Music Reviews

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Stefan Van Voorst - "Out Beyond"

  Rating: Based out of Minnesota, for ten years, Stefan Van Voorst and his band have been making hard-hitting Christian Rock music. In his second album, Out Beyond, Van Voorst intertwines popular rock music you’d hear on the radio, with soul-searching Christian lyrics. All thirteen tracks have a different and unique feel to them, but the track that stands out the most is, “Everything You Need.” It has a fun upbeat, rock band with relatable lyrics with a soothing vocalist. The track that really hits the most, especially if you are religious and may make you think twice, is “I’m With the Drunks.” In general, the album as a whole written quite well and the music was nice to listen to, but unless you are into Christian Rock bands, this isn’t the album for you. - Brynne Pezzuti

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The Perfect Vessels - "Name Our Own Stars"

  Rating: 7 The Perfect Vessels, hailing from Memphis, have released their full-length Name Our Own Stars at the best time. An album that is just perfect for the summer, with great melodies and soothing vocals, these songs are sure to put a smile on your face as you bob your head back and forth. This CD is certainly nothing ground breaking, but this release is better than most of the indie-pop albums you will see out there. The bass is smooth and the drums will make you tap your toes along to the beat. With only a couple of weeks until summer, this album will make you think of frolicking around in the sun through the grass with friends. An easily accessible album, this record is a really enjoyable listen. -Joe Deegan  

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Foxtails Brigade - "The Bread and the Bait"

  Rating: Foxtails Brigade’s debut album, The Bread and the Bait sports soft, finger-picked acoustic guitar, Zooey Deschanel-influenced lyrics, and violin lines inspired by Andrew Bird.  The whole album, despite these modern influences, is vaguely reminiscent of Tchaikovsky’s Peter and the Wolf.  The imagery of this album is that of a bamboo forest, somewhere deep in the Chinese countryside, where whimsical birds and rodent flutter and rustle around in the brush.  That makes the album relaxing, but almost too much so:  I very nearly dozed off halfway through the album.  All in all, if you are a fan of She & Him, Bright Eyes, and Andrew Bird, the album will strike you as “good”, but not “ground-breaking”. - Dillon Sweigart  

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The Goldberg Sisters - "The Goldberg Sisters"

  Rating: The Goldberg Sisters is a musical project by Adam Goldberg, yes Adam Goldberg the filmmaker responsible for Entourage, Saving Private Ryan, and Friends.  The Goldberg Sisters is the first album released under that name, following the bands debut album released in 2009 under the name LANDy.  The Goldberg Sisters offers up 10 tracks of psychedelic, effect heavy, rock/pop.  The instrumentals are nice on this album and provide good accompaniments while existing in their own right at the same time.  Goldberg is very heavy on the effects, with pedal-y guitars and synths, which have an interesting contrast against the obviously acoustic sounds of a piano and violin that appear on some tracks.  However despite all these good things about the album, the vocals take a lot away from it.  There were points while I was listening to this album when I wanted to skip tracks because I couldn’t stand hearing the extraordinarily nasally croon of Goldberg.  It is defiantly worse on some tracks than others, which may be a product of editing or just him having a bad day in the studio, but either way in my opinion it take a lot from the album.  Some tracks, especially Shush and The Difference between are reminiscent of Dr. Dog.  RIYL: Dr. Dog -Jennifer Granato

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Panda Bear - "Tomboy"

  Rating: The world, well as much of the world that is aware of the existence of Panda Bear aka Noah Lennox, has been waiting for some new solo work from him since 2007‘s explosion that was Person Pitch. Person Pitch is a hard act to follow, but on Tomboy, Lennox has taken sort of a new turn. Tomboy is an album of shorter, more structured songs that use more guitars and synths as opposed to Person Pitch’s very long, sample focused tracks. Tomboy is a dense album heavy on reverb, with layers and layers of sounds that are not necessarily under Lennox’s voice, but one with it. Over the bed of dreamy, layered, electronic psychedelic sounds, Lennox’s vocals, which he harmonizes over himself, create the beautifully put together tracks that each give off a different feel, but still all make sense together as a whole. From the beachy pop of sound of ‘Last Night at the Jetty’, to the the dub sound of ‘Slow Motion’, to the driving ‘Alsatian Darn’, Tomboy is a diverse but consistent album that follows up Person Pitch quite nicely, and keeps us wondering where Lennox will go next on his exploration of sound. -Jennifer Granato