Review: Soundgarden King Animal

After disbanding 16 years ago, and pursuing their own projects and gigs in other bands, Soundgarden has reunited and released their first album in a long time. It might be easy to cynically write off the reunion of a band whose lead singer swore that a reunion would “tarnish their legacy” as a simple middle aged cash grab. The only problem with that assertion is that unlike the multitudes of bands that break up, retire, reunite, and then go through the whole thing over and over again (a la KISS and Ozzy Osborne), Soundgarden have written and recorded some of the best music of their previous and current careers on King Animal.

David Bowie's Legacy of Brilliant Oddity

Only a few artists have been as influential as David Bowie has been over the decades. The influences might not be directly discernible in each and every case, but they are there. Bowie was a talent that took risks, went in a myriad of different directions sonically and displayed a wildly brilliant oddity throughout his career, but at the core remained not only a rock and roll legend, but a rock and roll fan to the end.

The Killers: Battleborn (Review)

The Killers’ lead singer Brandon Flowers is nothing if not a storyteller. Going all the way back to the songs on The Killers’ first album, Hot Fuss, Flowers’ lyrics have told the stories of guys hustling to get androgynous looking girls’ numbers at the local club, obsessive compulsive (almost stalkerish) lovers on the outside and a girl named Jenny who was a friend of his. On Sam’s Town, the stories kept coming about girls who pine for “beautiful boys” to come and rescue them, even if they “didn’t look like Jesus.” On The Killers’ new album, Battle Born, Flowers keeps up the penchant for storytelling. This time out though, the music that The Killers composed as a band fits his stories more completely than it ever has.