Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

Eighteen year old Kelly Sweet does a pretty good job on her first album, We Are One. Although I can’t say the album was my cup of tea, it can't be denied that Sweet can sing and has a sweet voice. I do have to say though that her purity and ...

I was let on to Kings of Leon several months ago.  I wasn’t sure what to make of their music at that point.  It seemed slightly off kilter, maybe a little too cookie-cutter.  There were no ambitious segments of the songs outside of the standard exchanges between “verse” and “chorus”.  ...

From Saddle Creek Records, arguably best known for Conor Oberst’s Bright Eyes, comes Maria Taylor with her sophomore effort, “Lynn Teeter Flower.”  You might not know who she is now, but if there is any sanity left in the recording industry at all, hers will soon be a household name ...

Marina V is a Russian immigrant who came to the United States with a vision of becoming a performing artist. While she is to be commended, even encouraged, for her desire and work ethic, SIMPLE MAGIC, her third release, is loaded, maybe overloaded, with estrogenic angst.The tunes on SIMPLE MAGIC ...

Mindy Misty is from Oslo, Norway which means they speak English better than your average 17 year old from Akron. Their debut full length, PROTOPLASMA, is better than a lot of the crap you're listening to right now, too, like Arca…well, never mind, but this is a great CD, one ...

I was unsure how to approach a review of Night Kills the Day.  Their album, The Study of Man, takes me outside my familiar realm of metal, stripping me of a comfortable musical frame of reference.  Still, it is an album that should not be ignored.  There is something haunting ...

If you try and write an album full of ‘witty’ or otherwise funny lyrics, it’s a good idea to have the music to back it up, just in case the humor falls flat on its face. In the case of No More Kings and their self-titled debut disc, they almost ...

I have been all over the place with TWELVE, the new release by Patti Smith. For me, the reference point of her work has been and probably will always be HORSES, her debut long-player, a statement that you can listen to from beginning to end without being tempted to skip ...

The strongest aspects of Paul Furlong’s new album, Someday, are his sweet swaying melodies and pleasingly calm guitar chords.   In many tracks on Someday, Paul begins to show a crossover from soft Christian rock to a laid-back country sound.  In fact, those elements are the most powerful things about his ...

While the name might suggest a full-blown band, this self-titled debut from Prosser is largely a one man show. Eric Woodruff, formerly of Bellingham, Washington band Delay, has crafted a promising debut with his own two hands. Woodruff played most of the instruments, with some assistance from the likes of ...

This one brings back the memories. Rachel Sweet was a 16 year old junior at Firestone High School in Akron, Ohio, when FOOL AROUND was released. I had lived in Akron for fifteen years at the time, and something was in the air, the feeling that the town, a truly ...