How long has it been since Depeche Mode released an album that you happily told people was essential listening, dear reader? For me, it has been fifteen years; for me, the last truly inspired moment that Depeche Mode enjoyed was the moody, gothic assault of Ultra. On that album, Depeche Mode hadn't broken down quite yet; Dave Gahan's drug problems hadn't become creatively problematic yet, and Martin Gore hadn't succumbed to his penchant for letting his navel-gazing nature dictate his...
The hardest albums to review are the ones which are only “half good.” Trying to critically evaluate an album that goes completely in one direction or the other ('good' or 'bad') is always preferable because there's an economy in it; if it's possible to unilaterally paint an album one color, it's possible to be succinct. If a record has close to an equal number of 'good' and 'bad' tracks though, it's guaranteed to take longer to work through because the...
Happy Easter, ya egghead junky! How's da holiday treatin' youse? Things're great down onna street junky. I scored a buncha new tunes fer youse ta sample – now howzat fer some sweet Easter eggs? Awright, so le's get ta the SWAG. Ya know that reckid label ATO? Well, I scored a heavy samplin' o' wares from them fer youse junkie, annit sounds great! I got some Bronx (ann'ey ain't from Brooklyn – ya know what I'm sayin'?), some My Morning...
Even the most steadfast and true followers in Trent Reznor's fan base have to admit that Nine Inch Nails records were beginning to get formulaic and samey toward band's (first) end. The Slip and Ghost I-IV exemplify the fairly static turn that the music had taken; Reznor had cut himself loose from the major label machine hoping it would help to shake him out of the creative rut that even he knew he was in, but the results were perfectly...
Alabama Shakes – “I Ain't The Same” – https://groundcontrolmag.com/music/SWAG134Alabama_Shakes-I_Aint_The_Same.mp3 Allen Stone – “Contact High” – https://groundcontrolmag.com/music/SWAG134Allen_Stone-Contact_High.mp3 Bobby Long – “Devil Moon” – https://groundcontrolmag.com/music/SWAG134Bobby_Long-Devil_Moon.mp3 Caitlin Rose – “Only A Clown” – https://groundcontrolmag.com/music/SWAG134Caitlin_Rose-Only_A_Clown.mp3 City And Colour –...
What do Marquee Moon, Horses and The Doors all have in common? They are all first albums released by the artists who composed them. They're also all on my personal list of Top Ten Albums of All Time. Okay, it was a trick question. I didn’t really expect you to know the second part. But as I think over my favorite albums, I am struck by how many of them are first albums. In addition to those, we have Appetite...
It took a while to get everything (labels, band members, guest musicians, everything else one could possibly imagine) in line, but the Zero Hour is finally upon us; it was announced this morning that Queens Of The Stone Age's sixth full-length album will be released in June, 2013. The record will come out on Matador Records. It will be the band's first release for that label. It will be the band's first release of new material since Era Vulgaris came...
Let it never be said that it doesn't feel good when a plan comes together. When The Headstones reconvened a couple of years ago for a string of concert dates, the band discovered just how much they were missed when venues sold out in advance and the press raved about the solid performances that the band gave up. That first response got the band thinking, but they elected to take small steps, entered the studio and recorded just one song,...
Before preparing this review, I revisited Hayden's output from 2001's Skyscraper National Park through 2009's The Place Where We Lived and must preface this review by noting that doing so was a huge mistake. In itself, Us Alone is a good listen; it provides much of the Leonard Cohen-meets-Neil Young qualities and careful songwriting that have defined Hayden's past work. The problem is that Us Alone comes up short, literally. To start, there are only eight tracks. Next, several of...
If history has proven anything, it has proven that David Bowie has been most regularly at his best when he's rocking out a grand statement and challenging what his fans expect of him musically. This trend has been the rule for decades; every time Bowie has changed theatrical personae (from Ziggy Stardust to the Thin White Duke to the dark artist of music which offered up the Berlin trilogy to the man out of time from the Eighties to the...