Outlaw country had peaked by the time the Review Corner bought Steve Earle’s fantastic debut Guitar Town, but he was in the outlaw vein, both musically (blending rock and blues with country) and with his hell raisin’ lifestyle. With this new album, he reflects on the choices he made, now free from drugs and not […]
Sheryl Crow: Be Myself
After at least one album (the last one, anyway) of commercial country music designed to be played on a car radio on an open American highway, Sheryl Crow has gone back to the acoustic-based country pop-rock of yore. Also designed to be played on a car radio on an open American highway. It’s good, in […]
At the Drive-In: Inter Alia
At the Drive-In are a punk / post-hardcore band who released three studio albums before breaking up in 2001; this is the first album in 17 years. Following the break-up, half the band became The Mars Volta then Antemasque (which variously featured Flea on bass and Travis Barker on drums). But now they’re back and […]
Royal Blood: How Did We Get So Dark?
Royal Blood’s début did that clichéd thing of exploding on the music scene, literally and figuratively. Literally for the jaw-droppingly confident, Bonham-esque intro of the first song, Out Of The Black, distilling decades of rock from Zep to Muse in its opening moments. Figuratively, as they were held up as the vanguard of a new […]
Katalina Kicks: Vices
Just as there are people who like non-league football because of its grassroots nature (people playing for love not money) we’re pretty sure bands like Katalina Kicks have a ready audience for their no-nonsense rock. It’s a step above garage, and not quite as frenetic as Jim Jones (reviewed recently), just simple and direct rock. […]
Linkin Park: One More Light
We’ve been fans of Linkin Park since their debut and even enjoyed their more generic and derivative outings. At least they were loud. This new one opens like a mass-market RnB act and doesn’t really go anywhere else. There’s no loud. We said a couple of albums ago that LP sounded as if they were […]
Jim Jones and the Righteous Mind: Super Natural
We’re not sure whether to hail this the finest rock n roll album of the year (including the ones yet to come) or a cult classic. While there’s melody aplenty, Jones makes Motörhead sound like Abba (“Motörhead will make your lawn thrive”), and early Dr Feelgood as gentle as softly falling snow. It comes howling […]
Papa Roach: Crooked Teeth
Not only are we amazed that Papa Roach are still going, we’re very amazed how good this is. Admittedly, that’s good in the sense that it’s generic melodic, loud stadium-filling cheesy metal. Parts of it could have been on their debut two decades or so ago, but if you accept it for it is, it’s […]
Gorillaz:Humanz / Paul Weller: A Kind Revolution / Paramore: After Laughter
We’re lumping these albums together under the heading “stadium bands” because all we need to do is tell you they’re out. Oddly enough, we’ve never been fans of any: we never got Gorillaz, thought The Jam/Weller humourless (good singles, admittedly) and Paramore are the band we let the children like (they’ve got to have something […]
Hunter and The Bear: Paper Heart
The Press release says this band are the “heroes British rock needs right now” and for once (music Press releases can be so gushing they make the Niagara Falls look like a park weir) it’s an understatement. Hunter and The Bear are unbelievably good and the band the whole world needs, never mind our small […]
