“DD Review: The Vaccines – Back in Love City.”

Score: 9/10 With The Vaccines, for me, it’s been all about energy, energy, energy, combined on 2018’s Combat Sports with a newly spiced attention to production that prompted me to rank that best album of the year on this site. In general, they take what you might call a British approach to pop-punk, as the … Read more“DD Review: The Vaccines – Back in Love City.”

“DD Review: Stone Giants – West Coast Love Stories.”

Score: 9/10 Why do I just feel more and more, in the time transpiring these days, that this whole thing is just a charade, that there’s almost zero incentive for making good music in this era? Talib Kweli is hardly a heartwarming point person, at that, on this topic either.  So under the paradigm of … Read more“DD Review: Stone Giants – West Coast Love Stories.”

“DD Review: Modest Mouse – The Golden Casket.”

Score: 7/10 In 2015 — when Modest Mouse released their last album before The Golden Casket, Strangers to Ourselves — Kendrick Lamar, Hop Sin and J. Cole ruled the world. Barack Obama was our president and any number of snide comments could be heard from trendy bartenders degrading “the indie scene” [1]. Our teenagers festival … Read more“DD Review: Modest Mouse – The Golden Casket.”

“DD Review: Teenage Fanclub – Endless Arcade.”

Score: 9/10 I was glad to find out from The Fire Note’s Facebook feed that Teenage Fanclub, whose ’05 masquerade Man-Made I consider just about the upper echelon of twee pop, has another new offering for us this year. Indeed, in terms of this band’s songwriting skill and moxie and the extent to which it’s … Read more“DD Review: Teenage Fanclub – Endless Arcade.”

“DD Review: St. Vincent – Daddy’s Home.”

Score: 10/10 Meeting David Byrne did something weird to St. Vincent. I don’t think there’s any question of that. I mean, just marvel at that straight-laced, almost depressingly plain photo of her on the cover of her 2009 album Actor — we’re talking about basically the nadir of goodie-goodie chamber nerd with a collection of … Read more“DD Review: St. Vincent – Daddy’s Home.”

“DD Review: Mark Mulcahy – Live at the Red Room (2019).”

Score: 9/10 For this review I handle the newly furnished live album from Mark Mulcahy, who’s notable for his former membership in Miracle Legion and for having garnered public praise from Thom Yorke for his musical synergy. Adding to the poignancy is the exact point in time this show took place in Boston — October … Read more“DD Review: Mark Mulcahy – Live at the Red Room (2019).”

“DD Review: The Black Crowes – Shake Your Money Maker (30th Anniversary Deluxe).”

Score: 10/10 Somewhere after my recent efforts upon this anniversary to see through The Black Crowes that now seem to have been about as well-fated as walking a lizard across Antarctica, I had a rather disconcerting thought: this might be the best American rock and roll band of all time [1].  Now, before you say … Read more“DD Review: The Black Crowes – Shake Your Money Maker (30th Anniversary Deluxe).”

“DD Review: Ghost of Vroom – Ghost of Vroom 1.”

Score: 5.5/10 Wow, the surprises just keep coming: this new Ghost of Vroom album (Ghost of Vroom 1, as opposed to the EP Ghost of Vroom 2, which came out before) is actually a full-length, and it came out a day ahead of schedule, yesterday. Then there’s all these ephemeral, seemingly artistically autonomous sounds clouding … Read more“DD Review: Ghost of Vroom – Ghost of Vroom 1.”