Jim James Regions of Light and Sound of God (ATO) Rating: 4 stars (out of 5) Jim James has always written spiritual songs. Not preachy, not specific to a particular faith, but as deeply spiritual as anything else in modern rock – one man’s continuous, musically thrilling pursuit of pure love and enlightenment. Fronting My [...]

Led Zeppelin Celebration Day (Atlantic) Rating: 4 Stars When Led Zeppelin reunited for a one-off 2007 performance at London’s O2 Arena, it was unrealistic to expect perfection. The band’s three surviving members—guitarist Jimmy Page, vocalist Robert Plant, and bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones—hadn’t played together in nearly two decades. So it’s crucial to enter the highly [...]

Angel Snow Angel Snow (Self Released) Rating: 3.5 stars There are two Angel Snows. On one hand, there’s the sweetly sensitive singer-songwriter – an obvious niche for a one-time Nashville open-mic hustler whose big break arrived penning lyrics for Alison Krauss. On the other hand, there’s the mystical, brooding siren – citing musical influences like [...]

The Who Live in Texas ’75 (Eagle Rock) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars In the recording studio, The Who were rock’s sonic innovators, transforming Pete Townshend’s grandiose musical mischief into note-perfect, ball-busting brilliance. On-stage, they were a totally different beast: a quartet of sloppy, goofy loose cannons, fumbling their way through their epic catalog [...]

Ben Folds Five The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind (ImaVeePee) Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars The last time piano-nerd-poet Ben Folds made an album with his Ben Folds Five bandmates, Bill Clinton was in office, The Phantom Menace was tarnishing the Star Wars legacy in real-time, and Napster was just starting to [...]

Sigur Rós Valtari (XL Recordings) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Icelandic experimentalists Sigur Rós have retreated back into the deep, icy waters of post-rock ambience on their difficult, insular, but highly rewarding sixth studio album, Valtari. The songs were a bitch to assemble, and I use that term literally: After botched sessions for both [...]

Perhaps one of the biggest question marks on the 2012 Jazz Fest line-up (if there even can be question marks with a roster this eclectic) is Givers, a psychedelic indie-pop quintet who broke out last year with their excellent debut album, the tropical-infused In Light. Their style seems a bit out of place next to, [...]

The Doors L.A. Woman 40th Anniversary Edition (Rhino) Rating: With L.A. Woman, their sixth and final album with mythic frontman Jim Morrison, The Doors submerged almost entirely into a bleary-eyed blues-rock swamp. Their previous effort, 1970’s Morrison Hotel, saw the group steering cautiously toward those waters, but L.A. Woman is downright raw – Ray Manzerek’s [...]

Paul McCartney Kisses On The Bottom Hear Music/Concord Rating: Kisses On The Bottom, Sir Paul McCartney’s new album of reworked jazz-pop standards, features a cute little number called “Ac-Cent-Chu-Ate The Positive,” written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer (covered by Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Ella Fitzgerald, and Aretha Franklin, among others). Quite frankly, who does [...]

Honeyhoney Billy Jack (Lost Highway) Rating: At surface level, L.A. duo Honeyhoney seem fairly ordinary, even predictable. Pretty girl (Suzanne Santo) plus vaguely mysterious dude (Ben Jaffe) make charming, fiddle-soaked Americana filled with sugary melodies and backwoods charm, perfectly crafted for a lazy Sunday afternoon doodling the crossword at your local Starbucks. And none of [...]

Jethro Tull Aqualung (40th Anniversary Edition) (Capitol) Rating: Let’s all hum it together – the marvelous opening guitar riff to Aqualung’s epic title track is undoubtedly one of the most recognizable in the history of rock music. And with good reason: In the 40 years that have passed since the release of Jethro Tull’s classic [...]

Lindsey Buckingham: Seeds We Sow (Eagle Rock Entertainment) Rating: In a year when longtime Fleetwood Mac mystic (and his former flame) Stevie Nicks released some of her worst songs to date (the underwhelming In Your Dreams), there’s something especially comforting about the ornate fingerpicking that opens Seeds We Sow, Lindsey Buckingham’s sixth solo album. “Had [...]