Great Album Reviews: The Milk-Eyed Mender (Joanna Newsom)

Album: The Milk-Eyed MenderArtist: Joanna NewsomGenre: FolkYear: 2004 Joanna Newsom plays harp and sings. When my five-year-old first heard her in the car, after about ten seconds he said “Oh! What a terrible voice!” Probably any discussion of Joanna Newsom has to include, somewhere, the mention that her voice isn’t for everybody. And now that’s […]

Great Album Reviews: Beautiful Maladies (Tom Waits)

Album: Beautiful Maladies: The Island YearsArtist: Tom WaitsGenre: Folk, Singer/Songwriter, ClaptrapYear: 1998 In honor of Tom Waits’ new album Bad as Me, which comes out today, I thought it’d be a good time to look back at an earlier phase of his career. In the last few years, Tom Waits has somehow emerged as a […]

Great Album Reviews: The Dust of Retreat

Album: The Dust of RetreatArtist: Margot and the Nuclear So and So’sGenre: Pop, Chamber Pop, IndieYear: 2006 Just after Pandora came out of beta, I created a station seeded from Damien Rice, and one of the songs that kept popping up was “Jen is Bringin the Drugs” by Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s. […]