Alkaline Trio was one of the many pop-punk bands to ride the tidal wave of 90s popularity to mainstream success, but among the few who made it out alive. Whereas most of their contemporaries succumbed to the changing of the tide, Alkaline Trio continues to trudge along, having released their most recent album “Damnesia,” a collection of their most...
Ingrid Michaelson’s fifth studio album “Human Again” was released January 24th and quickly rose to the top of the iTunes bestseller chart. Fans of Michaelson’s precious, gentle sound might be a bit taken aback by the new album. The tracks make a somewhat futile attempt to be deeper, more moving, and more emphatic, both in lyrics and sound.
While there...
Kathleen Edwards has not sparked too much recognition since her debut album “Failure” in 2003. The Canadian country-alternative singer-songwriter has since completed three other albums including her most recent, “Voyageur,” released Jan. 17. The title of this album is certainly more optimistic than the first. The alternative genre also seems to take the lead now over Edwards’ earlier, country-dominant...
Who would have thought? Whereas 2010 was the year of reflections on suburbia, 2011 follows up with what else than the “hardcore opera.” Bookending this year’s list are two “hardcore punk narrative albums,” a term I’d have cringed at a year ago. But Defeater and Fucked Up pulled them off, in excitingly different ways. In 2011, punks became storytellers....