New Album Reviews

From the desk of Peter Crowley:

The shift from August to September has come abruptly this year, and suddenly everything feels different than it did over the weekend. With that comes a big bundle of new albums, and reviews thereof. I haven't listened yet, so I can't review, but AllMusic, which I always respect and often agree with, did. We'll go alphabetically:

A.A. Bondy, "When the Devil's Loose" - AllMusic gives Bondy a backhanded compliment, comparing him to Ryan Adams and says that works fine because he's always sounded like other people. I don't agree with that past imitation, by the way; I think Bondy has always has his own thing, in Verbena and solo, influences be damned. Meanwhile, Bondy covered Hank on a video session for Paste Magazine.

A SOUTHERN DOUBLE SHOT:

The Black Crowes, "Before the Frost"/"Until the Freeze" - I've written about these guys plenty, so I won't say more, but I'm glad to see AllMusic said it's good. It says that writing off the Crowes as '60s/'70s rock imitators is "too snide and easy, and does a disservice to what the Crowes pull off with aplomb on this rather remarkable record, a record that has all the easy interplay of a road-tested band but none of the weariness."

The Drive-By Truckers' new oddities and rarities album, which is pictured here, gets equally fine treatment from AllMusic on the same Web page as the Crowes. They are so damn good. Pitchfork is a little less complimentary, though: "The rarities on The Fine Print could make a good album, but the oddities are often distracting."

That's all for now, except that Neil Young has a new/old album coming out this fall: "Dreamin' Man." Paste has more. Curious, as is Neil these days. By the way, if you haven't read it, Paste's review of Neil's stupidly overpriced box set was viciously good.