” You can't really blame me. She has this moist-eye thing going, like she showed up at your front door just as you're going out for the evening with your wife. ...

I didn’t know what to expect when I decided to give Jonny Lives! a listen, so I took it upon myself to do a little research. Upon looking up their Web site, I found that the band’s sound is inspired by the Kinks, the Rolling Stones and the Who. Nice. ...

ATLANTIS: HYMNS FOR DISCO by K-Os is one of those discs that I heard all sorts of things about before I actually heard it. The general consensus was that one track --- “Sunday Morning” --- is a killer and the rest of the project sucks. I accordingly went directly to ...