Music-Critic.ca » D.C.

Ryan Adams – Ashes & Fire

D.C. — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 22:23:29 +0000

Rating: 2 / 5 Reviewer: David Coats There are a number of media publications who are describing Ryan Adams’ new release, Ashes & Fire, as a ‘return to form.’ However, this record is actually an entirely logical continuation of the road Adams has travelled for his last three records (including 2007’s Easy Tiger and 2008’s [...]

Sally Seltmann – Heart That’s Beating

D.C. — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 02:07:26 +0000

Rating: 3.5 / 5 Reviewer: David Coats Australian-born Sally Seltmann released two LPs under her New Buffalo moniker before rising to fame as co-writer of Feist’s 2007 monster single ‘1234.’ That song was a near perfect-storm of pop music, and while there isn’t anything on Seltmann’s new release, Heart That’s Pounding, quite in that same [...]

Los Campesinos! – Romance is Boring

D.C. — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:07:35 +0000

Rating: 4 / 5 Reviewer: David Coats Bursting onto the scene with 2007’s Sticking Fingers Into Sockets EP, and followed by two of 2008’s best full-lengths (Hold On Now, Youngster and We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed), Los Campesinos! quickly earned a reputation as one of indie rock’s wittiest, most energetic, and most authentic punk [...]

Kris Kristofferson – Closer to the Bone

D.C. — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:59:24 +0000

Rating: 3 / 5 Reviewer: David Coats Closer to the Bone, the follow-up to Kris Kristofferson’s 2007 comeback This Old Road, is a sentimental album that sees Kristofferson more about reflective contentment than larger-than-life storytelling. Relying on simple, predictable arrangements, and melodies so classic as to be hymnal, Kristofferson sings not gritty first-person narratives, but [...]

Amy Millan – Masters of the Burial

D.C. — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:48:36 +0000

Rating: 3 / 5 Reviewer: David Coats Amy Millan’s first solo release, 2006’s Honey From the Tombs, was a stylistic surprise, as she seemingly turned 180 degrees from her Stars and Broken Social Scene gigs, and made a record of lonely, weary country songs. Though she did more or less pull it off, there was [...]

Scotland Yard Gospel Choir – And The Horse You Rode In On

D.C. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:54:40 +0000

“I hope you catch syphilis and die alone.” And with that, so begins the third album from Chicago’s Scotland Yard Gospel Choir.

Gentleman Reg – Jet Black

D.C. — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:18:33 +0000

Rating: 4.5 / 5 Reviewer: David Coats “Gentleman” Reg Vermue (late of The Hidden Cameras) went through something of a dry spell between the demise of his previous label, Three Gut, and releasing Jet Black, his first LP for Arts & Crafts. A well-respected veteran of the Canadian indie scene, Vermue recruited a who’s-who of [...]

The Dead Weather – Horehound

D.C. — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:59:37 +0000

Rating: 3.5 / 5 Reviewer: David Coats Jack White’s third concurrent band, The Dead Weather, sees White return to his original instrument, drums, leaving vocal duties in the capable hands of The Kills’ Alison Mosshart, guitars to Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age), and bass to Raconteurs bandmate Jack Lawrence. The initial expectation was [...]

Apostle of Hustle – Eats Darkness

D.C. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 21:39:29 +0000

2007’s National Anthem Of Nowhere saw Canadian indie rock veterans Apostle Of Hustle at the top of their game, expertly balancing distinctive melodies and rhythms in full, polished arrangements. Eats Darkness, with its conceptual theme of examining reality’s ugly and violent elements ...

Charles Spearin – The Happiness Project

D.C. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 21:27:01 +0000

Rating: 5 / 5 Reviewer: David Coats Charles Spearin (Do Make Say Think, Broken Social Scene) had long been fascinated by the musical qualities of everyday conversation. He gathered some of his Toronto neighbours and asked them their thoughts on happiness. He then gathered some of his favourite musicians, assigned lead instruments to represent each [...]