Music Reviews archive

Read Roomful Of Teeth: Experimental Singing, Smiles Guaranteed
October 23, 2012 – Hear this exciting group bring a 21st-century spin to a capella singing on their debut album.

Listen The Big Man Behind 'Shake, Rattle And Roll'
October 22, 2012 – Big Joe Turner's hardest-hitting R&B singles have been collected on a new compilation.
Listen Elina Duni: Love, Lust And Albanian Folk Songs
October 19, 2012 – On Matane Malit, the group lays expansive instrumentation over traditional Albanian folk melodies.
Listen Gary Clark Jr.: A Raucous Blues Shout
October 19, 2012 – On Blak and Blu, you can hear the roar in Clark's blues guitar. But he remains a work in progress.
Listen K'Naan Brings Down Walls On 'Country, God Or The Girl'
October 16, 2012 – The best-selling, Somali-born rapper remains a versatile and powerful songwriter on his new album.
Read Esa-Pekka Salonen's Excellent Violin Adventure
October 16, 2012 – The composer-conductor's award-winning Violin Concerto makes a stunning CD debut.

Listen Budapest Quartet Gets To The Heart Of Beethoven
October 16, 2012 – Critic Lloyd Schwartz says the group's versions of Beethoven's string quartets are incomparable.

Listen More Than This: The 'Complete' Roxy Music
October 15, 2012 – Ed Ward connects the dots of the band's eight studio albums, which were just collected in one box.
Listen Ron Miles Finds Wide-Open Spaces On 'Quiver'
October 11, 2012 – For Miles, the better he knows how a tune works, the less he has to play to put it across.
Listen Iris DeMent's Emotionally Complex 'Sing The Delta'
October 10, 2012 – Sing the Delta is the roots-folk singer-songwriter's first album of new songs in 16 years.
Listen Shemekia Copeland Embodies The Blues On '33 1/3'
October 9, 2012 – Copeland's latest album addresses big-picture issues like domestic violence and income inequality.
Listen Iris DeMent's 'Sing The Delta' Full Of Paradoxes
October 4, 2012 – Dement draws on her upbringing in Arkansas for inspiration for her new album, Sing the Delta.
Listen A Ska And Jazz Innovator Bridges Continents And Decades
October 3, 2012 – Guitarist Ernest Ranglin makes music that's built to last, using African and Caribbean influences.
Listen Low Cut Connie: The Self-Deprecating Bar Band
October 3, 2012 – The band's new Call Me Sylvia is as raucous as its debut, though it's slightly more self-conscious.

Read Classical Lost And Found: Neglected Symphonies By A Great Dane
October 2, 2012 – The brilliant and rigorously built chamber symphonies by Vagn Holmboe have finally made it to disc.