The self titled full length album from Boston’s Stars Like Ours was the ultimate throwback, in the best possible way. The band’s sound recycled bits of Letters To Cleo, The Muffs, Other Star People and other 90s alternative groups with love, and gave the listener a record that absolutely overflowed with nostalgia. If nothing else, it proved that a combination of fuzzy alt-rock guitars and bubblegum inflected choruses just never gets old, but luckily, Stars Like Ours showed off a tightness and skill for well written hooks that also helped the material to stand beyond any nostalgic feelings.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
THE SHADOW MAJLIS – The Departure
A musical project helmed by multi-instrumentalist Ali Jafri, The Shadow Majlis’ debut album ‘The Departure’ defies easy categorisation. The material takes in elements of goth, rock, world music and even dub reggae to create a cornucopia of sound with subtle layers that offer the listener something different on each play.
PALLAS – Arrive Alive
As far as the more casual observer is concerned, the prog rock revival of the 80s was kicked off by Marillion and their ‘Market Square Heroes’ EP and subsequent hit album ‘Script for A Jester’s Tear’ in 1983. Marillion certainly flew the flag for prog’s unexpected commercial success during that decade, but the rumblings of a brilliant, but terminally unfashionable musical revival had actually begun much earlier.
VARIOUS ARTISTS – Psych!: British Prog, Rock, Folk & Blues 1966-1973
The world isn’t short of great psych and prog themed anthologies. The fact is, if you’re a keen psych/freakbeat/early prog fan, you’ve probably got those Cherry Red sets bringing together a wealth of stuff from between 1967-69, the many ‘Rubble’ releases, and more besides. Why should you add another psych oriented release to your already solid collection of compilations? Simply that ‘Psych!: British Prog, Rock, Folk & Blues 1966-73’ brings together a wealth of great music in less of a scattershot manner. Its three disc, sixty four track selection celebrates the more “out there” releases from Decca Records and their Deram off-shoot, and in doing so, plays more like a journey through an ever changing landscape from a more focused perspective, showing how the label often found themselves at the forefront of one of history’s most exciting periods in music.
VARIOUS ARTISTS – Punk Floyd: A Tribute To Pink Floyd
Tribute albums have always been a good showcase for the strange and interesting. Where else would you find Lisa Loeb singing Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Goodbye To Romance’, or Sonic Youth turning in a pleasingly dreary version of Delaney & Bonnie’s ‘Superstar’ via Karen Carpenter? Or even stumble upon Lemmy growling his way through Queen’s ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ with the help of the terminally dislikable Ted Nugent? Yup. When handled with care, the all-star tribute album can be a breeding ground for all manner of great curios.