Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

There used to be a time when being different was too outlandish for the world to handle. It just wasn't welcome and anyone who fit this label was automatically shunned. But thankfully, we as a people have evolved (somewhat) and so has our acquired taste for life, love and music. ...

What's a wannabe soul diva to do when the playing field is overrun and overcrowded with other divas -- some of whom have stronger pipes, better songs, and more talent to offer the masses?One option would be to improve upon your vocal skills and hire better songwriters. Another option would ...

Please follow these instructions: First insert the CD, How Far Our Bodies Go, then load it up.  Next, play the entire CD through.  This is an important step; don't just listen to the first track and write this one off as another album to collect dust in your collection of "seldom touched albums”. Play ...

Sometimes, you just wanna hear some good, old fashioned country music. And if that’s what you want, then Fanny Grace is who you want. The group’s heart, a Hispanic woman named Carmen Meija, is a good-hearted, down-home girl, and she – along with her partner John Reeves – is backed ...

Far From Finished is a quartet from New York, or a quintet or a trio from Boston. Or something. The membership of the aggregation is somewhat hazy and inconsistent, I think partially by deliberation. What is a certainty is that Far From Finished is really, really good. ...

Before we go any further, what is about to pass might mean a little more if I'm up front with you and say that, prior to hearing ME, MYSELF & I, there wasn’t much Fat Joe being played at casa de Hartlaub. There was no particular problem, other than the ...

Fat Joe has left the major label race behind, and while he has always basically done it his own way his vision on THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM seems a bit more focused without the distractions that music industry tethers seem to impose upon even the most ...

I can’t say that I was blown away by Reflections of a Lost Reality. The CD is divided in half; the first being more singles-oriented and the second, a four part concept.  I hate to admit that the concept was lost on me because I had a hard time hearing ...

Don't let the title of EP confuse you, Faunts' M4 clocks in at nearly 40 minutes of dreamy synth-heavy rock. The five tracks are a collection of compositions that were originally written for a handful of independent films, with the exception of the track M4 (part 2), which can ...

First off, I feel like a dumb ass. I puzzled for days (okay, for three minutes, but still…) over how to pronounce “fauxliage” (a word that my spell checker just hates) until I figured it out. It’s “foe-lee-ej,” like that green stuff that grows around your house and that my ...

During Fear Factory's gravy days, there were only a handful of other acts who took notice of their innovations. First, there was fusing the jackhammer intensity of industrial programming with the human strength and splatter of real drums. Then there was implementing the venomous split-voice, operatic-metal yowl alternately mixed with ...

Feeding 5000 is a quintet based out of Austin, Texas, that came together in 2004. As near as I am able to tell The Books We Read is their debut CD; the band clearly put a lot of time into this work, not only in the recording but ...

Think of the wistful last year of college; it’s tinged with hope for the future, the sadness of missed opportunities and feelings of the uncertainty of the unknown ahead.  Now compile all these emotions onto a CD.  College crybaby music?  Perhaps.  And the fact that the album is collection of ...

Over the past five years, Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson has become a hip-hop and pop music idol. Her debut CD, The Dutchess, spawned stunning platinum success and revealed her to be a draw outside of the Black Eyed Peas. Almost as a victory lap for The Dutchess's success, ...

It is hard to describe this debut album by rock trio Ferocious Eagle as anything other than completely nuts.  Hailing from Portland, Oregon, these guys have created a sound that is primarily noise-rock in nature with a touch of the totally strange mixed in.  The band works as a tight ...

Fidgital's Departure opens with a very impressive track that really sets the tone for the rest of the album.  Make Up Friends starts off their seventh album on a high note.  Right away the brass adds a sensual tone, leaving an opening for the singer to folow the lead effectively ...

The long awaited comeback by the UK’s favorite fallen angels finally arrives.  As with all things, there lies the danger of anticipation bearing in on objectivity, setting up the hard fall without benefit of the usual rationale.  I’m trying to set this up delicately because it’s a decent record but ...

The bassist formerly known as Reginald Arvizu, more recently known as Fieldy from the band Korn,(one of the most successful and innovative bands in rock history), has invited all of us for a dark and sinister trip inside his head. From the opening shotgun blasts this album is a funk ...

Lacking that special something that propelled Filter into stardom in their prior efforts, the new album ‘The Amalgamut’ disappoints on a number of levels.  Frontman Richard Patrick sounds very lethargic at times on the disc, and the supporting cast does little to make up for the poor effort.  The disc ...

Well at first I didn't know what to make of this… One minute I'm expecting an onslaught of barroom brawling and mug-raising anthems and what I get hit with turns out to be impacts me more than I could've imagined-this weird Dixieland drawl and finger-picking Waylon Jennings type thing comes ...

This self-released, six-track EP by the Brooklyn-based quartet Finespun has some strong strengths and weaknesses going for it. Let’s start with the strengths. The compositions are strong, the band has a strong sense of dynamics, and the musicianship is competent. They are somewhat reminiscent of Pearl Jam, ...

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 ...

I’ll admit it. I was not thrilled with any of Fiona Joy Hawkins’s 10 “chilled” piano stylings. The lengthy opening track on her latest release, simply titled Ice--Piano Slightly Chilled, is a strange cross between pseudo Rock music and Trance with a digeridoo. Cloud Chill, the second Antarctic-like exploration of ...

Think of it as 90's female-fronted rock minus the angst. Firebug serves up a blend of alternative and roots rock with plenty of blues on the side. "Fragile" is the Chicago-based group's follow-up to "Buzzin' High," which received some buzz of its own on college radio stations across the U.S. ...

I came to this album with a certain amount of trepedation.  The artist has been among my favorites for more than twenty-five years, but the last decade has been unkind to the man's voice -- so much so that I was actually more than a bit surprised when first heard ...