*The Get Up Kids, There Are Rules Consequence of Sound gave Rules three and a half out of five stars: "This album could have been the last gasp of a has-been band, but There Are Rules stands on its own two legs from the first. Beginning with a woman's distorted voice speaking unintelligibly over a synth line, first track 'Tithe' catches your attention immediately. It's still got lead singer Matt Pryor's distinctive voice, but nearly everything else is different: The tempo is quite fast, the vocal line rises and falls in unexpected places, there are off-key twangs every now and again in the background to remind us that this musical world is unstable; the walls could all come down, Inception-style." Stream There Are Rules via Spinner.com.
*Iron and Wine, Kiss Each Other Clean Spin gave Iron and Wine's latest a nine out of ten: "Kiss delivers plenty of unexpected layers, employed judiciously in service of Beam's usual ruminative ideas about good and evil, love and death: 'Me and Lazarus' dribbles squeaky synths atop his increasingly sure voice before dropping in a tasteful sax. That sax gets decidedly more skronky on 'Big Burned Hand,' which rides a '70s groove into...a DJ scratching? From the guy who made his name whispering?" Stream the album in full here.
*Iron and Wine performing "Godless Brother in Love" from Kiss Each Other Clean
*Wanda Jackson, The Party Ain't Over NPR reviewed the collaborative cover record, saying "The Party Ain't Over, Jackson's first studio album in eight years, features 12 cover songs produced by Jack White. It also showcases a generous smattering of guest artists, including Jackson Smith (Patti Smith's son), Karen Elson (White's wife) and Jack Lawrence (of The Raconteurs and The Greenhornes), among others. Most songs feature between eight and twelve musicians, and the result is a dense but impeccably crafted blanket of sound." Read the rest of the review and stream the record in full via NPR's First Listen.
*Jack White and Wanda Jackson in "Thunder On The Mountain"
*Monotonix, Not Yet Spin gave Not Yet a six out of ten review: "Midway through one of Monotonix's turbulent performances, you might find yourself spritzed by chest-hair sweat and gaping at a drum set perched on top of a ladder. The Israeli threesome's second full-length, though, provides fewer surprises, dutifully thundering through rage-rock history as singer Ami Shalev alternates between growl and yowl to communicate a life-is-short-might-as-well-bash message." Stream the record here.
