Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

Cool, calm, and collected best describes Aloha, a four-piece progressive styled band out of Washington D.C. Light Works, which debuted on Polyvinyl Records in early December 2007, was not their first release, but definitely their most publicly recognized. Light Works is a short 30 minute, seven song, EP, and ...

If you’re looking for a diversion from songs on the radio and Billboard’s top 100, you might find this unique album quite intriguing. Chip Raman's voice is a combination of many sounds, though mainly in a renewed Bob Dylan style. Raman’s album Edge of a Song gives album artwork a ...

The first time I listened to Redemption by Chris Volz I thought it was all right. However, the more I listened to it and learned the lyrics, the more I liked this CD. There are a couple songs on Redemption that I find myself singing, even when I'm not listening ...

There are many young bands out there that will never make it, for whatever reason. Some of them flame out as a result of tyranny within the band and some of them can’t find a label. The fact that it takes both luck and skill to make it as a ...

While I normally don’t like to play the “sounds like” game, the similarities between Dave Patten and John Mayer are just too hard to ignore. But something about Patten strikes me as odd. It was difficult for me to pinpoint, but I think I figured it out. It seems as ...

Even though its one of my favorite genres, I am starting to get tired of solo alternative and indie artists. Some of my favorite musicians (like John Mayer, Jack Johnson, and Rocco Deluca) come from this style, but a lot of the lesser known artists are not anything to write ...

Dr. Stephen W. Becker, aka Le Concorde, is an unique artist. He has a very interesting style of music, combining a John Mayer-like voice with Killers-like lyrics, but he needs some type of exposure to gain mainstream attention. This is one of those artists who will hit it big if ...

The first listen, that one time an artist gets to make that first impression, the one that often makes or breaks a listener’s reaction to an artist, that’s a critical spin of a CD. In the case of the pretentiously titled, Giant World Knowledge Bliss Control from multi-instrumentalist Lek, the ...

The Marble Index is a Hamilton, Ontario trio that sounds a lot bigger than the number of players it has. No matter: Watch Your Candles, Watch Your Knives, their sophomore effort, is an incredible varied and confident project that succeeds on several levels.The chief factor of ...

When a lead guitarist makes the transition from a band to a solo career, there are always many questions to be asked and answered. Former Femme Fatele and The Sharks guitarist Michael J. Downey’s third acoustic/pop/rock solo release america unfortunately leaves a lot to be desired. After ...

Within the few seconds, the folk and bluesy feel of Olivea Watson’s album Way Down Deep gets right to the core of her soul. The first song on the album, Let Go, was written in response to her questioning faith but is now the anthem for War Child International, a ...

With Red’s grammy-nominated success of their first album, End of Silence, this Nashville quintet proves that relating to their audience is a shoo-in for making it big. According to vocalist Mike Barnes, Red was chosen as a symbol “for the blood of Christ and what it represents: passion, pain, ...

The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir is actually from Chicago. While they’re on Bloodshot Records, which used to (and maybe still does) describe itself as “insurgent country”) this self-titled project (which we shall hereinafter refer to as “TSYGC”), the band’s second release, has more in common with The ...

I have a weakness for good southern rock in general, but about once every decade or so a really, really good one comes along that releases something you can’t get out of your head or off of the player. This decade’s band might be StoneRider, a ...

Sunset Rubdown, the indie rock band from Montreal, has presented the music world with their newest and most colorful creation. Their third album, Random Spirit Lover, provides a sound treat that will take your ears on a bizarre rollercoaster ride through mellow indie tunes to the wild and obscure synthesizers ...

The Dynamic’s Version Excursions is exactly that; a well rounded album of reggae-dub covers. The group is comprised of members from a variety of locales as diverse as the songs thumbed for cover on Version Excursions. The result is an album full of international appeal funneled through the ...

With an intriguing title like A Collage of Impressions, you’d expect the music on The Poison Control Center’s latest album to be just as interesting. Alas, while The Poison Control Center draws on a wide range of music influences from contemporary post-punk to psychedelic rock, ...

Transistor Radio is one of the latest five-piece emo-rock bands to break into the Christian music genre. With a sound like an amateur Anberlin and the look of the lead singer of Fall Out Boy, this band is like most new Christian bands that have evolved in the past ten ...

Sunday! starts off with a slightly distorted guitar melody that might have been employed by The Edge back in the late 80s, early 90s, setting the tone for a set of pop sensibility-laced arena rock worship songs. The opening, titular track does a good job capturing a vibe that persists ...

If you find the words “ultimate” and “Grammy” in an album’s title, you can easily assume that every track on it is now or was once a hit. That’s definitely the case with Ultimate Grammy Collection: Contemporary Pop. When you pop this disk in your player you shouldn’t ...

When I first picked up this CD, I thought it was a GRAMMY collection of the latest nominations for contemporary R&B artists of the year. Imagine my surprise when I saw the first track by Anita Baker and the second by Terence Trent D’Arby…and the fourth by Luther Vandross. I ...