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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

First off, there’s the name. I mean, a band called The Birthday Massacre has got to be great. Then there are the themes that have run through the band’s releases, the shadow covers that hint of things dark and dangerous and evil, let’s not forget evil. So you listen to ...

The Loves are a sextet --- three males, three females --- who describe themselves as “The Monkees playing The Velvet Underground.” There is something that isn’t wholly inaccurate in that description. There is really nothing on TECHNICOLOUR, The Loves’ second proper CD, that wouldn’t fit quite comfortably on the first ...

I love it when a group of guys with extra miles and pounds on them --- guys like me --- come out of nowhere like The Melroys and release a CD like WALLS WILL FALL. I have read The Melroys described as “Beatlebilly” and, just like WALLS WILL FALL, that ...

I don’t know quite what to tell you about this. I don’t know whether you will like it or not because I don’t know whether I like it or not. Some of it hits me as great on some days and lousy on others. I have a hard time getting ...

The Wannabe Hasbeens, a power quartet from Minneapolis, makes a habit of oxymorons, at least in their presentation: that would be their name, and their debut EP, FORMER TRANS FUTURE VOL. 1. There is nothing contradictory or complicated about their music, however. It’s straight ahead, 1980s -era British guitar rock, ...

It seems as if every decade or so a band comes along with a perfect combination of looseness and tightness, that Is grounded but threatens to fly off loose of its moorings and take you with it. That was the Rolling Stones in the 1960s, Aerosmith in the 1970s, the ...

Yoni’s debut full length album Extra Credit is a collection of radio-ready rock songs in the vein of John Mayer and Dave Matthews. The Florida based singer/songwriter dabbles in various styles ranging from modern rock to piano-driven anthems to punk-infused pop. There’s a promising and enjoyable element to the whole ...