Category: Album Reviews

How one man’s faulty life choices turned into a work of art conveying acceptance, and forgiveness.  By Chris Tiner | Editor-in-Chief East Coast, lavish-style rapping is what Jay-Z has become notorious for. As the simple, salmon/peach color to the cover of this album reads, “This Is His 13th Studio Album”, 4:44 is a testament to…

By: Lydia Simmons / Staff Writer In a world where people are feeling more distant than ever, especially in the age of Covid-19, there is a growing need to connect with others in our communities and beyond. Each person has their own individual stories, a series of key moments that have shaped them into the…

Straight from the Gutter, self-released by the Banditos, is old-school punk in its most unrehearsed, technically imperfect and haphazard form. The Banditos are not a good band–at all. Before playing the album, you may notice that Straight from the Gutter’s cover shows a picture of a man, whose head is a poorly photoshopped dollhead wearing…

Blue Smoke, released by legendary country music heroine Dolly Parton, is what you would expect—a few good hearted tunes that you should never tell your friends you listen to. First off, the title track pulls out all the country-western cliches—a train drumbeat, picked banjo, quick fiddle riffs, slide dobro and a particular backup vocalist with…

Ben Watt, an accomplished writer, DJ, BBC radio personality, and musician, gives a peak songwriting performance on Hendra. Hendra begins with its self-titled track. Acoustic guitar, acoustic bass, background strings and a reverberated picked electric guitar part create a dim and somber feeling. Lyrics go, “I wish I’d studied harder now, made something of myself…

Whale Oil’s self-titled release isn’t complicated, technically proficient or even polite. What it is, however, is rock’n’roll, pure and simple. Whale Oil is on the front lines of keeping the power trio tradition alive. Brian Saxton pounds his drumkit for all it’s worth and sings (well, screams) with an astoundingly high level of energy. Bill…

Successfully executing the traditionally untraditional, and predominantly disfavored, integration of punk and country genres, here’s one stampede of an album fresh out of Dirigimus, Portland’s very own DIY music cooperative.  Seriously, listen up and listen well. The Coalsack in Crux released their second album, The Border, in January, and it’s by far one of the…

Grass Punks, released by Tom Brosseau, questions the imperatives of American folk, yet it is still able to pay dear respect to the timeless genre. Folk music has always been an elusive term––world music played by lower socioeconomic classes, artists from the ‘60s folk revival (e.g., Bob Dylan, Joan Baez), and more recently, bands like…

Black Radio 2, released last Tuesday by the Robert Glasper Experiment, is at the forefront of a new genre-blending movement. This album is more than a just few tracks with good musicality, it represents an emerging musical culture. Building off of the enormous success garnered by Black Radio released in 2012, Glasper continues to channel…

B-Room, released last Monday by rock band Dr. Dog, is less than adventurous, but who cares? This release is a continuation of what Dr. Dog is best at: churning out catchy indie-rock tracks that don’t require much intellectual capacity but are infinitely fun to listen to. The best thing about B-Room is its familiarity. These…

Change, released last Saturday by the Lewiston based rappers. Pallaso and The Mess, takes Ugandan influence and incorporates elements of popular American music. Pallaso, a Ugandan-raised rapper formerly known as Pius Lizard and Pius Mayanja, released several cuts in his home country and has shared the stage with the likes of Sean Paul and soca…

Guys with guitars are a dime a dozen. Who cares how good their “Wonderwall” covers are, you just don’t want to deal with them, right? Well, let’s just say if Maine-based songwriter Max Garcia Conover showed up at a party offering to play songs off of his full-length debut album Burrow, you wouldn’t tell him…

Fossil Collective’s debut album Tell Where I Lie is a great listen, but it’s not anything you haven’t heard before. The duo Jonny Hooker and David Fendick have been toeing the line of commercial success with this band for years now, gaining internet buzz and collecting a slew of followers on essentially every social media…

Cardboard Castles is a gem. Rapper George Watsky masterfully blends the wisdom from his spoken word poetry with a collection of colorful instrumentals, balancing his roles as poet and rapper and adding a unique brand of comedy to each track. The self-proclaimed “pale kid that raps fast” has often been pegged as more of a…

Riding high off internet buzz and armed with a surprising work ethic, Cleveland rapper Olu has given his fans what they’ve been asking for. Ordinary People is a full-length album that, like his previous releases, is full of first-rate lyricism, a varied collection of beats from underground producers and tracks that appeal to the tastes…

“Used to be the kid, now homie I’m the man,” raps Wiz Khalifa on “Let It Go” from his latest and long-anticipated album O.N.I.F.C (Only N*gga In First Class). Wiz has finally recovered from his sluggish Atlantic Records debut, Rolling Papers, a admitted mistake that Wiz discussed in an open letter to fans earlier in…