After the embattled recording of the Pogues’ Peace and Love, with Shane MacGowan clearly at odds with his bandmates and their musical direction while contributing little in the way of new songs, Hell’s Ditch seemed at once like a step forward and a step back for the group. While Peace and Love suggested the Pogues had grown weary of the hot-rodded Celtic sounds that had been their trademark, Hell’s Ditch found the band back in more familiar territory and sounding much refreshed; if there wasn’t anything as manic as the high points of Rum Sodomy & the Lash or If I Should Fall from Grace with God, these sessions reveal the Pogues had found their feet and were sounding like a band again, and while a few of MacGowan’s songs lead them through his fascination with Asian and Latin accents, the musicians were able to fuse them with their own trademark style rather than being subsumed by them; the Pogues rarely sounded as graceful or a comfortable as they do on Hell’s Ditch. However, MacGowan’s songwriting still hadn’t regained the fire and acidity that made the group’s first three albums so powerful, and Terry Woods and Jem Finer don’t quite pick up the slack. More importantly, while Joe Strummer’s production served the band well, he was seemingly too fond of MacGowan to tell him when his vocals were all but unintelligible, and many of the songs are all but sunk by Shane’s sloppy, mush-mouthed, and booze-addled delivery, which is difficult to unravel even by his standards. While there are many pearly moments on Hell’s Ditch that suggest the work of a happier and more unified band than on their previous albums, MacGowan’s poorly focused performances are a handicap the Pogues couldn’t overcome, and it seems appropriate this was the band’s last studio album with their primary songwriter and frontman.

Tracklisting
1. Sunnyside of the Street
2. Sayonara
3. Ghost of a Smile
4. Hell’s Ditch
5. Lorca’s Novena
6. Summer in Siam
7. Rain Street
8. Rainbow Man
9. Wake of the Medusa
10. House of the Gods
11. 5 Green Queens & Jean
12. Maidrin Rua
13. Six to Go

Though 1966’s BLONDE ON BLONDE is usually singled out as the most innovative Bob Dylan album, its predecessor HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED is the one that definitively marks Dylan’s transformation from progressive folk singer to visionary rock poet. It’s Dylan’s first fully electric album, powered by the manic intensity of Mike Bloomfield’s skull-and-crossbones blues-rock guitar leads and Al Kooper’s rich organ fills.

While many of the songs are presented in a traditional 12-bar blues format, the lyrics find Dylan finally abandoning conventional linear narrative in favor of poetic abstraction, surreal imagery, and biting sarcasm. In the rock world, there has never been a lambasting harsher or more cathartic than the excoriation of “Ballad of a Thin Man,” and no challenge more bold than that offered in the iconic “Like a Rolling Stone.” When Dylan invokes the names of Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot towards the end of the poetic epic “Desolation Row,” he’s not just name-dropping; he’s merely delineating the company in which a work as rich and ground-breaking as HIGHWAY 61 belongs.

Tracklisting
1. Like A Rolling Stone
2. Tombstone Blues
3. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Lot To Cry
4. From A Buick 6
5. Ballad Of A Thin Man
6. Queen Jane Approximately
7. Highway 61 Revisited
8. Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
9. Desolation Row

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.88) – Ranked #4 in Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums Of All Time” – “…One of those albums that, quite simply, changed everything…”

Q (7/01, p.45) – “…Dylan is in stinging form…”

Q (Magazine) (p.110) – “[A] dizzying rush of moody disquiet, surreal imagery and freakshow characters culminate in the mighty ‘Desolation Row.’”

NME (Magazine) (10/2/93, p.29) – Ranked #14 in NME’s list of the “Greatest Albums Of All Time.”

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When the first volume of Johnny Cash’s AMERICAN series appeared in 1994, it would have been difficult to predict its critical and commercial success, much less the fact that an illness-beset Cash would be turning out a powerful fourth installment of the series eight years later. Like its three predecessors, AMERICAN IV is a home-recorded, bare-bones Rick Rubin production wherein Cash tackles old classics by other writers as well as more contemporary tunes by artists from the rock world, with a smattering of his own new compositions thrown in. It’s also arguably the strongest since the first volume.

Now that the novelty of hearing the Man in Black tackle tunes by the likes of Depeche Mode (”Personal Jesus”) and Nine Inch Nails (”Hurt”) has worn off, we can get past the gimmickry to fully appreciate the power of Cash’s soul-baring interpretations. He brings an equal amount of gravitas to old country and folk tunes like “Streets of Laredo” and “Give My Love to Rose.” To hear Cash’s worn, husky, lived-in voice inhabit the world-weary narrative of the Beatles’ “In My Life” and the graphic, almost spiritual romance of the Ewan MacColl-penned ballad “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” is to be led directly to the heart of these songs’ deepest meanings.

Tracklisting
1. Man Comes Around
2. Hurt
3. Give My Love to Rose
4. Bridge over Troubled Water
5. I Hung My Head
6. First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
7. Personal Jesus
8. In My Life
9. Sam Hall
10. Danny Boy
11. Desperado
12. I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry
13. Tear Stained Letter
14. Streets of Laredo
15. We’ll Meet Again

Professional Reviews
Entertainment Weekly (9/26/03, p.34) – “…Cash stares down death here, yet when the man comes around, you have little choice but to go….It’s a blunt, unsentimental farewell from a man who made a life and art from never flinching.”

Q (01/01/04, p.80) – Ranked #16 in Q’s “The 50 Best Albums of 2003″

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“Year In The Kingdom” unravels some kind of galactic wilderness. J.Tillman’s sixth album lyrically borders on the mystic; proffering a transcendent union, an effortlessness. Strange and honest, this song cycle inhabits it’s own idea-scape; one seemingly obsessed with wrestling death. These are afterlife dialogues of a mysterious future. Celestial badlands.

Unknown to just about everyone, Tillman started recording in April, tracking most of the instruments during the two week session himself. Hammered dulcimer, banjo, recorder, cymbals of varying size and wheezing air organs all feature heavily and lend Year in The Kingdom it’s bizarre scale, conjuring tidal shifts with tiny movements. The string arrangements, performed by Jenna Conrad, as well as transposed from Tillman’s sung direction, were intended to rest on chords almost counter-intuitively, bringing to bloom complex, de-contextualized tones. Most noticeable upon first listen, however, is the production itself. While most of Tillman’s records evidence some shambolic home recording, YITK is undisturbed throughout. Out up front of the mix, and dry as a bone, Tillman’s voice is featured in a way unlike any of his previous records.

Year In The Kingdom sounds liberated; it is far and away Tillman’s most joyful work. Created with little input or context, it is seemingly disinterested in communicating much else than a meditation for the few who allow themselves to listen with an open heart.

Tracklisting
1. YEAR IN THE KINGDOM
2. CROSSWINDS
3. EARTHLY BODIES
4. HOWLING LIGHT
5. THOUGH I HAVE WRONGED YOU
6. AGE OF MAN
7. THERE IS NO GOOD IN ME
8. MARKED IN THE VALLEY
9. LIGHT OF THE LIVING

Professional Reviews
Spin (p.88) – “[H]is arrangements — solemn, intimate, dulcimer-fortified — sound suited for a campfire in a cathedral.”

Q (Magazine) (p.117) – 3 stars out of 5 — “[A] sombre affair….[With] Tillman’s quiet, quivering voice carrying the song cycle about the death of love, and well, just death.”

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When M. Ward, Mike Mogis, Jim James, and Conor Oberst announced plans to record together, fans were quick to link the supergroup to the Traveling Wilburys, who blazed a similarly star-studded path 20 years prior. Truth be told, Monsters of Folk’s emphasis on harmony vocals and atmospheric arrangements has just as much in common with the work of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, even if the political concerns that grounded the latter group are largely absent here. Instead, the self-titled MONSTERS OF FOLK tackles religion, nature, love, and lust, with all four songwriters sharing vocals and songwriting duties. Mogis, who rose to prominence by playing a central but somewhat surreptitious role in Bright Eyes, receives slightly less screen time than the others, preferring instead to remain behind the scenes as producer and sideman. Even so, his guitar solo during “Say Please” is one of the album’s loudest, rawest moments, and his production helps draw connections between the album’s slew of songwriting styles and genres. “Folk” is defined broadly here, as the album encompasses everything from trip-hop to roots-rock to homely, homespun pop. Spread over fifteen tracks, the combination wears thin at several points, and several songs feel more like their creator’s solo work than a composite product. MONSTERS OF FOLK has moments on undeniable beauty, though, and when the musicians pitch their voices atop one another–as they do to notable effect on the gorgeous “Slow Down Jo”–the benefits of teamwork are more than clear.

Tracklisting
1. Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)
2. Say Please
3. Whole Lotta Losin
4. Termazcal
5. The Right Place
6. Baby Boomer
7. Man Named Truth
8. Goodway
9. Ahead Of The Curve
10. Slow Down Jo
11. Losin Yo Head
12. Magic Marker
13. Map Of The World
14. Sandman, The Brakeman And Me
15. His Master’s Voice

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (p.65) – 4 stars out of 5 — “James’, Oberst’s and Ward’s voices meld beautifully in a variety of styles…”

Spin (p.84) – “Oberst, Ward, and James trade lead vocals on a few tunes and weave haunting harmonies throughout, but it’s not difficult to discern who the lead actor is on each cut.”

Entertainment Weekly (p.59) – “James is the goofball genius here, dishing out hilarious nonsense…” — Grade: B

Alternative Press (p.106) – 4 stars out of 5 — “The most interesting songs show off how surprisingly well Oberst’s unrefined warble melds with James’ liquid-smooth falsetto…”

CMJ – “[T]he music on their self-titled debut is powerful and consistent, highlighting everything we love about the four individuals in a fresh, new package.”

Billboard (p.36) – “When viewed less as a hipster supergroup and more of an old-fashioned song swap, Monsters of Folk live up to their hype and then some.”

Q (Magazine) (p.109) – 4 stars out of 5 — “[T]he barroom rollicking of ‘Say Please’ and ‘Losin Yo Head’ evoke a real sense of all-for-one rock romance.”

Record Collector (magazine) (p.92) – 4 stars out of 5 — “MONSTERS OF FOLK seems to have encouraged a raising of the group’s collective game.”

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My Morning Jacket – Z

One of the best of Van Zandt’s early albums. Like all his late-’60s/early-’70s recordings for the Poppy label, it’s full of ostensibly incongruous overproduction. As on the early albums of Leonard Cohen and others, though, these light arrangements gain in hindsight, via their earnest elegance and the contrast they provide to the songwriter’s dark visions. It sounds as though Townes’ handlers were intent on marketing him as some strange combination of Bob Dylan, Glen Campbell and Bob Lind (not an entirely unjustifiable assessment), but the occasionally ominous, visionary songpoetry is too powerful too be pushed under the table by futile stabs at a hit single.

Van Zandt was an artful chronicler of the chronic depression he constantly struggled with, seldom expressed so well in song as on “Kathleen.” Van Zandt’s laconic country drawl keeps the dark sentiments from sounding overwrought. On “St. John the Gambler” and the Dylanesque “Why She’s Acting This Way,” he looks outward to describe other, equally star-crossed characters. It’s not all gloom though. “Be Here to Love Me” and “Second Lovers Song” show Van Zandt’s perennial but little-noted way with a tender love song.

Tracklisting
1. Be Here To Love Me
2. Kathleen
3. She Came And She Touched Me
4. Like A Summer Thursday
5. Our Mother The Mountain
6. Second Lover’s Song
7. St. John The Gambler
8. Tecumseh Valley
9. Snake Mountain Blues
10. My Proud Mountains
11. Why She’s Acting This Way

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (4/1/71, pp.54-56) – “…if there were any justice in this world, he’d be a star, not just the property of a tiny band of followers who count his records among their most prized possessions…”

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.

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…”

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.”

After the surprising alt-country feel of Rilo Kiley lead singer Jenny Lewis’s debut solo album, RABBIT FUR COAT, her band released their most eclectic and self-assured album, 2007’s UNDER THE BLACKLIGHT. Lewis’s second solo album, ACID TONGUE, neatly synthesizes the best aspects of both those albums with a newfound breeziness of spirit. The 11 songs swing easily from the rockabilly twang of “The Next Messiah” to the sensuous, swirling “Bad Man’s World,” with the soulful piano ballad, “Trying My Best To Love You,” and the noisy rock and roll clatter of “Jack Killed Mom” particularly standing out. Elvis Costello appears on the title track and “Carpetbagger,” returning the favor of Lewis’s guest vocals on his 2008 album MOMOFUKU. In fact, that Costello album, recorded quickly and with a minimum of studio trickery, is as much of a touchstone for the loose, live-in-the-studio sound of ACID TONGUE as any of Lewis’s other recent projects. Other guests include Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, and Zooey Deschanel and Matt Ward of She and Him

Tracklisting
1. Black Sand
2. Pretty Bird
3. The Next Messiah
4. Bad Man’s World
5. Acid Tongue
6. See Fernando
7. Godspeed
8. Carpetbaggers
9. Trying My Best To Love You
10. Jack Killed Mom
11. Sing A Song For Them

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (p.70) – 4 stars out of 5 — “There’s plenty of storminess on her excellent second solo album, whose songs mix muscular guitar rock with soul balladeering and chamber pop.”

Entertainment Weekly (p.76) – “‘Pretty Bird’ recalls Linda Ronstadt circa ‘75, while ‘Jack Killed Mom’ may be the best thing the White Stripes never wrote.”

Alternative Press (p.155) – 4.5 stars out of 5 — “[S]ensual slow jams ‘Black Sand’ and ‘Bad Man’s World’ summon a summer-night ambiance of cooing siren vocals, lulling beats, chopping strings and piano plunks.”

Mojo (Publisher) (p.102) – 4 stars out of 5 — “[A] mix of enigmatic lyrics beatifully sung and immaculately arranged….The cherry on top is Elvis Costello’s forceful guest vocal on ‘Carpetbaggers.’”

Blender (Magazine) (p.82) – 4 stars out of 5 — “[T]he 11 songs encompass Southern-gothic folk, Appalachian blues stomps and ‘The Next Messiah,’ an eight-minute, Who-style rock mini-opera.”

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