Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

A kitchen sink of variety awaits those intrepid enough to peruse the The Strangest Colored Lights by 13 Ghosts. It’s an album that delights as well as frustrates on early listens, as you hear a song you like, and then fret as they change to another mode altogether, fall in ...

When Albert Collins sings, he either looks like he’s making love or enduring a really bad ulcer.  His face scrunches up and he closes his eyes.  What spills out of his mouth are some of the best blues that any living musician is playing today.  He has a knack for ...

I don’t know where to start about how amazing this CD is! From start to finish the high energy vibes I got from this album perked me up and got me in the mood to rock out; I can only imagine how great this band is live. Kohl Hegmann’s vocals ...

Well, the little punk rock pop princess is at it again.  Ashlee Simpson has had her fans waiting with great anticipation for her third full length album, Bittersweet World.  Where Ashlee started her career as “Jessica Simpson’s little sister” and not much else, she has managed to push past that ...

Scottish singer/songwriter Astrid Williamson seems to be following the trend of modern pop-music, although not really at all. She seems to be just a step outside of the popular trends and that is where she intends to stay. She has a unique voice and a unique style, but it’s hard ...

I was almost gonna pack it up when I listened to the first couple of tracks off of TIME SENSITIVE MATERIAL, the debut CD from Audiocrash. Part of it was my own fault; the cover which bears the image of a guitar modified to look like an ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

You hear it over and over again. Either a talented young group has a solid lead vocalist backed by subpar instrumentalists or the instrumentalists are amazing and the vocals make you want to cry. On Between the Trees’ debut release The Story and the Song, Ryan Kirkland – at just ...

For whatever reason --- primarily the title, WHEN ELECTRIC NIGHT FALLS --- I had prejudged Bisc1 to be a dance club turntablist and his disc to be a collection of hit for a minute dance tracks. Wrong on one count --- Bisc1 is a rapper, over electronica ...

This time, it's not about Santana. Carlos Santana Plays Blues at Montreaux 2004 is, pure and simple, about the love of the Blues. Legendary bluesmen Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Bobby Parker and Buddy Guy are introduced by and join Carlos Santana on stage to crank out some killer jams and blues ...

Carly Simon has always produced pretty good songs – never terribly great, but pretty good. Be it You’re so Vain or her version of Mockingbird, Simon has a knack for bringing a pleasant smile to a listener’s face. She’s taken some risks throughout her nearly 40 years in the recording ...

Did you miss Carole King last time she came through town?  Haven't quite caught up replacing your records and tapes with c.d.'s and MP3's? Or are you the type to turn the radio up whenever you hear "I feel the EARTH- MOOOOOVE under my feet".  Well, if you are in ...

It’s been a few years --- five actually --- since we’ve had a proper solo project of original work from Squeeze stalwart Chris Difford. Those who have patiently waited will find that THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIS is more than adequate compensation, perfect in every way from ...

These Mississippians need to quit trying so hard. First of all, they are from the Southern U.S. But for some reason, they use a British spelling in their name, Colour Revolt, and seem to sound like some earlier British alternative music that became super popular in the US. To me, ...

Folk-rockers Counting Crows opted to go the theme route on Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings, their fifth studio album. The first half of the album channels the bar-hopping energy of a hard-partying Saturday night while the latter half evokes the introspective calm of a regretful Sunday morning through acoustic tracks ...

Crash Romeo’s second CD, GAVE ME THE CLAP!, comes with a great calling card, and it’s not a positive Wasserman test. No, “Popular” from the CD is featured this season on The Hills, the MTV reality series that everyone seems to know about but me. “Popular” is ...

Once I put Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea in my car CD player I didn’t want to take it out. I’m sure I looked like a freak to other drivers on the roads as I belted out the lyrics and bounced around as I waited for the ...

Starting off the album is a simple trio piece entitled A Wonderful Guy. The piano is lovely and quaint, but I’m not quite sure that’s a complement. There’s nothing overly impressive about the piece; it sits within its own limits. “I Hadn’t Anyone Till You” echoes that same simple charming ...

For some reason, the artwork on the cover of Devil Doll’s The Return of Eve entranced me each time I looked at it.  I loved the noir-like images of a sultry lady holding her guitar to the backdrop of religious icons and a fireplace. Her red lipstick and demeanor seemed ...

Donna Lewis, I love you. Always. Forever. Thank God, you have finally released another album!After an unbearably long hiatus from the music industry, pop-sensation, Donna Lewis, has finally released her first studio album in over a decade. This album, In the Pink, features many similar qualities as her first album, ...

This is one of those discs that sat on my desk for a few weeks after I received it, mainly because I was so infatuated with the album cover that I didn’t want to put it over in the “finished” pile for fear that it would get covered up and ...

Dr. Manhattan, the Wauconda, Illinois quartet, bears little resemblance to its apparent namesake, the brooding, almost omnipotent, atomic-powered character in THE WATCHMEN, Alan Moore’s classic graphic novel. The band’s self titled debut is an interesting if not totally endearing debut, the sound of a band still ...

Jazz purists might roll their eyes a bit at some of the showmanship former Cirque de Soleil violinist Edgar Gabriel brings to his new, Stringfusion, project, but they’d be missing out on a nice album that does its ‘fusion’ moniker proud. Along the way, Gabriel and company borrow from world, ...