Beck, Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️❌ Beck is back with a surprise release. This is a new compilation of love songs just in time for Valentine’s Day. Included is “Ramona” which of course was released on the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World soundtrack. Confession: I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen that full movie. But anyways, this is all covers, except the aforementioned “Ramona.” Beck’s choices of covers here are an eclectic bunch, as you would probably expect, but he does them all justice. He never really radically reworks them musically or melodically, but rather faithfully takes them and just...

Lucinda Williams, World’s Gone Wrong ⭐️⭐️❌❌❌ Legendary songwriter, Lucinda Williams, is back with her 16th album. I have no idea why, but I was under the impression that Lucinda Williams was the daughter of Hank Williams. She is not. I have no idea why I thought she was, but… Yeah. Anyways, this album is very topical. Or, it tries to be. Obviously she couldn’t predict that this album would come out right as there is a genuine federal siege on a major American city with law abiding American citizens being kidnapped off the street, brutalized, and gunned down in the...

Madison Beer, locket ⭐️❌❌❌❌ Madison Beer has released a new album. Her name has always sounded like a counterpart to the Samuel Adams beer to me. Like, a James Madison beer or something. I don’t know. That’s probably just me. But anyways… Every once in a while I’ll listen to an album from an artist that I know very little about, and by the end, I don’t know anything more about them than I did going in. That is not good. That is the mark of a bad album.  You want an artist’s personality, at least, to come through on...

Zach Bryan, With Heaven on Top ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️❌ Zach Bryan is back with a new album, and boy howdy is it a behemoth. 25 songs clocking in at 1 hour and 18 minutes. That is a lot. But surprisingly, for how long this album is, it moves at a clip. The track list flows very nicely, and it keeps you engaged. Could there have been some self editing? Yes. Are there songs that sound a bit like other songs? Yes. But for the most part he handled this unwieldy 25 song beast very well. Now, the songs themselves are great. A...