GooseRadio New Music Review

Alkaline Trio – This Addiction

On this “back-to-basics” release, the Chicago punks continue to plumb the depths of unhealthy relationships, fully relying on the drug addiction metaphor the title implies. An ominous atmosphere surrounds This Addiction and is most fully felt on the stellar “Fine” where the analogy of raining for days makes it’s second appearance on the record and ultimately ties everything together. The Trio pull out a few new tricks in the form of a horn on “Lead Poisoning” and an 80’s vibe on “Eating Me Alive”, but the soul of the album is in it’s simple, straightforward nature; 3-minute punk songs about how hard life is and how mean girls can be.

Alkaline Trio – This Addiction from Matthew Stawski on Vimeo.

Lady Antebellum – Need You Now

With “Need You Now” topping the charts on the Billboard 200 and iTunes, it’s safe to say that Lady Antebellum has transcended country music. The ode to co-dependence is getting airplay on pop and adult contemporary radio and is poised to make them the next Rascal Flatts, and I dare say they have the potential to be bigger than the Flatts thanks to the melodic one-two punch of Charles Kelley and Hillary Scott. This winning combination is beautifully displayed on “Our Kind of Love” and Scott’s charm is put front and center on the down-home “American Honey”, a song that sums up all that modern pop country is and should be. That’s the thing about Lady A, they’re not breaking any new ground, they’re just doing what they do better than anyone else right now (yes, even better than Taylor Swift).

Angels & Airwaves – LOVE

Tom DeLonge has done a wonderful job of building up phenomenal expectations with each AVA album and with each album he’s done an equally phenomenal job of letting us down. That’s certainly not to say that LOVE, and the entire AVA catalogue for that matter, isn’t uplifting and, at times, epic, which is exactly what DeLonge is going for, it’s just that when you’re trying to accomplish that in every song it makes every song sound exactly the same. So now we have LOVE, part concept album, part soundtrack for the forthcoming movie of the same name, but really it’s just another AVA record boosted more by DeLonge’s bloated ego than the songs themselves. Don’t get me wrong, LOVE is an enjoyable listen, “Young London” especially, and it’s made all the more enjoyable by the fact that AVA is giving it away for free, download it here.