“Alternative” Reviews

One of the most original and compelling albums, all artistic obscurity and nonsensical double-speak aside, that I’ve heard in a long time.

This album is a reminder that no good thing can remain forever, and that we ought not to take them for granted while we have them around.

A microcosm of The Cure’s entire career, highlighting nearly every rise and fall, every stylistic direction, every bold experiment, and every failure the band has ever had.

Though not without its flaws, the album has plenty that impresses with breathless creativity and beauty.

The Fire Theft are every bit as potent as Enigk and company’s earlier work.

Crow is at heart just a singer/songwriter, but with My Room is a Mess, he proves once again that his lo-fi offerings are slick, inimitable, and brilliant.

As befitting their name, The Great Depression immerse themselves in a dark, melancholy sound.

What the band has created is an album of 14 very different pop songs, and damn good ones at that.

The songs have an experimental, unpredictable feel to them but never lose their listenability or catchiness.

Further proof that any day Michael Pritzl chooses to bring new material into the world is a good day indeed.

LN’s Gary Murray has pushed himself musically and explored a wider range of styles and sounds.

Lunatic, moonshine-fueled fun that sounds like it’s from the deepest, scariest depths of Appalachia (and not NYC).

A chance to rediscover a band that I’d been enamored with quite some time ago and then subsequently lost track of.

Yep, there are a lot of other bands doing this but the Vegas Nerve do it pretty well.

Osito has done the hard task of balancing variety with quality, and somehow manages to excel at both.

It could be that Victory at Sea’s music simply doesn’t lend it itself well to being timeless or inventive enough to make a person want to buy all of their albums.

The EP is short and rightly so as the songs are not meant to be delved into and dissected with further listens.

Book of Canada is a fine album and it shows Fonograph at their best.

I’ve listened to this CD many times, hoping to discover something that would make it all click, but to no avail.

Scarlet’s Walk is a much safer album which offers no real surprises.