The center of Portland, Oregon’s five-piece Aan (Amor ad nauseam) is Bud Wilson, a musician versed in synth, echoes, and the other accoutrements of electronic pop. Wilson knows what he’s doing with these tools, but yet we struggle to find the freshness on this third full-length.Read More →
Austin, TX Rebecca Loebe saunters onto her fifth full-length with a pop-inspired folk style. Give Up Your Ghosts centers its sound around Loebe’s vocals and acoustic guitar, with occasional percussion, backing electric guitar, and other electric elements.Read More →
Patty Griffin – Self-Titled PGM -out now 3.5 / 5 Patty Griffin has been writing and performing her stripped-down, bare-your-soul brand of folk for more than twenty years. And on her self-titled Patty Griffin, her tenth studio album, she delivers another polished set of acoustic songs our way. We are huge fans of this talented folk-star, and have adored 2013’s American Kid and her long-bootlegged hidden album Silver Bell released the same year. While we are in favor of musicians’ growth and experimentation in their music, on Patty Griffin we get more of the familiar than we do of the unexpected, both stylistically and melodically. Stylistically, Patty Griffin hits upon aRead More →
This has been a tough decision. It’s always difficult to come up with a handful of top albums. But in writing this, we have to say that, excluding jazz (too complicated to factor in), the Kinks are our favorite band. Ever. Read More →