Jeff The Brotherhood – Hypnotic Nights
Just over a year after dropping We Are the Champions, Nashville duo JEFF the Brotherhood try out their new deal with corporate behemoth Warner, delivering Hypnotic Nights (not to be confused with last month’s Hypnotic Knights EP, all four songs of which appear here). Despite the heavy-hitting financial backing, the brothers don’t really bother to switch anything up ― any of these tracks could have appeared on either of their last two albums. But while the basic premise is the same ― singer/guitarist Jake Orrall’s lackadaisical vocals are featured overtop some of the best punk, garage and psychedelic rock tracks going. Read the full review on Exclaim

Old Crow Medicine Show – Carry Me Back
However, in contrast to previous album, 2008’s Tennessee Pusher, a thrilling, rabble-rousing record about drug users, hustlers and the disaffected, Carry Me Back has a more down-home feel to it.

It moves from a gentle, toe-tapping porch song mood on tracks like the pleading and twangy Ain’t It Enough and Genevieve, which has an emotional bite to it with lines like “your love like fire and your heart like a guillotine”, to a thigh-slapping jaunt on the lovely fiddle-driven ditty Levi. Read the full review on NZ Herald

Baroness – Yellow & Green
Rather than settle into a specific signature, Baroness, and in particular frontman and guitarist John Baizley, has chosen to expand the palette through, in many cases, simplification. This is a more direct record than “Red” or “Blue”. Baizley has added more melody, more hooks, without surrendering the foundation he started the band with.

“Take My Bones Away” helps the listener transform from the fractal edginess of “Blue” to the warmer tones of “Yellow & Green”. Call it a hinge song, if you will. The fuzziness and grunge root remains, but the metallic weight is tempered by maturation. This sets us up for the anthemic feel of “March to the Sea” which flows into “Little Things”. Read the full review on Examiner