On Gone In One, Lauren Hulbert is able to carry the standards of 1990s performers like Courtney Love, The Cranberries and Fiona Apple. Tender and assertive in the space of a minute, Lauren’s range is perhaps the strongest side of her latest single. The backing instrumentation is no slouch, either – there is an intense bass line that plays at the bottom of Gone In One. The tempo rises and…
Lucky You has Justina Valentine create her most expansive effort. This crossover track touches upon drum and bass, ambient, and pop music in a way that will undoubtedly appease a wide swath of fans. The backing instrumentation creates a fantastic canvas upon which JV’s inimitable approach can shine. Imprinting the song with “come” and “lower”, Justina is able to bring the sultry and sexy side of physical content to the…
On Enjoy The View, Papi Shittake blends together surf with lounge music. The vocals are clear and alluring, baked in the late-1990s oven of acts like Weezer and Cake. The guitar / bass / vocal dynamic that represents the nucleus of Enjoy The View will have listeners tapping their feet, all while the airy effort points at a bit of heavy emotional content. Papi Shiitake’s Enjoy The View ends up…
Keep Doin’ What You’re Doin is an effort that has Sudano lay down a mid-tempo, funky approach that is deceptively deep. Each element in Bruce’s latest single is able to contribute something to the coherent composition here. There’s a robust bass line, on-point drums, and smoky blues and rock-infused guitars. While each of these arrangements could be enjoyed on their own, there’s a sense that if taken on their own,…
On Take It Away, Like Machine is able to immediately come forth with some furious guitar work. When the band is able to switch gears and move towards a slinkier sound (bringing in hints of Layne Staley and Scott Weiland), they are able to show exactly how talented they are. The act is able to combine instrumental and vocal sides to make for somethign that could easy garner attention from…
On Yous A Hoe, Sukihana is able to immediately whip up listeners into a frenzy. With a rapid-fire flow that builds off of the tradition of performers like Trina and Mya, Sukihana is able to make one of the catchiest rap efforts we’ve heard so far in 2020. With the chorus taking on early Eminem, Sukihana is able to touch upon rap royalty while creating something wholly different from what’s…
If the oaky-toned melodies of an Appalachian bluegrass sound are what you’ve been craving this autumn, you’re going to enjoy what James Reams has to offer in the new documentary Like a Flowing River: A Bluegrass Passage, which is currently available on Amazon Prime Video and attracting some warm reactions from critics and fans alike. While strictly a documentary and not a concert film, Like a Flowing River features interviews and live footage…
Gamers who were a fan of the fourteenth installment of the Final Fantasy series no doubt remember its soundtrack, and most of all, its vocalist in one Susan Calloway, whose new single “Favorite Scar” is earning a lot of hype around the American underground this season – and rightly so. In this latest release to feature Calloway at the microphone, her vocals are joined by a powerful instrumental framework that is as…
On Turn My Mind Off, Dinzy is able to bring back the glitz and glamour of mid-1980s hair metal rock with all of the intensity of a Lita Ford or Axl Rose. There’s a contemporary punk / rock sound that has Dinzy bringing in hints of Paramore and Halsey. The instrumental side of things – splashy drums and chugging guitars – represent the perfect backdrop for Dinzy’s vox. Joining together…
In their Ned Luberecki-produced debut album, appropriately titled Starry Southern Nights after one of its most moving tracks, Rock Hearts seek to establish themselves as melodic players who can balance the finer points of bluegrass sophistication with a homespun roots sound most anyone can get into these days, and for this critic, they hit a homerun right out of the park. In songs like the namesake and its tracklist neighbor, the agile…
It’s been awhile, but one of my favorite politically-charged commentary songs is Green Day’s “American Idiot”. It seems like a lifetime ago musicians and leaders alike were grumbling about George W. Bush and the Iraq War. Fast forward to 2020, and the world is topsy turvy over COVID-19 and the era of Donald J. Trump. It’s inevitable that singers and songwriters reflect int their music the times, and one such…
I’m So Black has a downright dark, horrorcore-infused backing beat to provide a solid counterpoint to the rapid-fire lyrical flow laid down here by Emcee Monte. The confident, assertive patois of EM will tattoo the song deep into the minds and hearts of listeners. The heartbeat-like beat acts as a solid counterpoint for the spontaneity exhibited here by Emcee Monte. The song is easily able to slot into rap playlists…
Let’s hope this isn’t the last one, the last song from singer extraordinaire Manny Cabo. “The Last One”, a moving Americana-pop track from the now Nashville-based singer is the latest string of releases from a former contestant on The Voice. Proving he’s much more than a voice, his emotional delivery and a commanding presence are just two pivotal turning points in Cabo’s stirring “The Last One”. Matching his heartfelt delivery…
If an artist manages to release at least four records in their career, history tells us that everything we need to learn about the depth of the player’s craft can be found in the tracklist of the first and last of this set. Enter Jake Allen’s Affirmation Day – in his fourth release, this singer/songwriter is committed to making sure that the very notion of holding back from the audience…
Bass, keys, a moderate string component and a glistening lead vocal – outside of these key elements, there isn’t much more comprising the new single “Barcelona Butterflies” from Leni Black, and while it’s only the first release we’ve heard out of the talented singer/songwriter’s camp thus far, it’s absolutely one heck of a statement if I’ve ever heard one before. INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/leni.black/ Espousing a narrative that has become rather popular…
19-year-old Rap artist JamalTheCreator has been making high strides these past few months amid the global pandemic. From going viral on YouTube to chart on billboards, Jamal has been establishing his presence. The uploads of his recent singles “All On Me”, “Trust Issues”, and “This Is The Life” have been the talk around town lately. Most of those tracks effortlessly reached thousands of streams throughout SoundCloud in a matter of…
No matter the tempo they’re arranged in or the velvety vocal they’re paired with in songs like “Ballad of Mary Ann,” “I’m Gonna Wait on Jesus” and “March Around Jericho,” the strings are almost always the brightest of a thousand shimmering elements for us to behold in the new album Take Me Back from bluegrass players Carolina Blue. Whether you’ve heard either of their first two albums prior to picking up Take Me…
Gentle and capable of inspiring great warmth within the listener in “You Made the Break.” Churning up a storm the size of Tennessee in “Turkey in the Straw.” Blanketing us with a groove no true ‘grass fan could ever resist in the title track of Banjo Player’s Blues much like as they would in the equally nimble “Helen.” Both steeped in balladry for “Dear God” and lit up with a vitality that…
Garage punk revivalists essentially reshaped the narrative for American and Canadian indie rock in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, and for those of us who are old enough to remember what the before and after sounded like for that era in popular music, it’s easy to understand why The Confusionaires are clicking with millennials as well as they are with the release of their new album From the Headache to…
The NC based Nathan Oliver are back with a more organic style album on the fourth release by the pop songwriter with the more recently acquired Joe Caparo and Brad Porter being a big part of the different style applied to Thank You For Your Generosity. The usual standard in which Oliver can be proud of is still there but it is gutsier and rougher around the edges, over the…