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482 items by Will Hermes Will Hermes’ Profile on
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Trans-Continental Hustle | ALBUM REVIEW
After a decade-plus as bare-knuckle contenders for World's Most Riotous Live Band, Gogol Bordello step up their studio game with producer Rick Rubin, who knows how to give pop shape to reactor-grade energy. Everyone...
April 27, 2010 12:15 AM ET -
Emotion & Commotion | ALBUM REVIEW
Jeff Beck's emotive electric guitar has always had a voicelike quality. So it's fascinating to hear the ex-Yardbird bounce off singers here. Beck brings out the nasty in U.K. soul mama Joss Stone, and he...
April 13, 2010 12:30 AM ET -
Nothing's Impossible | ALBUM REVIEW
Philly-born R&B singer-songwriter-undertaker Solomon Burke has been on a revival roll since 2002's Don't Give Up On Me. Nothing's Impossible marks his debut with late Memphis producer Willie Mitchell and the latter's final album — which would...
April 5, 2010 8:53 PM ET -
Valleys of Neptune | ALBUM REVIEW
Some grousing from fans greets most posthumous Jimi Hendrix studio releases. And fair enough: Hendrix can't offer his opinion anymore, and between past dubious product (i.e., the heavily overdubbed Crash Landing)...
March 18, 2010 12:35 AM ET -
Broken Side of Time | ALBUM REVIEW
On this debut's title track, a Neil Young-ish guitar riff builds, and Swedish-British expat Petter Ericson Stakee seems to compare depression-fueled partying with fighting a war. (For real?) But the true message comes from...
March 9, 2010 12:40 AM ET -
Broken Bells | ALBUM REVIEW
Part Kanye West, part Brian Eno, producer-musician Brian Burton — a.k.a. Danger Mouse — has defined himself with his excellent taste in brilliant misfits. His biggest smash was Gnarls Barkley, with whom he turned oddball former Dirty...
March 3, 2010 12:00 PM ET -
Real Life Is No Cool | ALBUM REVIEW
Christabelle Sandoo is a nomad diva who landed in the Oslo studio of Hans-Peter Lindstrom, the electronic producer whose 28-minute 2008 "Where You Go I Go Too" posited a new genre: epic prog-house....
January 19, 2010 12:05 AM ET -
Glitter And Doom Live | ALBUM REVIEW
Director Terry Gilliam recently cast Tom Waits as Satan; what better role for this seductively jive-talking fallen angel? Waits' second live retrospective plumbs his later LPs, especially 1992's Bone Machine and 2004's Real Gone; it misses classics...
November 23, 2009 12:00 AM ET -
Bleach (Deluxe Edition) | ALBUM REVIEW
Hot on the heels of Live at Reading is this dolled-up 20th-anniversary (!) edition ofNirvana's debut, which barely hit the radar on its initial release butwhose resonance ballooned as the band scorched the earth. Now, itsnear-greatness is...
November 2, 2009 12:00 AM ET -
"Winter Lady" | SONG REVIEW
After covering the Velvet Underground and Nico for his "Record Club," dude takes on Leonard Cohen with help from Devendra Banhart...
October 29, 2009 12:35 PM ET -
Sainthood | ALBUM REVIEW
Tegan and Sara make catchy songs about loving not wisely but too well. They've defined themselves with sunny, self-loathing power pop, peaking with 2007's The Con. Here, the girls just wanna have fun: With...
October 27, 2009 12:45 PM ET -
The Unforgettable Fire (Deluxe Reissue) | ALBUM REVIEW
This transitional, hit-or-miss set, U2's first collaboration with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, followed 1983's breakthrough, War. When things click, it bridges that record's fight-the-power arena rock withthe texture fetishism of its follow-up, The Joshua Tree....
October 26, 2009 12:00 AM ET -
Michael Jackson: The Remix Suite | ALBUM REVIEW
This collection of Michael Jackson retreads from the Motown era seems towalk the line between shameless cash grab and worthy tribute. Generally,the best cuts here stay close to the spirit of the originals: Of the threetakes on...
October 19, 2009 12:00 AM ET -
Live At The Olympia | ALBUM REVIEW
In 2007, R.E.M. spent five nights with fans in a Dublin theater, test-driving songs for last year's Accelerate. This two-CD/one-DVD document captures intimate, occasionally great performances; if Michael Stipe sometimes sounds like he's reading lyrics...
October 13, 2009 12:00 AM ET -
There Is No Enemy | ALBUM REVIEW
Built to Spill CEO Doug Martsch is alt-rock's Thomas Pynchon, holed up in a remote studio (Boise, Idaho) and issuing immaculate artworks when he damnwell pleases. His latest is classic latter-day BTS, a crystal palace ofrefracting guitar...
September 29, 2009 12:00 AM ET -
Between My Head and the Sky | ALBUM REVIEW
With the Beatles newly digitized, the time is right to revisit the avant-garde icon still best known as John Lennon's widow. Ono's latest remakes the band she and Lennon led in the Seventies, this time with experimental...
September 22, 2009 12:00 AM ET -
Joy | ALBUM REVIEW
Phish turned 25 last November quietly; after all, they'd been defunct for over four years. So considertheir reunion LP, the self-released Joy, a belated birthday party."Happy happy, oh my friend/Blow out candles once again" sings TreyAnastasio on...
September 8, 2009 12:00 AM ET -
My Dusty Road | ALBUM REVIEW
There are umpteen collections of the music of legendary folkie storyteller, agitator and Dylan role model Woody Guthrie, and almost all of them sound like they were recorded in a refrigerator box. But this one qualifies as...
August 24, 2009 2:13 PM ET -
Silver Trembling Hands | SONG REVIEW
A classic Lips freakout with nods to Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd: screams, harp arpeggios and a bass line that bears down like...
August 20, 2009 12:00 PM ET -
Walking On A Wire: 1968-2009 | ALBUM REVIEW
A perennial dark-horse contender for the title of Greatest Living Rock Guitarist, Thompson has been boxed before — 1993's triple-disc Watching the Dark and the five-disc 2006 rarities set, RT. While fanatics will debate omissions ("The End...
August 18, 2009 12:00 AM ET
