Demob Happy

Ghost in the machine 8/10 All the acrimony surrounding the release of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, in which Wilco left Warner/Reprise to resist attempts to make the record more commericially viable, seems bizarre now. For despite its moments of sonic chaos, YHF is a great, Beatles-esque, countryfied pop masterpiece with great hooks and immediately indentifiable melodies. [...]

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Kentucky fried pysch-country 8.5/10 Over four albums My Morning Jacket have fashioned a sound that embraces widescreen emotionalism with rootsy Americana, pyschedelia and alt-country. ‘Z‘ sees My Morning Jacket broaden their influences while retaining the unifying use of reverb that makes all the songs sound unmistakably them now matter how far they stray from the [...]

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A good winter, forever after 8/10 It would be easy to dismiss the history behind the recording of For Emma, Forever Ago as mere press release hype. Yes, Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) recorded this album recovering from some deep personal disappointments in an isolated log cabin over one bitter Wisconsin winter – but what [...]

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Timeless classic 9/10 Nixon was the record that got me into alt-country, even if it was the Lambchop album that saw the band off on a tangent too far for some fans of the scene. A highly unlikely marriage of Curtis Mayfield-type soul and pedal-steel country twang, it is an album of authentic and timeless [...]

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Follow the herd 9/10 ‘Shepherd’s Dog‘ is a significant departure for Sam Beam and judging some fan reaction it is not going to be an easy transition for a large bulk of his followin. However, if like me you were not particularly enamoured to his old style – stripped down folk in the mold of [...]

Iron and Wine - Carousel [ 4:02 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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‘Roll River Roll’ 8/10 Richard Hawley’s latest album is embued with the same romantic retro ambience as his previous ventures. The former Pulp guitarist turned baritone crooner gives a masterclass in classic pop nostalgia, pitting his melancholy Roy Orbison-cum-Scott Walker vocals against beautifully arranged compositions. Whereas he has garnered some criticism for playing it too [...]

Richard Hawley - Lady Solitude [ 5:32 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Excellent mini-album 7/10 Iron & Wine and Calexico have collaborated well on this fine EP, which pits Samuel Beam’s alt-country credentials against the latter band’s widescreen musicianship. It is an easy match, since Beam’s soft, sometimes melancholic vocals are not dissimilar to that of Calexico’s Joey Burns. Whereas Iron & Wine is a solitary lo-fi [...]

Iron & Wine / Calexico - He Lays in the Reins [ 3:44 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Feast of fun 9/10 Calexico’s sound inhabits the frontier badlands of the American Southwest, a cinematic multi-instumental brew that takes in jazz, alt-country, Mariachi, folk and electronics. It’s a widescreen affair, a mixture of traditional rootsy Americana (‘Quattro’) and brooding instrumental mood pieces (‘Pepita’, ‘Across The Wire’) that evoke rust and dust choked border towns. [...]

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Are you an excellent steel horse? 8/10 Despite the recurrance of robot horses as a thematic conceit running through ‘Are We Not Horses‘ it would be easy to overplay its significance. Putting aside some of the more obtuse lyrics, what we are left with is an album of extraordinary originality and atmosphere. There is a [...]

Rock Plaza Central - We've Got a Lot to Be Glad For [ 3:58 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Timely collection 9/10 There may never be agreement on the best tracks of such an important, much-loved band. Universally successful groups like REM reach a great variety of people with diverse tastes, connecting with different sides of their musical personality. This, their second Best-Of, covers REM’s albums with Warner, incorporating their most commerically successful period [...]

REM - Ebow the letter [ 5:26 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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