The album strains to make the trio sound like countless other acts currently mining a retro-minded aesthetic for instant indie cred.
As with most of those serial dramas, Black Swan adheres to a predictable formula and familiar emotional terrain.
You know you’re in trouble when your marketing strategy is the most interesting thing about your new album.
Corbin doesn’t reach the same heights of George Strait’s best singles or even of his halfway-interesting recent albums.
Peace & Love finds Juliana Hatfield at her most vulnerable and intimate.
Ryan has proven that he can still make a melancholy perspective into a compelling listen, but Dear Lover is simply monotonous and disappointing.
The whip-smart hooks and spot-on production on Heart mask Walker’s vocal deficiencies, which might otherwise be a more serious liability.
There’s something to be said for defying convention, but Curfman’s mastery of tried-and-true blues forms is impressive in its own right.
If none of the songs are particularly innovative, AM has come up with a record that’s never less than charming.
Black Noise is a triumph of minimalism and fragile soundscapes.
Moorer has ventured into the atmospheric, American gothic territory of Neko Case, Fred Eaglesmith, and Scott H. Biram.
Josh Turner has struggled to this point in his career to find material that is equally as distinctive.
The Watson Twins let J. Soda and Russell Pollard’s production overshadow them on too much of Talking to You, Talking to Me.
The album stands as a welcome reprieve from the trying-to-pass-a-kidney-stone yelps that Joe Jonas attempts to pass off as singing.
The real problem here isn’t the video’s too-much-of-itself histrionics.
The overall tone of the album is fairly staid and reserved.
Even when backed by a full choir on the stirring “Move Up,” Griffin still emerges as a real show-stealing powerhouse.
Someone forgot to tell country trio Lady Antebellum that “sophomore slumps” are now gauche.
Enlightenment may just be Hubbard’s finest record, and it’s certainly the new decade’s first essential album.
Just about the only thing Ke$ha makes convincing on Animal is that the current crop of party girls are every bit as soulless as they let on.