Author: Bill Adams
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Neil Young – Young Shakespeare LP
Neil Young Young Shakespeare LP (Reprise Records/Warner Brothers) One of the more interesting things that has happened since the CoVid pandemic basically put the entire North American live music schedule up on blocks for a while has been the outflow of live releases which have appeared – a cultural moment at which Neil Young has…
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Neighborhood Brats – Confines Of Life LP
Neighborhood Brats Confines Of Life (LP) (Dirt Cult Records) I confess that I spent most of my first play through Confines Of Life, Neighborhood Brats’ third full-length album (and my first exposure to the band), just trying to figure out where to start with it. Somehow, it just wasn’t easy to effectively catch or contain…
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NEEDLES//PINS – s/t LP
NEEDLES//PINS s/t LP (Dirt Cult Records) There is something particularly special about self-titled albums – the unspoken rule is that, when a band puts its name on an album like that, it is intended to exemplify just exactly who that group is at its core. A self-titled album is a statement of a band’s personality…
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Round Eye – Culture Shock Treatment LP
Round Eye Culture Shock Treatment LP (Sudden Death Records) It may have taken a while for the band to finally get all the paperwork signed and all of their distribution ducks in a row (technically, Culture Shock Treatment was completed in 2020 and Paper + Plastick Records released it digitally late last year – but…
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Blood Lemon – s/t LP
Blood Lemon s/t LP (Blood Lemon) The beauty of great music – I mean truly great and timeless music – is that while listeners will feel as though they can easily pick out aspects of what they’re hearing and place it among other excellent or classic works, they’ll also breathlessly enthuse about how original that…
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Tom Odell – Monsters LP
Tom Odell Monsters LP (Columbia/Sony Music) When it comes to Tom Odell’s fourth album, Monsters, it’s very likely that listeners will find themselves wondering if context does indeed inform musical creation, to a degree. The reason for that is simple: as soon as stylus a sinks into the A-side of Monsters and “Numb” opens it,…
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The Wallflowers – Exit Wounds LP
The Wallflowers Exit Wounds LP (New West Records) Who wouldn’t love to be Jakob Dylan? Since first appearing with The Wallflowers in 1992, Dylan has kept a “when I feel like it” mentality about his schedule of new releases (seven albums in twenty years – with nearly decade-long breaks along the way – is the…
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The Bobby Lees – Skin Suit LP
The Bobby Lees Skin Suit LP (Alive Records) It gets said a lot, but it’s only in the moment when one actually hears the right sound at the right moment that they realize just how powerful it can be. It’s only in the right moment, for example, that a sound can make a listener’s blood…
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Teke::Teke – Shirushi LP
Teke Teke Shirushi LP (Killrockstars) Without question, Teke::Teke is a creature completely in its own quadrant of the pop diaspora. Does that mean that everything about their new album, Shirushi, stands completely separate from everything else in pop? Certainly not – there’s no question that it’s possible to pick out sounds and ideas which could…
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Spencer Burton – Coyote LP
Spencer Burton Coyote LP (Still Records) The problem that many musicians (particularly those associated with music genres which are usually aligned with “youth” as a concept – like pop, rock and punk) run into as time passes is that, at most, they age awkwardly – if they figure out how to age at all. That…