Album Review: David Byrne - Who Is The Sky?

Hey all, got a review up @glidemag which you can read Right C'here:

It is of David Byrne's newest effort, Who Is The Sky?

Album Review: S.G. Goodman - Planting By The Signs

S.G. Goodman

Planting By The Signs

**** out of *****

The newest offering from singer/songwriter S.G. Goodman, Planting Signs, looks deep into her home territory of Western Kentucky with a collection of weepy folk/American tunes. Goodman mixes story songs, sweet love offerings and tunes of sadness as she mourns the passing of time and friends. 

Album Review: Big Freedia - Pressing Onward

Hey all, got a review up @glidemag which you can read Right C'here:

It is of Big Freedia's Pressing Onward

Album Review: Ferris Blusa - And That's When I Saw Gawd

Ferris Blusa

And That's When I Saw Gawd

***and1/2 out of *****

For his album And That's When I Saw Gawd, the New Orleans based hip hop artist Ferris Blusa partnered with the Madison, WI based producer Observe Since 98 to craft a full length flowing album that thematically holds together questioning televangelism, religion and more. 

Album Review: WITCH - SOGOLO

Hey all, got a review up @glidemag which you can read Right C'here:

It is of WITCH's newest release SOGOLO. 

Album Review: Total Con - Who Needs The Peace Corp?

Total Con 

Who Needs The Peace Corp?

***and1/2 out of *****

This kick in the teeth album from the Leeds UK based punk/hardcore outfit Total Con is a furious unleashing of aggression as Who Needs The Peace Corp? harkens back to the stripped down early sounds of the genres. Even before the music charges out, the album cover from Karim Newble, gives that retro punk/hardcore visual feel, matching the tunes contained within. 

Album Review: Mdou Moctar - Tears of Injustice

Hey all, got a review up @glidemag which you can read Right C'here:

It is of Mdou Moctar's Tears of Injustice, and acoustic version of last years fantastic Funeral for Justice, which RtBE rated very highly during our year end round up of 2024. 

While we like the original much more, feel free to check this out as well. 

Support the artists, buy the album, read the review and peep some video below:

 

Album Review: Sunny War - Armageddon In A Summer Dress

Hey all, got a review up @glidemag which you can read Right C'here:

It is of Sunny War's newest album, Armageddon In A Summer Dress on New West Records. A hard to pin down folk-indie rock record that has splashes of soul, punk, and more. It also has a fantastic album cover that artistically fits the tunes.

Support the artist, buy the album, read the review, and peep some video below:

Album Review: The Weather Station - Humanhood

Hey all, got a new review up @glidemag which you can read Right C'Here!!!

It is of The Weather Station's newest album Humanhood. We enjoyed 2021's Ignorance, it even made our best of the year list. This one is good, and in the same vein, but less pop and more jazz/artsy. The album art fits the sound, with layers and layers of music stitched together and crazy font/writing. 

Support the artist, buy the album, read the review and peep some video below:

Year In Review 2024 - Favorite Album Art

We kick off our Year in Review section of 2024 with the first feature in the Best of... wrap up: Album Art. 

Just like in years past, we will be choosing our favorite albums of the year, a few that were underwhelming, our favorite live shows, and highlight some fantastic archive releases, all of which will be posted over the next few days. 

Today we are starting out by judging books (records) by their covers (vinyl sleeves, jackets, digital pics, etc) with the Best Album Art Work of 2024.

The biggest gripe RtBE has with digital music is not the quality (that has been massively improved) nor the disposal nature of it (still a problem, but whatever), it is the lack of amazing album covers and art work.

Sure there may be great album art out there but seeing it on a screen, on Spotify or elsewhere is nothing compared to holding an LP or even a CD booklet with pages of lyrics, pictures etc. 

Thankfully the rise of vinyl is helping this dilemma but it is still not enough. The hours we spent staring, actually holding, examining tons of covers while listening to music can't be adequately recorded, it added new dimensions to the sounds. You are connected to album in a more physical way; things were deeper, more evocative...Anyways...

Here comes RtBE's Favorite Album Art of 2024. 

Album Review: Kim Deal - Nobody Loves You More

Hey all, got a new review up @glidemag which you can read  Right C'Here!!!

It is of Kim Deal's debut solo album, No Body Loves You More. 

A solid album of various styles that seemed to live in Deal's head for a while. Amazing album art. 

Support the artist, buy the album, read the review and peep some video below:

Album Review: Houle - Ciel Cendre et Mis​è​re Noire

Houle

Ciel Cendre et Mis​è​re Noire

**** out of *****

The Paris based Houle deliver their debut full length in Ciel Cendre et Mis​è​re Noire as the outfit plunges the depths and rises to the crest of the waves with their self described "marine black metal". That feeling can be felt by non-French speakers before the music even starts just by checking out the evocative album cover art and wind swept logo. 

Album Review: Boulevards - Carolina Funk: Barn Burner on Tobacco Road

Hey all, got a new review up @glidemag which you can read Right Chere!!!

It is of Boulevards newest release, Carolina Funk: Barn Burner on Tobacco Road.

Now THAT is an album cover!

The tunes are pretty good as well. 

Support the artist, buy the album, read the review and peep some video below:

Album Review: Mdou Moctar - Funeral For Justice

Hey all, got a new review up @glidemag which you can read Right C'here!!!

It is of Mdou Moctar's newest album, Funeral for Justice.

RtBE have been fans of the band since they started and have reviewed all of their albums and seen them live. They made our best of list in 2021 and also topped our album art list the same year. 

This is more of the same goodness, from the album art to the even better music.  Look for it on many year end lists this year as well. 

Support the artist, buy the album, read the review and peep some video below:

Album Review: The Black Keys - Ohio Players

Hey all, got a review up @glidemag which you can read Right C'here:

It is of The Black Keys newest album titled Ohio Players. This one is a big surprise. When I am scheduled to review albums for Glide, I rarely listen to singles before the full album gets sent to me. I had no idea how prominent Beck would be on this record, it is almost a duet between him and the BK's and it succeeds.

Very poppy and different than The Black Keys last few albums (Let's Rock, Delta Kream, Dropout Boogie) and to these ears that is a good thing. Dan and Patrick can always go back to their stripped down blues/rawk, but this is a step in a new, solid direction. I have always liked them more when they expanded, especially on their career highlight, Brothers, which was one of our favorite albums of the 2010's.    

Support the band, buy the album, read the review, peep some video below:

Album Review: Keyon Harrold - Foreverland

Keyon Harrold

Foreverland

**** out of *****

The ten tunes on Keyon Harrold's double album Foreverland, gently glide without borders through jazz, R&B, hip-hop, and soul, as the confident artist releases his most self assured record of his career. 

Album Review: Selcouth Quartet - Selcouth Quartet

Selcouth Quartet

S/T

*** out of *****

The birth of the Selcouth Quartet was serendipitous as the foursome of Joe Russo (drums, keys) Stuart Bogie (saxophone, flute, clarinet, keys) Jon Shaw (upright & electric basses) and Jonathan Goldberger (acoustic & electric guitars) were supposed to play a show in Iceland that was canceled and the band were offered studio time at Floki Studios to record. The result is this 9 song collection of sonic soundscapes that ebbs and flows like the ice and glaciers that surrounded them while recording. 

Sometimes album artwork means nothing in connection to the music and sometimes it tells the full story. The barren shore pictured here tells the story of this album, as the icy waters and frozen climate are embedded in these sounds. Producer and engineer D James Goodwin captured the band over a few days as their environment clearly affected their musical output. 

Opener "100 Words For Wind" sets the tone it is meditative, ominous, slowly rumbling and building with bass and increasing drum tempo before Bogie's horns go weird along with Goldberger's guitars as the sounds recede back into the darkness, remining icy and distant. Squirrely guitar work enters at the six minute mark and the band then locks in more melodic to close. Listening while looking a the cover photo, you can almost feel the location feeding into the groups sound. 

Relaxed jazz with a sense of folk music colors "Smaller Horses" while Russo's deep drumming highlights the brief outing titled "The Hidden People". The idea of nature verse the digital world seems to be crucial to the quartet as "Gyr" colors things with digital sounds, while remaining at a cold distance, while "Unlimited Light" begins with natural oceanic sounds before using a very impressive groove from Russo to end.  

The standout effort arrives at the midway point as "Dragon, Bull, Vulture, Giant" is the best amalgamation of the groups talents. The song starts off with a cool groove, playing cinematic with warbling edges as Bogie and Goldberger run free with a strong base beneath them, before Russo and Shaw kick up the tempo for the second half of the track, with all the musicians coalescing around the upbeat tempo. "Before We're Sunken" is also a winner with mysterious vocals entering the first half of the song, while a dynamic closing is dramatic and well placed. 

While that would have been an excellent closing of the album, that idea of nature comes back one more time, and not for the better, as the group gives us random natural sounds for over ten minutes before coming in, wrapping up the record on an odd and ineffective note.    

The environment we are in certainly colors our life and Selcouth Quartet recording in Iceland certainly soaks through this debut. While Selcouth means peculiar, this album was fairly straight ahead, but for a first, unexpected recording, there is a lot to like from this quartet. 

____________

Support the artists, buy the album, and peep some video below:

Album Review: Cattle Decapitation - Terrasite

Cattle Decapitation

Terrasite

***and1/2 out of *****

On a day RtBE looks back at album art from this year, we also review an album with some of the creepiest art we have seen in some time. Yet Cattle Decapitation's album art for Terrasite fits, the title and the theme of the album perfectly as the San Diego, CA based extreme metal band proposes the theory that human kind is a plague on planet earth. 

The eighth studio album from the group finds the band (Travis Ryan – vocals Josh Elmore – guitars Dave McGraw – drums Belisario Dimuzio – guitars Olivier Pinard – bass, with added keys/synths from Tony Parker and Dis Pater) pummeling away with ferocity and power. The metal band is constantly evolving and adding to their sound, on this effort the drums are dominant, guitars both slice and float while Ryans vocals take over when he grabs the mic. 

Terrasite never drops in intensity as the deathcore rages out over the ten tracks. The opening "Terrasitic Adaptation" is a monster of theatrical death metal containing slamming drums, keys/synths, rock solid guitars, blazing solos and screeching vocals; a little bit of everything. The lead single "We Eat Our Young" says it all from the band this go around as intense blasting beats and vocals which switch from clean to distorted around lines like, "We’ve upped the ante as the most invasive species of life that ever shat on this earth", enough said. 

While Ryan can growl with the best of them, he wants his lyrics to be heard and that constant theme of man being a vile creature is everywhere. The band also plays with small sections of very palpable theatrical metal throughout. Efforts like the chugging, more groove based "Scourge of the Offspring" is a arena ready thrasher that injects soaring vocals while both "...And the World Will Go on Without You" and "The Insignificants" are heavy as hell but also has huge, almost beautiful breaks in the middle of the tracks that add new dimensions to the bands sound. 

These small touches are welcomed twists in the sound as the band rarely lets up their sonic assaults and that can be a bit much as a full listen with songs running long and the same theme getting hammered home repeatedly. Tracks like the overloaded "Dead End Residents" and the stop/start pummeling of "The Storm Upstairs" never relent.

That is the point of Terrasite though as Cattle Decapitation are sick of humanity and want you to be as well. The album ends with the most theatrical effort yet, the ten plus minutes of "Just Another Body" that is pastural with it's opening, then grows ominous before embarking on an ebbing/flowing metal journey with keys and synths sprinkled in, wrapping up a very powerful and successful extreme metal album.   

___________________

Support the band, buy the album and peep some video below:

Year In Review 2023 - Favorite Album Art

We kick off our Year in Review section of 2023 with the first feature in the Best of... wrap up: Album Art. 

Just like in years past, we will be choosing our favorite albums of the year, a few that were underwhelming, our favorite live shows, and highlight some fantastic archive releases, all of which will be posted over the next few days. 

Today we are starting out by judging books (records) by their covers (vinyl sleeves, jackets, digital pics, etc) with the Best Album Art Work of 2023.

The biggest gripe RtBE has with digital music is not the quality (that has been massively improved) nor the disposal nature of it (still a problem, but whatever), it is the lack of amazing album covers and art work.

Sure there may be great album art out there but seeing it on a screen, on Spotify or elsewhere is nothing compared to holding an LP or even a CD booklet with pages of lyrics, pictures etc. 

Thankfully the rise of vinyl is helping this dilemma but it is still not enough. The hours we spent staring, actually holding, examining tons of covers while listening to music can't be adequately recorded, it added new dimensions to the sounds. You are connected to album in a more physical way; things were deeper, more evocative...Anyways...

Here comes RtBE's Favorite Album Art of 2023. 

Album Review: Woods - Perennial

Hey all, got a review up @glidemag which you can read Right C'here!

It is of Woods newest release, Perennial. 

It is almost officially Fall now, but this is a solid Spring album. Will make you yearn for the blooming of plants, def the best/most accurately titled album of the year. 

Support the artist, buy the album, read the review and peep some video below: