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Kyle Petersen

ALBUM REVIEW: SUSTO Takes an Honest View on ‘My Entire Life’

ALBUM REVIEW: SUSTO Takes an Honest View on ‘My Entire Life’

SUSTO, as always, contains multitudes. The Charleston, South Carolina-based outfit has always functioned as a quasi-band in the Wilco mold, with singer-songwriter Justin Osborne at the helm. With his catchy, sharply observed musings, he and a close set of collaborators create an expansive sound that dissolves ’90s grunge-pop, beach bum

ALBUM REVIEW: Bettye LaVette Shines Brightly and Boldly on ‘LaVette!’

ALBUM REVIEW: Bettye LaVette Shines Brightly and Boldly on ‘LaVette!’

It’s now been nearly two decades since Bettye LaVette’s debut, I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise, on the indie behemoth ANTI- Records, which revitalized the R&B singer’s mostly thwarted recording career and sent her on a late-career hot streak that continues mostly unabated

ALBUM REVIEW: Laura Cantrell Looks Back and Reaches Forward

ALBUM REVIEW: Laura Cantrell Looks Back and Reaches Forward

There’s an unerring sense of both comfort and vision in the music country singer Laura Cantrell has made over the last two decades. The singer came up in the New York City alt-country scene of the late 1990s and early 2000s, and from the start had a subdued sound

ALBUM REVIEW: Joy Oladokun Levels Up Her Sound But Stays True to Herself on ‘Proof of Life’

ALBUM REVIEW: Joy Oladokun Levels Up Her Sound But Stays True to Herself on ‘Proof of Life’

There’s a strong temptation to frame Proof of Life, Joy Oladokun’s follow-up to her self-released breakthrough album in defense of my own happiness (ND review), as a pop-oriented major label makeover. On in defense, there was a certain level of homespun charm to the proceedings, with Oladokun’s

ALBUM REVIEW: On ‘Love You Anyway,’ Devon Gilfillian Crafts R&B for Today

ALBUM REVIEW: On ‘Love You Anyway,’ Devon Gilfillian Crafts R&B for Today

There is something that feels fundamentally timeless about the sound of Motown and Stax records from the 1960s and ’70s. Whether it’s the soulful vocals, the simple yet virtuosic melodies, or the warm, spacious arrangements, echoing or reimagining those sounds and styles has paid dividends for decades of artists

ALBUM REVIEW: boygenius Deepens Their Connection With ‘the record’

ALBUM REVIEW: boygenius Deepens Their Connection With ‘the record’

What a difference a few years makes. Back in 2018, the slyly dubbed singer-songwriter supergroup boygenius (consisting of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus) felt like a glorified tour-promoting one-off, with each artist tossing in a few songs for the other to harmonize behind on an EP that would

ALBUM REVIEW: Honey Harper Brings Cosmic Sound Closer to Earth

ALBUM REVIEW: Honey Harper Brings Cosmic Sound Closer to Earth

Ever since Gram Parsons came up with the term “cosmic American music” to describe his expansive and countercultural approach to country music, the idea has had a tantalizingly mythic quality to the generations of twang-laden singer-songwriters who followed in his wake. And while for most musicians the appeal has to