It’s in outlining risks in such rich detail that Peters has created an album of rare insight.
If there’s a knock against the album, it’s that Mize’s freewheeling shifts between genres suggest a certain degree of dilettantism.
What impresses most about 100 Proof is the extent to which it capitalizes on Pickler’s relative strengths as a performer.
DiFranco’s candor simply serves her better on her intimate, personal songs than on a set of political songs that are uncharacteristically dated.
The persona Edwards creates over the course of the album is consistently hamstrung by doubt and hesitation.
If the song selection wants for inspiration, the Little Willies’s performances never do.
Lioness: Hidden Treasures too often sounds like a cobbled-together cash grab.
The Black Keys have replaced their sometimes insular focus on blues formalism with an emphasis on pop hooks.
It’s some kind of minor miracle that no one has ever asphyxiated on glitter at one of Swift’s shows.
Fonda absolutely makes the most of Better Days’s scant running time.
Daughtry’s third album reaffirms that the band is defined by competence rather than ambition or creativity.
Whereas many side projects ultimately amount to little more than artistically inert, self-indulgent one-offs, Miranda Lambert’s Pistol Annies is true to her reputation of defying expectations.
Some of R.E.M.’s strongest songs have been omitted in favor of the “part garbage” of the set’s title.
em>Weather is such a heady album because of how unflinchingly Ndegeocello has turned her keen observational eyes toward herself.
It’s All Fine Enough, I Guess would’ve been a far more honest and accurate title.
Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of Susan Boyle’s music or image.
This is a solid collection of better-than-average songs cast in arrangements that offer a progressive take on modern country.
The set not only highlights Pikelny’s unimpeachable technical skill, but also the breadth of possibilities for the use of the banjo as a lead instrument.
Clancy’s Tavern is a fairly rote reiteration of the same album that Toby Keith has been re-recording once a year since 2005.
Guitar Slinger makes up for its lack of focus with some truly inspired songwriting and performances.