CD and DVD reviews
Arienne Hearts Charlie are releasing their debut album this month — and what a divine debut it is. Having only released a sprinkle of singles this year, this duo is going from strength to strength as they expand their ever-evolving discography. Their upcoming album ‘The Greatest Show’ speaks on their romcom-esque love story, seriously it’s…
Echo Messenger, otherwise known as James Bracken, is diversifying his discography this month with the release of his recent single ‘Rocky Gibraltar’. Having spent years sharing his passion in his local music scene and even lending his talent to the alternative string band Stagefright, James Bracken is no rookie to the music scene. Yet it…
Molly Jenson is the up and coming electro-pop artist expanding on a canon of strong female forces dominating the synth-pop landscape right now. The Southern Californian singer/songwriter has released her second album since her 2009 ‘Maybe Tomorrow’. Steering towards a more synth-soaked sound, Molly reached new heights with her recently released album ‘Goodbye’. ‘Goodbye’ as…
caroline, and her new single “Do You Think That I’m A Fool?” exude adolescent charm and relatability. While the meaning of the song seems a little ambiguous, caroline wrote it about her struggle with mental health and anorexia, telling her inner voices to stop breaking her down. The track is meant to be empowering and…
Trickshooter goes hard into a gritty, raw garage rock on the rambunctious “Monte Carlo”. Volume is a given for they blast their way through the whole of it with nary a care. Full of an intense urgency they bring elements of country rock, the blues, and lo-fi into the mix helping to give it a…
The town referred to in the title to Brian Charles Tischleder’s album title, Minneapolis, MN, is a place made famous (infamous?) as the locale where George Floyd’s last moments alive were caught by camera phone. Tischleder has said how Minneapolis “created the soundtrack of my youth with music by Prince and Soul Asylum.” However, the…
Ranzel X Kendrick sings the songs on his Foreglow album with a jazzy vocal tone. Yes, he’s based in San Antonio, TX, but both his guitar playing and singing style sound far more costal (something you’d be more likely to find in either New York or Los Angeles) than Southwestern. Lyrically, Kendrick throws the listener…
Jason Damico explores hard rock’s heaviest riffs on the intense rush of “Reveal Me (feat. Eric Gales, P.J. Farley, & Kenny Aronoff)”. Volume is a given for theirs is a ferocious sound, a sheer wall of it crushing upon the listener. Every single element gets amped up way into the red for the rebellious nature…
A mixture of faith and country rock, Brei Carter’s “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’” features graceful lyricism that touches the soul. This is a tribute cover of Charley Pride’s signature hit song ‘Kiss An Angel Good Morning’ released in 1971. The song, written by Ben Peters, was Charley Pride’s first hit and became his signature…
My Autumn Amor delves a thoughtful piece of pop on the affectionate ode of “Quiet Girl”. A neat mixture of folk, electronica, and rock the collection never neatly settles into any of the aforementioned. The way that the song skips around within these contexts helps to give it a nice element of surprise. His voice…
‘Cross My Heart’ is Ranzel X Kendrick’s latest addition to his immensely diverse discography — and what a stunning single it is. Ranzel X Kendrick has three albums and a concert’s worth of EP’s out already, yet his latest EP ‘Foreglow’ shows a whole new side to his astonishing artistry. Whichever sonic universe his sound…
The Mighty One is a serious force to be reckoned with. We saw this in their debut back in 2007 and time and time again with each album released since. However, their latest release ‘Torch of Rock and Roll’ propels the group to a whole other realm. Each of the ten tracks is an effortless…
Brian Charles Tischleder is known for an outstanding fusion of Americana, Rock and Roll and folk, all sewn into one slick sound. In his latest release, Brian is uniting these elements once again, but this time with momentous meaning. His recent single ‘I Can’t Breathe’ speaks on the tragedy of the killing of George Floyd,…
The first element that hits us after pressing the play button on “Sunlight Surfing” by Mercury Messiah is the gilded acoustic guitar strings and the surreal strumming that emits their melody. There’s retrospection here, but we’re not quite certain of what we’re looking back at until the lead vocal kicks in and instantly brings to…
A hard-rock rush, Fighting for Frequency holds nothing back on the full-on assault of “A Million Miles Away.” Distortion reigns supreme for theirs is an intense urgent album. The rhythms have a powerful potency to the rest of the track. Vocals feature a great commanding presence resting in the very center of it all. Over…
Old fashioned rock n’ roll music never truly goes out of style, and though Wave 21 are incorporating a touch of modernity to their sound, I don’t think it can be said that their new album Brace Yourself would be possible without a little bit of retrospection. In this record’s ten songs, we find elements…
With little more to contend with than a sterling bassline, singer Ally Eandi launches into the lyrics of her new single “Home” with a heavy heart and an unsubtle passion that we can feel in every melodic word she sings. Rather than getting behind the bass part in the intro portion of this song, she’s…
Stephen Jacques creates ragged, but sincere, rock & roll. Soul Hydraulics is an album comprised of meat and potatoes, guitar/bass/drum, rock music. No, it’s not particularly complicated music, but it is sung and played from the heart. Many of these songs sound personal, even biographical at times. Such is the case with “Left L.A.” Los…
Willamena sings with fervor on his immaculately crafted folk rock. Such dignity is instilled within each one of his songs for they have a soulfulness to them. Lyrics here feature incredible word choice as there is a poetry to his verses, as they bounce off each other. Instrumentally vibrant he possesses a keen ear for…
New Moon Rising brings together classic rock, country westerns, and a poppy flavor to “No Regrets”. The multi-faceted, multi-layered approach becomes something splendid to see. A clever arrangement unfurls over the course of the piece, one that shows off his flair of balance. For the whole of the track there is a power to the…
Limberlost harnesses a wild cinematic energy with “Good Fight”. The dramatic tension of the album incorporates a wide slew of genres, going from 80s pop ballads to hair metal to hard rock all in a way that is distinctly their own. By far the highlight comes from the fiery performance of the vocalist, who voice…
Affirming vocals give way to an angst-ridden riff as we enter the darkly melodic opening cut “The Long Way Down” in Burn the Ballroom’s Dark Stars & Velvet Skies this summer, the first couple of bars in this track indicating that polished harmonies and harrowing grooves are going to come standard as we get deeper into the tracklist.…
Daring to dream the impossible and surrounding the listener with an abundance of warmth, the new track “She’s Come to Sing” emboldens us all. While the title might suggest that female empowerment is at its core, singer Brielle Brown opens the door wide open for interpretation and inclusivity. Equally beguiling is the song’s music video,…
Stephen Jacques is really on a roll this year. The singer-songwriter’s unique brand of folk-meets-rock continues to reach new heights in his latest string of singles. His sound is refreshingly raw and overflows with undeniable authenticity; as an artist, Stephen Jacques is completely himself, and we can’t get enough. Stephen Jacques is known for writing…
Collaborations that bring the best out in both parties tend to be the ones we never forget, and while Le Sonic’s “Any Moment” is a relatively new addition to my summer playlist, it feels like it has the potential to be a track that doesn’t depart my mind anytime soon. Alongside the one and only…
Snares snap and flows run through with fire on Vthatguy’s tremendous “It’s Time”. Aptly named, he incorporates elements of pop, R&B, hip-hop, trap and more into a singular glossy sound. Production features a neon-hued glow to it, for the references to electro’s cleaner side emerge throughout. By far the highlight of the vocals ties it…
A driving rhythm and a celebration of America’s wide-open spaces, Randy Seedorff does country rock right with “Dream”. His voice has a strong, reassuring cadence about it. Every word here further adds to the sense of majesty that rides on through the track. Firmly rooted in a pure Americana sensibility, there is a majestic quality…
Talitha Jae, hailing from Queensland, Australia, has breezed onto the music scene with a delightful EP, “Spilt T.” Her warm jazzy/bluesy/indie folk sound wraps your brain in a fuzzy blanket and kisses it’s forehead. She shows off her songwriting chops by taking the listener on a journey through the ups and downs of the current…
Electric Peace’s “Hate Is A Special Feeling” begins with a dirty electric guitar riff, before an ominous, scratchy vocal comes in. It sounds like a psychedelic workout from the ‘60s, even though it’s a 2021 single. Nevertheless, this song seems to want to recreate music from the psychedelic era for today’s listeners. Sonically, this song’s…
Isaac Krapf goes for an intensity with his hard rocking rhythms. Beyond the sound’s wild, unhinged groove the lyrics pierce the very soul. Volume stuns as there are elements of shoegaze, noise rock, and space rock with hints of psychedelic added in for good measure. The approach has a compact, consistent tact for he goes…
Jon Roniger and The Good For Nothin’ Band chose one of the strangest times to release a live album. This 11-track release comes out right at the end of a pandemic, a time when there was little to no live music being performed anywhere. This exceptional band, though, is an exception to that rule, as…
Tom Tikka & The Missing Hubcaps offer a passionate, timeless performance with “Heart’s On Fire”. He’s a true old soul for the way that the song evolves features a great degree of care, as he makes sure that patience is of the essence. Every detail matters as it filters on into the fray. By allowing…
Fluid lays down incredible grooves on the raw G-funk of “Right There”. Doing the west coast rap with ease, there is a playfulness and swagger to the whole of the track. Bass here stuns for the deep-set roll of the rhythm further adds to the atmosphere. Best of all though is his delivery. Unhurried and…
Listening to Start by Yosuke Nagayama is like a breath of fresh air for straight ahead jazz fans because it feels like a relic from another time. It’s an acoustic jazz set, with piano as the primary melodic instrument. It ‘starts,’ appropriately enough, with the album’s title cut, “Start.” The rhythm for this one, bounces…
Electric Peace is proving they are a force to be reckoned with. Their latest EP ‘Hate Is A Special Feeling’ is an explosion of energy and is an effortless evolution for the group as they hone in on a specific sound we saw in their debut ‘Kill For Your Love’. Whilst the group aren’t fussed…
With the current climate being the testing waters that it is, it’s high time we had a reminder to spread some love and lend a hand. Well, Carla Marie McKrell and Joe Vulpis have penned the powerful hit ‘Now’s The Time’ with exactly that at its heart. Whilst Carla Maria McKrell’s passion pours out in…
2021 has been an exceptionally big year for Gigi Vega. She’s dropped a string of successful singles and remixes to kick off what is certain to be a rousing career in pop music, and in her new summer jam “Down Crazy,” she disputes the notion that a rookie can’t rule their scene without help from…
Kyle Joshua is a one-man wrecking crew as he fires off a hot, new album titled ‘Payback’. Kyle is a man of many talents and proves it on the new release by being solely responsible for all 12 tracks on the record. Kyle Joshua produced, mixed, mastered, composed and wrote all of the music on…
Molly Hanmer and the Midnight Tokers and their second album release Get Loose promises to be one of the year’s best releases on the basis of its first single “Sick of Me”. It breaks with the primarily Americana sound listeners encountered on their commercially popular and critically lauded 2018 debut Stuck in a Daydream and broadens her stylistic range.…
Showing great range and even more personality, Alexis Keegan brings her A-game to the table in her new three-song EP Empty Heart. It’s a rare thing to hear such different songs and still be equally connected to such a grounded artist. Keegan delivers a dance-worthy pop hit with the same gusto as she does with a…
