Archive for the Reviews Category

Preoccupations’ ‘Ill at Ease’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags on 05/12/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

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.

Mclusky’s ‘World Is Still Here and So Are We’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags 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 , 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 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.

Ty Segall’s ‘Possession’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Reviews with tags on 05/04/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

A bible placed beside the butter by a farmer of misfortune in the winter” sounds like a line that Kurt Cobain might’ve scribbled in his journal. But Segall executes this composition in a far brighter and shinier manner than Nirvana ever would. Read my Treble review of Ty Segall’s “Posession.”

Rival Consoles’ ‘Known Shape’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Reviews with tags on 05/04/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

To sit on this addictive track would be akin to not cashing in a winning lottery ticket. Read my review of Rival Consoles’ new song, “Known Shape,” on Treble.

Bleed’s ‘Bleed’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags 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 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 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 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).