Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

In the words of Bart Simpson, "I didn't think it was possible, but this [album] both sucks and blows." I shall take no mercy on the untalented and unaware and B Rich is by far both. This album just may be one of the worst albums EVER! I would give ...

Pop music has been inundated by boy bands who sing, dance, entertain and grace the covers of teen magazines.  Many of these bands lack real talent; some lack abilities to harmonize well, or utilize their vocal abilities to display a full range of emotion.  B2K is a different sort of ...

"Home Sweet Home" rocks pretty hard, heavy on the three chord progressions and happy hum along harmonies-so we'll call 'em Power Pop with a punch… or if you prefer, "polished" Punk for the parenting types. There's some fan friendly, good time, uptempo character in their tunes on their current self-produced ...

Groovy guitar, soulful bass and sincere singing make Roll Away a good debut album for Back Door Slam, composed of Davy Knowles (vocals, guitar), Adam Jones (bass) and Ross Doyle (drums). The band clearly is going for a high energy blues rocking sound and it suits them well. With splashes ...

Here to save us all… from this sad state of affairs that is the Popular music culture in 2003? And how exactly to do that… free passes aboard the intergalactic fantasy flyer double timing down the deserted highway of indeterminacy and relive another 1978? Okay, I'll take the ride, but ...

When I came across Eat Drugs, the new album by relatively unknown L.A. rock outfit Bad Dudes, I didn’t really know what to expect. If I were one to judge a book by its cover, I would have assumed Bad Dudes were a bunch of coked-up punk rockers with an ...

If the end result's any indication, here's hoping they take an extended break more often! "The Process Of Belief" is to an album what born-again Christianity is to a faith, and the invigorated results of their new collaboration are astounding! Recalling the ferocity of ...

Along with a back-where-they-belong alliance with the Epitaph label, the prodigal return of guitarist Brett Gurewitz to Bad Religion was a welcomed indication to followers that the band was still focused on its mission in making the music matter. Not that either band or Mr. Brett grew soft during the ...

My wife and I were driving through South Louisiana several years ago when she asked me about signs that said “POSTED” which were hanging on intervals at trees. I advised her that the signs marked private property and told hunters not to trespass, hunt, or the like. ...

I never really got Badly Drawn Boy, mostly, I think, because of the context of my heretofore limited exposure of him. Last year I would catch a glimpse of a video from the ABOUT A BOY CD in the (very) early morning hours while waiting for the coffee to percolate, ...

Maybe it was the comfort of being home on a lazy boy chair that I had not sat in for many months, or the accidental synchronization of an MSNBC commercial going on behind me to the beat of the music. Whatever it may have been, this album just made sense ...

As if appearing from nowhere, Band of Horses seems to be everywhere these days.  In the last few months they have graced the cover of SPIN magazine and been labeled Rolling Stones’ “hot band” of 2007. A track off their latest album Cease to Begin was even an iTunes/Starbucks song ...

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, ...

Oh, how I wanted to love this CD. I’ve always had a secret hankering for the deep-throated bass that is Barry White. My obsession was similar to Peter MacNicol’s character on Ally McBeal: each time he’s played on the radio, I start swaying my shoulders and tapping my foot. But, ...

Welcome to a world of interesting and carefree melodies topped with a warm voice that draws you in like you've just met your new best friend.  Oh, My Darling, the new album by Canadian singer Basia Bulat, is this world I speak of.  The album is THAT engrossing; it's as ...

If Mazzy Star had auditioned for the Go-Go’s, singing lyrics by Tim Burton, with Pee-wee Herman at the mixing board and everyone flying on Quaaludes, you might have something approaching the innocent playful darkness of The Bastard Fairies debut album, Memento Mori. But what might be a disastrous mess of ...

The name has lay buried in the bowels of Black Metal past for the late great kings of the earliest Nordic uprising all those years ago. And concurrently, with the seeming resurrection of Black Mark, the one time rulers of Scandinavian dark, Bathory rises again from a decade long dormancy ...

It’s not your parent’s rock, but it’s not really a new thing either. To Death and Beyond... by Battleroar has that 90’s rock kind of feel, like a mix of old Metallica and good Pearl Jam. But the songs last almost as long as Tool; except instead of some trippy ...

Bauhaus is one of those bands whose name evokes either adulation or groans; there is no middle ground. Founded in 1978 by drummer Kevin Haskins, brother and bassist David (David J) Haskins, and guitarist Daniel Ash, and later joined by vocalist Peter Murphy, their entire career has ...

This album was nothing like I expected. He keeps a constant bounce beat with his guitar and it works.. at first. Russell's first two songs sound exactly alike. I Know is very repetitive, at least until the violin solo. That solo threw me off -- it fit nicely and ...

Every year there seems to be a plethora of new Christmas CDs. Why, I don't know. There are only a handful I can think of that are worth listening to more than once --- Dwight Yoakam's, Fats Domino's, Phil Spector's of course, and a treasured Ace compilation from years and ...

In August 2000, Be released their alternative guitar rock debut, Avalanche, and the recording barely made the radar screen. So, these Arkansas rockers moved to Dallas, Texas to complete work on Thisstupidream, and self-produced a moody and hazy Brit-Pop inflected collection of lushly plied rhythms and dreamy sonicscapes, similar to ...

If you’re a fan of Michel Gondry, the uber-creative director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep, then you’re probably salivating at the mouth for the release of the new Jack Black-starring comedy, Be Kind Rewind. If you’re a die-hard fan of Mos Def, ...

In an effort to kill two birds with one stone, I opted to listen to the newest Be Your Own Pet album, Get Awkward, while I was at the gym. Best idea ever. If ever there was an album that’s sole purpose was to make you want to thrash about ...

Beat Pharmacy is Brendon Moeller, a South African expatriate who is primarily self-taught. STEADFAST, Beat Pharmacy’s third proper long play release, continues Moeller’s exploration of various genres of electronica and dance music joined in a gumbo of other styles, including jazz and afro.The tracks on STEADFAST flow seamlessly, creating a ...