Artist:
Daniel Merriweather
Review:
The debut from Aussie neosoul singer Daniel Merriweather
overflows with good taste — and better intentions. Produced
by Mark Ronson, Love & War is sharp and bright, full
of limpid melodies, punchy brass arrangements and, in songs like
"Change" (with rapping by Wale), beats that gesture to 1974 but
feel thoroughly 2010. The problem is the transparent influence...
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Artist:
Len Price 3
Review:
Britain's Len Price 3 are the least nostalgic modern-garage band
I know. The whiplash reverberations of the 1964 Kinks and '65 Who
on the LP3's third album, Pictures — the metallic
thwack and buzzing sustain of singer-guitarist Glenn Page's
Rickenbacker; the fast martial step and chrome-glaze harmonies in
"I Don't Believe You" and "Nothing Like You" —...
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Artist:
Shout Out Louds
Review:
Shout Out Louds are proud indie-rock neocons: 2007's Our Ill
Wills ripped a melody from the Cure, a song title from the
Smiths and vocal moves from Bright Eyes. The third album from the
Stockholm quintet brilliantly works a classic indie look: airy,
sleek, gingerly heroic guitar zone-outs about a love-starved dude's
battle against emotional torpor. Singer-guitarist...
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Artist:
Allison Moorer
Review:
Like sister Shelby Lynne and husband Steve Earle, Allison Moorer
drives her Nashville-born career all over the map. Here she unfurls
dark emotions in uncharacteristic chamber-folk settings. "Easy in
the Summertime" sketches childhood bliss with piano, strings and
shadows; "Abalone Sky" is a hushed waltz. Moorer's handsome voice
is remarkably twangless here. Also remarkable is that the most
indelible...
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