The evolution of Ben Lee is pretty interesting — from weirdo indie pop to conceptual spiritual noise to agreeable adult contemporary folk-pop — and his latest album takes a very high-minded bent. Just in case you didn’t pick that up from the title. Freedom, Love and the Recuperation of the Human Mind is out now and I reviewed it for Rolling Stone here.
Getting a Beastie Boy to produce your record: smart.
Slaves’ swaggery-eff you punk, and their first album Are You Satisfied (that I also reviewed for Rolling Stone) was a blast of pungent fresh air, so getting Mike D to produce their second record is an unexpected, yet awesome, move. With that in mind, read my review of Slaves’ Take Control for Rolling Stone right here.
The Sword: a bunch of rad Austin longhairs.
Low Country: the companion record to last year’s High Country.
The cool part: It’s sludgy psyche-metal songs done acoustic gothic country. And it’s awesome. Read my review of Low Country right here.
Against Me! and Laura Jane Grace have been making essential punk albums for the past decade-plus… and Shape Shift With Me is no exception. You want angry relationship identity punk? You got it, kid. Check out my review of Shape Shift With Me for Rolling Stone right here.
Yeah! Of Mice & Men shred. Find out just how much shredding they get into* on their new album Cold World in my review of it for Rolling Stone right here.
*hint: It’s a lot
jaymz clements 