Expressive solos from trumpet, violin, guitar, and keys keep the tune choogling along, with ever-active percussion as well. “Coney Bear,” from guitarist Bob Lanzetti begins with his funky strumming before blossoming into a mix of soaring synths and horns interspersed by frenetic funk passages from the rhythm section. The closer, “Trinity” from fellow guitarist Mark Lettieri takes its name from Trinity River that connects Dallas, Fort Worth, and Denton, the band’s hometown. It features searing guitar lines in a rather angular take with strong horn lines navigating several rhythmic changes, far less direct than many of the others in the set.

Wagner is not constrained by locale, genre, or topic, and at 64 he continues to forge forward with Lambchop, delivering his music with restrained tempo and majestic tonality on The Bible.

Cool It Down is a masterwork of lush production and catchy melodies that work off of one another to create a colorful and textured album that makes the 13-year wait worthwhile.

Lloyd, as he typically does, enters gently but increases his intensity to the highest levels in the four pieces, his trio mates in restrained accompaniment until Wilson first blossoms with a jagged, inspired solo followed by Clayton’s cascading, shimmering turn which builds to a crescendo. At the diminuendo, Lloyd reenters with a simple six notes, the piece fading quietly. Enough said.

On God Save The Animals, Alex G creates his best music to date. The textures are as complex as its lyrical content and it’s all strung together beautifully through intricate piano sections. Throughout this album, we see calculated risks pay off in a major way to create a colorful yet challenging album and one that requires multiple listens to fully understand Alex G’s end goal.

There was no coasting on any front in the formulation of Long Gone. “Disco Ears” is decidedly peppier all around, though hardly redolent of the environs its title suggests or the beat-laden leanings of Redman’s Elastic Band in the mid-2000s. Instead, it is, like “Statuesque,” an unpredictable progression rendered with utter fluency all around, no less in McBride’s basswork or Blade’s drum activity than the lead instruments of their long-standing comrades.

Ali is filled with amazing moments but ultimately leaves more to be desired. With two instrumental juggernauts working together the expectations of these songs were high and the ambiance that flows through the album is going to shock fans of either artist. Regardless of the lows, the collaborative album allows Touré to experiment more with his vocals and his slick guitar sections became the star of the show. Overall, Ali is an album that adds to an ambiance instead of creating one, leaving the listener expecting more.

She closes, rather surprisingly with the flamenco guitar-driven acoustic tune, “Chimayo,” revealing the nuances of her vocals, which can go almost instantly from sultry seductive tones to window-rattling power. It’s a surprisingly great touch, and at least for this writer, is the kind of tune we’d like to have heard more of on this eclectic effort.

With all its content, music, and otherwise, permeated with purposeful attention to detail and focused depth, Legacy Recordings’ Volume 7 matches the previous releases in this archive series, such as Volume 2 Live in Europe 1969.

Sunrise on Slaughter Beach by Clutch is both a celebration of what has made this such a great band and a venture into new territories. It is unmistakably a Clutch album that will have you pumping your fist and singing along. And yeah, it probably does sound better in a slightly rusty 70s muscle car, but that’s not necessary to enjoy the album.

Clearly, the group put time and effort into production (the dance/electro “Flutter Freer” and vibrating “Andy Helping Andy” both sound alive) but made an artistic choice to neuter their more rock efforts. Had the instrumentals been more invigorating this may have been an interesting choice, but as People Helping People wraps, the feeling of No Age just going through the disenchanted motions sets in.

It is adventurous and (importantly) without sacrificing the strength of the tracks themselves. Even more impressive, is that with all the risks the band takes here, the album is undeniably a Whitney record.

It’s hard not to make a comparison to a couple of acoustic gems like “Torn and Frayed” or “Moonlight Mile” by Rolling Stones. In this case, the comparison is simply a compliment. Starcrawler does not shy from exploring different sounds and genres, ultimately showcasing its talents.

An album that rebrands its creator in a genuinely bold new way, something that is attempted often but is rarely this effective. It may not be his strongest outing, but it’s easily his most rousing.

Aside from the opening track, How Do You Burn? lacks the raw intensity frequently found on early Afghan Whigs releases. But what it lacks in power, the album makes up for in intricate arrangements, dense compositions drawing upon the band’s unique alchemy of influences, and infectious beats.

She created a very enjoyable album filled with so much personality and emotion that it’s hard to deny the beauty of it. While the length does make you question what could have been, the 10-tracks presented are so masterfully done and built to be put on repeat.

There is a certain struggle to be found in these songs but it is hidden underneath her self-assured cadence. Her storytelling on this album is direct and authentic and introduces us to a new side of Archives’ creative personality.

Fans of retro soul need to get onboard Thee Sacred Souls train immediately as the group has tapped directly into that classic sound with precision and grace on their debut self-titled offering.

On the band’s first album of original songs since 2015, Martsch is back, on top of his game throughout When the Wind Forgets Your Name. Whether it was the Brazilian inspiration, Covid isolation, or just plain time for another solid BtS record, Martsch and company deliver.

The Sick, The Dying … And The Dead doesn’t have anything as epic as “Holy Wars” or “Hangar 18” or a riff as instantly memorable as “Symphony of Destruction.” But from start to finish, it offers unrelenting intensity and an outlet to channel anger and fears from a world ravaged by a pandemic, war, and economic struggles into shouting and head-banging along with Mustaine’s somewhat-fictional tales of the same. ... All these years later, the band’s music is as relevant as ever.

Burnett is not a fan of technology, modern trends, or much of anything in general in the despondent middle offering of his trilogy. As a result, The Invisible Light: Spells oozes a murky uneasiness that floats throughout the album.

While you’re trying to keep up with Jacklin’s detailed songwriting, you may miss what is going on behind her well-crafted melodies. On Pre Pleasure, her typical acoustic rock sound is intertwined with lush string sections and hints of experimentation.

Freewave Lucifer F>ck F^ck F<ck addresses the full spectrum of human emotion, it has a loose feeling without straying too far away from Barnes’ initial vision. While it may take a couple of listens to fully grasp what Of Montreal is portraying on this album, the result is a scary yet gorgeous album filled with off-kilter instrumentals and soul-stirring songwriting that will leave you feeling bewildered and enticed.

At only eight tracks, Heartmind is a perfect length to listen to multiple times. If a song doesn’t grab you the first time around, upon repeat listens the nuances that are layered throughout tend to pop out and give the listener a new appreciation for it.

The chemistry shared between The Roots vocalist and Danger Mouse on Cheat Codes is so high caliber that it’s almost impossible to believe the two artists walk amongst the common man. The term “God Level” is thrown around a bit within the hip-hop community, and once people hear Cheat Codes, that saying is going to have a new definition.

A Foul Form does a great job of capturing that fiery intensity for a brief burst of chaos.

Reset is a quick, fun album for fans of the slightly avant-garde. While there isn’t too much excitement throughout the album, the overall tone of the Rest is what will keep you coming back. It’s relaxed and just off-kilter enough to keep each song sounding fresh without trying too hard.

It’s quite conceivable Noise & Flowers will convince aficionados as well as more casual listeners of the potency of these musicians as they collaborate in the spontaneity of the moment. In so doing, it may simultaneously join Hitchhiker (recorded in 1976 and released in 2017) as one of the highlights in Neil Young’s ever-expanding discography.

A fun, invigorating ride through the carefree minds of DOMi Louna and JD Beck.

It is a statement of unwavering faith in tradition. Rather than breaking any new ground, it is a graceful and honest interpretation of these enduring compositions.

The mix of songs that sound like they’re being written on the spot sitting on a stool in a bar, with tracks that are a bit more polished and contain several musical layers makes for a compelling listen.

Rogers is rejuvenated, and full of ideas, and thankfully, it seems she is here to stay.

Shires is clearly stepping into her own with Take It Like A Man, an album of struggle, rebirth and grappling with insecurities and uncertainness while keeping the will to progress as a couple and individual artist alive.

Dawes certainly achieved their goal of honoring the vinyl format in this ambitious recording, which is more organic and musically aware than its more recent predecessor albums.

Yes, Segall is playing with the same dynamics he’s built his career on, but he’s never sounded this welcoming, or at least not in a long time.

Entering Heaven Alive is a joy to sink into and overall one of the most easily accessible and best of Jack White’s solo career.

It’s the sound of The Sadies that we’ve enjoyed for over two decades now. The band and the producer are proudly calling it the best album that the band’s ever made.

In keeping with his primary vocation, he [Johnny Depp] nevertheless sounds like any fledgling musician still in the process of finding his own style. Meanwhile, Beck makes it quite clear from the very start this is his album: “Midnight Walker,” a composition by Irish musician Davy Spillane, is the familiar and highly atmospheric sound of vintage Beck fusion, while the clattering mechanical rhythms of Killing Joke’s “Death And Resurrection Show” recall You Had It Coming in 2001 and Jeff two years later.

Moonshine (the album) weaves lyrics dealing with simple things like moving with feelings about politics and the human condition to create an album that really resonates in this day and age.

While the highs on the album are high, the lows are apparent and hard to ignore. There is a battle between the band’s influences and their own vision for their sound which leaves them with a batch of great ideas that weren’t executed to their full potential.

Hellfire is a decent album, one where on at least half the tracks come from the Black Midi we remember, always on the cusp of something brilliant and humbling and confounding in the best way possible. On the other half though, they are lost in their own precision, echoing their better work and confusing ability with purpose.

The softer, subtler sound of The Other Side of Make-Believe means it’s never able to reach the greatness of the peak moments of Turn On the Bright Lights or Antics. It simply doesn’t have those powerful moments. Despite that and Banks occasionally singing outside of his range, it’s a solid effort and a welcome splash of color to Interpol’s dour palette.

This new one smolders but never truly catches fire. Perhaps as a measure of the emotional disarray in which Young found himself at the time—he sounds almost as distracted at times as on that Seventies LP delayed some forty-five years–he couldn’t really cut loose, even in the comfortable company of Crazy Horse.

Yes, while the previous three revealed a gentler side of the band, this one flat-out rocks until we hear the spoken dialogue from St. EOM for whom the closer, an epic 12-minute instrumental, is named. It’s rendered simply by the quartet of Trucks, Dixon on B3, Boone, and Greenwell. As expected, it showcases the phenomenal spiraling, stratospheric guitar of Trucks. ... TTB, as expected, is off to a flying start.

From the few singles they’ve released to the soon to be hits off of Cave World, they are no doubt trying to widen their audience. But you can’t help but think they just don’t care, in the best way. They’ve unsubscribed to a version of punk or rock that places any sort of limitations on itself. They just want to make weird shit and command crowds with it every night.

As a whole Sage Motel is a tone record of restrained, warbling, retro veering, psychedelic soul but there is one standout that should be heard on its own.

Tons of artists have knocked down genre walls in the past, yet few have done it with as much confidence and swagger as Nova Twins on their explosive sophomore album Supernova.

With the help of Lopatin’s production and mixing, Sometimes, Forever takes a different approach, creating dense sonic landscapes packed with various analog and electronic sounds. It’s Allison’s biggest risk to date but one that comes with plenty of rewards.

‘Flicted, the latest studio offering from the ivory tickling minstrel, continues his dexterous ways with a formidable collection of material that challenges the listener, without being too overbearing, and is bolstered by a fresh batch of inspiring collaborations with some of today’s most prominent musicians, including Ezra Koenig (Vampire Weekend) and Danielle Haim (Haim).

While Closure/Continuation doesn’t contain the triumphs of past efforts, it is a rewarding listen from start to finish and adds another medal around prog-rock ambassador Steven Wilson. This dexterous trio appears delighted to deliver for their core audience to whom what they hope is a new beginning.

Charlie Musselwhite’s smiling visage sums up the very air of modest, joyful generosity that permeates Mississippi Son.

On Teeth Marks, we see an artist working through that coming fully into their own and with the confidence to tackle love in a compelling and refreshing way, along with the many joys and scars that it leaves in its wake.

It’s also overly self-serious, an album begging to be considered above its pretentions and to be analyzed as art. For the most part, it works. It works as a piece of baroque chamber art and it works like a flip side to Hercules & Love Affair, a testament to the pair’s virtuosity. Still, it’s frustrating that with so many talented musicians collaborating on this project, it can feel like a missed opportunity.

Lund goes out of his way to cover each in his own style without simply trying to duplicate the originals. As a result, he manages to pay homage to the songwriters while still putting out a record that his growing fanbase will relate to.

The biggest weakness of Life Is Yours is its lack of variety. Foals have always had a vast sonic palette, but on this album, the Oxford band limits itself to only a small portion. But what that album does, it does well. Each song is kinetic and has great grooves to get people moving.

The son of the legendary Ali Farka Touré, Vieux Farka is continuing the tradition of those artists who came before him, while forging his own path. Les Racines is an ode to the past, yet Touré’s is constantly working towards a better future.

Inside Problems is a warm collection of quirky, catchy tracks that capture a sense of aloofness assuaging listeners during these troubling times.

Coming out of a decade where many bands decided to incorporate electronics (for better or worse) into their sounds, it is refreshing to hear the new generation of bands returning to more traditional rock instrumentation. Horsegirl not only does this, but does it well.

His most career-defining album to date. ... The cliché “love wins” is the essence of this project, which results in both an audio and visual album. Watching and listening to both creates quite a searing, provocative impact.

Another complex, solid effort from the Drive-By Truckers, one of the great American bands, who are happy to keep on writing songs about trains and people who died on Welcome 2 Club XIII.

Control gives Dehd room to deepen their sets and expand their sound but most importantly lays the groundwork for an even better and more lush album that could follow.

Cruel Country has a lot to offer musically and lyrically over its twenty-one tracks. However, fans might be disappointed to find that it has a conspicuous lack of upbeat rockers and Nels Cline guitar solos. It does a great job though of offering up different dynamics throughout so that it never feels stale.

Finn’s style has subtly shifted and the increased spoken word with fuller sounds are both welcomed additions, but in the end, Finn will be Finn, and Legacy of Rentals continues his early morning, alone in barroom despair with hopes of redemption sprinkled throughout.

The story there [on “Birdsong”] and on “Losing You” is almost as absorbing as the depth of sound for No More Worlds to Conquer: the audio quality compels more than a passing thought about how that less than three-minute latter track might go on longer. But Robin Trower repeats himself no more often in his solos than with each successive record of his, so “Waiting For the Rain to Fall” also whets the appetite for more of his rich, thoughtful playing.

If an album can make you cry, this one will. It’s a stellar performance for the ages.

2019’s Green Balloon grappled with trying to capture the band’s live exuberance, but the guest augmented Red Balloon just floats along, strutting smooth confidence from the get-go.

“Route 66” and “Mannish Boy” are just two of the blues-rooted tunes on which the Stones cut their teeth, but that only renders more impressive the relish and attendant polish with which they imbue them here. ... Scintillating.

It’s easy to envision any one of these tracks performed live as almost all have singalong type choruses and hip-shaking grooves, certainly the case for “Baby, I’m Coming Home,” which has enough fiery guitars sounding off that it suggests Gibbons has strapped on his axe too. The closer, “Didn’t I Love You,” brings blues riffs, guitar distortion, and a rawness, emblematic of the garage-rock that first stamped this enduring band.

As a whole, WE is a fairly good album and would be better received if it wasn’t an Arcade Fire album.

Apart from the wayward package design—and, for some listeners, hearing the repartee before “Roll Another Number (For The Road)” as simultaneously unctuous and condescending– Citizen Kane Jr. Blues is a prime example of the kind of unorthodox creativity that’s made this man such a fascinating and (mostly) revered figure for over fifty years now.

Royce Hall, 1971 is a solo acoustic gig, recorded in January of that year on the UCLA campus, while Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 1971 is a similarly executed performance, with Young on vocals, guitar, piano and harmonica, on the last US show of his solo tour. While these first two may seem redundant in the wake of the aforementioned prior releases, they are also a testament to the consistently high level of Young’s performances (not to mention a sunny state of mind, then and now, to which he alludes in the abbreviated liner notes to Chandler).

Royce Hall, 1971 is a solo acoustic gig, recorded in January of that year on the UCLA campus, while Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 1971 is a similarly executed performance, with Young on vocals, guitar, piano and harmonica, on the last US show of his solo tour. While these first two may seem redundant in the wake of the aforementioned prior releases, they are also a testament to the consistently high level of Young’s performances.

While previous Van Etten albums, and pandemic albums in general, carried a somber scarcity to them, We’ve Been Going balances the deeply personal diary entries with moments of levity and hope.

A Bit of Previous stands alongside the earlier works as a cohesive full-band effort. This latest effort surely should be counted alongside B&S beloved classics If You’re Feeling Sinister and Tigermilk. It feels good to go home again.

Endless Rooms bristles with a creative spirit, which is clearly displayed in the twinkling folk-rock of “Open Up Your Window” and the building/banging dance-pop of “Blue Eye Lake”. The upbeat finale, “Bounce Off The Bottom”, keeps the tone bright with synths and chimes augmenting the sound of Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever who seem to be expanding into a new era as a collective.

The album mixes Creole vocals with English, the latter in Caetano Veloso’s Brazilian song of exile “You Don’t Know Me,” one of several examples of beauty to offset the anger and angst.

All Souls Hill feels like a gradual step with the heavier foot planted on the electronic DIY side while venturing back to the organic with the lighter foot.

Radiate Like This floats along in the vein of 2016’s Heads Up as the former art-rockers wander in semi-aimless, sleepy pop waters. Warpaint’s dreamy vibe is pleasant, starting with the ambient-looking cover art, but it doesn’t leave any real lasting impact.

Emotional Eternal is about as restrained as you can imagine Prochet. Sure, the arrangements are still huge and encompassing, like on the swelling “Where the Water Clears the Illusion”, but these efforts are scattershot and often muted by Prochet’s own reluctance towards inhabiting any kind of persona. ... Prochet to her credit, has been able to wiggle into that narrow restriction, a surprising amount of diversity.

Theirs is a very relaxed approach, two longtime friends totally immersed in joyous music. The feel is far more important than precision. ... The gritty, gravel-toned voice of Taj is always a treat and Cooder’s masterful picking and slide skills are always impressive.

A stellar modern Americana/Bluegrass record from the opening track to “Hillbilly Boy,” the impossibly catchy album closer.

On (watch my moves) Kurt Vile lets his wooly freak flag fly, never reigning in his scattered thoughts and never rocking out, content to just drift along in his unique way.

These themes of love and loyalty encircle Ramona Park Broke My Heart in a way that is not particularly new to Staples’ discography but that is perhaps done in his most creative and intense way yet, both lyrically and thematically. ... As always, Vince Staples’ rapping ability is strong and his style unique.

The album is riddled with pretty hooks that are buried under interesting complexities.

As per usual, Burns adds his layered touches with synth, vibes, and cello in addition to the guitars and bass. Brown’s poetry stands distinctly apart from the Burns/Convertino writing in its short poetic lines in the former, a tune that regales the history and gods of the desert.

With Second Nature they prove once again that they can filter in new sounds and stylistic ideas in a way that never feels inorganic, letting their songs and gift for memorable melodies shine through whatever outfit they’ve dressed them in.

This album does have its missteps, enough of such to stunt its growth to a noticeable degree. Nevertheless, in many senses, Wet Leg undoubtedly shows great promise in their choice of which sounds they choose to greet the music world.

Overall Fear of the Dawn (like White himself) never sits still and while exhilarating at moments, none of the tracks stand with the best he has written and feel like experimental jam sessions.

Unlimited Love is a decidedly low-key affair, not concerned about competing with the band’s past greatness, but rather more focused on the simple joys of being in the same room jamming together again.

All in all, Quever does a great job of marrying all of his influences together to create his own sound that is both timeless and new. Fans of Papercuts will undoubtedly enjoy Past Life Regressions and those new to Papercuts have much to look forward to by giving it a listen.

A satisfyingly solid collection of new originals. ... Several of the tracks here take a little longer to grow on the listener, like the Woodie Guthrie-in-spirit singalong “Big Backyard,” but after hitting the repeat button a couple of times the appeal starts to become clearer.

The music is never afraid to insert something new, to a fault at times, as programmed beats, punk thrashing and groove metal clash on the schizophrenic “Coming Correct Is Cheaper”. ... Better is the overloaded “Thumbsucker” which pushes upbeat punk with hip hop influence, the screeching “We Wants Revenge” that kicks up to total blissful chaos, and “GODBLESSYALLREALGOOD” which fluctuates between screaming punk and hip hop breaks with an ease and dexterity rarely displayed in this style.

It’s slightly less immediate than Designer, but more diverse; and it never once feels derivative of any other artist or Harding herself. Even if taken strictly as a vocal exercise, Warm Chris is a triumph, and another key to unraveling her enigma.

This is a band that has stayed true to its singular, languid, atmospheric sonic to best frame Margo Timmins’ vocals. Even when they step into denser and occasional harsher sonics, they manage to successfully retreat to this infectious comfort zone. We can’t call The Cowboy Junkies a national treasure, but an enduring, consistently strong North American treasure will do just fine.

The power, pain, and suffering of the original Delta blues from perhaps its singly most important innovator is here to be appreciated in better sound quality than it ever has. ... This is Son House at his peak, this is one to savor and cherish. It will likely become his legacy recording.

Ivey has a gift for peppering purposely vague lyrics with direct messages as if today the world is often dark and chaotic but there is a path through it. While the musical aspects of the project began rather experimentally, he ultimately delivers pleasing soundscapes that carry us through the bleakness. Somehow, we emerge feeling better.

Back In Black is a tribute, extension, and reminder of Cypress Hill at its peak, to do this so successfully thirty years after that era is impressive in its own unique way.

Whether Jacob’s Ladder successfully reaches listeners, however, will ultimately depend on an open-minded response to the various instrumental and vocal components.