****1/2 Learning from fellow ’90s stalwarts like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, Radiohead’s second album greatly improved upon the foundation they set with Pablo Honey’s “Creep,” and created an angsty alternate take on Grunge that may remain over two decades later as their peak. The artsy beginning featuring “Planet Telax” and the title track quickly gives…
*** If you’ve never witnessed an exorcism and was interested in experiencing a 45-minute plus aural sample of one, Tanya Tagaq’s Retribution is for you. A renowned throat singer, which is a vocal style akin to metalcore screaming only even more annoying and even disgusting, Tagaq’s subject matter is nonetheless respectable: humans’ abuse of our…
**** While it hasn’t aged as well as some of Radiohead’s other landmark releases, Kid A is still a fantastic avant garde trip through Electro-Rock hysteria. From the droning “Everything in its Right Place” to the hypnotic drive of “Idioteque” (which remains one of my favorite of their songs), the album is filled to the…
**** Listening to any film score is a pretty big undertaking in and of itself, but nothing compared to the task set before Michael Giacchino, the man commissioned to be the first composer not named John Williams to craft a Star Wars soundtrack. He pulled it off, though, and had movie critics around the world…
***1/2 Everybody has guilty pleasures with their music consumption. Maybe you spin a few Hannah Montana records for old times sake. Or reminisce with a number from the good ol’ Yu-Gi-Oh soundtrack. It’s different for everybody. But for me, I always end up coming back to Adelitas Way. My relationship with this decidedly average “New…
My first Burnes’ Turns in months highlights some early Hip-Hop classics, joyfully pissed off Hard Rock riffing and an urgently apocalyptic message from the dearly departed David Bowie that is more pressing than ever. “Five Years” – David Bowie When I was first getting into music and reading Rolling Stone, they published a playlist issue…
****1/2 Bon Scott’s potentially aptly-named farewell to our world features everything that makes AC/DC great; guitar badassery, gutteral vocals, funky rhythms, and lots and lots of sex. As the precursor to the infinitely more famous Back in Black, Highway to Hell is often shut out in discussions of the greatest Rock albums ever made, but…
7.5 Few (if any) games have frustrated me as much as Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune gave it a run for its money with its hoards of endless enemies with often sloppy cover mechanics, unclear platforming paths, and a final boss encounter that tested the boundaries of my penchant for pain. But Uncharted…
****1/2 When original AC/DC frontman Bon Scott passed away following a deadly case of alcoholism (he drank himself into a stupor, threw up and then choked to death on his own vomit) during the recording of Back in Black, it seemed like it would be the end for one of the most iconic Hard Rock…
***1/2 As much as I love Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver and even, to a degree, Slash’s Snakepit, I’ve always looked back on Slash’s 2010 solo debut through rather harsh lenses. It’s easier to remember the album’s low points rather than its peaks, however, upon revisit I find that while the low points certainly exist,…
The Soundtrack Online 