Audioholic Media

»Album Reviews For Release Date: 04.20.10
by Joshua Krage

It’s a large list this week, but for some reason not many of these releases tickled my fancy. They’re plenty good, just not my cup of tea, I guess. However some of my favorite artists managed to stack their latest releases pretty high on the quality scale, so you’re still bound to find something you like below. Enjoy:

AC/DC – Iron Man 2 sndtrk (if you hadn’t heard about it already. Yet the Black Sabbath song still plays in the previews…)
Airbourne
The Apples In Stereo
Aqualung
David Arkenstone
Caribou
Circa Survive
Cornershop
Cypress Hill
Doves – best of

Eardrums Pop Compilations, Between Two Waves vol. A, B, C – these are free albums of interesting and continent-spanning collaborations from a lot of artists I’ve never heard of, but everything I’ve heard so far is stellar and they’re FREE. Check’em out.

Everest
David Ford
Nnenna Freelon
Gotan Project
Grateful Dead – live 7/7/89
Merle Haggard
Taylor Hawkins
Eoghan Heaslip
Horse Feathers
Kings Go Forth
The Kissaway Trail
Kottonmouth Kings
Kurupt
Jonny Lang – live
Shelby Lynne

Kate Nash, My Best Friend Is You – this dainty, saucy piano-tinkling Brit is at her best when she’s lashing out against you, her ex-boyfriend, for all the wrongs you’ve caused her, which is much of what made her debut such an engaging and potty-mouthed fun romp. This album finds Kate after taking some time off to actually live–and in a decent long-term relationship (with Cribs frontman Ryan Jarman)–so she tones down the bile a bit and sets her sights on modern pop over angry ex-grrrl epithets. More upbeat and even doo-wop-ish in some spots (as is the fashion with Brit-girl singers at the moment), she luckily still stacks the back half of the album with some muscular moments that downright made me blush with her brazen diatribes. So an older, wiser piano chanteuse who’s more comfortable in her skin and her love life but still finds plenty to lash out about. Not too bad a follow-up at all.

Willie Nelson
Number One Gun
OCR – American Idiot
OST – Drawn Together
OST – Glee: The Power of Madonna (7-song EP)

Ozomatli, Fire Away – the most diverse collection of modern genres you’ll ever hear is tackled like an afterthought time and time again by this amazingly versatile LA troupe, encompassing the best of rock, salsa, hip hop, cumbia, funk, even norteño-style polka and much more into yet another stellar release. The big bonus this time is producer Tony Berg, who managed to capture the septet live and in full lock-in. Infinitely danceable at many different tempos and styles.

Plants & Animals
Ratt
Relient K – best of 2000-2003
Xavier Rudd
Sent By Ravens
Sevendust
The Slackers
Superchick
Sweet Apple
Trans Am
Trombone Shorty

Rufus Wainwright, All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu – for all his bombastic ambition and theatricality, Rufus Wainwright is a songwriter first and foremost, possessed of a unique, nasally tenor unlike any other artist and a sense of musicality informed by genres rarely seen in mainstream rock/pop music, like opera, folk, and showtunes. This album was recorded during and released after the loss of Rufus’ mother, Kate McGarrigle, and in reflective fashion he sidelines the big bands and operatic glissandos and goes it with just his piano skills and voice, letting his literate, emotive songwriting take center stage with no distractions. This is a collection of deeply personal and reflective compositions, especially on songs addressing his family, but he does take some entertaining turns by appropriating some Shakespeare sonnets and with the number “Give Me What I Want And Give It To Me Now!,” and his songcraft is some of the best of his career. The line Then I think of you / How could someone so bright love someone so blue from second track “Sad With What I Have” is still lingering with me, as I suspect most of this album will for weeks to come.

Hope you found something good. Until next week…

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