Wild Child Fools/Dualtone Records Fools is a damn near-perfect album. From the way singers Kelsey Wilson and Alexander Beggins marry their vocals throughout, to the album’s ebullient yet thoughtful tonal scope, the experience can’t be beat. The rock-stomper “Meadows” is layered with a slightly unhinged piano that gives the track a delightfully off-kilter vibe; “The […]
Wild Child Fools/Dualtone Records Fools is a damn near-perfect album. From the way singers Kelsey Wilson and Alexander Beggins marry their vocals throughout, to the album’s ebullient yet thoughtful tonal scope, the experience can’t be beat. The rock-stomper “Meadows” is layered with a slightly unhinged piano that gives the track a delightfully off-kilter vibe; “The […]
Julienne Dweck Black Licorice/self-released Four-plus years after her delightful debut album, On Paper, Dweck is finally back with a new release, and it was worth the wait. Fans will note that much of what they loved about her relationship-focused songs, occasional bits of whimsy and adventurous musical choices are still here. “If Only” has a […]
Thunderbitch Thunderbitch/self-released If you think Brittany Howard is too confined as the frontwoman of Alabama Shakes, look no further than her new side project, Thunderbitch. To say she is unhinged here—and good God is it glorious—is an understatement. Guttural roars tear out of her lungs like cannon fire on many tracks, with “Closer” being a […]
Darlingside Birds Say/Thirty Tigers Birds Say is one of the rare instances where a band completely avoids the sophomore slump, taking its prodigious talent and somehow magnifying it by 10. The string rock quintet-turned folk is at its best here, whether it’s the dizzying bluegrass—taken up a notch by the clever mandolin licks from Auyon […]
P.O.D. The Awakening/T-Boy/UMe P.O.D. ended its previous record, Murdered Love, with singer Sonny Sandoval dropping f-bombs and checking off a list of the many forms of baggage that Christians bring to the table. The Awakening takes up the cause by way of a concept record featuring a drug-addicted, alcoholic, home-wrecking, neglected man going through a […]
Noah Gundersen Carry the Ghost/Dualtone Records Carry the Ghost is an apt title for Noah Gundersen’s latest collection of songs: Some would give up the ghost, but he’d rather figure out why it’s there in the first place. And while this does not make for an overly pleasant record, there is beauty in the darkness. […]
Briana Marela All Around Us/ Jagjaguwar This is a beauty of a record. Abstract, ambient and guided by a first-rate vocalist and songwriter who makes All Around Us a stunner. Deliciously paradoxical, the album manages to sound explosive and subtle all at once, its exploration of relationships in their myriad forms is universal, while lyrically […]
Jason Isbell Something More than Free/Thirty Tigers “Are you living the life you chose? / Or are you living the life that chose you?” These two lines aptly sum up the tone of Jason Isbell’s latest release. This electrifying collection of 11 songs is loaded with palpable tension between being held captive by something (or […]
Jon Foreman The Wonderlands: Sunlight EP/Word Entertainment Foreman’s songs, whether for Switchfoot, Fiction Family or solo, are always insightful, engaging looks at the complicated nature of humanity in all its awesome beauty and staggering disarray. Sunlight, the first in a four-EP series that features one song for each hour of the day, is no different. […]
Kopecky Drug for the Modern Age/ATO Records A “family band” no more, Kopecky is back with a slightly new name and a slightly new sound, but its penchant for making fun music hasn’t changed a bit. Drug for the Modern Age will be a sonic surprise to some longtime fans, but it’s worth checking out. […]