Nothing’s Shocking Seattle’s Blue Scholars take a bookish approach to hip-hop Last year, a Shadle Park High School teacher found himself on forced administrative leave, in part, for playing “Commencement Day,” a diatribe against the flawed American education system by Seattle hip-hop group Blue Scholars. For the socially conscious group, occurrences like this are actually [...]
Capes – Tancred
The recent notches on the musical timeline have provided quite the fill of lush and sweeping chamber pop produced by bands with ever-expanding rosters. It’s posh to cram the stage with 7-12 people who have a vague sense of baroque stylings. And that’s great. But that’s also precisely why we need more quality albums like [...]
Strange Mercy – St. Vincent
There’s a beauty in sounding broken. These days no one can touch St. Vincent’s Annie Clark when it comes to sounding simultaneously ethereal and mentally wrecked. Strange Mercy finds St. Vincent more sonically twisted than ever; still searching for a calm clarity in this mad, mad world. Themes of feeling unloved and neglected dominate the [...]
Codes and Keys – Death Cab for Cutie
There might be a good album buried under Codes and Keys’ excessive production, but it’s hard to tell. Death Cab for Cutie has always excelled thanks to personable songs with a sense of closeness, but the way Codes and Keys was put together undermines that completely. Producer/guitarist Chris Walla has struggled with over-production at times [...]
Strange Negotiations – David Bazan
Dear economy, you’re bumming David Bazan out. On his latest album Strange Negotiations, Bazan turns his gaze away from God and reserves all his spite for those playing God – the fat cats behind the financial crisis. The tension prevails on songs like “Wolves At The Door” where on pins and needles guitar work is [...]
