Jonathan Fire Eater - Wolf Songs For Lambs 1997

DreamWorks actually courted Jonathan Fire*Eater, which is bizarre -- no matter how photogenic the quintet is, their music is simply not meant for the mainstream. Fortunately, the band's sound isn't drastically cleaned up on their major-label debut, Wolf Songs for Lambs, but that doesn't mean that the record is the powerhouse it could have been. The production is somewhat muted, meaning that the band never tears into the songs like they do in concert, but that turns out to be a minor complaint, because Jonathan Fire*Eater has such an individual, idiosyncratic sound that even weak moments sound kinetic. Through most of Wolf Songs for Lambs, the group comes across as a hybrid of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Pavement and the Make-Up -- they have the twisted, unpredictable songstructures of Malkmus' crew, the hipster blues of Spencer and the revolutionary zeal of the Make-Up -- and while the songwriting is uneven, the record still shows more style, substance and originality than most post-alternative guitar combos. It may not find Jonathan Fire*Eater fulfilling their potential, but Wolf Songs for Lambs remains a strong debut. AMG.

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Bill Bourne - Voodoo King 2002

Canadian singer/songwriter Bill Bourne is a stylist of a type that will draw in many, but put off others. His bluesy folk sound is introspective and gives the impression of being performed for the performer's benefit alone. He plays sparely, making each strum and plucked string sound hard-won, adding the occasional lonely countermelody by saxophonist Brett Miles. His singing is equally reflective, his poetic lyrics thrown away in murmurs. At his most raucous, as in "Portland," he suggests Tom Waits in his gritty folk-blues playing. It's a style that, were it coming from an aged Delta bluesman, would seem mysterious and authentic, but that seems received when coming from a journeyman Canadian. Happily, he adds other styles to the basic one, but while they provide variety, they also have the sense of having been acquired. "Holy Holy," for example, has a pleasant South African lilt, but doesn't seem any more true to the artist's roots. It also makes the album sound as if several different people are performing rather than one. Eight albums along, Voodoo King may not be the place to start withBourne, but it is a good example of his mix-and-match sense of stylistic borrowing. AMG. Thanks to B.!

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Soulsavers - The Light The Dead See 2012

Having traveled the dusty road previously with alt rock singer Mark Lanegan, U.K. production duoSoulsavers turn to the equally tortured soul Dave Gahan on The Light the Dead See, but this European union still opens their album with a mournful harmonica. Of course, Soulsavers have long been the production duo who prefers the sounds of spaghetti westerns to synthesizers, while making their guests sound as grand and grave as Leonard Cohen lost in the high lonesome, so this Depechein exile is a perfect fit. Brooding across canyons here, Gahan is somewhere between James Dean and a preacher in this atmosphere, and even if his talk of darkness, the Devil, saviors, and the price you pay has all been covered with the Mode, he still sounds renewed, making sliding the downward spiral sound as intoxicating as ever, even when he explains what waits for those who hit the bottom. It's the grand closing suite of "Take" (just guitar, voice, piano, and that harmonica, but as emotionally big as any of the orchestral numbers) and "Tonight" (an actual rock number designed to the return the listener to earth after such a dour journey) that seals the deal, making The Light the Dead See not just an exciting meeting of troubled minds, but a well designed full-length, offering a persuasive rainy day soundtrack that works even when there's not a cloud in the sky. AMG.

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Walter Martin - We're All Young Together 2014

The first of the Walkmen to surface with new music in the wake of the band's hiatus, Walter Martin said that parenthood gave him an opportunity to write songs that captured early rock & roll's mischievous innocence. He nails those feelings -- and many more -- on We're All Young Together, which, from its title to its songs, delivers a creative and thoughtful take on music that's fun for all ages. Like the rest of the album, the '50s and '60s influences never feel contrived: The hints of doo wop in "We Like the Zoo ('Cause We're Animals Too)"'s layered backing vocals enhance the song's seemingly goofy but accurate exploration of the kinship kids feel with wild animals. Later on, Martin wisely avoids making the standout "The Beatles (When Ringo Shook His Mop)" sound too much like the Fab Four, instead channeling the fun-loving freedom John, Paul, George, and Ringo still generate in young-at-heart listeners with a little help from his friends (who include bandmate Hamilton Leithauser and French Kicks' Nick Stumpf and Josh Wise). However, We're All Young Together doesn't completely forsakeMartin's Walkmen legacy. The sweetly summery "Costa Rica" is a cheery echo of the tropical and folky sounds the band explored on Lisbon and You & Me, while the spiky, slinky guitar on "Rattlesnakes" evokes Bows + Arrows. The album's wonderfully whimsical songwriting also echoes Harry Nilsson, whose Pussy Cats got the full-album cover treatment by the Walkmen in 2006. Martin's deceptively simple couplets are a big part of what makes We're All Young Together so special, and they shine especially brightly on "Sing to Me," where Karen O's delivery of lyrics like "I'd like to breach the castle wall of you/And sing a concert in the hall of you" reaffirms her gentler side may be more interesting, and sustainable, than her career as a rock tigress. Here and elsewhere on the album, the tone is unexpectedly reflective, and it often feels like We're All Young Together is more about childhood than aimed at children: "It's a Dream" sparkles with the simplicity of the best parts of being very young -- listening to birds sing, eating lunch, taking naps. Fortunately, everyone can enjoy those feelings in these playful and poetic songs, which balance sophistication and wonder with an inclusive warmth that makes We're All Young Together a complete delight. AMG.

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Unni Wilhelmsen - Live with Bode Rhythm Group feat. Bodo Sinfo 2013

Unni Elisabeth Wilhelmsen (born 12 July 1971) is a Norwegian singer, songwriter and musician. Her musical influences are pop music and the American tradition of the singer/songwriter, in which the lyrics play an important role as well as the music. She lives in Oslo, but has throughout her career had the whole of Norway as a venue. When she made her breakthrough in 1996 with her debut album To Whom It May Concern (Polygram), she also became an important mediator of the singer/songwriter genre, a genre that now has a broad audience in Norwegian popular music. Wilhelmsen was born in Oslo. She was given a guitar as a teenager and so the guitar became her first instrument. However, she had always dreamed of playing the piano, and later took it up. Her first tune featuring the piano came in 2006. She writes most of her music herself, but from time to time collaborates with others. Wilhelmsen is a full-time musician and releases her music on her own indie label, St. Cecilia Music. In addition to pursuing her solo career, in September 2013, Unni joined the Norwegian Band "Di Derre" as a guitarist and vocalist.

Her debut as singer was at Smuget in Oslo, where music journalist Finn Bjelke was present. He liked what he heard and mentioned her to music producer Ole Evenrud at Polygram. This led to her first record contract, and her debut album To Whom It May Concern was released on Polygram 1996. She was awarded Spellemannprisen 1996 in two categories for this album. International release on Universal Music of To whom it may concern in Germany followed, but her international career was slow to develop. She started her own record company to be in charge. Now her audience outside Norway is growing; in effect she functions as her own distributor and a subcontractor for her former label, Universal. Another excellent album, thanks to B.!

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The Psychedelic Furs - Talk Talk Talk 1981

This time working solely with Steve Lillywhite, the Furs introduce a brighter, poppier side to their underground rock edge, with smashing results throughout. The group produces some powerful songs, even more rough-edged than before. Especially striking is "Dumb Waiters," with its queasy, slow-paced arrangement that allows both Kilburn's sax and Ashton's guitar to go wild. However, the six still create some undeniable pop classics. Most well-known is the lead track, "Pretty in Pink," inspiration for the iconic John Hughes film years later and re-recorded as a result. The original is still where to go, though, with Butler's catchy description of a romantically unsure woman matched by a killer band performance. Similarly lighter numbers on the record call to mind a rockier version of Roxy Music's output in later years: elegant, romantic angst given a slightly rougher edge in both music and vocals. "She Is Mine" is especially fine as a gently swinging number with some of Butler's best, quietly ruminative lyrics. Straight-up anthems abound as well, the best being the amazing "Into You Like a Train," which mixes the blunt desire of the title with a sparkling Ashton guitar line and a fast rhythm punch. Talk Talk Talk ends on another high with "All of This and Nothing." A soft, acoustic guitar-sax-rhythm combination introduces the song, then fades away for the main section to begin; Butler details bits and pieces from a lost relationship over a sharp full-band performance, and a final drum smash leads into a reprise of the start -- a fine way to end a fine record. AMG.

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The Watchman - High Acres 2006

Is 'High Acres' The Watchman's most contemplative album to date? It may very well be, together with Carnival of Circumstance, his album from 2002, which was so well received. But in this case the rule is: soft = heavy !!

There are 'no dull moments' on this collection of songs which all feature The Watchman's trademark sound. Intriguing, almost hypnotic songs with a definite romantic feel, sung in a compelling way by Ad and his wife Ankie, who was also responsible for the more than agreeable production. She has a style all her own, in which the various acoustic instruments are draped around Gerard van der Graaf's piano and the percussive rhythm section. The latter includes - next to Eric van der Lest on drums - Osama Milaagi, King of Rhythm from Khartoum. He also distinguished himself on the very successful No Blues production, the Arabicana project in which The Watchman played such an important part. And it goes without saying that Ad van Meurs himself 'picks' his guitar as fluently as ever, that Stephan Jankowski's guitar solos are immaculate and that Theo Wijdeven provides his familiar, propulsive bass support.

There are songs about grandfatherhood (sic!), the 'bigger powers', jealousy, magpies in a tree, falling leaves in autumn, the search for God, youth, love, and puppy love and what have you.

'High Acres' is transatlantic folk & blues from The Watchman: sincere, luxurious and addictive. Thanks to B.!

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Bronwynne Brent - Stardust 2014

Born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, American roots song- writer BRONWYNNE BRENT has the kind of stop-in-your-tracks voice that sounds like Southern sunshine. Though her new album, STARDUST, was recorded in Seattle, it’s the kind of album that could only come out of the South. There’s a hint of Delta blues behind the ache in her songs, a glimpse of honky-tonk twang, an echo of riverboat can-cans, a whiff of Morricone, and an atmosphere of the darker side of country songwriting. Harkening back to the glory days of Lee Hazlewood and Gram Parsons, Brent’s songs tap into the dark undercurrent of country that starts with old Appalachian murder ballads and continues to today’s current crop of psychedelic country songwriters. Like a Juke Joint Nancy Sinatra, Bronwynne Brent unites all the best elements of Southern American roots music, and ties these many different influences into a sound that’s comforting and refreshing.

Produced and recorded by Seattle’s Johnny Sangster (Mudhoney, Massy Ferguson), there’s a spaghetti northwestern sound to Stardust. Bringing on ace musicians like drummer John Convertino of Calexico and bassist Keith Lowe (Fiona Apple, Bill Frisell), and a diverse array of instrumentalists featuring everything from trumpets to a hammond organ, banjo, even a plucked piano, allowed Sangster to carefully build the sound-scapes around each song. And what songs! Brent’s songs have a heavy weight on their shoulders. Battered women, defeated lovers, devilish characters, highway ghosts, and lonesome wanderers populate her songs. Her voice sounds aged beyond its years, brittle and fragile, almost as if it might shatter into razor-sharp fragments under too much pressure. But underneath everything there’s a steel spine to this music, a thoroughly grounded foundation in American roots music that allows Brent to build her songs to greater heights than you might expect. It’s a masterful album, and heralds the coming of a new sound in the Americana pantheon.

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Anderson Ponty Band - Better Late Than Never 2015

The Anderson Ponty Band is a supergroup team-up featuring jazz-rock violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and foundingYes vocalist Jon Anderson. Although they had known each other casually since the 1970s, it wasn't until 2014 that the prog rock icons decided to work together. Collaborating via the internet, Ponty would send instrumental tracks toAnderson who would then add vocals, shaping them into a songs. The process eventually spread to the duo reworking older songs from their careers including some classic Yescompositions. In 2015, the Anderson Ponty Band released their debut album, Better Late Than Never, a CD/DVD that showcased their live 2014 concert performance at the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, Colorado. AMG.

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Missy Burgess - Pour Me A Song 2005

A refreshing blend of folk, blues, gospel and other styles, this debut full-length album by Missy Burgess showcases the Ottawa performer’s warm, weathered voice and considerable songwriting skills.At her best with slower reflective tunes, Burgess sings about the relentless passage of time, life’s small blessings and, in one of the half-dozen or so cover tunes, just how fine it would be to roll around heaven all day (Petr Cancura’s tenor sax helps out on Burgess’ nicely understated approach to this classic number).Burgess’ selection of songs is nothing if not eclectic, from her own compact, bittersweet ode to love-gone-south, My Blue Sweater, to Tom Waits’ Come on Up to the House and Jiminy Crickett’s When You Wish upon a Star. Thanks to B.!

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Jandek - Chair Beside a Window 1982

Another baffling addition to this phenomenal discography of outsider art, this CD reissues the fourth obscure LP produced by Jandek, and dates from 1982. That same year, he released three albums of inimitable abstractions of rural folk-blues. If this outsider has a signature trait, it is absolute deviation; as on any disc in his enormous discography, he seems set on deconstructing music from the inside out. Few recordings exist of such a distorted musical vision, and it is this character that is cherished in the artist's work. Love them or loathe them, it is undeniable that Jandek recordings are powerful -- and for all their off-kilter abstraction there is a consistent focus that never falters, regardless of how warped the vision. The closest musical idiom that the Texan complies to is the blues and, when following that tangent, he finds magic on "Nancy Sings," an exquisite song where his own disheveled voice is replaced by an elusive female vocalist. An occurrence rare for Jandek recordings, which are predominantly solo outings, the duo vamps up an intoxicated ad-lib hollering session that could have appeared on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music were it recorded 50 years prior. AMG.

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The Family Stand - Chain 1990

Chain consists of ten tracks traveling in different directions. The much ballyhooed "Ghetto Heaven" attempts to capture the power of Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield in social significancy but has the impact of a mosquitoe. It gets better with "Only" which has a mock reggae beat that bottoms an infectious melody; "In Summer I Fall" is a sweet beat ballad with a warm lead from Sandra St. Victor. "Oversaxed" displays V. Jeffrey Smith smooth sax skills. "The Last Temptation" owes as much to gospel as it does soul, and exemplifies the diversity of this LP. The title track "Chain," is melodic in a muddy way, the muffled sound gives the shuffling rhythm an eerie effect. Third member Peter Lordcontributes vocals and his immense keyboard skills to a project that doesn't equal the sum of the individuals involved. AMG.

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Meshell Ndegeocello - Peace Beyond Passion 1996

There are times on Me'Shell Ndegéocello's second album where the funky hybrid of R&B and alt-pop that she laid down on her 1993 debut, Plantation Lullabies, actually seems to take on an ethereal quality. Beats and grooves float effortlessly out of the fluid rhythms, and Ndegéocello herself sings with a soothing reserve that was a little too deliberate on her previous work. And it's a better album because of it. Peace Beyond Passion is built around a triumvirate of songs addressing man's inhumanity toward man throughout the ages (with such heavy-handed titles as "Deuteronomy: Niggerman" and "Leviticus: Faggot"), but the real highlights of the set are a wry take on Bill Withers' "Who Is He and What Is He to You" and the ultra-smooth, slow-burning "Stay." It's new age soul that's as spiritually purifying as it is musically sophisticated. AMG.

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