SOUND BITES

  A self-titled record implies either an arrival or a reinvention; for a new band, it usually serves as an introduction, and signifies that this is the logical point of entry to the band's discography. For an established band, a self-titled record often carries somewhat of an ugly stigma, as the reinvention it's meant to convey has historically accompanied a type of creative bankruptcy more often than not. As an example, let's consider self-titled releases from Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots for starters; no one's out here championing those records as their respective bands' high water marks. The case of Gulfer is rather unique in this circumstance; while their relatively fringe status ensures that a majority would have their first exposure to the band through their new self-titled record, in reality they've been doing this for nearly a decade and released an EP, a pair of records, several split releases and a compilation of early works in addition to slowly ...

  When last we heard from Sam Roberts, he was frolicking in the CanCon supergroup Anyway Gang alongside members of Sloan, Tokyo Police Club and Hollerado; their 2019 album was a little slight and scattershot, but at least it was upbeat and fun. Roberts seems to have brought this same approach to his seventh album. All of Us is his most compact full-length offering yet, with its nine songs taking all of 37 minutes; coming more than four years after the band's previous outing, it's bound to have some questioning how much more Roberts has in the tank. The truth is, Roberts overcame a bad bout of writer's block to make this album happen; as a creative type who's felt the sting of writer's block, I can certainly sympathize. The extra time All of Us took to create allowed for more fine-tuning, but it also makes for a more timely record; even though the album was completed before the global pandemic took hold, it's hard to imagine a song like Ghost Town being create...

  Matt Berninger's commanding baritone is probably one of the most distinctive voices in rock over the last twenty years; through his main gig with The National, whose eight records and counting have garnered a swell of fan and critic support, he's achieved elder statesman status with a discography that one can put up there with any modern band. So as to say, he's yet to release an embarrassing batch of songs; the worst thing you can say is that an album or two have been underwhelming (or, put another way, not up to the lofty standards brought forth by his best work). After twenty years with The National, the prospect of a Matt Berninger solo record was intriguing to me, since the only work he's done outside of The National that I'd familiarized myself with was EL VY, the side project launched in 2014 with Menomena's Brent Knopf; their lone record, Return to the Moon , found Berninger brazenly forging into the playful and humorous. Coming from a singer known for...

  It's a little surreal having a new album from Gord Downie, just about three years to the day since his passing. Recorded just three months before his passing with producer Nyles Spencer (who provides drum programming and other effects) and frequent collaborators Josh Finlayson (co-founder of Skydiggers) and Travis Good (of The Sadies), Away Is Mine is presented as a double album, the second half being stripped down acoustic versions of the original songs. At just over 27 minutes for the electric arrangements and just over 24 minutes for acoustic, whichever set you choose isn't too great an investment. If this album proves anything, it's Downie's commitment to creation; even so close to his passing, he made greatness seem almost effortless ( Away Is Mine was written and recorded in a combined time period of just about two weeks). As opposed to the heart-wrenching send-off Introduce Yerself , the songs on Away Is Mine are generally livelier and less emotionally heavy...

  Touché Amoré's fourth album was the product of profound grief; Stage Four was dedicated to singer Jeremy Bolm's mother, who had passed away after a battle with cancer. Stage Four was cathartic and gut wrenching, a highly emotional album that resonated with basically anyone who heard it. The gap between Stage Four and Lament , at four years (with a re-recording of their debut album as a hold-me-over), was probably for the best; some separation from what came before works to Lament 's benefit and, as such, there's a distance between the heightened emotions and the present, where that supreme sense of loss is still felt but isn't the entire story. Now, it's back to the business of furthering hardcore in a way that few bands have been able to. The emotive tendencies that became mandatory to tell Stage Four 's story return here, alongside perhaps the band's most assured and confident songwriting; this is heavy and fast in places, to be sure, but it also d...

  After setting the stage with a pair of relentless, pulverizing noise rock records in 2012 and 2015 respectively, Metz opened up on their third album; 2017's Strange Peace broadened the band's palette somewhat, offering a less claustrophobic and more expansive element into songs that helped the album pummel emotionally as well as sonically. Atlas Vending is decidedly less friendly than Strange Peace , with Alex Edkins snarling and spitting his way through gnarled and noisy songs that hit with a varying degree of damage. It's also more musically adventurous, with savage and haunted album opener Pulse leading the charge into 40 minutes of unadulterated chaos. That's not to say Atlas Vending is strictly a throwback to the first two albums, not in the least; while some of that old, familiar crunch is there, there are also evolutions weaving through the track list. Some of the changes are subtle (such as the backing vocals on standout Blind Youth Industrial Park ), and s...

  Corey Taylor is a very creative person, and one with many outlets. Of course, his pair of world-conquering bands (Slipknot and Stone Sour, if you need to be reminded) spring to mind immediately, with well over two decades and a dozen albums' worth of material to channel himself through. Then, there are the countless guest appearances on other artists' work, the four books he's penned to date, and the numerous film and TV appearances. He's also known for his love of performing covers, alone or with friends, as a cursory YouTube search will reveal. After decades of hard work, by 2020 about the only thing he hadn't done was release an actual solo album, so here we are. If the myriad of other projects he routinely dips his toes into didn't exactly give it away, it at least makes sense when put in that context that CMFT would be a scattershot affair with Taylor wildly and gleefully throwing everything at the wall. There's Volbeat-esque cowboy metal, radio-read...

  Dawes have covered a decent amount of sonic ground in the 11 years since their debut album, and have become a rather prolific band in the process. To wit: Good Luck With Whatever , already their seventh album (first with renowned roots-based indie label Rounder), which sees the group shifting their sound yet again. Not quite the radical departure their 2016 release We're All Gonna Die was and much livelier than their previous album (2018's Passwords ), Good Luck With Whatever plays as a much more straightforward rock offering when held up beside those last couple of records. The nine songs here are infused with the same earnestness and sincerity that is as close to a Dawes hallmark as you can get, and so fans who gravitate toward this aspect of the band no matter what music they wrap around it will be well pleased by this album. At this point, over a decade into their career, there's something to be said for a band that can continually tweak their sound while keeping th...

  While many expected the eighth Against Me! record to arrive in 2020, 2020 has had other plans for everyone. Rather than sit back silently, Laura Jane Grace decided to book a whirlwind recording session with Steve Albini; the result is the quickly recorded and quick-playing Stay Alive , its fourteen largely acoustic solo performances clocking in at just under a half hour that sometimes hearkens back to the DIY feel of early Against Me! As an album, Stay Alive doesn't offer a great deal of deviation from its aesthetic; as mentioned, the majority of these songs are simple acoustic guitar and voice performances, with the occasional appearance of an electric guitar and/or drum machine (most noticeably on SuperNatural Possession , the closest thing to a feasible radio single this album has).  I can't really complain about the bare bones presentation, though; some of this material may have suffered with the rawness stripped away. Besides, the solitary vibe is much more in step wit...

  It seemed unlikely that the most ferocious response to the serial out-of-control garbage fires that comprise our modern times would come from a man who's about to turn 60, and yet here we are. As the driving force behind influential post-punk group Hüsker Dü, Bob Mould has built himself a formidable solo career in the 30+ years since the dissolution of his most famous band; while Hüsker Dü flamed out after cranking out six albums in four years, Mould has soldiered on through other bands (most notably Sugar, whose pair of '90s LPs are also considered influential) and a host of sonic twists and turns over the course of his fourteen solo albums. All this history notwithstanding, it could be argued that Mould's most essential period started after age 50, with the release of the excellent and heavy Silver Age in 2012; while that album ushered in a return to some familiar sonic territory for fans, it also felt to some like Mould's last great statement, possibly due to it f...

  Becoming one of the UK's biggest buzz bands of the last five years while also being touted as forerunners of a new, politically minded and important post-punk movement, IDLES were bound to catch a little flak along the way. When their second full-length, 2018's Joy As An Act of Resistance , was a smash hit among fans and critics, it was all but assured that their next album would be scrutinized much more closely. Well, it certainly has been; Ultra Mono , their third LP, was released amid a cloud of criticism from some of their lesser-known peers, detractors who questioned their punkness, their sincerity and their usefulness in fighting the good fight, whatever that means these days. Though at the root there are perhaps some valid concerns, most of it comes off as sour grapes; no matter the genre or era, the band that gets the attention will get shade from the ones who can't. It's really no surprise that IDLES was the band that broke from the crowd in this respect; the...

  There's a case to be made for Will Butler, usually in the shadow of his brother Win, being the secret weapon of Arcade Fire. He proved as much five years ago when he released his debut solo album Policy , and he's proven it again on Generations , an album that proves to be more robust (two extra songs, 16 minutes longer) and more cohesive; though Butler displays some of that same restless exploration that he did on Policy , these songs flow better into each other and, in turn, make for a more compelling and consistent listen. By times, Generations sounds like what probably should have followed The Suburbs rather than the difficult, star-gazing posturing of Reflektor ; at the very least, it's certainly a stark improvement over the banal, uninspired commercial embrace of Everything Now . Nothing here is overly pretentious or so assured in its artistic excellence that it comes off as snobby and/or dumb; instead, Generations is a humble album with some flavourful splashes of...

  Once a band reaches a quarter century of existence, it's usually safe to say that they've amassed themselves quite a career; so as to say, it's rare for a band to survive that long without exhibiting a willingness to grow and challenge themselves. Inevitably, you'll lose some of your core fans along the way, but hopefully you're able to strike curiosity in the hearts of a new generation of fans to balance the books, as it were. With respect to the AC/DCs of the world, a long career rinsing and repeating the same thing may keep your core audience happy, but it doesn't exactly do wonders when it comes to retaining relevance. Deftones' first eight records are a testament to this, rising up on the cusp of the crushing wave of nu-metal only to break off from the crowd by incorporating alternative and gothic elements into their core sound while maintaining the edge that longtime fans have always loved them for. Occasionally, Deftones have been accused of strayin...