Keith Richards once said: “There couldn’t be a Rolling Stones without Charlie Watts.” The implication being that Watts’ drumming is so crucial to The Rolling Stones’ sound, everything else would disintegrate if you were to remove him from the equation.…
Album Review: Liz Phair – “Soberish”
Soberish is a great title and a classic little Liz Phair bit of wordplay: its meaning is clear, it has a touch of playfulness to it, yet it also suggests hidden and sinister depths that are lurking not far beneath…
Album Review: Ashley Monroe – ‘Rosegold’
New look, new style: Ashley Monroe shoots for a full-on rebirth with Rosegold. She dons pink hair on the album’s cover and dons electronic music on the album itself, both new guises that come as a surprise because Ashley Monroe doesn’t…
Album Review: The Fratellis – ‘Half Drunk Under a Full Moon’
The Fratellis have entered that awkward career midpoint for bands, where the tension between doing what comes easy to them and trying to expand their musical palette causes inevitable problems. In The Fratellis’ case, what comes easy to them is…
Album Review: Bruce Springsteen returns with “Letter to You”
“Time slips away and leaves you with nothing mister but/Boring stories of glory days.” So sang The Boss at the height of his own glory days on the multiplatinum Born in the U.S.A. album. It’s one of the best lines from that…
Album Review: Tricky – “Fall to Pieces”
It’s become a cliché already this year to start a review about a dark album with a line saying something like “this perfectly captures the mood of 2020” and some waffle about how it reminds us all of the claustrophobia…
Album Review: Old 97’s – “Twelfth”
“I believe in love, but it don’t believe in me.” I’ve loved the Old 97’s ever since those deceptively simple words, easy to understand yet packed with meaning, and the crazy catchy hook beneath them, etched their way into my…
