Score: 9/10 . There would seem to be a confluence of forces tugging at the onlooker, discouraging him or her from examining this situation logically. One would be, of course, Colors, which sounded like the very definition of pop, least-common-denominator record label pandering. Another would be the jolting, bewildering contrast of styles from Beck album … Read more“DD Review: Beck – Hyperspace.”
Score: 9/10 . Boy, when El Paso’s Greg Gonzalez sat down and comprised the concept for his band Cigarettes after Sex, he must have really thought he was the best thing since sliced bread. He must have been like, wow, my sexual escapades really have an endless amount of poetic qualities and idyllic musical vistas … Read more“DD Review: Cigarettes after Sex – Cry.”
Score: 8/10 . I think I speak for everyone when I say every time I listen to a new piece of Jimmy Eat World material there’s part of me that wants to condescendingly call it cute and another part that’s like horrified that Jim Adkins is going to bare his teeth and take us on … Read more“DD Review: Jimmy Eat World – Surviving.”
Score: 9.5/10 . This new Wilco record Ode to Joy is an eclectic record. Now, this is an important fact, discursively, and it’s also an ironic fact, because just the same Ode to Joy is a very brooding, personal record, in every way an akin companion piece to Jeff Tweedy’s solo album WARM of last … Read more“DD Review: Wilco – Ode to Joy.”
Score: 8/10 . If this new Sturgill Simpson record is any indication, then maybe an autocratic government ain’t a half bad way to run things. That is, I have to admit, while not being adverse to this dude, prior to researching this album I had no idea he even had a “band,” let alone one … Read more“DD Review: Sturgill Simpson – SOUND & FURY.”
Score: 6.5/10 . Wow, you know you’re living in an indie-fading, mainstream-hobbling time when you follow Rolling Stone, NME, Bandcamp and The Skinny on Facebook (I disrespectfully choose not to follow Pitchfork) and you don’t hear about the new Sebadoh album until four months after it’s out, from the in-studio on KEXP’s feed, as it … Read more“DD Review: Sebadoh – Act Surprised.”
Score: 7/10 . So the Pixies are, like, a THING, in the 2010’s, apparently: Beneath the Eyrie marks their third album in the last five years and change, lo and behold. It’s actually got a Pixies feel, too… well for folk’s sake what the he** is a Pixies FEEL? In their heyday their music ranged … Read more“DD Review: Pixies – Beneath the Eyrie.”
Score: 7.5/10 . Korn is a band from the rather remote Central Californian town of Bakersfield that formed in ’93, is now on their 13th album (released on Friday the 13th, of all days) and amazingly, in 26 years of existence, has had only one lineup change, the 2011 enlisting of still-active drummer Ray Luzier … Read more“DD Review: Korn – The Nothing.”
Score: 4/10 . About four minutes into the first track of my first listen to this new TOOL album, Adam Jones’ electric guitar started to gather some steam, putting together a thick riff that seemed not so much plastered onto the rest of the band’s groove but funneled up into it like some aquiline tsunami … Read more“DD Review: TOOL – Fear Inoculum.”
Score: 10/10 . Just to overview what exactly this is, Live and Loud encompasses two CD’s which once resided on the In Utero / Deluxe Edition issued in 2013 and still do, but now enjoy their own pressing to vinyl, apart from In Utero, as well as their own separate streaming interface. As a Nirvana … Read more“DD Review: Nirvana – Live and Loud.”