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Our latest album reviews, featuring the records we've most enjoyed (or not) over the past few weeks.

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Browse our album reviews according to score: Highest (9.5/10 or more) or Lowest (2/10 or less)

How Do We Jump This High?

Funny/Not Funny
Answer Key (2011)

Answer Key Records, the new record label formed by Bridge & Tunnel's, Jeff Cunningham, chose How Do We Jump This High's, Funny/Not Funny, for the label's first release--a quartet comprised of members of the short lived Get Bent and Frame. Together, they blend their sound into one melodic-punk explosion. Funny/Not Funny picks up where the band's first EP, Deep Stationary, left off, but it's a bit more capering. Mike Borth kicks things off with a deep bass tone on “En Route.” The chorus is backed with great harmonies from the lead guitar that carry over into the following track, “Potential,” which also contains a solo. The second half of the EP, opens with “The Greats.” Despite being a good track, it's a bit forgettable. Nothing stands out much from it. However, they end the EP with its best song, “Migraines.” It features the urgency I would have liked to have heard from the previous tracks and maintains its catchy melodies.Hopefully, history won't repeat itself, and we'll get to see a full length from How Do We Jump This High before they decide to disband. They've shown promise thus far. Funny/Not Funny is a solid release, but there's still room for … Read more

Ancient Wisdom

A Godlike Inferno
Shine Box (2011)

Evil can come in many forms. Everyone can explain the evil in any number of things man can perceive. More … Read more

Night Birds

The Other Side Of Darkness
Grave Mistake (2011)

The hype had been building for Night Birds’ debut. They’ve released three 7”s and the band, feature ex-members of The … Read more

Red Hot Chili Peppers

I'm With You
Warner Bros. (2011)

After a quiet five years of whispers, rumors, questions, confirming of rumors and, at last, the revealing of exactly what … Read more

Crone

Endless Night
Translation Loss (2011)

I lost part of my virginity to Jeff Caxide.No, not that virginity. Go get a dictionary, you sleaze. I meant … Read more

Livimorket & Sequences

Voidness
Sunyata (2011)

Do you know why I find collaborative efforts so appealing in musical and other such sonic arenas (besides that they … Read more

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One from the archives

Code Orange

Underneath
Roadrunner (2020)

What is it that even makes a good album, good? Good is a slippery concept of course, and your definition is going to be shaped and tinted by your life experience, environment, and even physiology (some people naturally just have more acute hearing than others). Tomes could, and have been written, about what combination of sounds constitutes an "objective," scientific consensus-driven definition of "goodness" and how it can be achieved. And they'd be wrong. Partially because whoever is enough of a simple, sheltered pet of our society's systems of solutionism to think that they reliably reduce the whole of human art making to a single data set, is also someone who clearly should not be recommendations about art, but also because whoever they are, I guarantee that they've never written … Read more

More album reviews

Palehorse

Soft As Butter, Hard As Ice
Eyes Of Sound (2011)

London's Palehorse, a band so loud that after seeing them live recently my ears would not stop ringing for approximately two days. Was it worth it ? Completely.Palehorse take all that they established on previous full length, Gee, Ain't That Swell released way back in 2003 and firmly thrust it into the present. A line up change here, an addition … Read more

The Cars

Move Like This
Hear Music (2011)

I'd like to take a moment to quote Ric Ocasek, circa 1997, on the subject of The Cars reuniting at some point in the future:"I'm saying never, and you can count on that."I guess that makes him the Brett Favre of rock music, because one spinoff project and 23 years after their breakup, here I sit, holding a copy of … Read more

Winterus

In Carbon Mysticism
Lifeforce (2011)

The band Winterus formerly known as The Ancient are a Michigan band that seems to be wishing it was from the coldest regions of Norway. That is to say they traffic in a cleaned up version of what tends to be called blackened death metal. The band does not rely on keyboards to make their songs interesting which is a … Read more

Voytek

Self Titled
Big Action (2011)

Voytek are a Minneapolis punk band currently taking things to the next level. Whether that level is up or down is in the eye of the beholder, but it will start with reviewing this 2 song 7”—or should I say: this 6 song digital EP? With the bonus material outweighing the physical form, it’s tough to gauge just what type … Read more

Battles

Gloss Drop
Warp (2011)

Okay, I'm going to be honest about my credentials here. For as long as Battles have been on my radar, and despite the amount of praise I have heard thrown at them, I still have not listened to Mirrored. It surprises me even today that I haven't gotten around to listening to an album nearly everyone (yes, even Pitchfork) describes … Read more

William Elliott Whitmore

Field Songs
Anti (2011)

William Elliott Whitmore’s Anti debut, Animals in the Dark, was something of an outlier in his discography—the bigger label release introduced more instrumentation and a more global lyrical scope than much of his earlier work. While an excellent album, it isn’t fully indicative of Whitmore’s strengths, and with Field Songs, he returns to his son of the soil theme, built … Read more

Lavinia

There Is Light Between Us
The Mylene Sheath (2011)

Lavinia are a post rock super group of sorts. being comprised of members of more than a couple Mylene Sheath bands including Caspian and Eksi Ekso. So there are certain expectations most listeners will be placing on this release. The band doesn't stray too far from the post rock foundation built with their full time bands. Guitars shimmer and build … Read more

Buck Gooter

Devil Worship
Flannel Gurl (2011)

When I think of Devil worship I think of all the scary stuff from my youth. I think of serial killer known as "The Night Stalker", Richard Ramirez. Perhaps the most famous Devil worshiper of the era, he had a propensity for heavy metal—flashing the horns while in handcuffs—a pentagram tattooed on his palm—and quotes like, “I love to kill … Read more

Locrian & Horseback

New Dominions Split
Utech (2011)

This collaboration between Horseback and Locrian was a hotly anticipated one in several musical circles (particular if you were a fan of either outfit prior to hearing of this release), and the prospects of what these two projects might create together induced some mind blowing (think the head explosion scene in Scanners) possibilities in the heads of those of us … Read more

Junior Battles

Idle Ages
Paper + Plastick (2011)

After a few years of EPs and splits, Canada’s Junior Battles finally released their debut full length this Summer on Paper + Plastick. With speedy riffs, dual, and gang vocals, they attempt to share a similar vein with acts such as Set Your Goals, The Wonder Years, or Man Overboard. However, they’re taking the poppier road with cleaner guitars and … Read more

The 4onthefloor

4x4
Independent (2011)

There is a type of rock & roll that is very, well, American—thunderous, hard-driving, electrified rhythm and blues with greasy guitars. Music that evokes a variety of American imagery—an oversized, gas-guzzling pickup truck covered in mud barrels down a gravel road; the driver—sporting a camouflaged hat and a farmer’s tan—rides shotgun with a six pack of beer and an actual … Read more

Oskoreien

Oskoreien
Independent (2011)

I first heard about Oskoreien after acquiring a fantastic compilation album by the name of Der Wanderer über Dem Nebelmeer. The title is taken from a famous painting, The Wanderer Above The Sea Of Fog, and it also happens to be a Wolves In The Throne Room track name. And if you know anything about Wolves In The Throne Room, … Read more

Cyvoid

Self Titled
Thirty Days Of Night (2011)

Cyvoid are a band out of Britain with a strong sense of the past. This band made up of ex members of zombie fanatics Send More Paramedics among others bring the thrash. Well past the point when they could be called bandwagon jumpers they clearly love their thrash. Similar in a sense to Send More Paramedics, Cyvoid also play with … Read more

Witches

Forever
Bakery Outlet (2011)

Witches are a tough band to break down. The vocals from Cara Beth Satalino are far and away the driving force on their debut, Forever. Yet, the band is anything but a singer-songwriter project. The guitars and a rhythm section are subtly driving, with an anxious energy ready to break loose, but somewhat confined. From the opening “Creature of Nature,” … Read more

Reviews by score
Browse our album reviews according to score: Highest (9.5/10 or more) or Lowest (2/10 or less)