BOBB TRIMBLE ‘HARVEST OF DREAMS’ SECRETLY CANADIAN

Harvest of Dreams is 25 years old, but there are only a few clues: Trimble references SNL, plays the “You have dialed a number which cannot be reached . . . ” message, and uses steady open-chord over-chorused guitar through more than half the album. I think that was [...]

ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFFITI ‘SCARED FAMOUS’ HALL OF RECORDS
“For years I put my faith in print/As if the truth could be discovered there/My list could hold my soul intact/Like paintings/Like photographs . . . ” There are little jewels like this, buried within Scared Famous. Pink tests the comfort level with bizarre non-sequitur sounds from [...]

PJ HARVEY ‘WHITE CHALK’ ISLAND

Polly Jean starts out dark with flourishes of Flamenco guitar on “The Devil,” which reminds me of her duet with Nick Cave for “Henry Lee” on his Murder Ballads. This album is so carefully produced, as clean as a seashell by the British seashore—I imagine her staring off a cliff as [...]

NIGHTFUR ‘SHE LIVES’ SELF-RELEASED
Nightfur (in their own words) are influenced by “space, girls, and the past.” Rarely has a band described themselves so correctly—She Lives is the result of obsessive study of classic songwriting, combined with a tastefully deployed talent for production. Apart from a clear knack for melody as well as admirable attention to [...]

THURSTON MOORE ‘TREES OUTSIDE THE ACADEMY’ ECSTATIC PEACE!
Trees Outside The Academy could very well be Moore’s greatest accomplishment as a musician because he dares to step out of convention on this roots-y ‘70s-style gem. Bolstered by such top-notch musicians as J Mascis on guitar, Samara Lubelski on violin and Steve Shelley on drums, Moore here [...]

LITTLE WINGS “SOFT POW’R” RAD
Returning from the fringes after the one-toke-over-the-line Grow, Kyle Field (a.k.a. Little Wings) delivers the sober and brilliant Soft Pow’r, featuring seven songs propelled by just a breath or a breeze. But with repeated listens, Soft’s fog dissipates: the ballads are the stand-outs, like “Gone Again,” a sick and lonely song [...]

DIRTY PROJECTORS “RISE ABOVE” DEAD OCEANS
Dirty Projectors, the unstoppably innovative, genre-bending band from Brooklyn, return with a new vision: Rise Above. The 11-song album is singer-composer Dave Longstreth’s ode to Black Flag’s 1981 album Damaged, recreated mostly from memory—Longstreth was profoundly influenced by the album as an adolescent. To be clear, this is not a [...]

SAM SPARRO “BLACK & GOLD” MODUS VIVENDI
On some superficial level, it’s satisfying when the cover art matches the music. The pseudo-futuristic robot head on Sam Sparro’s Black & Gold EP lets you know what to expect: sleek, slinky slabs of polished electro-funk delivered with smart-mouth attitude. Although good times are the objective here, Black & [...]

By Drew Tewksbury
THE MEKONS “NATURAL” QUARTERSTICK
As they approach their 30th anniversary, the Mekons could have signed with Starbucks or made a reality show or sold their music to Chevy commercials. Instead, the prolific Northern England post-punkers released Natural, a pared-down album true to the raw and soulful sound they pioneered. It’s a soundtrack to an [...]

THE DEADLY SYNDROME “THE ORTOLAN” DIM MAK
First impressions count, and this is why the Deadly Syndrome did well to make debut The Ortolan as shamelessly exuberant as their shows. The band’s wet-behind-the-ears vigor is their greatest asset. Although The Ortolan is rough around the edges, it’s remarkable that a band just over a year old [...]