Album Reviews (Page 12)

Andrew Bird has a new album out today. This Andrew Bird: Hey you *wink*. Photo (c) Reuben Cox. Not this bird: Tweet tweet *wink*. Photo c.o. Wikipedia. Both are given to flights of fancy, whistling, and yes, and occasional silliness and absurdity. But only one of these above is touring for his new album. Guess which. ****************** Citi Wang Theatre, Boston, MA. Sat. 4-9-16, 7pm. $40 and up. Mr. Bird, formerly of Squirrel Nuts Zippers fame, has one spot in New England to hit, that spot being Boston, and we – as your musical legal counsel – strongly advise you catch this extraordinary lyricist andRead More →

Lake Street Dive – Side PonyNonesuch Records-out Feb 193.5 / 5 The jazzy, poppy, indescribably fun quartet hailing originally from Boston (now NYC) comes out with their fifth studio full-length. (We’ll note: their first two are exceptionally hard to find in physical copies.) Coming off their 2014 Bad Self Portraits, which we marked as one of two Top Albums of 2014, we can only admit our HUGE admiration for these young and fresh guys and gals. We have caught them live on multiple occasions, and yes, that 3.5/5 you see up there, it’s a mark of love and, really, respect toward the band. Let usRead More →

Crime and the Forces of Evil – Bone WalkerSelf-Released– out now2.5 / 5 We like it when ambitious projects come our way. And when the nook-hidden fantasy indie group Crime and the Forces of Evil offered their latest project for review, we didn’t want to decline. Bone Walker is a soundtrack to a fantasy book series by the name of The Free Court of Seattle, the city from whence these Newfoundland folk (self-described) elves come. Usually what happens with these kind of ambitious projects is we complain about overreaching scope (17 Pygmies’ Even Celestina…); muddled storytelling (The Decemberists’ Hazards of Love), or just crazy, crazyRead More →

End of Love – Ghosts on the RadioDevise Music-out tomorrow2 / 5 Age old question: is the whole greater than the sum of its parts? If one were to sum up even a fraction of the talent on this record – which boasts members of Sonic Youth, Wilco, and yes, even Big Star – one would assume that having some of the musicians behind the seminal music of the ’70s, ’90s and 2000s would ignite the kind of music-gasm one might have should Jimi Hendrix open up Chick Corea’s piano and start strumming some of Arthur Lee’s tunes. Yes, that kind of talent. And yet…Read More →