album reviews
Various Artists
Occupy This Album Razor & Tie
This 99-track Occupy benefit shows how far beyond Sixties folk lefty rabble-rousing has come, with hip-hop, electronica and indie rock sitting alongside Pete Seeger and Joan Baez. The comp's high point is unexpectedly ambivalent: the slow-build amp howl of Mogwai’s “Earth Division” leading into the battle rattle of the Occupy Wall Street drummers – a one-two punch designed to strike at the rotten heart of capitalism. Listen to 'Occupy This Album': Rela... | More »
Killer Mike
R.A.P. Music Williams Street
"We're money-hungry wolves and we down to eat the rich," Killer Mike warns, sounding at once like a trap-rap hustler and an Occupy anarchist. This Dirty South fixture has evolved into the Noam Chomsky of the strip club, and his sixth LP is his best blast of down-home invective yet, especially when he takes down societal ills from the inside – as on the slow-rolling meditation on police violence, "Anywhere but Here." Some of his punditry is pure Che T-shirt prattle, but even when he... | More »
Michael Kiwanuka
Home Again Cherrytree/Interscope
Steeped in the unplugged soul vibe of Terry Callier, Van Morrison and the music Otis Redding didn't live to make after "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay," Michael Kiwanuka is a former London session guitarist who flashes a gentle spirit and a voice like hash smoke on this debut album. Credit its lushness – more indelible than the songs themselves – in part to producer Paul Butler of U.K. indie-rock maximalists the Bees, who helped build remarkable multitrack orchestratio... | More »
Damon Albarn
Dr Dee Virgin
On this solo joint, the ever-adventuring Gorillaz and Blur frontman gets together with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Nigerian drummer Tony Allen for an operatic salute to mysterious Elizabethan alchemist John Dee. An ambitious and unexpected move, sure, but the mix of period strings, vocal choruses and West African percussion (plus Albarn's gloomy score) makes for a dense term paper. Listen to 'Dr Dee': Related• Photos: Random Notes | More »
Keane
Strangeland Interscope
Keane's nostalgia-drenched fourth disc looks back to their mid-2000s heyday, when they were contenders for Coldplay's sad-rock throne. At times it's catchy, but its maudlin ballads and monochrome synth-pop production are also kind of dull. Listen to 'Strangeland': Related• Photos: Random Notes | More »
George Harrison
Early Takes Volume 1 UME
Even with just 10 tracks and no session details, this companion to Martin Scorsese's 2011 documentary deserves a brass–band welcome. Six outtakes come from the presumptuous stages of George Harrison's 1970 triumph, All Things Must Pass, including a sweet–Nashville reading of "Behind That Locked Door," "My Sweet Lord" as acoustic hosanna and a demo of the title song that betrays its roots in the band's frontier hymnal. The Bob Dylan and Everly Brothers covers have mo... | More »
Evans the Death
Evans the Death Slumberland
This London band mixes post–Smiths jangle and early–grunge sludge, as Katherine Whitaker explores varying shades of bad romance. Her raw emotion blends with slashing,whirling guitars to inject paralysis with weird power. Listen to 'Evans the Death': Related• Photos: Random Notes | More »
Mickey Avalon
Loaded Suburban Noize Records
This semi–reformed hustler (and Ke$ha collaborator) returns with dinky synths and half–baked rhymes about drugs and sex that are as complex as playground taunts – and less clever. Listen to 'Loaded': Related• Photos: Random Notes | More »
Nils Lofgren
Old School Vision Music
Before he hit the road for Bruce Springsteen's latest tour, Nils Lofgren made this weird, funny, crabby LP about seemingly everything that annoys him: Congress, yoga, lattes, sexting, any teen "dressed like a whore." Lofgren switches from acoustic ballads to Stones–ish rock, where his voice turns craggy and stubbly. He's found the trick to aging well: a bit of rage, a lot of love, and the ability to laugh at yourself. Listen to 'Old School': Related• Pho... | More »
Silversun Pickups
Neck of the Woods Dangerbird Records
On their two previous discs, this L.A. band tapped into the shoegaze majesty of peak Smashing Pumpkins and My Bloody Valentine. There's a little more digital burble coursing underneath the guitar haze this time out. Dance beats undergird the Pumpkins power-pop of "Gun-Shy Sunshine" and "Busy Bees," while songs like "The Pit" recall the sheer, synthed-up alt-rock Garbage made big in the Nineties. It could be a blurry Xerox of old sounds, but singer-guitarist Brian Aubert infuses his songs... | More »
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