It’s well known that in the two years before Rosanne Cash’s latest album was written and recorded, the singer-songwriter experienced the deaths of three loved ones: her stepmother, June Carter Cash, her father, Johnny, and finally her mother, Vivian Liberto Cash Distin. Such an ordeal would be profound for anyone, let alone someone with a family saga as troubled and as public (seen Walk the Line) as Cash’s; and as an emotional document of her loss, Black Cadillac is nothing short of spellbinding. …

With his Live from… EP, Howie Day has just shot himself in the foot. Day’s music is the kind you turn on when you’re doing yoga in the dark, or writing something that needs melodic background music, or trying to get close to a special person on a summer night without trying to get a little freaky, or even just itching to listen to a good Neil Finn cover. And while I’m more of a lady in the streets and a freak in the bed myself, that doesn’t mean that …

Being a clumsy and forgetful child (as well as having the burden, I mean blessing, of two younger siblings), I have only a few remaining relics of my youth. One of the most interesting of these is a tape my very religious babysitter had given me. I don’t remember many of the songs, nor do I remember who sang on it, but when I was four years old, I was obsessed with a song called “Patience”. It was about this man pretending he was a rabbit who kept saying, “I …

When I heard that Ryan Adams was putting out three albums this year, I rolled my eyes and thought, “this guy needs an editor.” And it’s true, he does need someone to tell him when to stop…but not right now. Jacksonville City Nights is a lovely, stunningly evocative country-tinged album, and it makes me want to thank god that alt-country is finally regaining the popularity and attention it deserves.
Track by track, it’s easy to see why Adams & The Cardinals at one time considered calling the album September; seventy-five percent …

You Could Have It So Much Better
Franz Ferdinand
(Sony)
Oh, Franz Ferdinand, if only all of you could have been my prom date. I spent my senior year prom with a bunch of chicks who, fun as they were, just weren’t shaking their asses and talking in adorable Scottish accents. To put it simply, a party isn’t a party without some sausage. And on You Could Have It So Much Better, Franz Ferdinand prove one thing: these guys can party.
The much-awaited sophomore record opens with “The Fallen”, a hedonistic plea to cut …