Music Reviews: March 2008

It’s up in the air whether or not Accelerate will reclaim any lost prestige after a disappointing decade for R.E.M.. But it’s hard to imagine what more the band could have done to revive itself than this terse, exceptional set of engaging rock.

Ego Trippin' has more than a few moments where Snoop glides into the future, spicing and dicing a voice that heretofore was best served plain.

Old time country mixes with pre-War Delta blues, folk, and ragtime in the best Americana debut in years.

Lame duck Presidents attempt to boost approval rating with new, uninteresting record.

For Auktyon, even the more holistic tunes tend to verge towards chaos and anarchy. The margins always threaten to break apart.

Falling in love with A Weather’s Cove is just like the real act: quiet, consuming, and treasured.

This synth-soaked pop band splits their new album in half, dropping the synths for acoustic guitars on the latter chunk of the album. It almost works.

Massive three-disc reissue reintroduces the jangle-punk, goofball geniuses of Big Dipper to the world, including all three Homestead releases, and the long lost-in-limbo big label and assorted unreleased tracks.

An at-ease variety show of an album, with fantasy in the driver's seat, but the cold wind of reality right behind.

The Counting Crows raise a ruckus and then feel kinda bad about it, but lose sight of the more rewarding middle ground.

The American Idol judge's compilation plays it safe, but does enough to meet expectations.

Hungarian Roma music, according to this Rough Guide, has a dancing energy, like a ball always bouncing forward.

Busting lyrics about avocadoes and frosty-o's, Lach's whimsical subject matter and proper pronunciation don't sound like the "middle finger to the folk purists" proclaimed by NME in the album's accompanying press release.

Okay, let's see if losing the exclamation point in their name makes Foxy Shazam's music any better.

Damaged emotion, carnal frenzies, and genuine club bangers mark an exceptional debut from Andy Butler and his myriad guests.

For those about to chicha, we saludos you: the man who tapped an Amazonian goldmine unveils his own homage to pre-digital Peru.

Turning Dragon sees Clark turn away from the warm soundscapes of his previous offering in favour of frenetic blasts of abrasive electro.

Chicago's vast baroque pop collective summons every instrument known to man in its fourth and best full-length album, working them jigsaw-like into complicated, colorful patterns.

Backwoods Barbie has dramatic cheatin’ songs and giddy fun alike, with Parton tapping into both her tacky-glamour persona and her serious songwriting skills for a varied collection of songs that ranks among her best.

The lesson from this Maryland emcee's journey shows that hard work is inspiring, but progress is divine.

Polished music with streams of semi-formal strings and songs in which the intimacy sounds autobiographical rather than sexy.

Fans of majestic melodies and abstract lyrical narratives, rejoice! Destroyer’s Dan Bejar continues to tread the thin line between the nonsensical and profound.

However you pronounce her name, it's one of the finest debuts of the year so far. But if you're particular, just go with "Luke-y Lee".

On his fantastic debut, Simpson covers the good -- and bad -- sides of living in Detroit.

From mild-mannered cerebral electronic music producer, Clark has transformed into an enormous, stomping, fire-breathing dragon.

Though certain themes and feelings still ring true, the poor quality of these recordings make the compilation come off as more of a patchwork affair.

Veteran rapper Styles P issues an album of dichotomies: classy, imperial beats belied by gritty and depressive lyrics.

Two’s company as the Virgin Islands’ most promising ex-pat keeps it acoustic, finding his voice through his pianist on his third album for Detroit’s Mack Avenue.

Gnarls Barkley toils ever so soulfully in a complex confluence of emotions on The Odd Couple. Call it therapy-a-go-go.

In a Cave is the strongest Elf Power record in a while, meshing their old fuzz with their newer, stripped down folk.

England's prog-rock torchbearers continue to put out exciting, accessible music with this strong EP.

Aphex Twin's label gives a forgotten electronic master his due.

Chicago post-rock supergroup releases a debut album that sounds like all of their previous bands at once...which isn't necessarily a good thing.

The Pack A.D. unleash screaming guitars and blues-inspired melodies on their debut album.

Virginia folk singer writes love songs to country built on jazz and swing.

The B-52's lay their goofball-meets-heavenly vocals and wacky lyrics across a bed of driving rock guitar and pulsating electronic beats on this fresh and fun comeback album.

Adam Green's first post-Juno effort features 20 quirky pop songs, each bearing its own unique personality.

These postmodern British soul brothers and sisters wipe the floor with Lenny Kravitz and the like.

London-based psychedelic band walks a line between pop-songwriting and improvisation, never really sounding comfortable in either camp.

A joyous collection of tracks that showcases Truth & Soul's old-school production methods and smooth melodies.

The album should be judged with grace and an attempt to look forward into the bright sunlight of the career that awaits the young Texan.

Belong's reluctant surges are endlessly fascinating, even if the root notes aren't their own this time.

Super Furry Animals' Gruff Rhys and hip-hop beatman Boom Bip get elbow-deep in '80s synth-pop with a concept album about John DeLorean.

By riding high on punchy impulses, Get Awkward ends up being a solid follow-up even if it doesn’t sound as instantly re-playable as the band’s charismatic first LP.

The California producer maintains the integrity of some of last year's best songs while also breathing new life into them on this excellent remix project.

If disco-house and odes to ho-bags are your forte, welcome home. Those looking for an advancement of the three-time DMC champ's irrefutable skills will want to look elsewhere.

On their second release, Sleep Forever, the Big Sleep swing starkly between aggressive prog and more measured noisepop, when their best might lay right in the middle.

After spending a long time walking through the wilderness, State Bird come back to the studio with even more outdoors-inspired freak-folk.

These are songs that are made to be enjoyed almost without conscious effort, clever tracks with sticky little choruses that saunter into your head and refuse to go away.

Forward-looking British upstarts' debut is a perplexing but rewarding affair, all intellectual crypticism and swaggering, brash execution.

Dead Meadow's Old Growth is a mirror, simple and reflective. But don't get too angry if it doesn't show you what you want to see -- its shards cut deep.

With four crazed, wildly different albums of spaced-out R&B-pop, Kelis proves hard to define and even harder to write off as "just that 'Milkshake' girl."

Southern rock, spiritual psychedelia, magnificent poetry and masterful playing converge on 13ghosts' monumental fourth album.

Drone of uncommon vision and scope, from microscopic detailing to monolith force to utter swallowing void.

Death Cab for Cutie sideman/indie producer extraordinare finally releases his long-delayed solo album, capitalizing on a sound that wouldn't be out of place on a regular Death Cab album.

Thirty-five years after his obscure first record, the reclusive folkie returns with a pleasant sophomore effort.

The men of Bauhaus bring closure to the band and the genre they spawned.

A jazz pianist mashes classical music -- and every other kind of music -- into a singular, wonderful, deeply felt whole.

Lazily lumped in with the freak-folk scene, the Dodos really aren’t all that freakish. They easily sit alongside OC alumni as music that Natalie Portman probably just adores.

Caveat emptor: this is not your father's Daedelus. But it's still pretty damn awesome.

A happily schizophrenic transmission from the past and present avant-garde that works better the more alien it sounds.

Former punk rockers kick it roots-style on an album that serves as a soundtrack for drinking cheap beer in your backyard whilst contemplating your crappy life. Enjoy!

Or: How to Make An Album Starring 28 Musicians Sound As If It Were Made By Just One or Two.

The good news? DeVotchKa haven't changed their sound a bit. The bad news? DeVotchKa haven't changed their sound a bit.

Kevin Ayers returns from a long absence with an album that shows how much he has aged since we last saw him.

Bronx-based Celtic punks Black 47 offer a weak, ineffectual Iraq war protest album.

Mahjongg run with an elaborate mythology, but what they really care about is taking a groove and spotlighting its strangeness.

Mahmoodi has a mild-mannered, steady voice with an elongated lilt and a gentleness that makes him sound as if he’s singing to himself and you happen to be accidentally overhearing him.

Fourth album from Portland duo launches cannonballs of anthemic weight from its indie sling.

The Kills' latest shows a maturity that defies its limitations, yet crucially doesn't dispel with the rich swagger and sass that gives the Kills their intensity.

Del is still reluctant to show off the "Homosapien" side of his earlier work on his underwhelming, belated new solo album.

Imaad Wasif and Two Part Beast conjure up a parade of influences from rock's history, but can barely pull themselves out of the muck.

Rollie Pemberton has solidified the distinctive elements of his style on Afterparty Babies -- but in so doing, he's perhaps narrowed Cadence Weapon's appeal.

The quirky intellectual details of his music are regularly subsumed by funk and the groove -- so what comes out is both odd and familiar at the same time.

Ex-Boyfriends' second release creates an ex that is worth running into over and over again.

We're starring in an ongoing blockbuster movie and Erykah Badu releases Part One of the score, with hip-hop and '70s soul. Right on, Mama! So can you dig it?

A somewhat preemptive musical highlight reel from the most popular autism-afflicted Aussie rock band of the third Millennium.

Worthy re-release of three improvised and instrumental albums that mix symphonic drone pop with a dash of pedal steel.

Grand Archives expansive haze-pop is not afraid to get happy, and it works when it isn't afraid to complicate that happiness.

For album number four, the Bristol trip-hop veterans shrink down to a duo, and lose some bliss.

Vertical Lines A absolutely fulfills the promise of At Home and Unaffected, and then some.

A disc with the vibe of an extended jam session among friends who appreciate each other’s company.

Once again, the talented guitarist takes two steps forward and one step back.

There are rewards to be had here for the patient listener -- the sort of person who doesn't mind digging in his or her heels until melodies start to blossom.

Float is the band's strongest album yet, maintaining their irrepressible energy while injecting a mature restraint and more variety into their sound.

Many people would be surprised that the banjo's origin came from Africa, not the Appalachians. Otis Taylor, along with a cadre of fellow blues musicians, is here to remind you of that.

Kate Walsh is like a compartmentalized version of Joni Mitchell, one who knows only how to write slow, sad, pretty songs about boys.

This is the collected memory of a series of small creative acts.

While these examples may suggest Herring is obsessed by death, that’s not true. She just writes about the existential facts of life.

If Elephant Eyelash is Why?'s most upbeat work, Alopecia is its evil twin; dark, disillusioned and unrelenting, it serves as the messy breakup to Elephant Eyelash's honeymoon.

Ladyhawk mix subtle genre elements into their rock band muscle on Shots, and when it works the pay-off is big.

With the help of her new band Evangelista, sonic nomad Carla Bozulich releases a diverse album that ranks among her best. Fire and brimstone has rarely sounded this good!

Sascha Funke's latest is all sweetness, but goes a little gooey in the middle.

Out of the fertile soil of Southern culture comes Lizz Wright’s exquisite new release, The Orchard.

The purring groan of the enormous horns and the glittering chimes of the bells are intensely eerie, and then there is the gradual, heaving chant of the massed monks...

This is not garage rock, but something altogether different.

A radical departure for Nine Inch Nails challenges conventional wisdom of their music and the music industry.

This album finds Mullins continuing down the path of idols like Townes Van Zandt and Kris Kristofferson while also diversifying his repertoire.

One of the best records of traditional Appalachian folk songs ever recorded, and that's probably damning it with faint praise.

Is it a woman? Is it a flying horse? No, it’s Recife’s superstar DJ, taking the things that everyday folks leave behind and spinning them into noughties-hip Nordeste.

Siblings from upstate New York play ragged, dingy Americana. Their self-titled American debut is a mixed bag of old-timey fun and thinly-sung ballads.

Re-releases of Love Spirals Downwards' first two albums emphasizes the pretty, ephemeral nature of the duo's music.

A delightfully simple and utterly charming collection of slightly retro pop songs.

Like the Replacements' Pleased to Meet Me, Strangers Almanac wrangled Whiskeytown's unruliness into polished structure, yielding a ragged heart and clean lapels.

The noir-ish Aussie group's third album grooves relentlessly through desperation, sex, and melancholia. It's a good combination.

The R&B obsessed garage-rockers deliver their signature punk-soul stylings while exploring new, more varied musical terrain.

It’s not a bad time to be a male R&B singer.

Travel in Herds produces great Southern rock that serves as the perfect score for any adventurous road trip or summertime shenanigan.

A fine testament to one of the founders of country music, whose views about the perils of damnation might seem a tad harsh to modern ears.

Rykestrasse 68 is not the record you put on when you're trying to multi-task your way onto the next thing on your list. It rewards stillness, listening, and deciphering.

Carter’s always been tough and edgy, but now she seems self-confident. “I’m so cool,” she sings with a growl some 25-plus years after she first wrote the tune, and you believe her.

Justus Köhncke brushes off perfectly crafted discotheque anthems and lush ambient pieces with breathless ease, but he can't seem to get the tracklisting right.

Fractured Life is a patchwork quilt -- albeit a well-crafted one -- of 21st century mainstream indie.

Faces of the Night is a nocturnal carnival of uneasy delights.

Sludgey doom rock band returns with another album of eviscerating, masochistic, and transcendent noise.

Philly-based the Swimmers debut with piano-banging, hook-laden wistful pop, a la the Zombies, ELO, the Shins and Beulah. Now if they could just get home.

For more than a decade, these punk rockers on holiday have luxuriated in twanging pedal steel, stand-up bass and the rocking-est country barroom stomps ever delivered in a north English burr.

The best experimental rock band in Austin releases its third album, a comparatively streamlined effort that addresses matters of the heart with characteristic terseness and subtlety.

The distinctive art-folk songstress turns out an impressively rounded set of songs on her new album.

An album full of airborne anthems, celestial epics, and rock 'n' roll!

The self-professed smoker sounds like he swallows unfiltered Camels whole and washes them down with cheap moonshine from a brown bottle.

There are stylistic touches that suggest Morocco, but if you hadn’t heard the story about their holiday then you’d think they had been inspired by Japan.

Two alt-rock titans return to their roots to create an album that rivals the best in each of their respective canons.

A quiet indie revolution in the field of edgy yet traditional bluegrass, with the influences of singer Dave Wilson's formative years as a roots-rocker occasionally bleeding through.

This is the story of a house kitten who's just a wee bit batty.

Stoltz cures hangovers with the sounds you haven't forgotten.

Suburban Detroit native’s latest release is a collection of street-conscious jams and succinct lyricism.

The songs are so stiff and contrived, it seems like a crime to even call the artists "funk", forcing James Brown and Sly Stone to share the moniker with these squares.

Long meandering jams coalesce into Stephen Malkmus' heaviest, most classic rock-influenced Jicks album yet, but where are the songs?

Canada's best export is back with ballsy roots rock, murder ballads, and Wayne Gretzky analogies. It doesn't get much better than this, folks.

Casey Dienel assembles a full band and releases an intricate and beautiful record that trumps her solid solo debut in every way.

After deciding to drastically increase their usage of strings, the controversial four-piece follows up on their debut with an album that suffers from familiar flaws.

Lazare is strongest when it sounds like, well, Lazare.

Probably not the Bob Marley and the Wailers you're used to, Another Dance captures the group in their early years as they evolved from a Jamaican doo-wop sound to the reggae icons Marley and company would eventually become.

White continues to prove himself as one of the most intriguing singer/songwriters in the biz.

Born Ruffians come through with a debut album that mostly lives up to the hype.

It’s as if ag Keyna has looked back at the work Tinariwen has done, felt that the sound he wanted to build on had already been established, and, with that support behind him, felt free to experiment.

Akrobatik’s Absolute Value is equal parts braggadocio and introspection with solid production that matches the Boston native’s aggressive delivery.

The Berlin-based DJ duo aim to be more "subtle" with this mix of thoughtful house and techno. They succeed only too well.

LA psych masters show us who's boss on their fourth LP.