Ink 19

09/22/2025

"Thematically, the piece functions as both a mirror and a lamp. As a mirror, it reflects the painful ruptures many have endured in friendships that once seemed unbreakable. As a lamp, it illuminates a path through grief towards resilience, suggesting that loss, while devastating, can yield the unexpected gift of self-knowledge." -- Danielle Holian

Painted Intentions. Review by Danielle Holian.

09/22/2025

"Listening to the songs as just pure sound is rewarding enough." -- Bob Pomeroy

All About McGuffin (Kakubarhythm). Review by Bob Pomeroy.

09/22/2025

"Unassuming and vulnerable, the brilliantly conceived History of Silence is written by winners, although múm has no interest in colonizing anything. They’re just traveling through." -- Peter Lindblad

History of Silence (Morr Music). Review by Peter Lindblad.

09/22/2025

"There are times when producers can ruin a good album with overdubs. Thankfully, that didn’t happen here. Both versions of the album are quite remarkable. The Douglas version is punchier, yet I prefer the Sound Ideas version for its subtler take on the tunes." -- Bob Pomeroy

Cinnamon Flower (Resonance Records). Review by Bob Pomeroy.

09/22/2025

"The amalgamation of the documentary and the soundtrack reveals the final truth about flamenco: it’s a unique, complex language." -- Randy Radic

Tradition vs. innovation — it’s an age old story, retold anew in Flamenco: Pasión En Peligro (Flamenco: Passion in Danger), a captivating look into the musical art form of flamenco, by Larry Marvar.

09/17/2025

"The album is a pastoral landscape of hypnotic beats, echoes, and sound effects. In some ways, it is similar to Brian Eno’s ambient music projects. It’s no surprise, then, that the only collaboration on the album, 'The Well is Poisoned,' features Mr. Eno." -- Bob Pomeroy

The Collapse of Everything (On U Sound). Review by Bob Pomeroy.

09/17/2025

"Somewhere between 'Purple Haze' and 'Disco Duck' was the golden, AM-radio-friendly singer-songwriter era. Mouseketeers rollcall, count off now… James! Joni! Cat! Carole! Carley! Karla! Gordon! And it could be argued that the Grand Marshal of that songwriter’s parade was John Denver." -- Christopher Long

This week, Christopher Long gets seduced by a Mississippi vintage vinyl store manager with an eight-dollar, B+ condition copy of Back Home Again, the 1974 classic from John Denver. SOLD!

09/16/2025

"Director and writer Jennifer Reeder knows what she’s doing and manages to balance the camp with strong enough characters that you actually care about what happens to them." -- Phil Bailey

Although teen witches have long been a staple in pop culture, rarely have they been presented with the blood-soaked gusto of Jennifer Reeder’s Perpetrator.

09/15/2025

"Awash in memorable dark pop surfaces and Eva James’s sorceress voice, Earth To Eva transforms the ache of anguish into significance." -- Randy Radic

Earth To Eva (675 Records). Review by Randy Radic.

09/12/2025

"Sporting fabulously feathered, shoulder-length coifs and Sam Elliott-sanctioned ‘staches, the blues-based British boogie brigade crashed through the door of their first after-show soiree back in 1972. In glittery jackets, satin scarves, and velvet britches, they sparked a joint, spiked the punch, and stuck their fingers in the clam dip with reckless abandon. By the end of the decade, Foghat would be one of the biggest rock bands in the world." - Christopher Long

Fool for the City (50th Anniversary Edition) (Rhino Records). Review by Christopher Long.

09/12/2025

"They say everything old is new again. The songs on Desire On Ice are drawn from Tav Falco’s 40-plus year career as a Southern Gothic outsider... They took existing Falco compositions and recontextualized them as a noir audio drama, a tour of the international demimonde." -- Bob Pomeroy

09/11/2025

"Johnson strums his guitar while, like Solomon, he probes into an issue of great philosophical consequence: which idols do you worship? Or does pride blind you to what’s important and what’s vanity?"
Read Randy Radic's full review at Ink 19, the glass bottom boat of the independent press since 1991.

Baby Man (Merge Records). Review by Randy Radic.