Re: Lone Album Reality Testing Cbt
Kian Trip
Band of Horses, 'Why Are You OK' (American Recordings/Interscope). The fifth album from Band of Horses buttresses BoH's reputation as a pastoral, not lazy, permutation of the indie-rock positivity and eccentricity embodied by My Morning Jacket and the Flaming Lips.
Empty Houses, 'Daydream' (Sargent House). From Detroit, two men and one woman who don't look old enough to have heard the finest Motown singles when those were brand new capture a lot of that era's joyous pop craftsmanship, although the woman, Ali Shea, probably would've rebelled against Berry Gordy's control.
Airbag, 'Disconnected' (Karisma). Norwegian prog-rock band is more dedicated to prog's long-form canvases than obscure conceptualism and instrumental prowess, resulting in a fourth full-length of mood pieces recalling the reflective side of Pink Floyd.
Augustines, 'This Is Your Life' (PIAS America). A Brooklyn-based indie-rock band not quite comfortable with its Brooklyn and indie statuses puts out its third LP of gently bombastic and broadly poetic material suitable for live fist-pumping.
Joan Baez, 'Joan Baez 75th Birthday Celebration' (Joan Baez/Razor & Tie). This CD/DVD combo, drawn from an event at New York's Beacon Theatre in January, commemorates the three-quarter-century milestone of a great folk-music woman with help from, among many others, Paul Simon, Emmylou Harris, Richard Thompson and Mavis Staples.
Drew Baldridge, 'Dirt On Us' (Cold River). After opening for Lee Brice and Eric Paslay and receiving one-to-watch notices, Illinois neo-Nashville singer Baldridge is more than ready to do his poppy thing with country music via his very first full-length.
Frankie Ballard, 'El Rio' (Warner). Battle Creek, Mich., native Ballard credits Bob Seger and the Rolling Stones for the direction he takes on his third album, preceded by the single 'It All Started With a Beer' and following his Top Five 2014 album 'Sunshine & Whiskey.'
Bearstronaut, 'Telecoast' (Bearstronaut). Synth-pop band from the Boston area, also home to Passion Pit, builds upon its regional popularity and DJ sets with an introductory long-player that hits all those retro-dance marks with aplomb.
Jon Bellion, 'The Human Condition' (Capitol). On his first official commercial release, producer, rapper and songwriter who's had a hand in songs from Eminem and Zedd foregrounds his own chops, particularly as a singer, with alternative and folky angles on hip-hop and R&B.
Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle, 'Colvin & Earle' (Fantasy). Two recognizable edge-of-mainstream singer-songwriters who've been working since the 1980s intersect on six co-written originals and four covers that loosen up within the Americana-parlor generosity of producer Buddy Miller's ragged-and-right framing.
Decorations, 'Have Fun' (Frenchkiss). Assembled largely by frontman Devon Geyer while he was living alone in Silverlake, Calif., the songs on the first LP from Geyer's 'Decorations' project nevertheless have a Stiff Records snarl and a power-pop colorfulness.
The Everymen, 'These Mad Dogs Need Heroes' (Ernest Jenning Record Co.). Led by Mike V with Catherine Herrick on powerhouse vocals, this New Jersey quintet returns from Muscle Shoals, Alabama with a third album that could break it bigger, especially among those who prefer classic rock to be informed by its 1950s inventors.
Fitz and the Tantrums, 'Fitz and the Tantrums' (Elektra). On the third full-length from the L.A. sextet that began with neo-soul and moved to New Wave, Michael Fiztpatrick and Co. allow sonic decorations and outside collaborators to bring its songs into the present.
Garbage, 'Strange Little Birds' (STUNVOLUME). The sixth album from alt-rock quintet that originated in Madison in the mid-1990s builds, as usual, around the tremendous, dark charisma of singer Shirley Manson and the production abilities of its other three members.
The Gotobeds, 'Blood//Sugar//Secs//Traffic' (Sub Pop). The Gotobeds' raucously well-organized and well-executed second LP could epitomize Pittsburgh's version of post-punk, soaked in beer and industrial residue as well as in anthemic choruses and spiky guitars.
Grant Farm, 'Kiss the Ground' (Grant Central). Boulder, Colo., quartet with affinities to the above-mentioned Band of Horses and to Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real makes a working-class concept full-length from original country-rock and alt-country compositions.
Nick Jonas, 'Last Year Was Complicated' (Safehouse/Island). Accompanied by a documentary series by the same name, the second post-Jonas Brothers solo album from pop star NickJonas has been hinted, by its primary creator, to be a therapeutic bout of music about broken relationships and his regrets about his family band.
Kaleo, 'A/B' (Elektra). If this Icelandic band's full-length debut reminds you of the Black Keys at their most bluesy if not quite their most raucous, then your sense of this Icelandic band's celebration of dirty rock 'n' roll is quite accurate.
Amy Klein, 'Fire' (Don Giovanni). A remarkable former member of the New Jersey art-punk band Titus Andronicus expresses a broad range of musical styles and lets her deceptively quavering voice loose with hurt and rage on her debut solo album.
Beverley Knight, 'Soulsville' (East West). On what, for now, is a UK import, British soul singer of Jamaican extraction solidifies her soul-music credentials with the help of Sam Moore of Sam & Dave, several original Hi Records and Al Green players and fellow Brits like Jools Holland.
Kongos, 'Egomaniac' (Epic). The four Kongos brothers, born in South Africa and based in the United States, release their third long-player under their collective name and continue plying a modestly exotic form of friendly alternative rock.
Letlive., 'If I'm the Devil...' (Epitaph). On its fourth album, L.A. post-hardcore band with a period for command-like confirmation remains distinct from the 'screamo' end of emo-tipped metal by its bloody-minded sense of punk straightforwardness.
Dan Lissvik, 'Midnight' (Smalltown Supersound). One-half of Studio, which gave Gothenburg a reputation for dance-jam music next to its usual death metal, puts out his first long-player under his own name and squirts serious 1980s cheese into serious funk.
Lone, 'Levitate' (R&S). Nottingham electronic musician Matt Cutler drops his latest album under his solitary alias Lone and develops a deliberate contrast to 2014's 'Reality Testing' by turning up the faster, more glitch-oriented dance elements of his peculiarly crisp EDM.
Moon Hooch, 'Red Sky' (Hornblow Recordings). This Brooklyn group's two saxophones and one drummer are certainly novel even within Moon Hooch's Brooklyn borough, but the threesome's third LP adds vocals to an already-varied bunch of tunes that punch the solar plexus and swing hipster hips.
Mozzy, 'Mandatory Check' (Mozzy). Sacramento rapper Timothy 'Mozzy' Patterson issues his fourth project of the year, albeit only his second proper 2016 solo project so far, with production and rhymes that reflect his hardscrabble life and indie-rap position.
Nahko and Medicine For The People, 'HOKA' (SideOneDummy). Nahko Bear, the leader of this collective, is of Filipino, Puerto Rican and Apache descent and finds common ground among his ancestors as well as among pop-rock fans on his collective's newest LP, which combines some good parts of Coldplay, Calexico and Los Lonely Boys.
Jim Norton, 'Contextually Inadequate' (Bseenmedia). From his original special, which premiered last year on the Epix channel, the NYC-based comedian with a radio chair next to a guy named Opie (and, not long ago, also Anthony) adds nine previously unseen/unheard minutes to another rapid-fire exposure of his perversities and his beliefs.
Tom Odell, 'Wrong Crowd' (Columbia). After taking a break from the touring cycle that came after the success of his much-lauded first LP, 2013's 'Long Way Down,' young English singer-songwriter Odell returns with a more widescreen sound that retains a subtlety to differentiate him from, say, Ed Sheeran's style of adult-contemporary pop.
Leslie Odom Jr., 'Leslie Odom Jr.' (S-Curve). The Tony-nominated man playing Aaron Burr in the Broadway phenomenon 'Hamilton' does up ten jazz and jazzy standards, including 'Nobody Knows You (When You're Down and Out),' on a well-phrased debut solo disc.
Esm Patterson, 'We Were Wild' (Grand Jury Music). From Colorado to Oregon and from Paper Bird to solo, on her latest record Patterson has proceeded from baroque-folk beginnings to something sunnier and sassier, as if a coffeehouse favorite had somehow joined the Go-Go's in their prime.
Peter Bjorn and John, 'Breakin' Point' (Kobalt). On its seventh LP and its first new one in five years, the Stockholm band named for its three members once again reinforces the international conviction that Sweden's air contains chemicals conducive to ear-candy pop.
Steve Porcaro, 'Someday/Somehow' (Porcara Musica). Sole surviving Porcaro brother of the band Toto at last issues his first solo full-length, with appearances from his late siblings and members of his musical extended family, including Michael McDonald.
Brigid Mae Power, 'Brigid Mae Power' (Tompkins Square). Working with American songwriter Peter Broderick in Oregon, Irish singer-songwriter Power immerses her singing and writing voices in grandiose pop-folk music that soars beyond Emerald Isle origins.
Joe Purdy, 'Who Will Be Next?' (Mudtown Crier). A relatively prolific and well-traveled folksinger from Arkansas, and based in L.A., reaches toward early-Dylan commentary and past it toward CCR and other old-school protest sounds on an ambitious long-player.
Rage, 'The Devil Strikes Again' (Nuclear Blast). With one member dating back to 1984 and the other two recruited in 2015, German 'power metal' band puts out its 22nd overall album and of course comes across with the potency of a Motrhead blitzkrieg.
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