Score: 5.5/10 . It’s a funny thing about receiving artist bios before diagramming a project like this. Sometimes, as on “The Rope,” it would have been better to embark upon the mission without outside knowledge, because the sort of high-stakes outpouring taking place can really be a revelation — a unique, haunting take on real human failure. … Read more“DD Review: Bitter’s Kiss – Bitter’s Kiss.”
Score: 7/10 . In respecting the new album by “No Wave”/blues-rock veteran Tomas Doncker, it’s impossible not to ruminate over the cover shot a bit. Ryan Adams Gold this is not; Bruce Springsteen Human Touch this is not — as melodically effective as those projects ended up being, Doncker’s present muse screams public outcry, awareness. … Read more“DD Review: Tomas Doncker – The Mess We Made.”
Score: 7.5/10 . Pitchfork is all about reviewing reissues, placing on tenuous ground of course the idea of good “new” music still ever coming out, so anyway I thought I’d try my hand at it. This is, after all, not just ANY album. There’s no pu**y-footing track one opener about it, it’s not a beast … Read more“DD Review: Led Zeppelin – Presence / Deluxe Edition.”
Score: 8/10 Reviewing an Everclear album is a volatile thing, in a way, because Art Alexakis has such a bone to pick with the world. Black is the New Black opens, after a bevy of decapitating guitar riffs sounding, not oddly, but unexpectedly, sort of like 311 covering early era Collective Soul, with the lines … Read more“DD Review: Everclear – Black is the New Black.”
Score: 7.5/10 Sometimes artists have “mantra songs,” so to speak, songs that for them are like a warmup, songs that cause them no anxiety to perform, and get them into the physical act of doing music, loosen them up. I’ve seen this with my own two eyes with Califone and “Michigan Girls” — Tim Rutilli … Read more“DD Review: The Doors – Live in Boston / 1970.”
Score: 3.5/5 stars . “No one man should have all that power” was Kanye’s ode on the strange and beautiful statement of blackness “Power,” made even stranger by the recent publication of his plans to run for presidency. Roommate, on Make Like, sound like a band afraid of having too much power. Of course, they are … Read more“DD Track Review: Roommate – ‘People on Screens’”
Score: 8/10 “A beach house is a house on or near a beach, sometimes used as a vacation or second home for people who commute to the house on weekends or during vacation periods.” – wikipedia.org . Vaudeville ’70’s Linda Rondstadt influence meets glam rock meets Clipse/Dope Head crack rap all on the first track … Read more“DD Review: Beach House – Depression Cherry.”
Man, mama, I been nappin’ too long, I ain’t even know this slumgullion was out. Five songs in, I remember why I was sleeping in the first place. Seeing as John Fogerty is hardly miring in obscurity these days, a couple topical points make themselves prominent given the obnoxiously good-ol’-boy praising tone of liner note … Read more“DD Review: John Fogerty: The Long Road Home / The Ultimate John Fogerty * Credence Collection.”
God damn Passion Pit, ya know. They’re just having so much fun making another Passion Pit album, it’s impossible to hate them. They even seem to KNOW that they’re like Phoenix but not QUITE as good, and this makes them even more endearing. “Droll” is an operative word I’d use. While it’s been publicized that … Read more“DD Review: Passion Pit – Kindred.”
There’s Chinese writing on the cover of the new Blur album, and when you open the liner notes to uncover any further mummified Blur truths, it looks for a second like everything’s going to be Chinese. This is trivial, and also noteworthy, depending on how you look at it. First of all, allow me to … Read more“DD Review: Blur – The Magic Whip.”