Today's first new review is from Rich Cocksedge, who quite likes the new Swearin' album Surfing Strange:

Surfing Strange is not an album that will set the pulse racing with fist-pumping songs, but it does occasionally unleash some fine moments of warm, up-tempo fuzziness that brings to mind a host of luminaries from the golden age of college rock or whatever one might want to call it. These moments are interspersed with a sense of space and sparseness, where songs are simple in all manner of delivery, but that basic approach allows them to blossom, be it from the more relaxed tunes to those where they get the head nodding appreciably and those which combine both approaches.

Read the review here.

Then, I listen to the new Lawrence Arms single "You Are Here" a dozen times in a row:

While Brendan Kelly, Chris McCaughan and Neil Hennessy have remained active independent of each other since Oh! Calcutta!, the trio's chemistry, both on record and in a live setting, is superior to anything they've musically achieved elsewhere. The band will look to reaffirm that chemistry with Metropole (out Jan. 28 via Epitaph) and if "You Are Here" is any indication, they're well on their way.

Read the review here.

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