WHO: Personality Cult WHAT: Dilated WHY: It look me a while to figure out why I feel so cozy listening to Personality Cult, and their latest release Dilated was a revelation. I’m listening to a Buzzcocks album, warts and all. It’s been too long since their excellent album New Arrows, but good things are worth the wait. This one has the arms, legs, hooks, and soul of a great buzzpop record. You’re not going to get a new Marked Men...
WHO: Bob Mould WHAT: Here We Go Crazy WHY: Is it dad-rock? Is it power-trio? A little of both? A lot? I fall in the minority where I think Bob Mould’s later output is better than I do Husker Du. Not that I don’t like Husker Du, but his music over the past 10 years is just so hard and catchy, you know? Here We Go Crazy follows the same path of the last two albums: it’s heavy, catchy, sincere...
WHO: Lambrini Girls WHAT: Who Let the Dogs Out? WHY: I’ve heard the Lambrini Girls’ music described in a variety of different ways, but to me they sound like Death From Above 1979 mixed with Crass. That’s a GREAT combo, people! Who Let the Dogs Out is abrasive, catchy, dancy, daring, unapologetic, and ready for a fight. Time will tell if this album was too much too soon, but right now, it’s hitting all the right buttons and kicking the...
WHO: Kim Deal WHAT: Nobody Loves You More WHY: Who could have guessed an album with horns could actually rock? I guess we should know better, because Kim Deal is running the show here. Nobody Loves You More is a deep and fresh sounding rock album that knows how to keep things interesting. That’s reason enough to listen to it. It gets heavy, fragile, and playful over the course of 35 minutes. You just wanna hang out with it. Both...
Did you see those other “best of” lists? Cringe-worthy, right? They either missed the mark entirely, or picked obvious boring choices, or just simply have shit taste. Not here, though. We might not have listened to EVERYTHING this year, but we listened to a lot, and as always we have the cream of the crop here for your enjoyment. So, do yourself a favor, uninstall your Spotify, un-favorite your mainstream music website and check out some true highlights of the...
WHO: Tim Heidecker WHAT: Slipping Away WHY: Sure, you don’t start your album by telling your listener to lower their expectations, and Slipping Away does have some half-cooked ideas at the beginning, but it ends with a rich, compelling and beautiful set of songs that make the rocky start worth it. In the end, this album is a fuzzy and remarkably relatable experience, especially to a dad like me. Yeah, it’s easy listening, but it’s good warm easy listening. Listen...
WHO: J. Robbins WHAT: Basilisk WHY: Basilisk might be too rock for the punk crowd and too punk for the rock crowd. It occupies that grey area. Whatever the case, this album is a crisp, rocking, polished, deep collection of songs that sound both hopefully and as cautionary tales. Basilisk is grim and serious and wears its heart on its sleeve. It’s well crafted both on the outside and the inside. Listen to it...
WHO: Jon Spencer WHAT: Sick of Being Sick WHY: Maybe Spencer’s last two solo albums have lacked a little oomph, but Sick of Being Sick hopefully is a course correction. Maybe that’s a bit extreme, but in just 8 songs, this EP delivers the raw energy, weirdness, and catchy hooks that made us all fall in love with Spencer in the first place. It’s a shame it’s so short, because even with another 10 minutes of filler, Sick of Being...
WHO: X WHAT: Smoke & Fiction WHY: Let’s round up the week with more X, shall we? It’s easy to point at bands that are still going and overstaying their welcome, but X certainly isn’t that. On Smoke & Fiction, the band shows they can still create inspiring and relevant music even at the end of their career. This album not only sounds like X, strutting and shimmying past rockabilly and punk rock, but it also sounds great: crisp and...
WHO: Minneapolis Uranium Club WHAT: Infants Under the Bulb WHY: Like if Minutemen and Dead Milkmen had a very loud baby. There’s a certain edge with the clean sound of guitar, and smarts to these lyrics you just don’t hear anymore. The songs in Infants Under the Bulb are catchy, bouncy, bubbly, and there’s a certain urgency to Brendan Wells’ lyrics. There’s a deep (deceitful?) intelligence that’s being delivered by these songs. D Boon would be proud. Even the story...