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JMc’s Record Reviews

@macreviews_

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rock & pop album reviews for those of y’all that care what i think // dm me suggestions! // new reviews when i can

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NEW BLOG POST UP NOW! Welcome to the dawn of Buried Treasure, a new series where I explore the output of unfairly obscure artists with influential and high-quality back catalogs. First up - the one and only Nikki Sudden! One of rock and roll’s truest believers, Nikki carried the spirit of glam and roots rock into the postpunk 80s and beyond with a dual spirit of elegant swagger and crushing vulnerability. Learn all about him at the link in bio! by @macreviews_

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6 months ago

NEW BLOG POST after over a year away!
Happy to return with a tribute to my good friend @dubcrustino all about music and friendship.

Getting back into writing so hopefully you won’t have to wait another year for my next piece. Link in bio! by @macreviews_

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a year ago

MAC REVIEWS IS BACK, well, sort of. Entered the blogosphere to try something a little different.

The first installment of “Songs in My Life” is up now. Link in bio and story. by @macreviews_

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3 years ago

commissioned for @bethanndmyfeelins

what is your take

@macreviews_ news on the horizon ;) by @macreviews_

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4 years ago

Happy birthday to our own queen of catharsis, the marvelous Julien Baker! Celebrate by having a nice cry to Turn Out The Lights this evening! by @macreviews_

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5 years ago

Happy birthday to the one and only Nick Cave! Find a low-lit room and a glass of wine and check out some Bad Seeds today! by @macreviews_

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6 years ago

X // WILD GIFT // Slash 1981

Christgau once said of Wild Gift: “how often do we get a great love album and a great punk album in the same package?” While that assessment is a bit misleading - this is more than just a “love album” - it also points to one of Wild Gift’s main strengths. At this moment in punk history, most significant artists delivered openly political aural assaults with anger only rivaled by youthful immaturity & dark humor. Then along came X with an album no less surly than those of their peers, but dealing primarily with the everyday struggles of married songwriters John Doe and Exene. Make no mistake, X were indeed very socially conscious and exceptionally pissed off: their debut album, Los Angeles, exposed the seedy side of their city in much the same way that The Velvet Underground & Nico had shone a light on the dark underbelly of New York. But X were also more interested in coating their anger in maturity and accessibility than delivering short sharp shocks. Much of their sound stemmed from 50s rock-n-roll, mainly heard in the red-hot riffs of guitarist Billy Zoom. Tracks like “The Once Over Twice” and “Year 1” show the band’s affinity for the genre, even as Exene and John wail, drone, and scream in depressed tones that stand in sharp contrast to Chuck Berry’s more exuberant style. Elsewhere, “I’m Coming Over” and “We’re Desperate” showcase the band at their most ass-kicking, while “Adult Books” and “In This House That I Call Home” feature a comparatively mellower side of X. Wild Gift details struggles with the patriarchy, extramarital desire, sexual confusion, class status, and self-image issues in terms both frank and thought-out. Even a lyric like “Presley sucked on doggie dicks” sounds like the epitome of bohemian cool when sung by the self-aware John Doe - and if that doesn’t sell you on Wild Gift, I don’t know what will.

FAVS: The Once Over Twice, We’re Desperate, Adult Books, I’m Coming Over, It’s Who You Know, White Girl, Back 2 The Base, Year 1
LEAST FAV: Universal Corner, maybe?

5/5.5

What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear em so slap down a comment! If you wanna see any specific reviews, slide into the DMs! Thanks pals by @macreviews_

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6 years ago

COCTEAU TWINS // HEAVEN OR LAS VEGAS // 4AD 1990

Former 4AD president Ivo Watts-Russell declared Heaven or Las Vegas one of the best releases in his label’s history. His praise becomes easy to understand once you get inside the album: it offers a deeply immersive wash of sound, bright enough in its timbres and familiar enough in its poppiness to feel safe and easy, but with just enough darkness and shifting musical current to maintain a mild uncertainty and feeling of motion. The sense of constant evolution owes much to the sequencing. Side A opens with walls of chorused-out guitar on veritable classic “Cherry-Coloured Funk,” a track as subtly swaggering as it is soothing. The album moves from this to the grooving “Pitch the Baby” and the joyous “Iceblink Luck,” a proclamation of love for singer Elizabeth Fraser & guitarist Robin Guthrie’s newborn daughter. After the juxtaposition of dance rhythms and moody keys on “Fifty-Fifty Clown,” the band once again returns to brighter territory on the title track, which matches the unspeakable delight and wonder of “Iceblink Luck.” Side B is a bit darker overall, with side opener “I Wear Your Ring” sounding like something out of the Twin Peaks soundtrack. “Fotzepolitic” picks it back up in a hypnotic three-beat underscored with deep layers of jangly guitar. “Wolf in the Breast” and “Road River and Rail” take the album back into a dark direction, until “Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires,” written soon after the death of bassist Simon Raymonde’s father, arrives and builds to a powerful catharsis. The undeniable highlight of this entire album is hearing Fraser repeat the “pulled rounder” refrain in airy harmony over effortful, soaring guitars. At times the album becomes a victim of its production, resulting in some moments that feel dated, but nonetheless, Heaven or Las Vegas remains a deep cherry-coloured haze that begs to be lost in.

FAVS: Cherry-Coloured Funk, Iceblink Luck, Heaven or Las Vegas, Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires
LEAST FAV: I Wear Your Ring

4.5/5.5

What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear em so slap down a comment! If you wanna see any specific reviews, slide into the DMs! Thanks pals by @macreviews_

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6 years ago

SONGS: OHIA // THE MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO. // Secretly Canadian 2003

Jason Molina’s final album as Songs: Ohia still stands as the peak of his work as a writer and performer. Its songs are deeply reflective of the decaying midwest Molina experienced growing up in Northeast Ohio. Tracks like “Almost Was Good Enough” and “John Henry Split My Heart” depict a struggle to maintain the self in crumbling cities that were once industrial meccas, and the captivating “Farewell Transmission” describes the same desire to resist in almost Biblical terms: “I’ll streak his blood across my beak / I’ll dust my feathers with his ash / Feel his ghost breathing down my back.” Lyrical moments like this on the album abound, even on songs that deal with depression more generally (arresting bonus track “The Big Game Is Every Night”) or even hope (the plaintive “Hold On Magnolia”). As for the music, it could best be described as a seriously bummed-out take on Crazy Horse. Countrified guitars drone over crushingly slow, heavy drum beats as the singers wail something fierce. Personally, I find the Molina-led songs much more gratifying: Lawrence Peters is a bit too smooth for my taste on “The Old Black Hen,” while Scout Niblett can be a little too grating on “Peoria Lunch Box Blues.” The songs are also repetitive, to great effect: Molina is able to lead dynamic shifts extraordinarily well with only his vocal delivery, and can make even the quietest moments deeply intense, like the closing “listen!” of “Farewell Transmission.” Though the repetition sometimes leads to stagnation, as on “Almost Was Good Enough,” Molina rewards your patience with profound catharsis on the standout tracks. The Magnolia Electric Co. takes you on a dark emotional journey, and paints a decrepit rust belt with an accuracy and humanity as few other releases have.

FAVS: Farewell Transmission, Just Be Simple, John Henry Split My Heart, Hold On Magnolia, The Big Game Is Every Night, Whippoorwill
LEAST FAV: Almost Was Good Enough

4.75/5.5

What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear em so slap down a comment! If you wanna see any specific reviews, slide into the DMs! Thanks pals by @macreviews_

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6 years ago

THE PRETENDERS // LEARNING TO CRAWL // Sire 1984

1984 saw the Pretenders again having to learn to crawl. The previous two years saw half the band’s original lineup (guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and bassist Pete Farndon) die of drug overdoses. The remaining duo of primary songwriter and vocalist Chrissie Hynde and drummer Martin Chambers were left to pick up the pieces and carry on, damaged significantly by the loss. The Pretenders eventually came back with this, a reasonably strong album that was unfortunately, in the eyes of this reviewer, doomed to live in the shadow of the band’s exemplary debut. The band’s sound on Learning To Crawl has changed to a noteworthy degree: only a handful of songs retain the same gratifying punk attitude that the band revelled in in their early days, with the majority of the album moving in a more pop-centric direction and Chrissie Hynde backing away a bit from the out-and-out confrontational style of the early Pretenders. She addresses it herself on the gleefully catchy opener, “Middle of the Road”: “I’m not the cat I used to be / I got a kid, I’m 33.” The band proves more than capable of settling into their new direction, dropping infectious but mellower new wave on great tracks like “Back on the Chain Gang,” “Show Me,” and the holiday staple “2000 Miles.” The band also engages in some successful genre experiments on the grooving “My City Was Gone” and the haunting “Thin Line Between Love And Hate.” However, there are a handful of more forgettable tracks here: “I Hurt You” and “Thumbelina” stagnated a bit for my taste, and “Watching the Clothes” gave the impression of an attempt to revive the old Pretenders style by a lineup ill-equipped to fully make it work. Though Learning to Crawl isn’t the Pretenders at their best, it’s still a good record that boasts a lot of worthwhile tracks and further proves Chrissie Hynde’s talent as a songwriter.

FAVS: Middle of the Road, Back on the Chain Gang, Show Me, Thin Line Between Love & Hate, 2000 Miles
LEAST FAV: I Hurt You

4/5.5

What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear em so slap down a comment! If you wanna see any specific reviews, slide into the DMs! Thanks pals by @macreviews_

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6 years ago

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN // BORN TO RUN // Columbia 1975

On his breakout record, Bruce Springsteen crafts tales of larger-than-life post-adolescent escapism that are at once both sonically arresting and exceptionally moving. Springsteen’s stories of the struggles and dreams of working-class young people are expressed in lyrics that deal with the mundane in poetic (but never pretentious) terms. Take this couplet from “Jungleland”: “Outside the street’s on fire in a real death waltz / between what’s flesh and what’s fantasy.” As if the words alone weren’t enough, Springsteen’s distinctive bellowing delivery proves capable of convincing any listener that whatever he sings about is of dire importance. Beyond the lyrics and the vocal style, post-Phil Spector production and arranging techniques also contribute to a sense of heightened drama. Whereas the “wall of sound” in early 60s pop production would be used to add a sort of gentle spirituality to pop songs, its use here rivals Brian Wilson’s in its religious poignance. If Springsteen’s voice isn’t enough to convince you of the glory and hope that lies somewhere in the night just a short, fast drive past the outskirts of town, the plaintive piano, shimmering glockenspiel, and powerful horn pads certainly will. The combination of these elements works to chilling effect on songs like the title cut, “Thunder Road,” and “Jungleland,” all three of which feature sections that have given me feelings of incredible euphoria. Not everything is so potent: the Bo Diddley beat of “She’s the One” feels anticlimactic after its introductory prog-rock organ riff suggests greater promise, and it doesn’t help that the song is sequenced immediately after the glorious “Born to Run.” Still, though, this is only a minor hiccup on an album whose acclaim is well-deserved. Born to Run is a triumphant record that speaks to the scared young adult in all of us.

FAVS: Thunder Road, Backstreets, Born to Run, Meeting Across the River, Jungleland
LEAST FAV: She’s the One

5/5.5

What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear em so slap down a comment! If you wanna see any specific reviews, slide into the DMs! Thanks pals by @macreviews_

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6 years ago

SOFT MACHINE // VOLUME TWO // Probe 1969

Volume Two finds seminal prog act Soft Machine in transition. Quickly outgrowing the psychedelic style of their debut, but not yet the jazz fusion powerhouse that would record the landmark Third, the trio of Robert Wyatt, Hugh Hopper, and Mike Ratledge would on Volume Two forge a truly unique mix of dadaist humor, tight composition, and free improvisation. Influenced heavily by Zappa’s Absolutely Free, the record consists primarily of two rapidly paced suites: “Rivmic Melodies” constituting side one, and “Esther’s Nose Job” on side two alongside two standalone tracks. Of the suites, “Rivmic Melodies” is more sonically varied, featuring gags like Robert Wyatt reciting the alphabet and giving a tongue-in-cheek thank you to the Jimi Hendrix Experience for taking the band on tour, as well as jazz-inflected centerpiece “Hibou Anemone and Bear” and wild freakout “Out of Tunes.” “Esther’s Nose Job” is by comparison more cohesive, sticking to a core motif and emphasizing the growing avant-garde jazz influence on the band: opening “Fire Engine Passing With Bells Clanging” is a group improvisation that sounds like its title, while “Orange Skin Food” is one big organ solo. Even when deep into jazz-inspired explorations, Soft Machine still makes an effort to temper their density with absurdity: for instance, “Pig” features bawdy lyrics set against a heady musical backdrop. As for the sounds of this album, they exist in a kind of murky uncanny valley zone: Wyatt thrashes away at his drums with abandon while singing in a disaffected British drawl, Hopper’s bass is bathed in fuzz, Ratledge’s organ rarely sounds like one, and the saxophone layering sounds straight out of the Hot Rats playbook. Even the fuzzy 60s recording quality contributes to an overall air of the bizarre. This album feels like the auditory equivalent of a Terry Gilliam cartoon: clever, goofy, a little creepy, and totally mad. It may be one of the most unhinged releases of its time.

FAVS: Uh...
LEAST FAV: UHH…

4.5/5.5

What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear em so slap down a comment! If you wanna see any specific reviews, slide into the DMs! Thanks pals by @macreviews_

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6 years ago