Be Here Now: New Albums Reviewed 3-3-15

ALBUM OF THE WEEK 3-2-15

The Firewatcher’s Daughter – Brandi Carlile – Country singer songwriter dabbles in rock and roll and comes out the better for it even if not always, “The Eye” is such a great song it makes the riff of “The Mainstream Kid” soound pedestrian. At its best it is as good as this ten year veteran can get, at its worse it is pretty good – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – B+

Magick Spells – Gateway Drugs – Alt rockers out of the garage and on some light to heavy drugs, sounds like speed balls, with a chick singer who keeps you guessing who thought of that little move.At their best, the song matches the lyric, and the whole is smarter than you’d imagine. They’re like the Brian Jonestown Massacre without the years of bad attitude  – B+

Piece By Piece – Kelly Clarkson – Blame John Legend for “Run Run Run” and blame no one for the EDM inspired pop of “Heartbeat Song” but what do you do with all the stuff in the middle? Lots of manufactured beats with good singing and nothing special songs – C+

After – Lady Lamb The Beekeeper – A singer songwriter not as twee as her monicker might lead you to believe, try “Vena Cava”

Chasing Yesterday – Noel Gallagher And The Flying Birds – The album name is just looking for trouble and he finds it, and the lyrics still suck too often, but “Riverman” is as good as he can manage in 2015, maybe better – C+

Aureate Gloom – Of Montreal – Kevin Barnes sounds like Peter Perrett fronting Flaming Lips… again. You want advice for this guy? write better songs – C+

another eternity – Purity Rings – pop goes indie with this duo who get their just reward: soulfulness that is only occassionally an annoyance, hence their work with Danny Brown – B+

Let The Road – Rixton – Finding a hole where NSYNC lived, this all young hearthrob blue eyed soul  boy band already have one hit under their belt – C+

Realness – RuPaul – Drag queen extraordinaire brings the queer back into disco, with somewhat obvious results – C+

Skrillex And Diplo Present Jack U –  35 minutes with a great Missy Elliott remix, a coupla sketches with the duo sounding wasted, and 2Chainz, who saves the album from being a rip off – B-

I Wasn’t Born To Lose You – Swervedriver – dreamy, poppy, guitar haunted, and pretty darn good from these old timers, they sound like mbv without the wall of sound – B