Wilco – The Whole Love
Wilco -- "They’ve solidified themselves as the greatest American band playing today, possibly of all time".
Dean Wareham – Black Postcards
Penguin Press, 2008 [rating:7/10] "I don't wanna stay at your party/I don't want talk to your friends/I don't wanna vote for your president/I just wanna be your tugboat captain." Over simple chords, and a shaky
No Age – Everything In Between
No Age push the 'mature album' button while still managing to shred and transcend on their third release.
Plants and Animals – La La Land
For a band who call their music "post-classic rock", Canada's Plants and Rags have at least one thing going for them.
HTRK, Ipso Facto, ROMANCE – London – 24 July 2009
Ipso Facto recently trimmed the fat, excising keyboardist Cherish Kaya in favour of the perfect rock triangle. The sound is now suitably streamlined, focussed and finessed -- the girls now move a like well-oiled, well-coiled machine.
Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer
Despite all the record's anomalisms, it's really gorgeous at its core, and there are more than enough enticing musical phrases to drive the listener back to wrestling with its eccentricities.