SOUND BITES

  At this point, I don't think there's any doubt as to who the hardest working band in the world is; just over ten years removed from the release of their debut album, Changes marks the fifth this year for King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, and mind-blowing 23rd overall. Averaging more than two albums a year is unfathomable for most bands, let alone doing so with as few missteps as KGLW have had; while a handful of their records are admittedly weaker in ambition and/or execution, the majority of the Aussie collective's output has been more or less on point, even as they tirelessly juggle musical styles and compositional stunts. Just this year, they've released not one but two albums centered around the rhythm of a ticking clock ( Made in Timeland and Laminated Denim , which combine its four 15-minute tracks for exactly an hour of jammy goodness), a part catch-all of unreleased songs from recent projects augmented with their first post-Covid recordings (double album...

  In the nearly twenty years that Dan Mangan has been recording, his music has frequently undergone subtle transitions, while remaining consistently earnest; the acoustic folk of his early years peaked with his 2009 breakthrough Nice, Nice, Very Nice before his  sound opened up to additional orchestration and instrumentation on 2011's Oh Fortune . Club Meds , credited to Mangan and Blacksmith, followed four years later as a full blooded indie rock album that heralded some of the sonic experimentation that would carry over to 2018's More or Less ; that album played out like a culmination of sorts, a sum of all the parts picked up along the way and a masterful record that cemented Mangan's place as one of Canada's premier singer/songwriters and paved the way for an exciting future. Of course, we all know how the pandemic got in the way of everyone's plans; for Mangan, the by-product of Covid was having to craft his follow-up album via remote contact with co-writer/pr...

  When you're thirty years deep into a well established career, no one really expects anything from you anymore; in the case of Sloan, what can we honestly ask of them at this point? Over the course of their twelve albums, they helped usher in a new wave of Canadian alternative rock, reinvented themselves as nostalgic power pop specialists, conquered the radio with sharp hooks, and adapted themselves as necessary while sticking close to their core sound, earning legend status among multiple generations of fans along the way. Even more impressively, they've done it all without swapping out a single member, all four of whom worked in tandem to achieve everything they've gotten over the span of their incredible and incredibly consistent career. If we've learned anything about Sloan as fans, it's that staggering consistency that's become as much a calling card as their formidable harmonies; a couple of outliers notwithstanding, each Sloan album has arrived as a supp...

  It took a little longer than usual to get around to this review, for a few reasons; I started a new day job about a week before Arctic Monkeys' seventh album was released, then pretty much immediately caught Covid-19 (aside from a few rough days it wasn't too awful, although there's a lingering cough that still persists every now and then as I write this). Coming out of that, in getting used to the fluctuating hours and lost sleep, I kind of got beaten out of my previous routines. The other reason, however, has nothing to do with my personal commitment levels and everything to do with the record itself. I have found it an incredibly daunting task to listen to this album all the way through, because it just doesn't hold my interest. The head scratching left turn Arctic Monkeys took in 2018 on Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino wasn't a one-off, with the band reprising their roles as a burned out lounge act once again on The Car . To be fair, there are subtle diff...

  Over the course of their initial run in the '90s, Archers of Loaf never got the breakthrough they deserved; sure, they would eventually gain distribution by a major label (as so many fringe acts of the era did) and get to open for a handful of high profile acts, but the four albums they released from 1993 to 1998 just couldn't expand the band's reach much further than the critics' hearts and college campuses. It wasn't for lack of tunes, that's for sure; Web in Front , the very first song on their very first album, is packed with the crunchy guitars, scrappy production and slacker charm that propelled the Pavements of the world to stardom. If I have to guess, I'd say they were victims of circumstance, not weird enough to stand out and not conventional enough to fit in. Whatever the case, after giving it all that they could, health issues and creative fatigue contributed to a mutual, amicable split shortly after the release of White Trash Heroes in 1998. F...

  As the story goes, Red Hot Chili Peppers' reunion with twice-estranged guitarist John Frusciante was so inspiring that the resultant recording sessions yielded almost fifty songs, with the band hoping to drop a forty-song box set on their fans in lieu of a regular album. Ever in need of an editor, the band was mercifully told not to do that by their label; after some back-and-forth, a compromise was reached where the band would release two overblown albums spaced six months apart and give a proper home for 34 of the songs from those sessions (while saving two for bonus tracks and the other dozen or so for an as yet unknown fate). The first half of this behemoth saw light of day in April as Unlimited Love ; looking back on my notes, the ever-present problem with the Peppers having too many ideas and not enough editorial willpower was my main gripe with that record, so what am I supposed to do with another, equally hefty batch of songs from the same sessions? It's very difficul...

  After a slow ascent that saw them self-release their first three albums over the course of six years, Surf Curse found fame in the way that so many young and hungry bands do in this modern age; Freaks , written in 2011 and originally released on their debut Buds in 2013, found itself a sudden smash after soundtracking memes on TikTok in 2020, eventually garnering over 200 million streams and earning the group a major label contract.  The first album following their breakthrough, Magic Hour finds plenty of changes in store for fans; now expanded to a four-piece, this album immediately sets itself apart from previous releases based on the fuller sound in the songs alone. Couple that with a step away from the lo-fi aesthetic that played a part in earlier releases and this is obviously going to be a different experience than people may have hyped themselves up for. That said, the crunchy, energized Arrow and the lush, dreamy Cathy combine for a very strong start even as they fl...

  After several album cycles of alternating between dipping into the well of nostalgia and ill-fated attempts at fitting in with the times, somehow Bush have seemed to settle on the kind of hard edged, chugging rock that's designed to slot in alongside the likes of Shinedown and Three Days Grace on whatever "modern rock radio" is these days. It's kind of a weird place for the band that rode the post-grunge wave to superstardom in the mid-90's, but I will admit it's more favourable than the pop experiments that smacked of desperation on albums like The Sea of Memories and Black and White Rainbows . On ninth album The Art of Survival , there's at least a little less bludgeoning and a little more dynamics on display; the sludgy elements of opener Heavy is the Ocean offer a different flavour than Bush devotees are likely used to, while the industrial touches on May Your Love Be Pure remind us that an environment existed in the late 90's where rock bands...

  Surely, there has to come a time when King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard's torrid pace of releasing new music slows. That time, however, hasn't happened yet; it took a pandemic to slow them down ever so slightly but, now that they're back at full steam, their pace has returned to peak. Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava is the third of five 2022 albums from the prolific Aussie psych-rockers, their 21st overall, and sees the group centering their compositions around the seven modes of major scale, proving once again that no one is quite like them in terms of exploring within their craft. The songs on this album are few, but not lacking in ambition; the seven tracks take up 64 minutes, with only one song falling below seven minutes and two that stretch past ten. Overall, the vibe is mostly familiar to fans, as KGLW fit their explorations into psychedelic sprawls that feature their unmistakable interplay and long stretches of instrumental acrobatics. Mycelium se...

  When you think about the career trajectory of Pixies, it really is kind of wild; their original run of four albums and an EP from 1987 to 1991 famously inspired the likes of Kurt Cobain and ultimately kickstarted a generational movement in rock history; of course, they flew under the radar until years after they'd packed it up, at which point Pixies were finally recognized for their stellar contributions (especially undisputed classics Surfer Rosa and Doolittle ), eventually prompting a tentative return to performing. Still, it would take over twenty years for an album of new material to appear in the form of the three EPs stapled together as album Indie Cindy in 2014. That record was heavily maligned by fans of departed bassist Kim Deal and critics who were aghast at the mere chance of Pixies sullying their legacy with material that didn't match the gonzo intensity of their prime period. A funny thing happened along the way, though; Pixies once again settled into their pla...

  In the time since the release of their 2010 critical breakthrough The Monitor , Titus Andronicus have done a lot of exploring while remaining true to their well-read rock tendencies. 2012's Local Business was intentionally more straightforward than the sprawling Civil War concept record that preceded it, while 2015's The Most Lamentable Tragedy supersized their approach across two albums and over 90 minutes, only to compact themselves again on 2018's A Productive Cough and again on An Obelisk , which followed a quick year later. With The Will to Live , there seems to be a simpler approach, a focus on paying homage to classic rock heroes that serves the majority of their seventh album well; the album starts off with the instrumental My Mother is Going to Kill Me , which sets the stage with squealing solos and a high energy performance that carries over to (I'm) Screwed , which carries a classic rock swagger akin to T. Rex and The Rolling Stones in a dust-up. True to...

  Yeah Yeah Yeahs' first act was one that saw them undertake a journey of sonic exploration; starting with the scrappy art rock fury of their early EPs and debut album Fever to Tell , they introduced more melody into their songs before transitioning into the dance rock style that's prominent on 2009's It's Blitz and 2013's Mosquito . Now, with almost a decade of radio silence before their eventual re-emergence, it was anyone's guess what a Yeah Yeah Yeahs record in 2022 would sound like. As it turns out, there are lessons taken from each of their previous phases on fifth album Cool it Down , and also a measured maturity. It's also streamlined, with just eight tracks and 32 minutes, making for their shortest record so far. Cool it Down starts out subdued with the Perfume Genius-featuring Spitting Off the Edge of the World , a slow burning ballad that showcases the group's gift for layers. Lovebomb follows, a sprawling, synth-soaked tune that patiently r...

  If you read a certain article leading up to the release of Slipknot's seventh album and saw a red flag or two, that's understandable; when one of your band's members is making pre-emptive excuses for a drop in quality and citing all the factors that worked against them during production (and fanning the flames of inetr-band tension by claiming not to be the only member with doubts about the finished product), there might be solid evidence that there's something on this record in need of an explanation. Slipknot waste no time providing just what Jim Root could have misgivings about; while they've been well known to wriggle out from under the fan base's expectations of heaviness that tug at their ankles like an anchor, gleefully dragging their sound outside the realm of metal despite and/or because of the fickleness of some members of that community, this time they come out of the gates defiant. Adderall starts the album off in shockingly subdued fashion, slow...

  Given the luxury of three years or so to create and promote their debut album, Sports Team found themselves more or less established, at least in their homeland UK by the time Deep Down Happy released in mid-2020. Of course, "mid-2020" implies some supremely dismal timing when attempting to capitalize on your own momentum, and without the ability to tour Sports Team saw little return on investment aside from good reviews and a Mercury Prize nomination for their efforts. Holing up in a rented house to hash out their second record, Sports Team approached things from a more personal, less observational perspective. Gulp! , the resulting album (originally meant for release in July but victim of multiple delays due to production issues), is a leaner and more focused affair than Deep Down Happy ; considering the wide rollout for the former combined with the added time together as a unit, this just makes sense. Clocking in at a compact 33 minutes, Gulp! doesn't really fall i...