Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

Never more have I listened to an album desperately hoping the artist gets the proper production values they deserve on future outings.  What you have here on Postcards from California by 54 Seconds is an eclectic meeting of styles and talents that never reaches its lofty and rightful home…due to bad ...

A>S>H>S, an acronym for Audible Stellar Hypnotic Solutions, is the brainchild of Houston percussionist Jason Williams. The music is a fusion of jazz, electronica, fusion, and funk; the ensemble at it’s core is a sextet which includes Williams, Joseph Berryman on tenor sax, Xavier Gonzalez on congas, bassist Scott Nichols, ...

Any Trouble almost made it big in the early 1980s. They had everything going for them. They were on a quirky label called Stiff which had managed to also sign a weird, very talented guy named Elvis Costello. They had something called a music video that was on medium rotation ...

Landing somewhere between quirky B-52s style pop and the bizarre noisiness of a They Might Be Giants kid's song, Architecture in Helsinki's third album is just as enjoyable as it is difficult to categorize.  The sextet from Australia really don't hold back here, incorporating a wide range of instruments to ...

EX-SENSITIVE is Ben Jolen’s love letter to the earth. Oh, wait a minute, I mean to The Earth. That pretty much tells you all you need to know. This is one of these records where The Artiste shares his concerns over the environment as he flies around the world recording ...

I would say they don’t make records like THE SCENE OF THE CRIME anymore, but they do. Bettye LaVette, a Northern Soul original, has been making them for quite a while. I had a conversation with someone who was talking about how good LaVette sounded despite being so old, and ...

I used to hear Christian Scott perform in New Orleans on a regular basis, at clubs such as The Funky Butt (no longer in business) and Snug Harbor (still kicking), leading his own fine group or backing up guys who were the young lions of the city at that time, ...

At once deeply spiritual and earthy with life, Corrine West’s sophomore album, Second Sight, sizzles with folk and bluegrass and simmers with Americana. West, who wrote all the tracks (co-writing “All Good Things” with Mary Shero and Kenny Davis), sings with a flat no-nonsense delivery straight from the gut, packed ...

Empire Dogs are a Swedish rock band. It has been my experience that there is something about Scandinavian rock groups that just don’t quite get it right. It’s kind of like Canadian video. There’s something off. It’s not wretched, just a bit off-putting. I know, I know…ABBA. Ace Of Spades. ...

Every Avenue is being marketed as a punk act, though I would beg to differ with that description. A quintet from Marysville, Michigan, Every Avenue’s AH!, their debut EP, is closer to the hard rock of the Church of Latter Green Day than to, say the anarchic, anthemic spirit of ...

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 ...

Johnny Paycheck was the archetypal country singer. Best known for the David Allen Coe - penned “Take This Job And Shove It” --- you’ve either heard it or heard of it --- Paycheck, born dirt poor in Appalachian Ohio, was catapulted from being a name country performer to a music ...

A lot of ‘Christian rock’ CDs try to actually achieve the ‘rock’ part of that description, but fail to break out of the confines of what the first half of the term dictates. It’s refreshing to hear a band that can turn it up a notch and still bring the ...

Although the cover looks like a sixties-era photograph and makes you feel kind of like you're rummaging through your father’s oldie-but-goodies collection, this is an interesting little CD that you should definitely pick up. Why? Well I only played the I Can Barely Breathe track a hundred times and still... I am breathless! ...

Martians See Red is a quartet based out of Atlanta, Georgia who, from the sound of their debut EP, WHEN ALL SEEMS LOST…are not quite ready for prime time but could well be on their way. As with any band relying on the classic lead/rhythm, bass, and drum lineup, they ...

Sometimes I forget that things aren't always as they seem. When I first started listening to Dream State, the new album by Mestizo, I was not very impressed. My first impression was that it was a lot of hype and no substance. I assumed that the title of the album ...

If The Last Sucker is indeed the final Ministry album ever, then Al Jourgensen is going out in a raging, snarling blaze of glory. The album is presented as the third in a trilogy taking on the evils inhabiting the White House, and on that score, the disc certainly delivers. ...

Listening to Natalie Walker’s debut solo album, Urban Angel, is a bit like swimming underwater at midnight, floating through a liquid blue pool all tuned up on Prozac. As she sings to a low-humming techno-synth in her opening cut, Crush: “Sweet like a warm summer rain / I cannot deny ...

NEXT was an action/adventure/sci-fi movie dealing with a guy who knew what was about to happen, and what he does with his gift, or curse, depending on how you look at it. The great thing about the soundtrack for the movie is if you put the CD of it into ...

Peter Case’s closest brush to mainstream success was with a rock band named The Plimsouls in the early 1980s. The balance of his work, however, has been in the Americana vein, work which has won him critical and cult acclaim if not commercial gain. It does not seem as if ...

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is where it all began for the megalithic legend that is Pink Floyd. 40 years ago, under the leadership of a still-in-control-of-his-demons Syd Barrett, the band released their first album to rave reviews. The only album constructed under Barrett's control, Piper reflects his ...

Raul Midon’s A World Within a World is a relaxed listen and a virtual showcase of his obvious love of all things George Benson, Stevie Wonder, and Bill Withers.  There isn’t too much wrong with that……except for the fact that it makes this album a tad forgettable.  It’s too much ...

Sara Tavares weaves her sound through a tapestry lush with light jazz, funk and Afro-European grooves. Singing in a mix of Portuguese, Cape Verdean Crioulo and English, Tavares voice ranges from a breathy Atlantic breeze to a thin silver line connecting poly-rhythmic beats. Balancê plays like a tropical ode to ...

Terrible Teddy Nugent is back. He never went away, really, and he hasn’t been exactly quiet, but like the class clown who has been sitting quietly all day until 15 minutes before dismissal and whose Ritalin suddenly wears off, Ted Nugent has jumped back to center stage and made LOVE ...

Not many have much love for the EP. Anybody can count the days to a full-length album’s release date, but only die hard fans take note of when an artist’s newest EP will drop. That being said, indie pop duo The Bird and the Bee (made up of producer/keyboardist Greg ...