Album Reviews

From the courtyard to the foyer and even back in the bedroom, all eyes are on Dici in the big brother-style music video for his new single “Flip,” and while it’s a simple concept for a relatively straightforward hip-hop track, what it alludes to is undeniable for those of us …

Like scenes from a fever-induced dream, Nané’s music video for “Seventeen” is both eclectic and highly stimulating, turning us down one dark alley after another whilst producing what could be one of the most stirring rock soundtracks I’ve come across in a video this year. There’s no getting around the …

Cut and dry doesn’t have to always mean retro in hip-hop, and from the looks of his new single “Rock Mics Properly,” rising star Custom is intent on driving this point home this October. Rather than sticking with a formulaic pattern akin to something the old guard would have fashioned …

The new album ABBV from Dallas, Texas-based quartet Abbreviations features ten songs centered on guitar, but there’s much more going on during these performances. Textual variety is one of the chief strengths distinguishing the songs. Guitar is the musical heart, yes, but the tidy and well-recorded rhythm section provides crucial cornerstones for …

For a long time, it seemed like overdrive just wasn’t a part of popular music anymore. The clean chime of acoustic guitar strings and sterilized electric guitar parts seemed to overtake the airwaves for years in the 2010s, but with a new generation of rockers starting to find their footing …

Parker Longbough’s Off Front Street is the singer/musician/songwriter’s third release this year. Each occupies distinct musical territory; the first Crackle/Hiss explored electronica while Longbough shrouds its successor 246 Tapes Volume 1 in home technology and a pronounced DIY feel. Off Front Street steers his songwriting in yet another direction  The eight songs included on this album have a …

Rather than stepping up to the microphone and belting out some verses in front of a straightforward backdrop as the indie rock standard would call for in 2021, Ethan Gold is creating something far more visually stimulating and artistically provocative in his new music video for the song “Pretty Girls.” …

KSENIA isn’t your cityscape Insta girl looking for a casual night against the cosmopolitan lights of L.A. in her new music video, as the title “Girl from the Forest” would indicate. Whether in the music video or in the studio itself, she’s looking to get down and dirty with the …

After a year with no gatherings or live music, Snotty Nose Rez Kids decided to channel their collective and personal hardships from 2020 into a captivating new album titled Life After, out today via Distorted Muse. Like many, the Vancouver-based hip-hop duo was on the climb in 2019 before the pandemic shut …

If you follow AV Super Sunshine, you know that zany visuals are kind of a trademark in his music videos. From neo-psychedelic dabbling to Lego-stylized visualizers, conventionality is never in play when this man is conceptualizing for a counterpart to a new single, and it’s in this sense that his …

Rapper Tae Wall’s first two LPs have been blowing up the underground in 2020 and 2021 respectively, and in his latest single “Billie Jeane,” he’s reminding longtime listeners that complacency is the last thing his evolution is going to produce. He comes into the verses here exceptionally hot, but make …

Rain in the park, hands molding clay, a pristine beach bathed in sunlight; these are both scenes from our everyday world and strangely cerebral images comprising the new music video for Chris Beer’s “Nothing Like,” and although they offer nothing controversial, they tug at our emotional fabric largely thanks to …