Edgy formulaic vocal driven pop for the masses, Quadra Island BC natives Mother Mother release their sixth album of radio friendly fare in ten years. Surprisingly, the three most interesting tracks on the record were left off of the album proper and released...

Media darlings The xx have delivered their third album in 8 years to practically universal acclaim. Their second album to top the UK album charts at #1 not to mention debuting in the US at #2 in the Billboard 200, reviews from mainstream publications are giving this...

A classic rock smorgasbord of prog influenced slickly produced hard edged modern pop with the bravado of Queen (It Comes As No Surprise) the anthemic radio friendly hooks of '70's era Journey and Boston (One Good Piece Of Me) the riff bashing swagger of Zeppelin...

For those who dig hook-layered sweet 'n' edgy ragged guitar lines up front and centre in the mix of some well crafted melodic power pop Ty Segall salutes you. Channelling big phat chunky vintage Crazy Horse grooves in the opening track, appropriately titled "Break A...

Over the course of three albums now Foxygen have managed to re-imagine themselves as three drastically different sounding acts, from the hurried psychedelia of 2013's We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic to the bloated '70's glam infused garage...

Jad Fair has been making his own unique brand of Half Japanese low-fi alternative art punk since as far back as 1975. The band has certainly come a long way from the days when it included brother David alternately helping out on a small drum kit, vocals and an...

Norwegian garage rock straight outta Oslo ("our town, our rules, the smell of piss and power tools") this record reeks with in-your-face street cred, integrity and raw power. No posing, posturing or pretty fake gloss here, nothing but high powered balls-to the-wall...

Catch The Brass Ring is a BRILLIANT record from Ferraby Lionheart, his first of two, released on Nettwerk Records 10 years ago in 2007. Sadly relegated to obscurity, this is an achingly beautiful record. A super hybrid of Emitt Rhodes, Harry Nilsson and White Album...

This is the most important album of 2016. Gord Downie's liner notes best explain why. Chanie Wenjack (misnamed Charlie by his teachers) was a young boy who died on Oct 22, 1966. He was trying to walk home, along the railroad tracks, trying to escape the Cecilia...

Never mind the smug snickers of laughter and the haters alike, this is the best album of 2016. Here The Monkees manage to accomplish a feat none of their contemporaries, including The Beatles, The Who, The Kinks, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, were ever quite able to...

As time rolls on there's always that one special album of unique importance to emerge out of every passing decade that, for one reason or another, floats to the very top of the collective consciousness. In the 1970's that record may very well have been Dark Side Of...

On record as being "sick of listening to idiot thugs with guitars banging out crappy music", Iggy Pop released Apres back in 2012, an album of Iggy crooning his way through 10 suave mostly French classics. Before that there was Iggy's 2009 jazz album Préliminaires...

His first album of new music since the tragic loss of his teenage son, this is a deeply, deeply moving record. Everything about the music here feels entirely devoid of affectation, completely lacking any sense of posturing or bravado whatsoever. This is a humbling,...

On what ultimately turned out to be his deathbed, David Bowie shocked us all by releasing his most promising and inspired work in almost 40 years. Not since 1980's Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) has Bowie fully wielded so much sway and authority over a recording...

This is Emitt Rhodes first album of new material in 43 years. That alone should spark the interest of even the most cynical of listeners. With the aid of ex-Jellyfish Roger Joseph Manning Jr. and Jason Falkner along with guest appearances from Aimee Mann, Susanna...

One can only just imagine how the process surrounding the naming of this band possibly went down. Juliana: "Hey Paul, what should call this new collaboration we're working on" Paul: "I don't care" Juliana: "THAT'S IT!" And it's just that kind of casual, laid back...

40 year old Beatles son Sean Lennon and 53 year old Primus alum Les Claypool are the two cagey bearded pirates behind the psychedelic wizardry of this past year's grooviest, hippest happening, The Claypool Lennon Delirium. Debuting in June 2016 at the Bonnaroo Music...

This Montreal based trio manipulate a recording studio in ways Radiohead once used to revel in, they play it like it's an instrument, a symphony of sound and selection. For over a decade now through two EP's and three full length albums, guitarist Warren Spicer,...

The originators of powwow step, a new genre of music combining indigenous drum group samples with house music, Canadian electronic music group A Tribe Called Red's two previous albums were both nominated for Canada's prestigious Polaris Award and there's no reason to...

Prince's penultimate album Hit n Run was first made available to the public on September 7, 2015 through the music streaming service Tidal before being released on CD and download a week later on September 14th. Prince's final album, his 39th in a recording career...

Not only do A3 reference the Stones here ("Everybody knows I killed Brian Jones, ask John ask Paul ask George and Ringo. Go tell Mick, Keith and Charlie the news it was me who put the poison in the swimming pool") they go one further and top them at their own game...

Perhaps more than any singer of his generation, 75 year old Paul Simon's vocals have withstood the ravages of time. Whereas most singers his age have lost either the power, potency or range of the once mighty singing voices of their youth (most notably Elton John and...

Due to medical reasons the late Leonard Cohen's final album was recorded in the living room of his home in Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles, California. An injury to the poets back as a result of extensive touring in the last five years of the 82 year old singer's life (the...

With one notable exception Dylan picks up where he left off with 2015's "Shadows In The Night" collection of Frank Sinatra recordings. Whereas the previous album of standards steered through a sparse and lonesome American landscape, Fallen Angels has a lighter lilt,...

A play on words for the band's hometown of Portland, Oregon, Seattle's little boho brah to the south, "Distortland" is the Dandy's 9th studio album in a recording career spanning 21 years. Distancing themselves from their retro '80's Nick Rhodes produced Duran Duran...

Only the 10th studio album from Cult guitarist Billy Duffy and singer Ian Astbury in a long and storied career spanning 30 odd years from 1983 til now. Less than a decade after quitting his boyhood dream job as lead singer of The Doors, 54 year old Astbury's once...

Founded in early 2015 by Thibauld Labey in Lyon, France, this is the eponymous first album by English singing French psych-pop outfit Trumpets of Consciousness. Mixed by Labey himself and recorded at Mikrokosm and Cartelier Studios this record is an upbeat celebration...

An improvised album of acoustic psychedelia these five instrumental raga jams were captured live off the floor in the studio by Chicago natives Charles Rumback and twenty-something Ryley Walker.  Recorded in two short sessions each a month apart with Walker on guitar...

29 year old Regina, Saskatchewan native Andy Shauf doesn't work or play well with the other children and that is precisely why after having received a grant to record this album in Germany with a group of fellow musicians Shauf packed it in, headed back to Regina,...

At 47 years of age Black Mountain front man Stephen McBean is a grizzled veteran of the wild Canadian music frontier. Forming his first band at the age of 12, Victoria's punk rock outfit Jerk Ward, McBean has tried his hand at various incarnations in the ensuing 30...

Taking the name from an episode of '90's TV show Northern Exposure in which a group of Alaskan citizens celebrate the first snowfall of winter by wishing one another bon hiver, a French phrase meaning "good winter", Wisconsin native Justin Vernon continues to surprise...

Not bad for a band with 30 plus years behind them who once sounded like the future but now sound simply like themselves. Just their second album in half a decade, ninth overall in a recording career spanning 25 odd years, Moon Shaped Pool maps very familiar ground...

52 years after releasing their debut album of mostly covers The Stones go full circle with their first new album in 11 years. Not since 2005's A Bigger Bang have The Glimmer Twins had any new material out on the street and technically they still don't. According to...

Recorded at the Bathhouse in hometown Kingston, Ontario, the Hip return to the fray with their first album of new material since the announcement of lead singer Gord Downie's terminal brain cancer diagnosis earlier this year. Named after a song from their previous...

46 years after their initial formation in Gainesville, Florida, Southern country rockers Mudcrutch release the follow up to their 2008 self titled debut album. More than just a Tom Petty side project this is not The Heatbreakers 2.0, this is an entirely different band...

It's been just a little over 10 years since these bearded post grunge Seattle hipsters grabbed Sub Pop's eye after opening for indie icon Iron & Wine on the Washington state leg of his 2005 tour. There have been numerous line up changes since, leaving group...

Commonly referred to as "The White Album" Weezer's 10th album in 23 years is also their fourth self titled release to be closely associated with colour (The Blue Album, The Green Album, The Red Album). Here guitarist, lead vocalist and primary songwriter Rivers Cuomo...

"Life Of Pause" is the 3rd full length indie release by Virginia based American dream pop artist Jack Tatum under the Wild Nothing moniker. Recorded over several weeks in both Los Angeles and Stockholm, the record is flush with retro '80's New Romantic grooves,...

Sam Roberts' follow up to the brilliant electro dance disco vibe of 2014's Youth produced (Killing Joke and Paul McCartney/Fireman collaborator) "Lo-Fantasy" finds the SRB shifting back to their comfortable spot in the middle of the once radio friendly pop rock road....

These Long Beach, California natives have a hard rock resume bursting at the seams with street cred and bragging rights. Artist Storm Thorgerson (Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Genesis) designed their album cover. They've opened up for and toured with AC/DC, Alice...

These days the hard rock posturing and sometimes psych of Australia's Wolfmother is the sole responsibility of front man and figurehead Andrew Stockdale. Augmented by only one other full time band member, bassist and keyboardist Ian Peres, for better or worse...

2016 is best summed up in the words to John Lennon's all too often overlooked mid '70's white plastic funk classic "What You Got" ("you don't know what you got until you loose it"). As we all painfully aware of by now the list of 2016 losses is unparalleled. Which...

Highlighted by smooth swagger and swinging arrangements Lou Rawls' 1967 Capitol Records "Merry Christmas Ho! Ho! Ho!" includes several songs written specifically for the project by J.W. Alexander, a former member of the gospel group The Pilgrim Travelers and the man...

Pianist Cedar Walton's jazz arrangements of twelve standard holiday songs with lengthy solos by Walton himself as well as George Bohanon on trombone and Red Holloway on tenor saxophone. Following its release on October 13, 1998 the album was given 3 and a half stars...

Who: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard What: "Paper Mache Dream Balloon" Where: Recorded mainly at frontman Stu Mackenzie's family farm. Why: This time around the undisputed Aussie kings of global psychedelia had a clear goal; to make an all acoustic psychedelic...

Who: Wilco What: "Star Wars" Where: Recorded at The Loft Why: Jeff Tweedy remained unmoved by his lawyers who, due to the heavily protected trademark issues involved with the name "Star Wars", advised against it's use as a title for Wilco's ninth studio album in 20...

Who: Blur What: "Magic Whip" Where: Recorded in Avon Studios, Hong Kong & Studio 13, London Why: With the release of Magic Whip, Blur's first album of new material in 12 years and first in 16 years with their original lineup, the band has proven once and for all...

Who: Ringo Starr What: "Postcards From Paradise" Where: Recorded in Roccabella West, Los Angeles and Rydenhurst, UK Why: As a rule Ringo Starr's albums are for the most part criminally overlooked. Perhaps not since his sobering 1992 album "Time Takes Time" has there...

Who: Cage The Elephant What: "Tell Me I'm Pretty" Where: Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee. Why: One part homage to the Tony Visconti produced British glam rock of the early 1970's and one part hip shaking psychedelia circa 1966 this record thoroughly swings throughout...

Who: Tame Impala What: "Currents" Where: Recorded in Western Australia's port city of Fremantle at Kevin Parker's home studio. Why: Headline reads: "World's Most Successful Modern Day Psychedelic Rock Band Sells Out". Nowadays nothing sells like success, an era in...

Who: Bob Dylan What: "Shadows In The Night" Where: Recorded at studio B in Capitol Studios, Hollywood, California where Frank Sinatra recorded. Why: Although this is an album of covers made famous by Frank Sinatra from the great American songbook it is not to be...

Who: Al Tuck What: "Fair Country" Where: Recorded in Toronto, Canada Why: In a career spanning some 20 plus years legendary East Coast troubadour Al Tuck released his 8th studio album since his 1994 début "Arhoolie" on Sloan's Halifax based Murderecords and it's...

Who: Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings What: "It's A Holiday Soul Party" Where: Brooklyn, NY Why: Not since Booker T & The MG's, Otis Redding's "Merry Christmas Baby" and the Stax Records era stable of stars has there been a heavier thunk of Xmas funk dropped....

Who: Mark Ronson What: "Uptown Special" Where: Recorded in Memphis, TN, Venice, CA, Chicago, IL, Brooklyn, NY, London, UK etc Why: Ronson, the modern music eras Phil Spector (presumably without the guns) and possibly the finest record producer of his generation...

Who: Buffy Sainte-Marie What: "Power In The Blood" Where: Recorded in Toronto, Canada Why: Not unlike Yoko Ono who, at the age of 80, played Glastonbury, released her 13th album and scored her seventh consecutive No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart,...

Who: Brian Wilson What: "No Pier Pressure" Where: Recorded in Hollywood, California Why: Way back in 2012 Brian Wilson, reinvigorated by a return to his 60's bandmates during their 50th Anniversary Celebration Tour, had intended to write and record another Beach Boys...

Who: Dennis Ellsworth What: "Romantic As It Gets" Where: Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada Why: Ellsworth is a tunes-smith who displays a craftsmanship that harkens back to  the Brill Building era of songwriters. When: September 11, 2015 twitter:...

Who: Keith Richards What: "Crosseyed Heart" Where: Recorded at Germano Studios, downtown New York Why: Given the fact that Keith hasn't released a solo album in nearly a quarter of a century and that the last Stones album was ten years ago we are prepared to forgive...

Who: Racoon Bandit What: "Close Your Eyes" Where: Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada Why: Catchy infectious blend of Psych-Pop folk/rock fusion When: Released August 21, 2015 twitter: www.twitter.com/racoon_bandit facebook: www.facebook.com/racoonbanditmusic...

"I Wish You A Merry Christmas" is a long-playing vinyl album of Christmas themed songs recorded by Bing Crosby for his own company, Project Records, at Radio Recorders, Hollywood and issued by Warner Brothers Records (W-1484) in 1962. The tracks were arranged by Bob...

File this under "Better Late Than Never": One sentence reviews of our favorite ten albums of 2014 #1 - “With A Little Help From My Fwends” by The Flaming Lips Re-voiced by a cast of 30 odd characters or so the genesis of vintage psychedelia is re-mixed and re-modeled...