Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks - Wig Out At Jagbags Review

On his sixth album with The Jicks, the ex-Pavement man settles into his role as elder statesman of rock

“We lived on Tennyson and venison and The Grateful Dead”, sings Stephen Malkmus on ‘Lariat’, adding another food pairing to the menu that’s already given us oysters and dry Lancers wine on Pavement’s ‘Shady Lane’ and saag aloo with gin and tonic on ‘Pink Indıa’ from 2001’s ‘Stephen Malkmus’. This time though the 47-year-old is matching his food with the books and records from his past on an album that sees him squinting through rose-tinted specs at “the music from the best decade ever” (‘Lariat’ again), and writing tunes devoid of the sourness and inertia that characterised much of late-period Pavement and his solo career.

the Kitchen - Hieroglyphics Review

Genres: Rap, Underground Rap West Coast Rap Alternative Rap

Release Date: November 19, 2013

Review: 3rd official Hiero release is a let down. Whatever recipe they were using in 'the kitchen' left a bad taste in my mouth. Listened a few times and it's just not listenable. The production quality is average at best as the vocals are drowned out by the beats at certain points. There just weren't any catchy hooks, beats, or witty lyricism I'm used to. The songs that did have good lyrics like All as above so Below, had the same melancholy music playing in a loop ad nauseum. Possibly the Hiero group needs to filter out some of the members and let the prominent members shine like they did on Souls of Mischief. I found the song talking about "merch" to be a little offensive to the listeners.. that's purely a sales term and to brag about how they are making money off selling t-shirts, preying on the fans was a bit insulting.. that's just me. They had plenty of time to put this album out, I view this as failure.. let's hope they can team up with better producers and work on those lyrics.
Verdict: 40/100

The Knife - Shaking the Habitual (2013) Review and CD Covers

It's been 7 long years since the excellent Silent Shout graced our ears (3 if you count the Fever Ray project,

The Knife do what they're good at, and what they're really good at is causing a cacophony of melodic noise and haunting vocals, with a dash of foreboding beats and ominous atmospheres to set the mood. A good portion of this album has some great cuts on it, including Cherry on Top and Full of Fire, while few others are just plain filler and tend to drag out the album to unnecessary lengths (Fraking being the prime example).

David Bowie - The Next Day Review and CD Covers

This is a very good David Bowie album, in my view. It's a great relief
to say it, because when some of the

We have had a little time now to digest the track Where Are We Now? and to assess its true merit now that the "Blimey!" factor following its surprise release has worn off a bit. I still think that it's a very good song indeed. I did worry that some of the fragile, almost-out-of-tune vocal wasn't a deliberate effect but the voice of a man who can't quite sing as he used to, but - thank heavens - I was quite wrong. It is followed on the album by Valentine's Day, a track which wouldn't have been out of place on Aladdin Sane and which Bowie sings superbly, and there's plenty of other evidence here that he's still got it.