A strong debut album can offer a special kind of pleasure. However familiar the style, the emergence of a promising young talent is an exciting reminder of the subtle ways art can surprise and intrigue, raising great expectations for what […]
Love is a Pandora’s box of trouble on the unsettling fifth album from Canada’s Basia Bulat. Not just a source of heartbreak, it can be an illusion that keeps you from seeing clearly, and perhaps a cruel trick played by […]
Sibling harmonies: Is there anything finer? From The Everly Brothers back then to Lily & Madeleine or Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer today, this graceful blending of voices can feel like magical rapture. And few cast a more powerful spell […]
Tweaking familiar sounds with refreshing twists and turns, the vibrant “debut” of Marcus King delivers an invigorating buzz without straining for effect. After three albums fronting — what else? — The Marcus King Band, the South Carolina native makes a […]
EDITOR’S NOTE: In December, we like to take a look back at albums we didn’t get around to reviewing earlier in the year. Two Hearted Rounder was released in November. Calm, determined, and plainspoken, Sarah Lee Langford would be […]
Harry Nilsson was working on his first album since 1980 when he succumbed to longtime heart trouble in 1994 at age 52. A quarter-century later, producer Mark Hudson has finished what they began together, delivering an engaging final statement from […]
Underestimate Josienne Clarke at your peril. On her first solo album since dissolving a decade-long partnership with guitarist Ben Walker, she might initially pass for a textbook example of a polite, old-school British folkie. Her singing is pretty and precise, […]
The freedom of youth and the obligations of adulthood collide to gripping effect on Midwestern, Zachary Lucky’s compelling meditation on the ways time can change a life. Seeking to reconcile callow immaturity and grown-up responsibility, the Saskatchewan-reared troubadour avoids reassuring […]
Roy Orbison would have loved the music of Jack Klatt. The same passionate yearning that gave “Only the Lonely” and “Crying” such deep resonance infuses the excellent third album by this big-hearted Twin Cities native. It’s not hard to imagine […]
As Bob Dylan showed way back when on Self Portrait, well-chosen cover songs can say as much about an artist as original material. Continuing that revealing tradition, robust Texas roots vet Jesse Dayton proclaims his striking versatility on the engaging […]
