Album Reviews

A brooding, chest-beating rhythm. The crunch of the guitars, moderate and melodic. Lyrical statements that are both searing and occasionally self-deprecating as well. Ah yes, pop/punk is back in fashion, but unless you’ve got the kind of skills Quiet Like a Thief does, you’d best stay on the sidelines with …

The troubadour uses so much more than rhythm and rhyme to tell their story; for within the lexicon of Americana, true singer/songwriters will rely first on tonal expressiveness to make their point to the audience before they ever would the foundations of a basic harmony. In the new single and …

Doing something straightforward and frills-free is too often written off as being ‘retro’ in the contemporary rock genre, but if I’m to consider the aesthetical trappings and overall confidence of the creators in Summer Rain’s “Hold Her Hand,” I think it’s rather undeniable that there’s a faction of indie players …

Experimental hip-hop might be all the rage right now, but traditionalists looking for a rhythmic refuge will likely find the new single “Seeds” from rapper daFinchi to be exactly what this September needed to sound familiar. Although it features a decadent vocal from Janay Saxon in the hook, “Seeds” is …

Upon first listen, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of Luis Mojica’s latest album “Songs from the Land”. A record he describes as “for lovers of freak folk”, I was expecting a form of psychedelia mixed with poignant observations on the day to day. Instead what unfolded was something …

“I’m On The Way,” a new single by burgeoning artist PettySagg, is full to the brim with easy Island beats and cool hip hop vibes. It transports you to a Summer romance on a beach, but still maintains a party/club edge. Think glamorous parties at a tropical resort; bikinis and …

“Call Me” is one of those instantly recognizable classic rock songs that can rile up a crowd and get everyone singing along. MR.Slade delivers a potent rendition of the song, owning every moment and matching Debbie Harry and Blondie’s power and energy. The track is full of all the things …

Doug Ferony croons his way through his cover of “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face,” a soft, jazzy love song from the incredibly popular 1956 musical My Fair Lady. He sounds like he was plucked right out of the 50’s, holding onto that velvet voice that made people like Frank …

If the new song “Sugar Sugar Summertime” from New Jersey’s America’s Sweethearts were a candy flavor, it would indeed be the candied sweet tarts. A confectionary-pop-tune with Beach Boys-leaning escapes, America’s Sweethearts dazzles with both sides of its grooving coin. There are moments when the guitar riffs are dark, as …

Jerrica White is a woman who has had enough. She isn’t taking any more of the abuse, the adultery, the inauthentic promises a poor lover would offer her, and in the new video for her single “I Don’t Know Who You Are,” she makes it known in no uncertain terms …

There’s nothing worse than a rapper who can swing sizeable beats only to drop a lot of noise on us when it comes to putting up a meaningful verse, and something tells me that Bruce Lii agrees with me on this point. His new single, “The Promised Land,” isn’t lyrically …

Indebted to the reggae and a strain of synthetic dancehall ala The Knife that seems all the more fashionable in 2021 than it did a decade ago, Triple Island’s “Flatbush Jungle” has instrumental qualities that instantly endear it to the melody lover in all of us. There’s something really soulful …