Flashback "Heathen of Influence" - Album Review

Flashback
Heathen of Influence

There’s no dressing up a Heathen of Influence, so you might as well grab your best denim vest and join the festivities when Flashback throws down the proverbial metal-studded gauntlet.

A long, Sabbathy, drag off a perilously short cigarette, the Calgary-based outfit’s third LP burns from tip to filter with an arsenal of hemispheric headnodders.

Raised in the den of the Steppenwolf, the single “Widow’s Breath” is a sonic saga infused with a lust for life and liberty that would have Fonda and Hopper delivering drive-by high-fives from beyond the grave. Epic guitar swells and pounding percussion set the four-man warship a-heave as vocalist/guitarist Aidan Demarais’s commanding growl gouges through a sea of sludge.

The evil rip-chord chug of “Darkened Plague” recalls an outboard motor that runs on petrol and Pabst. There’s just enough time for a fat booty boogie guitar solo before all of the oxygen has been sucked from the room.

Forging a new mythos out of melody and madness, Flashback hurls venomous lightning bolts, navigates warp-speed tempo shifts and revels in dense mercurial meltdowns. From the harshly acidic “The Atomic Fog,” to the hair-toss gong-crash of “Fortune’s Guild,” and the Satriani honeybucket “Fortune’s Guild,” this old school hard rock outfit is clearly happy to flex its ample talent before stretching out for inspection like some fuzzy-lensed centerfold.

Best Track: “Widow’s Breath”

By Christine Leonard

LA Priest "Gene" - Album Review

LA Priest
GENE

Writer/producer Sam Eastgate (aka Samuel Dust) cuts loose for his sophomore appearance as the ubiquitous bon vivant, LA Priest.

A sparkling follow-up to his 2015 rural isolation project, Inji, this is Eastgate’s first solo release since the dissolution of his UK dance-punk outfit Late Of The Pier. GENE probes pop-electronic territories with the same expansive curiosity that fuelled his Soft Hair (2016) collaboration with Kiwi psych-funk “Jassbuster,” Connan Mockasin.

“Beginning” coaxes the listener out from under the couch and into the realm of the absurd. Preaching the gospel of groove on the scintillating “Rubber Sky” and day-tripping through “Open My Eyes,” Eastgate sets off on a lazy backstroke through a shimmering catalogue of loungey sprawlers.

An expert improviser who grew up surrounded by his New Wave musician father’s junkheap of busted amps and wonky keyboards, Eastgate drops the pressure on exquisitely crafted tracks like the quirky confessional “What Moves,” the soul strumming “Sudden Thing,” and the atmospheric “Monochrome.” Further along, the wispy Prince-paramour “Kissing of the Weeds” segues into the crystalline lab-work of “Black Smoke,” methodically culminating in the post-coital hush of “Ain’t No Love Affair.”

A playful and self-liberating selection of sonic place settings, GENE’s super-structure is designed to dissolve even as it leads you up the double-helix staircase. Hustle without the flex, it’s a beautiful thing.

Best Track: “Rubber Sky”

By Christine Leonard

Car Seat Headrest "Making a Door Less Open" - Album Review

Car Seat Headrest
"Making a Door Less Open"

Breaking their four-year fast with a fresh set of songs and a newly rinsed outlook on life, Car Seat Headrest conceived their latest album as a conversation between producer/drummer Andrew Katz and lead singer/guitarist Will Toledo’s split-personas. Together the two form 1 Trait Danger, a synth-based auxiliary that actively forces CSH’s restless pop-rock anthems through a futuristic electronic filter.

Keen to collaborate with himself, Toledo wanted every song to reflect his personal listening habits, which runs on singles as opposed to albums. This ‘in the moment’ perspective is strongly reflected in the disparate natures of his anti-social sonic hybrids.

CSH’s technical transformation reveals itself subtly as the dronetastic introduction, “Weightlifters,” pushes through a pool party of rippling angst and drum machine heart murmurs. Dipping below the surface, the suburban drift of “Can’t Cool Me Down” is quickly eclipsed by the full-sun sizzle of “Hollywood,” with its brassy highlights and top-down morality.

Soft-pedaled by a sensory-deprived middle section, diary burner “Deadlines” and Kodachrome snapshot “Life’s Worth Missing” pick up the pieces and the pace just in time for the closing cerebral scramble, “Famous.” Constantly switching up their climate control, Toledo believes he has struck upon a winning nu-folk formula. A malleable and reinterpretable genre with no maximum mileage or occupancy.

Best Track: “Hollywood”

By Christine Leonard

Danzig "Sings Elvis" - Album Review

Danzig
Sings Elvis

Elvis died in 1977. That very same year a 22-year-old Glenn Anzalone started a remarkable journey that would see the aspiring singer-songwriter from Lodi, New Jersey morph into one of the most beloved and recognizable characters in American music.

Glenn Danzig has left his mark as the penultimate gothic rock musician and record producer. His eponymous band, Danzig, has become an internationally recognized symbol of hyper-masculinity and old-school bravado, while his horror punk exploits with outfits Samhain and Misfits have secured his spot in rock and roll infamy.

Well into his sixties, it’s only fitting that the golden-throated crooner should pay homage to one of his greatest influencers from the 50s and 60s by crafting an ‘easily listenable’ tribute album.

A more than capable vocalist, long renowned for his deep throaty tones and powerful “Evil Elvis” bellows, Danzig’s baritone treatments alternate between smooth and chunky when emulating the king of fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

Embracing his cardigans-and-cats side, Danzig lavishes his tenor tones upon popular and forgotten classics including “Lonely Blue Boy,” “Pocket Full of Rainbows,” and a tiki lounge-worthy “Fever.”

Vacillating between Quaalude piano-sprawlers like “You Are Always on My Mind” and “Loving Arms” and the amphetamine-fuelled rockabilly hoppers “Baby Lets Play House” and “When It Rains It Really Pours,” it’s easy to see how the life of an entertainer can take its toll.

Toss back a shot and get on that redeye, Bubba. You’ve got a show to do.

Best Track: “One Night”

By Christine Leonard

Black Dahlia Murder "Verminous" - Album Review

Black Dahlia Murder
Verminous

A thrilling leap forward from 2017’s Nightbringers, the ninth album from Michigan’s The Black Dahlia Murder is arguably the melodic death metal band’s greatest accomplishment since forming almost two decades ago.

Chiefly recorded in the home studio of guitarist/vocalist Brandon Ellis, who joined up in 2016, Verminous benefits enormously from BDM’s claws-on approach.

The dripping caverns of the gatekeeping title track unleashes an army of orcs that surge forth from their subterranean lair like a scene ripped from Ralph Bakshi’s animated Lord Of The Rings feature. Galloping guitars keep pace as the infestation races along a path studded with crucified skeletons. Suddenly one of the corpses breaks into song. It’s lead vocalist Trevor Strnad! And, he is relentless.

The nigh celebratory mission continues as the face-flaying “Godlessly” tears open a circle pit hell-mouth that is as dramatic as it is gratifying. Military precision, gridline grinds and glorious double-kick machinations? They’ve got all that, but with painterly aspirations.

Medieval tapestry weavers whose hands fly with a modern momentum on cuts like “Removal of the Oaken Stake,” “The Leather Apron’s Scorn” and “The Wereworm’s Feast,” BDM isn’t afraid to throw itself headlong through a stained-glass window. Forgive them, Father.

Best track: “The Wereworm’s Feast”

By Christine Leonard

Moaning "Uneasy Laughter" - Album Review

Moaning
Uneasy Laughter

Dim the lights, crank the synths, shelve your inhibitions and prepare to fall in love with Moaning, and then lose them. It’s a classic pop song plot, but this story has legs.

Warmed by a collective chorus, the chilly opening cut “Ego” delivers thicc beats laced with disaffected vocals and intuitive nonchalance. Out-of-pocket and off-the-cuff, Morrissey-esque vocals preach against The Creator while pitting artistic narcissism against emotional empathy. 

Confronting the mod stranger in the mirror, Moaning veers into bluish baritone hues before parting the curtains of silence with a nervous gasp on “The Stranger.” Overwrought by the restless amphetamine momentum of “Running,” reflexive tempos and tentative truths lead the L.A.-based trio to draw their own conclusions on the future-drone drama “Connect the Dots” and twitchy “Coincidence or Fate.” 

Pretense blows away like clouds chased across the mountaintops on “Fall In Love” as the lush reverb of “What Separates Us” and silky smooth complexion of “Saving Face” wipe clean any remaining points of contact.

Channeling the Parlophone purity of The Pet Shop Boys, Moaning makes their own sound bed using immaculate high-thread-count linens and the downiest of fillers. The art of psychic repose never sounded more chic.

Best Track: “Ego”

By Christine Leonard

Iron Tusk "Iron Tusk III: Dreameaters" - Album Review

Iron Tusk
Iron Tusk III: Dreameaters

A double-barreled blast of unfettered prairie punk, the latest from these Siksika shredders touches down with the force of a trailer park tornado. Tearing a hole in the ozone, primary cut “Cloudeater” emerges from a dense fog of menacing reverberations with ill intent.

A spooky psychedelic tale that buzzes with old-school distortion, this devourer of smoke brandishes a blazing torch for the ghostly figure that haunted the band’s second LP, Dark Spirit. No lightweight contenders, they would give Alberta’s notorious grizzly #122 pause, landing blow after vision-blurring blow with ease.

Turning the other cheek with “Dreaming City,” the black leather-clad crew hits the b-side by running amok in an urban wilderness of their own making. Considered one of Alberta’s worst-kept secrets, the foursome proves to be surprisingly agile as they absorb and reflect heavily horrible influences like Motörhead and Forbidden Dimension. The second track’s fiery vocals scorch the Earth in anticipation of a magnetic storm full of percussive thunder.

Solidified by the grounding presence of recently conscripted guitar vet Craig Bear Chief, Iron Tusk is equipped to reach further and higher in leaving their claw mark on the Canadian music scene. Howling at the moon is only a mic check.

Best Track: “Dreaming City”

By Christine Leonard

Neck of the Woods "The Annex of Fire" - Album Review

Neck of the Woods
The Annex of Ire
Pelagic Records

The newest dispatch from thorny Vancouver metal arbour Neck of the Woods finds its rhythm method in midst of madness.

Six years into their licks, the progressive outfit’s impressive arch of ascent from a two-song demo in 2013, to the unveiling of their eponymous EP in 2015, to producing the sawblade hum of their 2017 debut LP, The Passenger, is incontestable.

Chromatic technical prowess gleams on “Ambivalence,” while the myopic soul-seeking of “Vision Loser'' levels the landscape like an atomic blast. Jeff Radomsky’s voice rises above the fray of “Strange Consolation” before he finds solace in the guitar wire spires that pierce the celestial vault on “The Tower.”

Built on a slicker-than-wet-asphalt foundation, thanks to the ministrations of Rain City Recorder producer/engineer Jesse Gander, the entire album hangs together with palpable cohesion and clarity of purpose.

From the door-kick introduction provided by the title track it’s apparent that Neck of the Woods aren’t giving up any ground when it comes to the gritty gains they’ve made.

Executing an exhaustive survey of how to stage a multi-genre metal war without sacrificing substance, Neck of the Woods finds room to roam within the untidy confines of The Annex of Ire.

Best Track: “The Tower”

By Christine Leonard

Sepultura "Quadra" - Album Review

Sepultura
Quadra

How do you supersede a 30-year career that has irrevocably altered the tides of global metal while spawning 15 albums that put Brazil on the heavy music map? You simply do what Sepultura has always done — unleash the power of monumental thrash amplified by orchestral drama and the tribal tempos of the Amazon.

More than a “Means to an End,” the hyperbolic Quadra (from the Portuguese word for ‘sport court’) reverberates with vision-inducing venom, thanks to an enthusiastic delivery by the iconic band’s current roster.

A demon-throated throwback, Quadra finds new glory in the old school appeal of formative releases like Beneath the Remains (1989) and Arise (1991). Ripped from the mean streets of Belo Horizonte, the bellicose war drums of “Capital Enslavement” and dizzying favela architecture of “Last Time” keep the BPM burning high.

Further afield, the aggressive stance of “Ali,” stuttering malice of “Raging Void” and slashing ambition of “The Pentagram” confirm that vocalist Derrick Green and guitarist Andreas Kisser remain at the top of their virtuosic game.

Dissatisfied with watching history repeat itself, these magical death machine messiahs feel bound to keep blasting out “thrash metal anthems for a fucked-up age” and we’re lucky they succeed in doing so, season after season.

Best Track: “Ali”

By Christine Leonard

Nada Surf "Never Not Together" - Album Review

Nada Surf
Never Not Together

Rise and shine, 90s bred New York outfit Nada Surf’s newest album comes equipped with an indie-rock foam cycle that’ll wash your brain clean of any lingering debris. 

From the tangerine-hued opener “So Much Love” to the strummy escape of “Come Get Me” (a la Nirvana’s “Grandma Take Me Home”), guitarist/vocalist Matthew Caw bumps up the thermostat one motivational outburst at a time. 

A harmonic turnaround from the cold clarity of their previous release, You Know Who You Are (2016), Never Not Together gets up close and personal on the inward-looking “Live Learn & Forget” and the emotionally generous “Just Wait.” 

The struggle to let memories fade comes to a head on the cerebral “Something I Should Do” with its apostrophic observational advice. Hard-won lessons, such as “put your anger away,” “don’t need to be right, it’s overrated anyhow” and “don’t fear death” dominate the typically easy-breezy surf band’s lyrical lines. 

Buoyant rollers divulge the wisdom that has brought them to the brink and then allowed them to pull back from the edge. Collectively thumbing their zinc-smeared noses at the dark, Nada Surf point their boards towards the sun and paddle out to embrace the “Holy Math” of destiny. 

Best track: "Live Learn & Forget"

By Christine Leonard

Cannabis Corpse "Nug So Vile" - Album Review

Cannabis Corpse
Nug So Vile

Devised back in 2006 by Phil “Landphil” Hall (Municipal Waste, Iron Reagan) and Josh “Hallhammer” Hall, Cannabis Corpse is a virulent strain of “marijuana death metal” that pays homage to the heavy hitters the brothers grew up listening to.

Recently reduced to a svelte trio, the Virginia-based weedcentric band drew deeply on a green sense of humour and horror metal roots to generate their latest ripper, Nug So Vile.
Ripe with that familiar icky sticky Garbage Pail Kids stench, tracks like “Cylinders of Madness” and “Nug So Vile” ooze with layers of bludgeoning percussion and wailing guitar sirens.

The alluring “Blasphemy Made Hash” leans into storytelling sorcery, while dire prospects “Conquerors of Chonageddon” and “Cheeba Jigsore Quandry” thrash about like a man on fire. A pummelling rocket ride through Adrenaline Canyon, “Edibles Autopsy” will have you examining yourself for absent extremities.
Dignity is restored with the demonic war march “Dawn of Weed Possession,” propelled in menacing surges by junkyard dog barks and a tempestuous cadence.

The final drag, “The Ultimate Indicantation” stirs the pot one last time — sending up cinders, spiraling riffs and growling vocals that wreak devastation upon an already smouldering landscape.

Best Track: Blunt Force Domain

By Christine Leonard

Album Review: Little Lamb – Elephant Shoe Two

Little Lamb
Elephant Shoe Two
Independent

Blaze up in the saddle for a ride through a bygone era as singer/songwriter/guitarist Tad Hynes traces the bloodlines of American folk-rock and psychedelic pop through the hazy hills of yore.

As he explains, “Around the time I released the first Little Lamb album I had fallen head over heels for Buffalo Springfield, which lead my attention to bands like Poco, The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers and many more. This late 60s surf/country/western/psych/rock sound had a great influence on the way I wanted the new album to sound.” 

The sauntering Morricone-tinged opener “Sun Dance Kid” lays the scene with a sultry Stratocaster strut. All the good vibes continue to shine down on “Mr. Squito” and “Thirteen Lined Ground Squirrel” with their weightless falsetto vocals and rippling strings. 

Fleshed out by the presence of singer/guitarist Sunny Dhak (Pride Tiger, Three Inches of Blood), who appears on the title track and a couple more, Elephant Shoe Two bounds through a Woodstockian meadow of honeyed harmonies and subversive lyrics. Bravely capricious explorations such as the rocky “Tiger Lily” and “Cool Autumn Breeze” find their counterpoint in melodies as delicate as spider webs on “Carnation” and “Needles of Green.” 

Reposed yet acutely observant of its environment, Little Lamb’s bespoke second release recalls the efforts of genre-kaleidoscoping bands like The 13th Floor Elevators and Ween while remaining entirely laced up in thread-puller Hynes’ daisy chain of thought.

Best Track: Needles of Green

Friday 18th, October 2019 

By Christine Leonard

https://littlelamb1.bandcamp.com/album/elephant-shoe-two

WAND "Laughing Matter" - Album Review

Wand
Laughing Matter

Los Angeles art-rock band Wand have outdone themselves with a new double LP that connects the dots of their discography like a trail of harmonic breadcrumbs.

Tracing the pathways worn through the tall grass by their EP, Perfume, and previous full-length release Plum, which both appeared on the Drag City record label in 2017, the aptly named Laughing Matter unpacks a bushel of happy lawn-dancing creatures.

Chuckling up his sleeve, frontman and master media manipulator Cory Hanson ushers his fuzzy navel-gazing quintet through fifteen equally imaginative and emotive pop-rock ditties. Painting pastel sunsets across a synthetic horizon, tracks such as the capricious “xoxo” and the atmospheric “Bubble” offer up easy-to-get-along-with melodies adorned with breezy instrumental and vocal outbursts.

Elsewhere, the aerodynamically acoustic “High Planes Drifter” breaks like a prairie dawn, drawing up to the warm and sketchy sand patterns of “Rio Grande,” as the beat-hurried “Scarecrow” thumbs a ride down the winding coastal highway.  Toeing the line between electronic pop and organic improv, “Hare” captures the buzz of a noisy mountain meadow, easily toppling the plodding piano of the lop-sided “Tortoise.”

Perhaps the brightest orb in the entire constellation, the reluctant “Evening Star” unveils itself slowly before leaping into your arms with a rose clenched in its teeth.

By Christine Leonard

Album Review: Chron Goblin – Here Before

Chron GoblinHere BeforeGrand Hand Records

Ascending from their role as local skatepark punks to that of Canadian psych-rock tastemakers, Calgary’s legendary curb-grinding garage band Chron Goblin isn’t the same old thrash ‘n’ grab outfit they once were.

Here Before, marks a deliberate recalibration from the hard-rolling crew as they crank the production values to eleven on volatile numbers like “Giving in to Fun,” “Slipping Under,” and “Out of My Mind.”

Singer Josh Sandulak’s raucous vocals and poetic lyrics are thrust into the spotlight as never before and his confident, yet bitter, mouthfuls come washed down with an unerring supply of acidic guitar riffs and dexterous rhythms. Haunted by a shared history and infectious back catalogue, the group navigates a jagged path through the dank underbrush on “Oblivion” before diving into the lazy river of the lumbering “Giant.”

Intricate, intentional and gritty to the bone, Here Before challenges the maturing quartet to supersede their former selves with dangerously divergent compositions; including eerie banshee ballad “Ghost” and pugnacious ripper “War.” The defining wallet-chain swagger, bluesy breakdowns and ballsy bravado that set them apart from day one may remain the same, but Chron Goblin’s best just got a whole lot better.

Best Track – Giant

by Christine Leonard

12th, September 2019 in • Record Reviews, MUSIC

Album Review: Torche – Admission

Torche

Admission

[Relapse Records]

Miami sludge-slingers Torche open the floodgates to a tide of bludgeoning downstrokes and impenetrable riffage with Admission.

A prelude to fear, the first cut, “From Here,” surveys an urban wasteland through eerie melting harmonies before the divine onslaught of “Submission” strikes an authoritative stance that strains and heaves over what it has conquered.

The uphill battle continues as Torche dives into the deep end of the groove mine, demonstrating what 15 years of grinding down their rough edges sounds like. Wall-high guitar surges and stealthy percussion reflect the punishing summer heat, while oiled up “Slide” and pyroclastic “Time Missing” model their muscular mortal physiques.

Power and restraint collide as “What Was,” “Extremes of Consciousness” and “Infierno” wrestle against internal strife and social self-immolation. Even still the cascading crescendos and cool fluidity of “Reminder,” “On the Wire,” and “Changes” prove hardy enough to bear the weight of Torche’s soft underbelly.

One of the bright spots that parts the album’s apocalyptic clouds, the beautifully intricate title track pierces polluted heavens and heart with brilliant streaks of inspiration. A pensive but passionate album, Admission radiates an ominous sadness that descends directly from the seasoned band’s realization and appreciation of life’s impermanence.

By Christine Leonard

Best Track: Submission

Torche perform in Vancouver at Venue Nightclub on Saturday, Sept. 14

 01st, August 2019  

in • Record Reviews, MUSIC, REVIEWS

Album Review: Abbath – Outstrider

Abbath
Outstrider
[Season of Mist]

Abbath Doom Occulta is the corpse-painted face and venomous voice of black metal in his Norweigan homeland. Born Olve Eikemo, the 45-year-old multi-instrumentalist has famously served as Immortal’s lead vocalist, lyricist, guitarist, bassist, guitarist, keyboardist and drummer.

An extreme and extremely versatile artist, his eponymous offshoot metal project, Abbath, recently reformed with a fresh lineup and a renewed sense of purpose.

The aggressive quartet’s current incarnation attacks Abbath’s sophomore effort with rapid-fire percussion, caustic vocals and power guitar onslaughts. Plunging headlong into the heat of an epic fantasy battle, the album fuses the new wave of heavy metal with rhapsodic melodies and Abbath’s own dark philosophies.

Delivered with face-flaying ferocity, white-knucklers like “Harvest Pyre,” the wily “Scythewinder” and wildly imaginative “The Artifex” prove as intricate as they are intense. Occulta growls like a lion, pacing between the bars of solid steel and shadowy malice on “Bridge of Spasms,” cheering on the band’s hellish machinations.

Ominous and oozing with goblinesque screams, “Pace Till Death” hails the flames and traps the audience between inferno and abyss. Wrapping up their harrowing eight-song saga with a pang of nostalgia, Outstrider makes a grand exit with an amped-up cover of Bathory’s “Hecate.”

By Christine Leonard

 03rd, July 2019 / 11:13 

in • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

Album Review: Tycho – Weather

Tycho
Weather
[Mom + Pop Music/Ninja Tune]

San Francisco’s dancefloor electrocutioner Tycho (aka Scott Hansen) returns with Weather, the radiant echo to the talented composer and graphic designer’s Grammy-nominated album, Epoch (2016). Introducing a new phase in Tycho’s industrial evolution, Weather drifts into previously unexplored territory for the Billboard-topping songwriter and producer and his synonymous music project with the introduction of vocals to his digital creations.

A marked departure from Hansen’s customary computerized soundscapes, the water-testing single “Pink & Blue” dips its delicate toes into the gender-fluid, bringing iridescent swirls of colour and light to the surface.

Chanteuse Hannah Cottrell’s (aka Saint Sinner) silky smooth crooning takes the chill off of synthetic spaces, infusing Weather’s cybernetic cinema with a warm breath of humanity and soul.

Expanding on the blueprint of Cottrell’s lyrical dreams, Tycho’s latest dispatch weaves its way through organic love notes like the conversational “Skate” and sleek futuristic moments such as “Japan” without differentiating between those two modes of transmission.

It’s a remarkable synthesis of flesh and fuses. An emotionally transformative formula Tycho is only just beginning to decode.

03rd, July 2019

 • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

by Christine Leonard

Album Review: The Black Keys – Let’s Rock

The Black Keys
Let’s Rock
(Easy Eye Sound / Nonesuch Records)

It’s been a hot minute since we last heard from The Black Keys, but their heavy blues rock refrain remains the same. Reunited with his better half and percussionist Patrick Carney, vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach demonstrates that getting back in their brotherly Rubber Belt groove was as easy as falling off a tandem bicycle.

Recorded from scratch at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studios in Nashville, Let’s Rock reportedly came together with very little preparation or premeditation. Edging away from the disco ball and asphalt sizzle of 2011’s El Camino and the polished tones of 2014’s Turn Blue, the stripped-down nostalgia of Let’s Rock offers a heartfelt tribute to the ultimate tool of the trade – the electric guitar. Irresistibly retro, yet tuned to a modern frequency, the album is already commanding the airwaves thanks to catchy-as-hell and radio-ready singles like “Lo/Hi,” “Eagle Birds” and “Go.” These three Cowtown-meets-Motown forerunners preface an album stacked with glossy, voluptuous ditties that bump ‘n’ grind like a preacher’s daughter.

Thumping bass notes and gliding vocals add sleek lines to “Shine a Light,” padded out by lux backups from guest vocalists Leisa Hans and Ashley Wilcoxson. Lonely forest mating ritual “Eagle Birds” gets down and dirty, while the stomping Austin gospel of “Lo/Hi” hits the album’s two sweetest spots – earnest storytelling and an unrelenting boogie beat that drives the drama towards satisfaction.

At peace with the past, the sugarcoated dirge “Walk on Water” echoes Auerbach’s time as “king of a one-horse town,” but you know you’re being lured in for the big come up when “Tell Me Lies” struts into Karmatown.
Yep, The Black Keys have returned to form nicely, which is most fortunate because we’ve been waiting.

03rd, July 2019

in • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

by Christine Leonard

Album Review: Jim Cuddy – Countrywide Soul

Jim Cuddy

Countrywide Soul
[Warner Music Canada]

Kicking rocks and turning over fertile ground, Blue Rodeo frontman Jim Cuddy returned to his family farmstead in Southern Ontario to get in touch with his roots and record his latest album.
The rustic rural setting provided a respite from his hectic touring schedule and the ideal environment for capturing the authentic wire-and-wood sound he sought. Joined in his makeshift studio by members of The Jim Cuddy Band, the multi-talented singer/guitarist/producer began reimaging songs from his back catalogue through a stripped-down, yet modern, country music filter.

Unearthing tracks he felt had been previously underdeveloped, Cuddy and company pour liberal doses of draft beer and wheat dust over Blue Rodeo numbers like “Clearer View” and “Draggin’ On.” Tributes to George Jones and Glen Campbell rip a page from the past and lend a high and lonesome mood with covers of “Almost Persuaded” and the star-spangled “Rhinestone Cowboy.” Pretty western ditties two-step and sway in time as Cuddy patches up his sonic scrapbook with a fresh pair of bootcut tunes, “Glorious Day” and “Back Here Again.”

It’s the perfect parting glance for a nostalgic hayride that sets fire to the barn before riding off into the sunset. “Shane, come back!”

04th, June 2019

in • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

By Christine Leonard

Album Review: Black Mountain – Destroyer

Black Mountain
Destroyer
[Dine Alone]

If you’ve been missing the clean refreshing taste of Canada’s psych-rock darlings Black Mountain, the time is now to rejoice. Destroyer has arrived just in time to quench your summertime blues and transport you to their silver mothership in the sky.

Far from an abandonment of their 70s space rock roots, Destroyer pulls its sinister title from the 1985 Dodge speed demon of the same name.

Peeling away from the post with the Sabbathy overture “Future Shade,” the expanded ensemble lays a fuzz-covered offering on the cybernetic altar of “Horns Arising.”

Video game monitors tumble down the hillside like granite boulders and levitate in a field of static electricity on “Closer to the Edge” and the lackadaisical Beatles meltdown, “Pretty Little Lazies.”

Hip-thrust hustle and string bending swagger rule the galaxy on the mercurial “High Rise” and “License to Drive,” while the leather-wrapped “Boogie Lover” oozes with nocturnal heaviness. Reboot and unwind with “FD 72” Black Mountain’s zero-G tribute to the man who fell to Earth and then returns to launch sequence and starts all over again.

By Christine Leonard

06th, May 2019

in • Record Reviews, REVIEWS