Category
CD Reviews
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CD Reviews
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan – Hawk
08.29.10Prepare your fragile hearts, quivering souls and vulnerable secrets as the oil & water pairing of Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan reappears in a cloud of brilliant tracks politely and definitively titled, Hawk. Three audio slicks into the game and this unlikely duo is still churning out quality studio butter. (more…)
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CD Reviews
EELS – Tomorrow Morning
08.29.10 -
CD Reviews
Katy Perry – Teenage Dream
08.28.10The follow-up to 2008’s multi-platinum One of the Boys, Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream is an ode to California and stupidity, sex and bad taste. In many ways, it’s the perfect pop record. (more…)
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CD Reviews
Land of Talk – Cloak and Cipher
08.28.10Put your magic squares away people; no algorithm is needed to crack the code of Land of Talk’s new record, Cloak and Cipher. Not to belittle the poetic mysteries encrypted in the very fabric of this hooded beauty, but you won’t need more than your ears and your heart to understand the plain text of this great album. (more…)
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CD Reviews
Ray LaMontagne & The Pariah Dogs – God Willin’ & The Creek Don’t Rise
08.22.10Why is today so different from yesterday? How could one day perambulate with such vim and vigor in comparison to the latter? Well if you must know, today hosted the creamy sandpaper snarl of Ray LaMontagne & The Pariah Dogs, with the boot shuffling steel whine on the street being God Willin’ & The Creek Don’t Rise. Goddam I’m certain if you accidentally dropped this CD it would strike oil where it landed. (more…)
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CD Reviews
John Mellencamp – No Better Than This
08.22.10John Mellencamp’s recent album of thirteen brand-new, old-school songs, No Better Than This, comes directly from the open heart of an old soul. Produced by T-Bone Burnett and released on Rounder Records, this straight-up collection of honest songs is played with the organic simplicity of skilled hands and captured with the crackling technology of times past. (more…)
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CD Reviews
Iron Maiden – The Final Frontier
08.21.1035-years young and still shredding, the almighty Iron Maiden graces metal charts with yet another big balled blazer dubbed The Final Frontier. A seventy six minute testament to the virility of seasoned audio minds twisted by inevitable evolution and respect for the old school. (more…)
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CD Reviews
Camu Tao – King of Hearts
08.21.10Respected by critics and well regarded in the hip-hop community for his work with S.A. Smash, Nighthawks, and The Weathermen, underground rapper and producer Camu Tao began recording his solo debut back in 2005. Sadly, the album was still unfinished when Camu lost his two-year battle with lung cancer. Rather than subjecting the incomplete tracks to the spit shine and scissors of the editing room, the rapper’s estate decided to release the record exactly as it sounded when Camu left it. The resulting album King of Hearts is all over the place, and across its 16 tracks Camu dabbles in everything from indie rock (Bird Flu) and straight hip-hop (Major Team) to unclassifiable miscellany (Fuck Me). (more…)
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CD Reviews
Hawksley Workman – Milk
08.15.10With January’s Meat still warm in its packaging, the prolific Hawksley Workman has officially released his second album of 2010, Milk, which has been leaking track-by-track onto the web over the past months. Since the Toronto-based stage-man’s unmistakable sand-on-crystal pipes and sassy songs first hit the Canadian pop scene in 1998, he has churned out a steady stream of albums reflecting his continually evolving musical persona. (more…)
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CD Reviews
Eli “Paperboy” Reed – Come and Get It
08.15.10Greatly inspired by the great age of soul where artists like Tyrone Davis, Otis Redding, and Joe Tex were singing in small local clubs, the newest soul sensation Eli “Paperboy” Reed is finally out with his big record debut, Come and Get It. (more…)
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CD Reviews
Black Label Society – Order of the Black
08.14.10The 90’s live on in Black Label Society’s new album, Order of the Black, the band’s eighth studio album arranged by ex-Ozzy Osbourne’s guitar virtuoso Zakk Wylde who speckles his music with his insane solos and heavy, motorbike bar riffs. (more…)
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CD Reviews
Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
08.14.10First of all, if you haven’t already seen Scott Pilgrim Vs .the World, do yourself a favor and take the next metro to AMC. Even a cursory glance at the movie poster is enough to suggest that the film is a music geek’s dream come true, and the soundtrack is appropriately killer. (more…)
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CD Reviews
Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
08.08.10Arcade Fire has their minds set on carefully cropped lush green lawns and spaciously symmetrical streets seemingly cut out of a poster with their new album, The Suburbs, a musical exploration of the anticipatory lives that exist on the cusp between urban centrality and rural hinterlands. (more…)
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CD Reviews
Les Savy Fav – Root for Ruin
08.08.10Art-punk rockers Les Savy Fav have released their fifth album, Root for Ruin, on the Frenchkiss label. With ten years of ruckus under their belts, this NYC post-hardcore band has honed its potent energy into the gritty, intricate anthems that characterize their high-energy sound. (more…)
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CD Reviews
Bun B – Trill O.G.
08.07.10Former member of U.G.K. and 90’s veteran hip hop artist Bun B is hogging all the limelight these days with his new album Trill O.G., recently hailed as a classic hip hop album by The Source. With guests like Raekwon, T-Pain, Young Jeezy and Drake, Trill understandably thrills the charts and die hard hip hop fans with its ample potential. (more…)
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CD Reviews
Freddie Gibbs – Str8 Killa
08.07.10Remember gangsta rap? Freddie Gibbs does, and on his new EP Str8 Killa, the Gary, Indiana MC once again positions himself as the torchbearer of the inner city soundtrack. Plenty of artists yearn for bygone eras. Noel Gallagher would push his mother down the stairs for a time machine to 1967. Julian Casablancas would rather be playing Ms. Pac Man in 1988. Gibbs no doubt longs for the halcyon days of 1994, when street cred was determined by how high you could make your car bounce. (more…)
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CD Reviews
Tom Jones – Praise & Blame
08.01.10Tom Jones? Well, actually it’s Sir Thomas John Woodward, but the fact that he was knighted isn’t the point right now. The point is that after a long and varied career (which some would say was amusingly kitsch), Tom Jones has mustered yet another album, Praise & Blame, an earnest roots and blues album that will shock most people who only think of Tom Jones as a campy 70’s sex maniac. (more…)
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CD Reviews
Mark Olson – Many Colored Kite
08.01.10Mark Olson continues his flight out of The Jayhawks‘ nest with the release of his second solo record, Many Colored Kite. Solidly structured, interestingly sculpted and steeped in imagery, Many Colored Kite is a distinctly personal collection of tunes showcasing Olson’s skills as a songwriter. (more…)
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CD Reviews
Fat Joe – The Darkside
07.31.10Big and brash, Fat Joe is almost twenty years in the making and can still bang out a record that turns heads in a New York minute. The Darkside, the latest album, is like a well executed assault with Fat J pulling some illustrious characters together. With some help from Busta Rhymes, Trey Songz, Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne and R. Kelly, The Darkside could be the most contentious and truculent hip hop album out right now. (more…)
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CD Reviews
Best Coast – Crazy for You
07.31.10In case you haven’t heard, Best Coast’s debut album Crazy for You is gaining momentum as the garage rock record of the summer, and along with East Coast noise-poppers Sleigh Bells (review link here), the California duo are one of the indie world’s buzz bands of 2010. (more…)
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CD Reviews
Sheryl Crow – 100 Miles From Memphis
07.25.10Country pop goddess Sheryl Crow is easy-going and simple on her new album, 100 Miles From Memphis, with peppy sing alongs and heartening melodies galore. Alluding to Memphis isn’t arbitrary either; on this album Crow dabbles generously with a little soul to speckle her country taste. (more…)
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CD Reviews
Rick Ross – Teflon Don
07.24.10 -
CD Reviews
Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse – Dark Night Of The Soul
07.18.10A new album, Dark Night Of The Soul, headed by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse and featuring a colossal cast of illustrious artists, new and old, is teeming with awesome tunes that are bound to transform the most banal day into sheer adventure. (more…)
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CD Reviews
Jay Bennett – Kicking at the Perfumed Air
07.18.10Jay Bennett’s tragic death at the age of 45, the result of an accidental painkiller overdose, robbed the world of a gifted singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and studio wizard. Having gained notoriety for his work with Wilco, Bennett also fashioned an underrated career as a solo artist, and with less fanfare than he’s deserved, has managed to bang out a few gems. Bennett was still working on Kicking at the Perfumed Air when he died, and now one year later his estate has given the album a much deserved official release. (more…)
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CD Reviews
M.I.A. – /\/\ /\ Y /\
07.17.10
![M.I.A. - /\/\ /\ Y /\](http://cornershopstudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/M.I.A.-Maya.jpg "M.I.A. - /\/\ /\ Y /\")
