Calgary post-punks Preoccupations couldn’t sound more comfortable in their own skin on their ironically titled fifth album, which seamlessly alternates between joyful and haunting moods. Read my FLOOD review.
Archive for the Album Reviews Category
Preoccupations’ ‘Ill at Ease’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Preoccupations on 05/12/2025 by Kurt OrzeckMclusky’s ‘World Is Still Here and So Are We’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Mclusky on 05/10/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
With age comes wisdom, perspective—and, in the case of the iconoclastic vocalist/guitarist Andy “Falco” Falkous—a practically equal balance between focusing on what’s at stake and the absurdity of what the West has become. Read my review of The World Is Still Here and So Are We, the latest record by his band Mclusky, on Treble.
Natural Information Society and Bitchin Bajas’ ‘Totality’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Bitchin Bajas, National Information Society on 05/05/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, or so the saying goes. But what about when two parts come together and the result is barely a whisper? That’s the fascinating, enigma-wrapped-in-a-riddle of a record that is Totality, an album title that at various turns seems either profound or confounding.Read my Treble review.
Regal Cheer, “Quite Good”‘: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Interviews, Reviews with tags Regal Cheer on 05/05/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
At under 20 minutes, the sophomore album from endearing Brighton duo Royal Cheer, Quite Good, is a jolt of punk-rock beauty, blissfully shambolic from start to finish.
Bleed’s ‘Bleed’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Bleed on 05/02/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
With cascading guitars and soaring vocals by Ryan Hughes, this maddeningly catchy, shimmering record harnesses the blissful naïveté of the early ‘90s and ushers it into the present, when such innocence is desperately needed. Read my review of Bleed’s self-titled debut on Treble.
Car Seat Headrest’s ‘The Scholars’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Car Seat Headrest on 05/02/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Car Seat Headrest’s The Scholars is a Who-level epic of an album, with three other marathon tracks and a handful of spunky songs that make their 13th album an event instead of just another new release. Read my review on Treble.
Ghost’s ‘Skeleta’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Ghost on 04/30/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
How many times can an artist, or any person, reinvent themselves? Well, at least six, as Ghost successfully prove with Skeletá. Read my review of the record for Treble.
Viagra Boys’ ‘Viagr Aboys’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Viagra Boys on 04/28/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Viagr Aboys, the new album by Viagra Boys, is a great example of a band making fun of its own audience for thinking their cleverly “in” on a joke that doesn’t actually exist. Make my FLOOD review of the record, which will make you long for Beastie Boys (if you ever liked them, either).
Sunflower Bean’s ‘Mortal Primetime’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Sunflower Bean on 04/26/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Has the shoegaze craze got you down? Try Sunflower Bean on for size. With a soft and fuzzy post-stoner-rock sound that can’t be resisted, the New York trio makes magic on their fourth record—and makes it sound oh-so-easy to pull it off. Read my FLOOD review of their new LP, Mortal Primetime.
Tennis’s ‘Face Down in the Garden’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Tennis on 04/23/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
As if staying true to their (non-matrimonial) vow as a band that reliably delivers tranquil, escapist music, Tennis calmly issue forth their always whimsical yet never overly precious musical blend of psych-tinged pop on their final record, Face Down in the Garden. Read my full review on FLOOD.
The Bad Penny (beta) 