What enjoyment can be culled from The Transit Rider comes from Dawn McCarthy and Nils Frykdahl’s choice of covers.
With nearly 40 contributors to Ships, it is no surprise that this is a loud, elaborate sounding album.
It’s hard to think of a better single-disc collection to represent Johnston’s prodigious catalog.
Wilderness is on Jagjaguwar Records not American Idol, and their new record, Vessel States, bears zero crossover appeal.
The problem is not the Coup’s OutKast influence, but that the comparison illuminates Riley’s significantly weaker flow.
Josh Ritter is not redefining the way folk music is written or performed, he just writes and performs good folk songs.
Yes, Virginia is not quite as strong an effort as the Dresden Dolls’s self-titled debut, but it boasts some terrific songs.
Catastrophe Keeps Us Together is a terrific collection of thoughtful, energetic rock songs.
Drum’s Not Dead is an album of sounds, not songs.
If The Red Krayola frontman Mayo Thompson should be lauded for anything, it’s persistence.
Friends of Built to Spill, both old and new, take comfort in the familiar.
Showtunes will definitely leave you with a tummy ache.
There will no doubt be finer country albums released this year, but there may not be one as irresistible as this one.
Their deafening exterior is only there to mask the only quality worse than derivativeness: tedium.
The Proposition is a kind of western, but don’t expect to hear the Bad Seeds aping Ennio Morricone.
The toughest part about being as weird as Will Oldham is keeping your wackiness from becoming predictable.