Steve LampirisAlbum name: Save Rock and Roll Artist name: Fall Out Boy Genre: Dance-Pop/Rock Released: April 16, 2013 Label: Island ZME Rating: 8/10 Website: falloutboyrock.com Fall Out Boy have had an odd transition in the last decade. They went cult act to left-field success story when “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” and “Dance, Dance” blew up on MTV propelling 2005’s From Under the Cork Tree to sell three million copies. When Infinity on High dropped less than two…
Tales From Terra Firma – Stornoway
Olivia Pad
This Oxford-based band take their name from the Scottish town of Stornoway on the Hebridean Isle of Lewis, and I’m not sure if that’s a sleepy little town or what but this music definitely reflects what a sleepy town would sound like. With soothing folk-like guitar melodies and calming vocals the self-recorded “Tales From Terra Firma” is a great second album from the guys. The album opens with the uplifting “You Take Me As I…
Tyler, The Creator – Wolf
Joseph Reid
He’s still rude. His beats still aren’t orthodox. If you were expecting a run of the mill, traditional rap album this probably isn’t the one for you. That being said, if you want an exciting, multifaceted, twisted experience, Tyler’s got you covered. There’s so many different sounds and genres packed into this album that it almost positively has something for every hip hop listener. Most people didn’t catch onto Tyler, the Creator until after the…
The Strokes – Comedown Machine
Justin ZamarripaWith their fractured Angles recording sessions, the absence of any definite tour plans, and the complete media blackout surrounding their new album, The Strokes are giving every indication that their time together is up. When you consider that Comedown Machine, the band’s new album, will be their last on release RCA, it all makes sense. So when the video for their song “All The Time” was released earlier this month, it seemed to confirm what everyone was already thinking….
Justin Timberlake – The 20/20 Experience
Justin Timberlake has been away from music for a while. It’s been six and a half years since the release of his last album, the excellent and widely popular FutureSex/LoveSounds. Thus, Timberlake can be forgiven for trying to pack his follow-up, The 20/20 Experience, with as much music as possible. The ten tracks on The 20/20 Experience average seven minutes in length. While some of the songs are better suited to such extension, others sound…
Album review: Jimi Hendrix – ‘People, Hell and Angels’ [9/10]
Andrei Mihai
There’s been a wealth of unreleased Jimi Hendrix materials – rumour has it in his periods of peak creativity, it didn’t take more than a day or two to create an album. Ironically, more material has been released since his infamous passing than during his lifetime; some have claimed, and with good arguments, that this is stripping Hendrix of his legacy, but for myself, I just have to say that I’m a little more selfish,…
ANNA – The Courteeners
They’re back with a third album and it’s all guitar riffs, synths, and rhyming lyrics! But what’s so different about it to the rest? Well it is quite a different approach by the boys; compared to the 2008 debut St Jude and 2010 album Falcon. Being cut from the same cloth, I guess you won’t be surprised to hear it as a combination of the style of these two albums. The album opens with a…
A$AP Rocky: “Long.Live.A$AP”
Album name: Long.Live.A$AP Artist name: A$AP Rocky Genre: Hip-Hop Released: January 15, 2012 Label: RCA ZME Rating: 8.5/10 Website: www.asapmob.com/ Quentin Tarantino’s had to defend violence in his films, mainly through the aestheticization of violence. He’s made some great points in doing so, but – let’s be honest – it’s bullshit to some degree. Given that his most recent film is in some way his most violent, he’s clearly convinced he’s right. Whether or not you agree with his view or…
Heems – Wild Water Kingdom
The entire time I was listening to this mixtape I was thinking, “I first heard of this guy because of ‘Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell’, wow.” Heems, of Das Racist fame, has always had a reputation for novelty rap, but as time goes on he seems more and more interested in shedding that persona in favor of someone who can be taken serious and more importantly, actually rap. What initially caught my ear…
Good Nights Bleed: The mysterious debut of Toys in Void
Hailie Hay
His album is lengthy and poetic and sounds like the product of a boy and his guitar, and his album art looks like expired film from the 70s, screaming of fading childhood and bittersweet memories… I found him while working my way through links upon links to artists recommended by other local artists on BandCamp.com. Though Toys in Void was on a few different lists, it seems the only things noted about him are that…