Genre: Pure Cheese Format Reviewed: Spotify 320 kbps Rating: 6/10 Commentary: This is an unbelievably delightful piece of guilty confection. I will not tell you how may times I listened to it on repeat. More info: here. Listen: here.

Genre: Experimental Format Reviewed: Spotify 320 kbps Rating: 6.5/10 Commentary: It’s … OK. It won’t knock your socks off, and you sort of expect more from these two. But it is a perfectly fine album, and two songs (“Ministry” and “Reveries”) are magnificent. More info: here. Listen: here.

I don’t usually post up the albums I don’t enjoy, but there’s been a whole run of bad albums by great artists, and it got me annoyed. Steve Earle – Guy Genre: Alternative Country Rating: 4.5/10 Commentary: A collection of really great songs by Guy Clarke, covered really badly in the deadly-earnest old-tired-guy style which […]

Here are three great rock albums I’ve been listening to an repeat. Drenge – Strange Creatures Genre: Garage Rock Rating: 7.5/10 Listen here           Pond – Tasmania Genre: Psychedelic Rock Rating: 7/10 Listen here           Stats – Other People’s Lives Genre: Disco Rock Rating: 8/10 Listen here

Genre: Rock Format Reviewed: Spotify 320 kbps Rating: 7/10 Commentary: Mostly break-up songs, alternately defiant and sad, but not cliched, and sometimes pretty insightful. Simple vocals-forward production. It grows on you. More info: here. Listen: here.

Falling behind – so here’s a rapid round! Claire Hastings – Those Who Roam Genre: Folk/Traditional Rating: 6.5/10 Listen here           Jay Mitta – Tatizo Pesa Genre: Unbelievable crazily fast world beat/dance Rating: 7.5/10 Listen here           Liszt – Sardanapalo & Mazeppa (Karabits/El-Khoury-Hernandez-Pushniak-Staatskapelle Weimar Genre: Opera Rating: […]

Genre: Folk/Country Format Reviewed: Spotify 320 kbps Rating: 7.5/10 Commentary: This album really caught me by surprise. It intersperses folk compositions with remarkably poignant spoken reflections on her family’s experience with violence and revolution in Grenada and subsequent immigration. These things are usually overdone, and this incredibly well constructed with good sense of pacing. In […]

Genre: Folk Format Reviewed: Spotify 320 kbps Rating: 8/10 Commentary: So far one of my favorite folk albums of the year. You have to listen to it a few times, but it grows on you. “Oh Little Red” is the standout. More info: here. Listen: here.

Genre: Pop Format Reviewed: Spotify 320 kbps Rating: 5.5/10 Commentary: More of the same from Sharon Van Etten. Sad songs about relationships and banal conversations with friends and former friends. Not her best. More info: here. Listen: here.

Genre: Country/Folk Format Reviewed: Spotify 320 kbps Rating: 7.5/10 Commentary: It’s been a rough few years for men in the alt country music scene dominated by Jason Isbell’s not-drinking-any-more songs and Chris Stapleton’s beard. Finally, we have what we’ve been waiting for, a clever, quiet, and understated return to good songwriting. What a relief. More […]