Album Reviews (Page 34)

Big Science – DifficultySelf-released, online-out now3 / 5 The difficulty with albums ones like Chicago transplants Big Science is that they’re not bad: it’s a fair selection of classic-80s-inspired alt rock that the quartet has assembled here. But we’ve got to make the distinction to you guys (and/or gals) so it’s gotta come down to whether you should purchase a release or not, and ultimately we’re going to pass on this otherwise decent album. What is it lacking? We’re not entirely sure; the song construction works on their confidently-paced “Loose Change Century” and the anthemic “Blind Our Eyes.” When we hit “Headlight Song,” the crewRead More →

Michael Kiwanuka – Home AgainInterscope Records-out now3 / 5 The heartfelt Brit has been making quite a splash on the other side of the pond there; his debut full-length has garnered comparisons to soul icons including Bill Withers and vintage vinyl sound. Sonically, these comparisons are fairly accurate: take a warm voice and soft guitar, and maybe you get one of James Talyor’s contemporaries. Maybe. But as much as we like the opener, Taylor’s session-man Kiwanuka is not – if you get that particular grammar. The title track is a fairly run-of-the-mill “gotta be movin’ on” kinda thing, and if you peruse the other titlesRead More →

Chris Price – HomesickPTB Music-out now2 / 5 It takes an L.A. weirdo like Chris Price to record his debut entirely on an iPhone, and quite frankly, he made a pro call on it: Price has a kind of a very slight basement glaze over the audio, the kind that small acts pay a ton to get up to, or that big acts pay even more to take their sound down to. We appreciate his ear for the subtle color, and moreso his reasoning behind it – taking the recording process back to old school, via The Beatles and (yes!) The Kinks. Despite the tripRead More →