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Diane Coffee – My Friend FishWestern Vinyl– out Oct. 292.5 / 5 We love “Tale of a Dead Dog.” It’s absolutely gorgeous: with angelic vocals sings former Disney voice actor Shaun Fleming over melodic acoustic guitars. It’s a truly precious song. But now-Foxygen-drummer Fleming has a whole album to fill out, and our verdict on it is less than glowing. It’s not poorly executed, or dull in the writing; rather, it is simply unengaging. We have yet to find another song of the ten that gets us thinking (“Tale”), or dancing (“WWWoman”), or whatever one should be doing when you put on a song inRead More →

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Alex Chilton – Electricity by CandelightBar None Records-out now4 / 5 It’s a cold February night in NYC. Across from you is a legendary Memphis musician, reformed drug addict, and born-again folk singer. The lights go out – there is no electricity – and now it’s you and him, back and forth, the both of you trying to discover “that perfect folk song” to round out the night. This is not perfect, this is not mastered beautifully, and it’s not always the easiest to listen to. The audience and various noises overtake Chilton much of the time. What this is is one of those rareRead More →

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World’s End Press – Self-TitledLiberation-out now3 / 5 The Melbourne, Australian dance/pop quartet may funkify their beats on their full-length debut, but we are very picky with our funk bass. The chaps go all out, with a setlist a little over an hour, and while some of the tracks here are good, we don’t find them especially brilliant. And when it comes to dance, it needs to be brilliant. The baker’s dozen of tracks does show some life, and they groove right, but we don’t find them to have quite enough energy or strong enough writing to truly captivate us. Of the tracks we recommend,Read More →

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Patty Griffin – Silver BellA&M Records-out now4 / 5 Our first listen to the much-delayed Silver Bell was one of relative disappointment. Compared to American Kid, the Maine-born folk singer’s latest release seemed less immediate, less pleasurable than the absolutely fantastic Kid. (Which we reviewed here.) Initially, we were thinking there was a reason it took thirteen years to get this album out there (you know, a negative reason), but again, that was our first listen. The reality of it is this: it’s different. Instead of going country on Kid, Griffin splays a laid-back, down-tempo rock groove throughout. And the fact of the matter isRead More →