Rock
At 70, Marcia Ball is a non-stop pro, particularly at pacing. Early barn burners gave way to the slow blues of “Just Kiss Me.”
Circles Around the Sun has established a distinctive niche within the expanding universe of “Grateful Dead as genre,” appealing to the core audience for Dead music without having to pull songs from the group’s songbook.
The band has tackled the Trump era with an urgent political edge on two recent albums that have surely lost them a share of good ’ole boys who were part of earlier audiences.
Michael Kiwanuka blends singer/songwriter with funk and soul, the energy of Afro-pop with the intensity of psych and prog.
For all the teen-pop trappings, however, there is an old-fashioned sensibility to Rex Orange County’s music.
So, after three original albums (plus a re-imagining of Joni Mitchell’s Blue) that fell short of wide acclaim, perhaps it was only a matter of time for them to think big.
With this album, post-rock sextet Caspian pulls off the tricky maneuver of infusing blood and emotions into carefully assembled and deliberately delivered songs.
Melody is one of the things that keeps a song from floundering, no matter how in-your-face its rhythm and chord structure might be, which is something a lot of spunky punk bands tend to forget. The Damned always kept that well in mind.
Neil Peart was a thinking man’s octopus behind a massive drum and percussion kit that he played with blazing speed and peerless precision.
Audiences knew (or at least thought they knew) something was up, and that something was what made these performers unique.
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