The great peril of being ahead of the curve is that the curve will eventually catch up and then change direction entirely.
The album emerges as a thoughtful, dense exploration of matters of faith, sanctimony, and vice.
Striking images crop up over the course of Romanian Names, but they do so in isolation.
There’s a constant level of virtuosity that Lawson inspires that few other traditional bluegrass groups can match.
Ben Harper has finally made an album that conveys the lived-in groove of his live shows.
Yamin has been saddled with material that’s every bit as inert as the coronation power ballads that Idol winners are contractually bound to sing.
Playground marks the Boy Least Likely To’s awkward first steps toward adulthood.
Porcupine is an appropriately prickly record that’s an about-face from Easton’s previous four albums.
Rebirth of Venus does its damnedest to play against Australian singer-songwriter Ben Lee’s already modest skill set.
The album illustrates how deeply two long-time collaborators understand each other’s creative restlessness and their flair for the dramatic.
“Dead Flowers” makes it clear that Lambert is more interested in forging her own artistic path than in bending to ill-fitting trends set by far lesser talents.
Ida Maria’s facility with a hook makes Fortress ‘Round My Heart an impressive debut.
Stranger illustrates how slight the distinctions between country, blues, and folk genre labels are.
Teng eschews conventional pop-song structures without succumbing to the fussy, overworked arrangements that bog down other classically-minded artists.
The restraint that McBride shows in both her vocal performances and her song selection are a refreshing change of pace.
Defying Gravity barely gets off the ground.
The album may not have any standout hooks to give him another inescapable radio hit, but it does suggest that DeGraw has finally found a style that suits him well.
For Chico Fellini, the use of rhythm is a key element to their charisma.
The album is inept in its contemptuous abuse of almost every basic element of song craft and performance.
Carolina often comes across as a strident stab at the mainstream commercial acceptance that has thus far eluded the singer-songwriter.