Tag: #albumoftheday

  • Since 1995 when he debuted with the much-praised album Maxinquaye, Tricky has released 11 full-length albums, if you count this, his latest, which he’s given his birth name, Adrian Thaws.  Suffice to say that he’s been much more prolific than many of his peers.  When you release that many albums, there are going to be some…

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  • One of the most interesting things about Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Jillian Banks’ debut album, Goddess, is how decidedly *not* top 40 it is. Listening to her songs, you can’t help but think “if only.” If only the beats were more boisterous. If only the bass pulsated in a punchier way. If only the tempo were…

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  • Printer Clips is side-project of Paul Noonan, best known as the lead singer of Bell X1. Interestingly, he did not sit back and create a solo album in his downtime. That would have been too easy. Instead, he did an album of duets with female singers. Although PJ Harvey and Emmylou Harris declined to participate,…

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  • As you may or may not be aware, Robbie Williams was selling copies of every show of his Swings Both Ways Live tour, just as he did with every show of the Take the Crown tour. It’s not a brand new concept, but only a small number of other artists have ever actually done so…

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  • Swiss band Gotthard have been around 20 years and their new album BANG! follows an impressive total of 14 albums (studio and live)… That’s a catalog as extensive as Motley Crue’s! And yet it’s the first Gotthard album I’ve ever heard, largely due to the fact that most of their material hasn’t been released here…

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  • Brighton, England’s Royal Blood are here and they come with a question: who needs guitars anyway? You see, their sound simply consists of bass guitar and vocals, courtesy of Michael Kerr, and drums via Ben Thatcher. That’s right, just bass and drums. Yet their album packs more screeching riffs than anything The Strokes or The…

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  • Back in 2012 Kimbra seemed to become an overnight sensation thanks to her part in Gotye’s global hit “Somebody That I Used To Know.” So when her debut album Vows was released here in the States later that year I expected it to be a huge success. Unfortunately, all those downloads of “Somebody That I…

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  • Western Education were formed during spring 2011 on the east coast in the city of Lowell, Massachusetts, birthplace and muse of Jack Kerouac, after vocalist Greg Alexandropoulos plastered the UMASS Lowell campus with flyers seeking some compatible musicians. His search discovered bassist Will Hunt and guitarist Georgio Broufas and the trio set about making some…

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  • To be perfectly honest, I’ve never been a fan of Godsmack. Back around the time of their debut album, I went to one of their shows because I was publishing a hair metal zine and their drummer was a guy who’d played in Lillian Axe. While I didn’t hate the show, to my hair band…

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  • The first thing you need to know about producer turned avant garde-ish beatsmith Saint is that he’s a genuine enigma. I’ve read his press releases and listened to his album several times, but I still can’t quite wrap my head around him. Perhaps that’s because his songs meld from one genre to another as his…

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  • Pixie Lott’s new EP kicks off with her new single of the same name, “Lay Me Down,” which, like “Nasty” before it, finds the singer back in full pop mode after taking a disappointing R&B detour on her second album, Young Foolish Happy, which was far inferior to her debut, Turn It Up. I really…

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  • #9. Not many bands reach that number of albums. Even the best bands seem to break up or otherwise call it quits after number five or six. Not so with Chicago’s Novembers Doom, however. They’re a wicked beast that refuses to die, thrashing away at anything that gets in their way, thus painting their portraits…

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  • Fozzy has a backstory almost as weird as Spinal Tap’s. The funny thing here, however, is that their backstory started out entirely fictional when they released their debut album nearly a decade and a half ago with the band saying they went to Japan with a record deal, destined to become huge rock stars, but…

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  • The sophomore album is never an easy thing to tackle. Artists have their whole lives to come up with songs for their debut albums. But when it comes to making the second album, well, you might find it difficult to feel inspired if all you’ve done for the past year is tour nonstop. For Ed…

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  • Chairlift vocalist Caroline Polachek isn’t an artist you can pin-down. Just when you think you know her, she goes and does something different, like this, her debut solo album, released under the pseudonym Ramona Lisa, a purposeful parody of Mona Lisa. But she was using pseudonyms to play secret shows and debut new material before…

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