Reviews

Sackville, NB’s favourite adopted son travelled to Brandon, Manitoba to record these 16 tracks, average length two minutes 25 seconds, which entertain an admirable variety of notions. Some of the shorter tunes feel like demos that will likely be expanded upon later. “Growing Like a Garden” packs rhymes such as “alarming” and “farming” into a […]

The veteran trio from Minnesota enlisted Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy to produce this new album of understated intensity. Where Low’s favored tempo is languid, a little uptick like “So Blue” maintains the glow over Steve Garrington’s staccato piano. Mimi Sparrow’s singing on “Holy Ghost” holds some enthralling notes, then eases into mimicking the ghost itself. Her […]

What fun to have music to play for guests, guaranteed to evoke the response “What the hell is that?” followed by “shit!” or “It’s amazing!” Actually, New History Warfare Vol. 3 is at least as jolting as Vol. 2 and too frightening to be played in a restaurant. Pop fans’ only reference might be to […]

Bleep-bloop gauze-y pop music about being in love. This record is like the music played at a “cool” party on Gossip Girl. Sometimes CXCX raps, though, and it is the worst. Personally, I listen to “What I Like” first thing in the morning and last thing before I go to bed so I always have […]

People tend to listen to music that fits their mood. If you’re happy, you listen to happy music. Sad? Throw on Elliott Smith. And now that The Flaming Lips have released The Terror, we all have something to soundtrack a horrific existential meltdown. The Terror follows in the haunted, proggy footsteps of 2009’s Embryonic, but […]

Did you see those photos of the baby covered in French bulldogs? Heaven For Real’s four twinkling, glorious tracks on its uniquely packaged tapes evoke very different moods, but still somehow manage to all go great with that adorable photoset. Catchy and challenging, this debut collection shows the band stretching the limits of what a […]

There have been plenty of excellent albums released so far in 2013, but The Knife’s Shaking the Habitual feels like the first really important one. It’s a beast at 94 minutes, with nearly a half-hour devoted to ambient drifting or jittery experimentalism, but what makes the record significant is its activist tone, fearless creativity and percussive […]

On Personhood’s six tracks have the density of a much longer album. Gianna Lauren’s beautifully captured second album, recorded over five days last June in a reconverted horse stable, is understated indie-rock existing between the meticulous and spontaneous. On “Threads,” Lauren sings “Not much foundation/flimsy construction” before concluding the song with a phrase that could […]

Halifax’s metal ambassadors Orchid’s Curse’s latest, Words, reads like a dissertation from the heavier side of the tracks. All the traditional metal motifs are here, from the pseudo-religious iconoclasm of the cover art to the sort of lyrical symbolism that goes best with double kick drum. In the tirade against consumerism, “Indifferences,” Hogan screams “Apathy […]

A caustic, key performer in 1970s UK pub rock that begat punk, Parker has never really stopped. He’s managed to reassemble the sextet from his best early albums, such as Howlin’ Wind. The playing on Three Chords Good is less fierce, as are his vocals. The songs are another matter. Parker skewers the military disconnect […]

On Halifax rapper Quake Matthews’ third full-length album, Corrado, Fairview’s favourite son drops knowledge rivaling rappers twice his age. Starting off with the atmospheric “Feel,” Matthews swiftly attacks 14 tracks with Illmatic-era bravado, unleashing positively charged Beatles shoutouts (“Let It Be”), Marxist-levels of financial disillusionment (“I Hate Money,” “Lucy”) and heady trip-hop (“Old Ghosts”). Deploying […]

Yarmouth’s dark-eyed honky-tonker has spent time in Nashville since the last album, raising his awareness of how valuable or debilitating uniqueness may be. On “Single in a Bar,” Cook sings, “I’m the reason they invented birth control,” a backfiring boast that’s good for a laugh every time—Roger Miller would approve. “Facebook Waltz” absorbs terms like […]