Jeffrey Halford is a rock & roll lifer, a Texas-born, California-bred traditionalist trading in Americana mythologies. His solo album, West Toward South, serves them up not repurposed so much as distilled, harking back to a time when outlaws had more style and panache than today’s suits. “A Town Called Slow” …
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In 2013, Hozier broke through with “Take Me To Church,” a somber folk song that became an unlikely Top 40 smash, catapulting the twentysomething Irish singer-songwriter into momentary pop stardom. But after releasing his debut album in 2014, he’s waited five years before putting out a follow up. Turns out, …
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“There’s a whole world out there waiting full of stories to be told,” sings Hayes Carll on his latest record, over a locomotive drum-and-upright bass shuffle that’s part Tennessee Three, part Blonde On Blonde.“And I’ll heed the call and tell ‘em all/ If I may be so bold.” It’s a call …
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Here’s a fun idea for a record: Take a veteran singer who also happens to be a lovable goofball with a dirty streak and leave him alone in a room with modern technology. That’s the concept behind Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune, the new album from Swamp Dogg, real name Jerry …
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It’s been 13 years since System of a Down released their last record – for a variety of reasons, though the alt-metal band’s members claim to get along – so this album from guitarist Daron Malakian’s other project represents a welcome return to the SOaD sound. Although Scars on Broadway’s previous …
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The 2011 split of Sonic Youth’s two main songwriters Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon divided the band’s impulses into two divergent solo careers: Moore into chiming, jammy, stoned-and-satiated indie rock; Gordon into a rubbed-raw, rather-ripping noise duo with experimental guitarist Bill Nace. For fans of SY’s transgressive Eighties downtown bluster, …
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The affiliations that led to Kamasi Washington becoming the most talked-about jazz musician in recent memory can obscure what his music actually sounds like. Sure, he played on Kendrick’s Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly and put out his breakthrough triple LP, 2015’s The Epic, on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label, but …
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In 2017, BTS boldly went where no K-Pop group had gone before, cracking the American Top 40 with a remix of their “Mic Drop” single featuring Steve Aoki and Desiigner. Love Yourself: Tear is the first all-new album from the seven-piece ensemble since this breakthrough. (April’s Face Yourself was mostly …
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“Heaven is closed/And hell’s overcrowded,” Willie Nelson sings on his new album. “So I think I’ll just stay where I am.” Just one year after his unsuspecting opus God’s Problem Child, Nelson, 84, is back with Last Man Standing, the latest in his series of late-career ruminations helmed by producer …
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Cozy up to the year’s early standout: On her sixth LP, veteran songwriter Brandi Carlile teams up with co-producers Shooter Jennings and Dave Cobb for a moving and righteous piece of Americana-infused pop. Across the 10-track LP, the folk-tinged singer belts with gusto, whether offering nostalgic, harmonized forgiveness on album …
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