Black Rainbow Sound
Menace Beach claim that "the best albums spend the first 30 seconds repeating the album title over and over again". That may or may not be true, but the opening half-minute of 'Black Rainbow Sound' certainly lays out the foundations of what's to come on the Leeds band's determined third album. The sound in question is made up of motorik beats, distorted guitars, electro-clash synths and the complementary interplay between vocalists Ryan Needham and...
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Flow State
With the sales of electric guitars not what they once were, many music business commentators have spoken out on the need for a new generation of guitar heroes. Since Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck don't mean much to most folks under 30 these days, they'd like to see some younger fret-wrestlers who will inspire America's youth to step away from their laptops and pick up a six-string. As it happens, it might be a guitar heroine who does the trick, as evidenced...
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Until The Lights Fade
This being her second solo record, a year on from her first, you could forgive a few hiccups or creative inconsistencies across the ten tracks on Until The Lights Fade. Thankfully, these do not appear. It's a considered, thoughtfully constructed record that adheres to a stylish, seductive aesthetic - think brown dust on your Chelsea boots, desert driving in an expensive car, artfully distressed black denim and ice-cold Pabst Blue Ribbon. To construct...
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Hunter
Anna Calvi took a five-year break after releasing 2013's One Breath, but the intervening time didn't diminish the grand sound she's been cultivating since her debut. From the title track's breathy opening to the soaring melody of "Away," her gift for elucidating the drama of a bygone era is intact and just as effective. If anything, the lustily provocative nature of her artistry reaches its dizzy apex on Hunter. She takes the drama of '80s power ballads...
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Latest releases in Music Critic's Pop/Rock Category See all Pop/Rock New Releases >>
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Black Rainbow Sound
Menace Beach -
Bloom
Troye Sivan -
Joy As an Act of Resistance
Idles -
Magus
Thou -
Indigo
Wild Nothing
Latest releases in Music Critic's Rock Category See all Rock New Releases >>
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Bad Witch
Nine Inch Nails -
Consolation [EP]
Protomartyr -
Angels of Death
Jennifer Castle -
Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino
Arctic Monkeys -
Boarding House Reach
Jack White
Latest releases in Music Critic's Rap Category See all Rap New Releases >>
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Chains Are Broken
The Devil Makes Three -
Wild! Wild! Wild!
Robbie Fulks -
Shooter
Shooter Jennings -
Time Flies
Jim Lauderdale -
To the Sunset
Amanda Shires
Latest releases in Music Critic's R&B Category See all R&B New Releases >>
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Hive Mind
The Internet -
K.T.S.E.
Teyana Taylor -
Childqueen
Kadhja Bonet -
African Scream Contest, Vol. 2
Various Artists -
Good Thing
Leon Bridges
Latest releases in Music Critic's Jazz Category See all Jazz New Releases >>
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Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album
John Coltrane -
Vanished Gardens
Charles Lloyd & the Marvels -
Heaven & Earth
Kamasi Washington -
Collagically Speaking
R+R=Now -
New Bodies
Tangents
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Please Don't Be Dead
Fantastic Negrito -
King of Boogie [Craft] [Box Set]
John Lee Hooker -
Trails & Tribulations
Martin Simpson -
Joy Comes Back
Ruthie Foster -
Fantasizing About Being Black
Otis Taylor
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Love Me/Love Me Not
HONNE -
Devotion
Tirzah -
Dissolvi
Steve Hauschildt -
Qualm
Helena Hauff -
Physical
Gabe Gurnsey
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