The Roots – How I Got Over
The Roots set an exquisite mood on this record. A fully and entirely live production, it flows seamlessly like a stream of consciousness conversation between instrumentalists, vocalists, and the universe. For instance, “Dear God 2.0,” the impressive already leaked single, features an impressive co-mingling of such magnitude that it feels more like a sermon than music. “Why is the world ugly when you made it in your image?/And why is livin’ life such a fight to the finish?/For this high percentage/When the sky’s the limit/A second is a minute, every hour’s infinite.” In writing and producing a track that speaks to the Lord, well, the band expressly tries their damndest to reach him. Jim James’ vocals on the hook, Black Thought’s intellectual preaching, and Questlove providing the backbone of the entire enterprise really takes that track in a rarefied direction. Read the full Review
Stars – The five Ghosts
On the group’s fifth and latest studio offering, The Five Ghosts, Stars continue to add to their impressive discography. A bit more lo-fi, electronicky, and subdued than its predecessors, The Five Ghosts is filled with a solid smattering of melodic indie pop that is accessible, catchy, and pretty without being cloying. Read the full review
The Gaslight Anthem – American Slang
The Gaslight Anthem are not a band simply awash in nostalgia; their songs are about the very concept of nostalgia. And most importantly, they understand that nostalgia is not a lens through which we fondly reminiscence about the past, but a gauge by which we evaluate our troubled present. On American Slang, the follow-up to the Gaslight Anthem’s 2008 triumph The ’59 Sound, frontman Brian Fallon is utterly consumed by the idea that his best days are behind him– three songs contain a variation on the dewy-eyed phrase “when we/you were young,” and on another, he seemingly gets frustrated with his own backward-glancing impulses, angrily demanding, “Don’t sing me the songs about the good times/ Those days are gone and you should just let them go.” So in this sense, the Gaslight Anthem’s Springsteen/Strummer worship is less about idolatry and mimicry than a defense mechanism against a modern world that’s presented them with no new heroes to aspire to. Read the full Review
Derek Trucks – Roadsongs
Roadsongs is a 14-track, two-disc extravaganza with some of the DTB’s most inspired playing, pre-hiatus, or otherwise. Recorded at a two-night stand at Chicago’s Park West, the band methodically burns through their catalogue with an emphasis on several of the tracks from 2009’s Almost Free, superb covers, and other original material. Perhaps the key to the highway, which immediately manifests itself here, is the way that Trucks’ slide guitar work developed a unique sonic fingerprint within this context after years of continuous duty under the vast Allman Brothers Band umbrella. Read the full Review
