Album Review – Page 2 – Spinning Platters

Album Review: Coma Cinema – Posthumous Release

“Closer than before / on the edge of being / the same fuck up as before / dying in a secret”, Mat Cothran (aka Coma Cinema) mumbles out on the opening track of his fourth full-length album, Posthumous Release. The South Carolina native spills out seemingly half-conscious lyrics throughout the twelve short tracks, as if he is reading scribbled notes directly out of a diary. The music does not stray far from Cothran’s melancholic roots, though this time recorded with a higher production value. The question is — how does the higher quality change the feel of Coma Cinema’s output, formerly lo-fi, that fans are accustomed to?

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Album Review: Bleached – Ride Your Heart

It’s hard not to go overboard with the metaphors, but someone took diamond cutting tools and applied them to Mika Miko. The result? Bleached.

I always enjoyed Mika Miko, and seeing them at Nickel City was one of the better shows I’d attended, because there’s little better than playing NBA Jam while they’re yelling into telephones in the other room. So I was excited to hear what Jennifer and Jessica Clavin had been up to since then. It turns out they’ve been brought back from the experimental punked-up cliff, and are now best suited on a ticket with Brilliant Colors or the latest Go-Go’s reunion. Cheers.

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Album Review: The Corin Tucker Band – 1,000 Years

The Corin Tucker Band – 1,000 Years.

Corin Tucker was one-third of one of the greatest bands the world has ever known.

In Sleater-Kinney, she made powerful, personal music strong enough to restore a person’s conviction in themselves or rock-and-roll or both. Her voice arced through speakers and rock clubs like the weapon in a video game that could cut through all the enemies in one stupendous blast and keep going to and through the edge of the screen.

Then, in 2006 Sleater-Kinney went on hiatus.

Now what? Continue reading “Album Review: The Corin Tucker Band — 1,000 Years”

Album Review: Marnie Stern – Marnie Stern

I’ve been following Marnie Stern’s career nearly from the get-go. Her first record, In Advance Of The Broken Arm, is still one of my all time favorite records, and hardly a week goes by without giving it a listen. I enjoyed her second record, This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That, but, as is the case with many sophomore releases, I didn’t become infatuated with it as much as the debut. So, here we have record number three. A record that’s pre-buzz has led me to believe that we have a “serious departure,” and, what may be the one thing that has me approaching with the greatest caution, “ballads.” My biggest fear would be that one of the most aggressive players in rock music today has gone gentle.

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Album Review: Hole – “Nobody’s Daughter”

I have always considered myself a big Courtney Love fan. I know that sounds bizarre to many, but I’ve followed her long, strange career like some follow their favorite sports teams (or so I’m told). It just so happens that Courtney is like one of those sports teams that has far more failures than triumphs, and tends to flunk random drug tests. But she usually comes through when it counts, and no matter how much her reputation has suffered over the years, I have never been capable of anything less than total love and adoration of her. Sadly, Nobody’s Daughter is just the latest challenge to that love.

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Album Review: Shelby Lynne – Tears, Lies, And Alibis

Shelby Lynne, one of the most defiantly self-sufficient female recording artists of her generation, has returned with yet another collection of sparse, intimate country/folk/blues/soul. Tears, Lies, and Alibis is written by Lynne, produced by Lynne, and — for the first time — released on Lynne’s own label, Everso Records. The woman has been dicked over by labels too many times by in her 20+ years as a recording artist, so she finally just invested in a label of one’s own. Get it, girl!

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Album Review: The White Stripes – Under The Great Northern Lights

Do you like the White Stripes? Forget that…. Do you Love the white stripes? Maybe enough to renew your passport to pay them a visit? If you fall into this category, you may have been present for the most recent release, straight from our Northern neighbors: Under Great White Northern Lights.
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Album Review: Sunshine Underground – Nobody’s Coming To Save You

What do you get if you cross The Kaiser Chiefs, Kasabian and The Killers? Apart from an excited album reviewer with a weird fascination for the letter “K”, you get Sunshine Underground. At times sounding eerily similar to The Killers (especially the vocals) but also evoking the beat driven rock of the other K-bands mentioned. The Sunshine Underground were formed 2005 and Nobody’s Coming To Save You is their second album, following 2006’s Raise The Alarm. The album was released Feb 1st 2010 in the UK. I could not find a US release date at this point. The last trivia point before I get going is that the band is named after a Chemical Brothers song. Continue reading “Album Review: Sunshine Underground — Nobody’s Coming To Save You”

Album Review: Ellie Goulding – Lights

Ellie Goulding is the hottest new artist in the UK. Championed by Florence and The Machine, she won the BBC Sound of 2010 award along with the 2010 Brits Critic Choice Award which is given to the artist expected to breakthrough in 2010. She was born in Hereford England, about 10 miles from where I was born, though admittedly it was almost 20 years later. So should we believe the hype on her debut album Lights, which is out in the UK now and will be released in the US on March 16th? Continue reading “Album Review: Ellie Goulding — Lights”

Album Review: Rob Zombie – Hellbilly Deluxe 2

Oh Mr. Zombie, you’ve done it again. I guess that’s why Rob appropriately named his newest album “Hellbilly Deluxe” part deuce. BUT, for those of you who are expecting this album to be a sequel of the first Hellbilly, you will probably be disappointed. Back in November, I got a sneak peak of Zombie’s delayed production during his Hellbilly tour. Why such a long delay Rob? Although I must say the album was worth the extra three month wait, such a long delay was almost like burying the grave before putting in the coffin.

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