I Don’t Wanna Grow Up – Bebe Rexha – The EDM songwriter behind Eminem and Rihanna’s “The Monster” has enough fair songs to fill an EP and a line in cliche bending, “I Can’t Stop Drinking About You” for one and “I’m Gonna Show You Crazy” for another, neither song of which are as good as its names – C+
Dumb Fresh – Blanck Mass – This is the guy from Fuck Buttons, which explains why I thought I was in some parallel universe where streaming music could get warped in the sun – B-
Youth – Jordan Bratton – Impeccable r&b guy, opens his EP with Chance The Rapper, closes it with Fabolous, and never falters in between – B+
Power In The Blood – Buffy Sainte-Marie – Native American meets native Americana via modern day production and a whole lotta agitprop – B
Boys – Crocodiles – “Crybaby Demon” is a great song, the duo can’t land on again, but they come close enough on this lo-hi hard rock songs, especially the wonderfully titled “Peroxide Hearts” – B
Spotify Session – D’Angelo – Nice to hear a clean recording, my boot from the Apollo is getting old – B+
Hell Or Highwater – David Duchovny – If this was twice as good, it would still be the bloke from “Californication”. David’s voice is real but not very pleasant, still at least they are folk rockers – C+
Imbue – The Early November – Old time Jersey emo boys, still doing it the same way – B-
The Travelling Kind – Emmylou Harris And Rodney Crowell – The follow up to Old Yellow Moon is a little better, more country and less folk – B+
Making Ghosts – Great Peacock – Not bad folk Americana etc, but in a saturated market how do they find an audience? Not here – C+
Grounders – Grounders – Pop grooviness abounds… though missing something – C
When The Smoke Clears – Hinder – I can’t stand mainstream rock and roll and that’s exactly what we have here, with that caveat I admit this is better than most – C
Tenderness – JD Souther – What’s more important? The Eagles co-conspirator or Linda Ronstadt former squeeze? It doesn’t much matter on this surprisingly sturdy collection of songs, so hard to pinpoint but still snazzy. Souther claimed: “It’s pretty raw emotionally, and the melodies sound a bit complex and broad on first listen.It’s the best bunch of songs I’ve ever put together.” – B
Can’t Forget: A Souvenir Of The Grand Tour – Leonard Cohen – Apparently the Cohen soundchecks could last hours and this ten song selection from the mixing boards picks and chooses some goodies. Indeed, all pretty darn goodies, especially the George Jones cover “Choices” – B+
Mondo Drag – Mondo Drag – Better than you might think, basically because they have a good rhythm section for a Doors wannabe – C+
Land – Novella – Indie pop chick scenesters but better then you think, they sound really great, very walls of sound guitars and feedback -B
Love Songs For Robots – Patrick Watson – Not bad ambient pop songs only louder and more songery- B-
Gunnera – Pfarmers – Danny Seim (Menomena, Lackthereof), Bryan Devendorf (the National), and trombonist Dave Nelson (Sufjan Stevens, Beirut, David Byrne And St. Vincent), formed a supergroup of sorts to perform mood music, some of it, “You Shall Know The Spirit”, as beautiful as they think it is – B
Pitch Perfect 2 – Various Artists – Not as good as # 1 (though the actual movie looks good), Snoop singing “Winter Wonderland” will only get you so far and a campfire “Cups” won’t even get you that far, though the Jessie J song is pretty excellent – C+
Frozen Niagara Falls – Prurient – I’ll give this luddite one man band one thing: he sounds like nothing else on this piece of extended weirdness – C+
Under The Radar Volume One – Robbie Williams – Odds and sods compilation , released in December though finally reaches the US: for believers only and I am one – B
Hairless Toys – Roisin Murphy – One half of Moloko goes solo and delivers on this soulful electronic pop album from Ireland via Manchester – B
Traveler – Rhett Miller- Last year we got one of Black 47’s best albums ever, here we don’t get one of Rhett’s best solo albums ever. Recorded with Portland, Oregon’s Black Prairie it is tasteful well past a fault. I’ve got nothing negative to say about “Jules” and if the grade is better than the review made you think it would be, I’ve been fooled by Rhett before – B
Bush – Snoop Dogg – If a song featuring Stevie Wonder on an album with the return of Pharrell, doesn’t break pop, will Charlie Wilson, Gwen Stefani, T.I. and Kendrick Lamar and Rick Ross, help matters much? Maybe, but I can’t hear it on this disappointing aim for more mainstream pop dance album plus Snoop. Tell Pharrell to hit the Marvin Gaye songbook and get back to me – C+
Neon Future II – Steve Aoki – There is no excusing the Linkin Park and Rivers Cuomo tracks, there is no excusing a lot of this EDM by numbers by the popular DJ, so while an early “I Love It When You Cry” may give you hope, you’ll abandon it long before you reach Snoop Lion – C
A Life Unto Itself – Steve Von Till – What happens when hardcore goes lo fi – C
1000 Palms – Surfer Blood – I actively disliked their last album but this is more like it, indie mood pop with hooks aplenty and sweet sounds all over the place. The giveaway is the yelp on “Island” but all of this gets through and how. A major reboot for a band who really impressed me the only time I saw em live. ALBUM OF THE WEEK – B+
Dark Bird Is Home – The Tallest Man On Earth – This Swedish folkie has been kicking around and he has a lovely voice to go with his tuneful, tedious songs – – C
