After crafting a debut album full of beauteous, somber chamber-folk, Nick Drake pulled something of an about-face with the follow-up, BRYTER LAYTER. With a bright, sparkling production and orchestrations that occasionally border on Easy Listening, the framework is light and airy where FIVE LEAVES LEFT was dark and foreboding. The key, however, is that Drake’s artfully expressed inner turmoil peeks through at every turn in the lyrics and in his understated-but-heartfelt vocal delivery.

“At the Chime of a City Clock” finds Drake facing existential despair at every turn, despite an almost-lugubrious string arrangement. Perhaps the crucial moment of BRYTER LAYTER occurs on “Poor Boy,” where female backing vocalists literally mock the singer’s anguished laments. Clearly, for as much as Drake’s heart and soul were bared in every note of his music, he was self-aware enough to know that his disillusioned-romantic view of the world was one that put him on the fringes of society. Of course, some 25 years later, his early-1970s work would find a much wider audience, even though the initial era of the sensitive singer/songwriter had long since passed.

Tracklisting
1. Introduction
2. Hazey Jane
3. At The Chime Of A City Clock
4. One Of The Things First
5. Hazey Jane
6. Bryter Layter
7. Fly
8. Poor Roy
9. Northern Sky
10. Sunday

Professional Reviews
Entertainment Weekly (5/12/00, p.24) – “The exquisiteness of the first album is expanded upon in ‘Hazey Jane I’, ‘Fly’ and a genuinely optimistic love song, ‘Northern Sky’…” – Rating: B+

Q (1/01, p.95) – Included in Q’s “5 Best Re-Issues of 2000″.

Q (6/00, p.76) – Ranked #23 in Q’s “100 Greatest British Albums” – “…Few songwriters have given such perfect voice to the England of dreaming spires, tea cups and quiet desperation…”

Alternative Press (3/01, p.88) – “…With a voice paradoxically feather-light and grave, [one] of the most beautiful and melancholy albums ever recorded…”

Mojo (Publisher) (7/00, p.99) – “…Certainly the most polished of his catalog….[It[ begins to suggest a whole other tableau of unexplored possibilities….God, how damn confident it all sounds. He knew how good he was…”

NME (Magazine) (9/18/93, p.19) – Ranked #14 in NME’s list of The Greatest Albums Of The ’70s.

Now that Dave Grohl has gotten through the intense scrutiny leveled at the Foo Fighters’ debut, this follow-up finds him flexing his creative muscles a little easier. Forgoing the autocratic approach of FOO FIGHTERS, THE COLOUR & SHAPE allows the other members of the band a greater amount of influence, which quickly becomes evident. The punk-pop nuggets outnumber the thrashier moments on this record. Nevertheless, Grohl’s time on the D.C. hardcore scene is never far from the creative process, whether it’s the first squeals and squawks that pop up around the hooks and screaming vocals of “Hey, Johnny Park” and “My Poor Brain” or the alternating, Nirvana-like dynamics of “Enough Space.” Elsewhere, the dreamy pop of “Walking After You” (recorded in one take by Grohl at Washington, D.C. radio station WGNS) and “Up In Arms” rubs shoulders with the Catherine Wheelish sheets of guitar flowing through “My Hero.”

Tracklisting
1. Doll
2. Monkey Wrench
3. Hey, Johnny Park!
4. My Poor Brain
5. Wind Up
6. Up in Arms
7. My Hero
8. See You
9. Enough Space
10. February Stars
11. Everlong
12. Walking After You
13. New Way Home

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (5/29/97, pp.47-48) – 3 Stars (out of 5) – “…COLOUR has a big, radio-ready, modern-rock sound….gives the impression that Grohl is working out some romantic issues–there are lots of relationship tunes both about breaking up and about a new love…”

Spin (7/97, p.113) – 6 (out of 10) – “…That’s Dave Grohl, a simple rock guy in a simple rock band who occasionally manages to write some really good songs. He’ll probably never come up with a godhead masterpiece, but then again, he already played drums on one.”

Entertainment Weekly (5/23/97, pp.62-63) – “…The band heard on THE COLOUR & THE SHAPE is not a ragtag slacker unit but a bunch of confident, powerful pros–brawny, metallic, able to shift gears and tempos on a dime….In fact, the album often feels like the new-wave metal Metallica should have but didn’t concoct with LOAD…” – Rating: B

Q (1/03, p.54) – Included in Q Magazine’s “100 Greatest Albums Ever”

Melody Maker (12/20-27/97, pp.66-67) – Ranked #21 on Melody Maker’s list of 1997’s “Albums Of The Year.”

NME (Magazine) (12/20-27/97, pp.78-79) – Ranked #46 in NME’s 1997 Critics’ Poll.

As the first grunge band to be signed by a major label, Seattle’s Soundgarden opened the pop floodgates, and a deluge of thrash-o-rama bands began swamping the airwaves. Following a series of trend-setting releases on the independent Sub Pop and SST labels, Soundgarden’s initial A&M releases LOUDER THAN LOVE and BADMOTORFINGER signaled the return of the classic guitar band to popular consciousness.

Using the time-honored Led Zeppelin/Aerosmith approach as a jump-off point–not to mention influential bands like Black Sabbath, MC5, The Stooges and Killing Joke–Soundgarden has formalized their own approach to raw power. Their stylized melodic hooks, however, along with their sometimes surreal lyrics, set them apart from the pack. Whether they get dazed and confused on the vamping “Limo Wreck,” or cut loose with a wham- bam-thank-you-ma’am 4/4 cruncher like “Kickstand,” Soundgarden can rock and roll with all the jet-propelled, no-nonsense crunch of all your favorite bands, from Zeppelin to the Ramones–and lead guitarist Kim Thayil’s chops never outrace his melodic imagination.

But Soundgarden is doing a lot more than simply recycling their best bits for another run up the charts. With SUPERUNKNOWN, they’re stretching out and putting some distance between themselves and their imitators, incorporating different styles into their own mix, and creating a fresh modern sound. Certainly, there are not many bands who could rock convincingly in 5/4 time without sounding like slumming jazzbos, but Soundgarden’s “My Wave” is a fist-shaking anthem that suggests the tone of the Stones’ “Get Off My Cloud.” The curious mixture of psychedelic blues elements, Near-Eastern tonalities and Indian ragas which make “Head Down,” “Black Hole Sun” and “Half” so distinctive indicates that Soundgarden didn’t simply cop their ideas from a Hollywood soundtrack. With his guttural Steve Tyler-like growl, frontman/songwriter Chris Cornell can turn a spoon player into a street shaman on “Spoonman,” give in to despair on “Let Me Drown,” or rail against authoritarian types on “Head Down.” With slamming production by Michael Beinhorn, SUPERUNKNOWN is the hard rock event of 1994.

Tracklisting
1. Let Me Drown
2. My Wave
3. Fell On Black Days
4. Mailman
5. Superunknown
6. Head Down
7. Black Hole Sun
8. Spoonman
9. Limo Wreck
10. The Day I Tried To Live
11. Kickstand
12. Fresh Tendrils
13. 4Th Of July
14. Half
15. Like Suicide
16. She Likes Surprises

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.54) – Included in Rolling Stone’s “Essential Recordings of the 90’s.”

Rolling Stone (3/10/94, p.63) – 4 Stars – Very Good – “…At its best, SUPERUNKNOWN offers a more harrowing depiction of alienation and despair than anything on IN UTERO….Although the band serves up a healthy amount of metallic bluster, Soundgarden refuse to define themselves in strict headbanger terms….”

Spin (9/99, p.154) – Ranked #70 in Spin Magazine’s “90 Greatest Albums of the ’90s.”

Spin (12/94, p.78) – Ranked #17 in Spin’s list of the `20 Best Albums Of ‘94′ – “…turn[s] everyday teenage gloom into a prayer for divine wrath to wash the world away….When Kim Thayil locks into…visceral riffs…pure hormonal energy thunders to the rescue…”

Entertainment Weekly (Spring 2000, p.166) – Ranked #6 in EW’s “Top 10 albums of the ’90s”

Q (12/99, p.82) – Included in Q Magazine’s “90 Best Albums Of The 1990s.”

Melody Maker (3/5/94, p.40) – “…Like IN UTERO, SUPEREUNKNOWN has a depth and maturity which isn’t easily assimilated on the first few listenings ….a brilliant, brilliant album….”

Village Voice (3/94, p.5) – Ranked #2 in the Village Voice’s 1993 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.

Village Voice (2/28/95) – Ranked #11 in the Village Voice’s 1994 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.

Q (Magazine) (p.122) – “Soundgarden dealt in unreconstructed heavy rock: a heavy guitar sound, depth-charge drumming….Yet SUPERUNKNOWN also includes more measured moments, such as the shimmering hit single ‘Black Hole Sun.’”

New York Times (Publisher) (1/5/95, p.C15) – Included on Jon Pareles’ list of the Top 10 Albums Of ‘94 – “Hard rock, all muscle and sinew, that churns and howls…”

With only several singles to their credit (including their classic “Touch Me I’m Sick”), Mudhoney set out to record their first full-length album in 1989 for the Sub Pop label. With the late-’80s rock scene focusing on glam and thrash metal, Mudhoney and their ilk (Nirvana, Soundgarden, Screaming Trees, and the Melvins, etc.) were a refreshing break from the norm.

MUDHONEY remains one of the band’s finest albums, offering an abundance of stripped down, brash three chord rockers. For a taste of Seattle rock before it became copied and homogenized by the mid-’90s, just check out such cuts as “This Gift,” “Flat Out Fucked,” “You Got It,” and the suicide tale “By Her Own Hand.”

Tracklisting
1. This Gift
2. Flat Out Fucked
3. Get Into Yours
4. You Got It
5. Magnolia Caboose Babyshit
6. Come To Mind
7. Here Comes Sickness
8. Running Loaded
9. Farther I Go
10. By Her Own Hand
11. When Tomorrow Hits
12. Dead Love

The real challenge of this second release from Nashville singer/songwriter Josh Rouse is to identify its weakness. Throughout these 10 tracks, Rouse sings in an affecting, androgynous confluence of tones and timbral colors, weaving tales of heartache and loss across smartly deployed hook-rich instrumental backdrops. In his voice, one can make out the sweetly torn world-weariness of Whiskeytown’s Ryan Adams, the goosebump-inducing glissando flourishes of Jeff Buckley (see the exquisite “100m Backstroke”), and the smokiness of an aged female jazz singer.

Subtle instrumental shadings add grace, warmth, and beauty to the arrangements. There’s the clarion trumpet melody that emerges from the chorus of “Marvin Gaye,” the subtle female backing vocals of “Directions,” and the warming cello of “Parts and Accessories.” Fuller instrumentation enlivens “And Around” and “Little Know It All,” both of which recall the more down-tempo and de-funkified incarnations of Lambchop (with whose principal, Kurt Warner, Rouse collaborated for the CHESTER EP). One almost imagines the former, which is perhaps the highlight of the set, to be a lost Jimmy Scott track reconstituted with pedal-steel guitar–the perfect accompaniment to a darkened early-summer drive across Nebraska.

Tracklisting
1. Laughter
2. Marvin Gaye
3. Directions
4. Parts And Accessories
5. 100M Backstroke
6. Hey Porcupine
7. In Between
8. And Around
9. Afraid To Fail
10. Little Know It All

Professional Reviews
Entertainment Weekly (3/31/00, p.70) – “…Inventive arrangements…with power-packed drumming energizing the acoustic instruments….it’ll provide consolation should you find yourself alone when the dancing’s done.” – Rating: B

Q (4/00, p.99) – 3 stars out of 5 – “…gently countrified a la Neil Young but echoing Rouse’s teenage love of The Smiths and The Cure….there’s something quietly evocative here with plenty of homespun charm.”

CMJ (4/00, p.55) – “…draws upon a rich and varied palette….with pleasant, trancelike tunes….There’s no denying that Rouse is a smart pop craftsman and any of his tunes is certainly catchy, engaging, and plaintive on its own…”

NME (Magazine) (3/11/00, p.33) – 6 out of 10 – “…a peculiar gig….there are swooning pedal steel guitars and occasional licks that locate the music at the country end of the spectrum, the easy definitions don’t work….a fascinating rationale…”

For part of Air’s POCKET SYMPHONY tour, JB Dunckel and Nicolas Godin played shows with only drummer Joey Waronker as support, forcing the band to strip their songs down to their essences. They stick with that lineup on LOVE 2, which delivers some of the most Air-like music to the band’s name, and with good reason: This is the first time Dunckel and Godin have produced their own album. The duo tends to follow their more ambitious work with more accessible material and LOVE 2 is no exception, replacing POCKET SYMPHONY’s exotic, experimental bent with a renewed emphasis on their quintessential sound. Godin and Dunckel dig deep into their arsenal of vintage electronic gear, topping those burbles, buzzes and whooshes with some strings here and a few fuzzed-out guitars and basslines there. Above all, atmosphere is the focus, and early on, the album finds Air at their most confectionary: “Love” is irresistibly pretty, offsetting a glockenspiel that sparkles like grains of sugar with brisk shakers. From there, LOVE 2 sweeps away any remnants of POCKET SYMPHONY’s expansive melancholy with concentrated happiness–these are some of Air’s most lighthearted songs since TALKIE WALKIE. “Be a Bee,” with its aptly buzzing and hovering synths and spy movie theme guitars, could be one of the most stylish novelty pop songs ever. However, the album is often at its best when Air gives listeners more in the way of vocals and hooks. The elegantly psychedelic “So Light is Her Footfall” and the hazy soft-rock sunbeam that is “Sing Sang Sung” expand on the band’s pop side just enough, while “Heaven’s Light” crystallizes the gorgeous retro-futuristic sci-fi romance Air has crafted since their PREMEIRE SYMPTOMES days. Indeed, LOVE 2’s title and album artwork–which features the duo sitting by the shore gazing pensively into the mid-distance–play up Air’s image as makers of mood music extraordinaire, albeit with a bit of an ironic wink. The music does just as deft a job of negotiating the fine line between sophistication and schmaltz; LOVE 2’s centerpiece “Tropical Disease” has it both ways, going from dramatic to melodramatic to playful and back again as it covers rippling pianos, slightly goofy sounding flutes and a decidedly seductive coda. Dunckel and Godin add just a little tension and darkness to the album’s sweetness and light as it unfolds, especially on “Eat My Beat,” an impressive showcase for the immediacy Waronker’s drumming brings to all of these songs. Air remains a deceptively subtle band, but repeated listens to LOVE 2 reveal that Godin and Dunckel aren’t just remaining true to their aesthetic here, but that even a smaller-scale album from the duo has plenty of wit and surprises to offer.

Tracklisting
1. Do The Joy
2. Love
3. So Light Is Her Footfall
4. Be A Bee
5. Missing The Light Of The Day
6. Tropical Disease
7. Heaven’s Light
8. Night Hunter
9. Sing Sang Sung
10. Eat My Beat
11. You Can Tell It To Everybody
12. African Velvet

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (p.70) – 3 stars out of 5 — “[T]he new dirt and gravitas are refreshing, as is the groove weight of guest drummer Joey Waronker.”

Spin (p.72) – “[T]he duo have nearly perfected their wistfully melodic synth- and vocoder-driven easy-listening jams.”

Alternative Press (p.106) – “Air build a soundtrack to the movie in your head that’s always eclectic and often quite lovely.”

Q (Magazine) (p.110) – 3 stars out of 5 — “[T]heir cocktail of ’70s synth rock and cosmic funk has undergone only subtle changes as they drift along in Gallic sophistication.”

SPACE ODDITY was the first record on which David Bowie looked and sounded like the Bowie whom the world has come to know. One glance at the spooky, androgynous face that adorns the record was enough to signal that the Anthony Newley-influenced, light-pop singer who sang the novelty number “The Laughing Gnome” a few years earlier was a thing of the past. Leaving behind the mannered, English music hall-isms of his initial recordings, Bowie roughened up the sound, creating a ragged, eclectic mix of folk and rock tinged with electronic sounds. The record yielded his first American hit, and began the singer’s soon-to-be meteoric rise to international rock icon-hood.

The title track, a sci-fi mini-epic, is an enduring classic in which Bowie squeezes every bit of drama from both his dour low range and the soaring upper reaches of his voice. Even after decades of continued airplay, “Space Oddity” is surprising for its intricate arrangement, nifty guitar playing, and palpable sense of interplanetary estrangement. Other fine and lesser-known musical moments include the sublimely subdued “Letter to Hermione,” and the sprawling and strange “Memory of a Free Festival.”

Tracklisting
1. Space Oddity
2. Unwashed And Somewhat Slightly Dazed
3. Don’t Sit Down
4. Letter To Hermione
5. Cygnet Committee
6. Janine
7. Occasional Dream
8. Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud
9. God Knows I’m Good
10. Memory Of A Free Festival
11. Conversation Piece [Ryko Edition Only]
12. Memory Of A Free Festival, Pt. 1 [Ryko Edition Only]
13. Memory Of A Free Festival, Pt. 2 [Ryko Edition Only]

Professional Reviews
Mojo (Publisher) (3/00, p.122) – “Bowie’s second album, the one on which he finally ditched all intentions of becoming a second Anthony Newley…”

It’s clear that the year-plus Bright Eyes’s Conor Oberst took between 2005’s widely acclaimed I’M WIDE AWAKE, IT’S MORNING (and the simultaneously released DIGITAL ASH IN A DIGITAL URN) and 2007’s CASSADAGA was well spent. The product of intensive studio time, a crack assembly of musicians, and lavish, lovely production and arrangements, CASSADAGA stands as one of Bright Eyes’ most confident and consistent works.

The album throws together genres–folk, country, rock, pop–and coats it all in a gauzy dressing of strings, harmonies, and high-end atmospherics. Yet at the center of it all is still Obert’s songwriting: witty, emotive, literate, and replete, this time out, with references to the expanse and grandeur of America as a playing field for life, love, and politics. At times reflective, at times rousing, CASSADAGA plays like a sweet pop dream, and adds another notch to Bright Eyes’ already impressive discography.

Tracklisting
1. Clairaudients (Kill Or Be Killed)
2. Four Winds
3. If The Brakeman Turns My Way
4. Hot Knives
5. Make A Plan To Love Me
6. Soul Singer In A Session Band
7. Classic Cars
8. Middleman
9. Cleanse Song
10. No One Would Riot For Less
11. Coat Check Dream Song
12. I Must Belong Somewhere
13. Lime Tree

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (p.61) – 4 stars out of 5 — “[With] remarkable love songs….[Oberst] shows he can still tell us something by communing with himself.”

Rolling Stone (p.108) – Included in Rolling Stone’s “50 Top Albums of the Year 2007″ — “Oberst’s loose, memorable tunes and lyrics about crises both personal and global are consistently engaging…”

Spin (p.89) – 4 stars out of 5 — “Oberst’s countryish genre studies have deepened with a very adult loneliness.”

Entertainment Weekly (p.72) – “Musically, it’s his richest album yet, full of Nashville twang and Branson brassiness. And lyrically, the itinerant-traveler conceit is intriguing…” — Grade: B

Q (p.117) – 4 stars out of 5 — “The strapping, clear-headed coherence of ‘Four Winds’ is echoed throughout the album….At long last his star is born.”

Alternative Press (p.150) – 4 stars out of 5 — “[With] ambitious string arrangements and swinging instrumentation that echo great ’70s works by Joe Cocker and Elton John.”

CMJ (p.6) – “[H]e offers some of the most polished country-folk of his 14-year career. His lyrical acuity is in tact…”

Kerrang (Magazine) (p.49) – “With sweeping string sections almost reminiscent of Smashing Pumpkins, psychedelic pop structures, political protest poetics and dusty country production….[His] most opulent work yet.”

Q (Magazine) (p.80) – Ranked #23 in Q’s “The 50 Best Albums Of 2007″ — “Conor Oberst has made his most assured album to date…”

Mojo (Publisher) (p.110) – 4 stars out of 5 — “CASSADAGA is an album to warm souls, rally minds and break hearts in equal measure.”

RAMMSTEIN are back. Four years after the release of “Rosenrot”, their last studio outing, Germany’s most successful rock act have announced the release of a brand new studio album, “Liebe Ist für Alle Da”.

Since starting out 15 years ago, RAMMSTEIN have built a reputation as a controversial, no-compromise, and hugely entertaining band, with a fiercely loyal and genuinely international following. Today, they stand head and shoulders above the competition as the greatest (musical) showmen on earth, with an incendiary stage performance that generally results in tickets for their concerts selling out in minutes. They return to UK stages in February 2010, in support of their sixth studio album an eleven track offering that is already being talked about as a classic to rival their hugely acclaimed 2001 “Mutter” release.

Produced by Jacob Hellner and mixed by Stefan Glaumann, the regular RAMMSTEIN team, this latest album is perhaps the Berlin band’s most varied release to date, including genuine surprises, a smattering of English and French, plus some of the heaviest songs in their repertoire. As always with RAMMSTEIN, controversy is never too far from the scene, with lead single/video “Pussy” already causing something of a stir, and “Wiener Blut” drawing ‘inspiration’ from the recent much-publicised case of Austrian Josef Fritzl. Other key tracks include “Rammlied” (a celebration of the band itself), “Waidmanns Heil” (which sees traditional hunting horns used for the first time) and “Roter Sand”, an atmospheric cinematic composition unlike anything the band have recorded before.

Tracklisting
1. Rammlied
2. Ich Tu Dir Weh
3. Waidmanns Heil
4. Haifisch
5. B********
6. Frühling In Paris
7. Wiener Blut
8. Pussy
9. Liebe Ist Für Alle Da
10. Mehr
11. Roter Sand

Of all the bands to emerge from the early `90s grunge scene, Pearl Jam was easily the most consistently interesting and longest-lived. After several albums that found the group taking an increasingly experimental direction, the Seattle quintet returned to it’s straight ahead hard rock roots with 2006’s self-titled effort, but then, in 2009, surprised fans again with an album that was its catchiest-sounding effort up to that point. According to vocalist Eddie Vedder, the most of the new material was written prior to recording, which was a significant departure form the group’s usual in-studio jamming method of composition. The result is some of Peal Jam’s most focused and accessible work since the debut album TEN. The debut single “The Fixer” (written my drummer Matt Cameron) is a KISS-like bit of straight-up pop masquerading as hard rock, while “Just Breathe” is melancholy acoustic singer-songwriter music so sharply crafted it would fit well on an Jack Johnson album. Throughout, Pearl Jam performs with its trademark directness, with an earthy, cohesive sound that only veteran bands can deliver.

Tracklisting
1. Gonna See My Friend
2. Got Some
3. The Fixer
4. Johnny Guitar
5. Just Breathe
6. Amongst The Waves
7. Unthought Known
8. Supersonic
9. Speed Of Sound
10. Force Of Nature
11. The End

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (pp.73-74) – 4 stars out of 5 — “[W]ith the shortest, tightest, punkiest tunes they’ve ever banged out….Eddie Vedder’s heart-on-fire vocals are the main attraction, as always.”

Spin (p.76) – “The band hasn’t put together a trifecta this energized and from-the-gut in a decade…”

Billboard (p.52) – “The whole album has a pleasurable mix of lean, mean rock’n'roll and pensive ballads that reflect both the state of the world and the band’s place in it.”

Q (Magazine) (p.119) – 4 stars out of 5 — “[I]t’s largely characterised by joyous new wave-influenced rock’n'roll, and for the first time in their 19-year career, Pearl Jam actually sound — whisper it — fun.”

Paste (magazine) (p.50) – “Most of their new album’s first half alternates between gritty guitar-led jams and able pop-rock…”