Tag Archives: album
REVIEW: ALABAMA SHAKES – SOUND & COLOR…
Alabama Shakes silences their doubters on their second album Sound & Color. Since their debut album, the band’s skills have grown, taking them from being a throwback southern blues-rock band to… well something a bit more experimental but a lot more powerful. But while “experimental” has killed sophomore albums by many artists, Alabama Shakes took […]
REVIEW: BIG DATA – 2.0 (and a bit of a review of their 3/28/15 Columbus concert set)…
Big Data isn’t so much a band as a concept. A concept built around the technology we’ve developed closing in on us. There’s the good that instant access to information can give us, but of course there’s the downside – the isolation, the lack of physical interaction, and so on. The “band”, at least on […]
REVIEW: MARILYN MANSON – THE PALE EMPEROR…
Mr. Manson has returned with a ferociousness on his new album The Pale Emperor, following a hot streak and return to glory started with his last album, Born Villain. This time around he has new company. In fact, the band now only consists of Manson and two other people – both newcomers. First is multi-instrumentalist […]
REVIEW: MARY J. BLIGE – THE LONDON SESSIONS…
Last summer, Mary J. Blige put out a brand new album with very little fanfare. It was the soundtrack to the comedy Think Like A Man Too. The album was pretty decent for a Mary album, containing a few deep slow songs about relationships that seemed tailored to the film, and a couple upbeat tracks […]
TOP 25 ALBUMS OF 2014 – #2: FOO FIGHTERS – SONIC HIGHWAYS…
Sonic Highways is the most ambitious project the Foo Fighters have pulled off yet. Rather than just repeat what they know, the band set out to do a documentary series about making an album in eight cities. An album fueled by the stories and interviews collected for the documentary. A documentary that ties the rich […]
TOP 25 ALBUMS OF 2014 – #5: PHARRELL WILLIAMS – G I R L…
Pharrell was certainly everywhere this year wasn’t he? From the unexplained monstrous success of his little tune called “Happy”, to being just about everywhere on TV, producing some great songs by Ed Sheeran and Paloma Faith, and staying busy as ever. But in there he finally released a solo album worthy of the weight his […]
TOP 25 ALBUMS OF 2014 – #6: WEEZER – EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT IN THE END…
2014 brought the triumphant return of Weezer! Their new album Everything Will Be Alright In The End is a return to all the things I love about Weezer. The most important of these is their tightness as a rock & roll band. Sure when you are this far into your career, you are allowed to […]
TOP 25 ALBUMS OF 2014 – #7: LILY ALLEN – SHEEZUS…
Lily Allen’s return to pop music, after nearly calling it quits, was one of the most exciting pieces of news to me in 2013. She had hinted about being apprehensive about a return, but there was no need to worry at all. Rather than repeat what she did on her first two albums, Lily moves […]
TOP 25 ALBUMS OF 2014 – #8: SAM SMITH – IN THE LONELY HOUR…
Last year, while most of us in the U.S. were oblivious, an up and coming singer named Sam Smith was breaking through in a big way in the UK, as a guest vocalist on Naughty Boy’s “La La La”, and also on Disclosure’s “Latch”. It wasn’t until I watched the last BRITs awards that I […]
TOP 25 ALBUMS OF 2014 – #9: PIXIES – INDIE CINDY…
After a 20+ year wait, the Pixies came stomping back this year with a brand new album. Even though founding member Kim Deal is missing this time around, the band rock as loud and as crazy as ever. Songs like “Blue Eyed Hexe”, “Bagboy” and “Another Toe In The Ocean” haven’t left my playlists all […]
Rob's Wall Of Music 