Album Reviews (Page 15)

Joe Pug – WindfallLightning Rod Records-out now2.5 / 5 We’ve been keeping our (non-blue) eyes on the Austin-based Mr. Pug for quite some time now. Since his first, brilliant EP, Nation of Heat, we’ve been sucked into his hard-scrabble, Dylanesque folk-slinging. Now, upon the Windfall of his third full-length album, we still see snippets of that brilliance: a glimmer of insightful storytelling, the scintillation of those bared-down melodies. But on the whole, we must say this, that Windfall comes crestfallen, that it is much too complacent, that it’s the infamous Sophomore Slump that 2012’s The Great Despiser could have been (but certainly was not). Unfortunately,Read More →

Diagrams – ChromaticsFull Time Hobby-out now2 / 5 We’re still scratching our head in perplexity at this latest release from Diagrams (aka Sam Genders). This is what we don’t get (and maybe there’s nothing to “get” about it): why make an album of all these sleepy little tunes that sound (perplexingly) alike? There is about an ounce of craft on Chromatics, the second full-length, a good ounce, but repeated again and again; it’s trance-like pop, and in mostly drowsy ways. We’re going to spoil this review with the summation right here: it’s one that you can pass by, yes, so that you skip the nextRead More →

Shakey Graves – And The War CameDualtone Music Group-out now3.5 / 5 Texan Alejandro Rose-Garcia isn’t a power-voice like Hozier or Rachael Price (of Lake Street Dive). He isn’t as poetic as Joe Pug or political as U2; but what he is on his second full-length is present, fully in command, a captain on his own ship. His off-kilter slashing folk songs anchor themselves less on lyrics or melody, so much as on his probing, coyote-howling vocals. Take “Hard Wired,” one of those unusual songs that just sticks with you for, well, unusual reasons. Build up with percussion and (somewhat) twangy guitar, it’s not aRead More →