Chuck Campbell

A press release that accompanies Alyssa Graham's new "Lock, Stock & Soul" quotes the singer as saying she was tricked into doing "scratch vocals" (basically, trial vocals that she expected would be overdubbed or re-recorded) for her new "Lock, Stock ...

Novalima dresses up ancient music without disrespecting it.

Van Halen's back with "A Different Kind of Truth," and why not?

The Fray is a good band, if not a great one, and its new “Scars & Stories” is a good release, if not a great one. The group plugs along on its third album in an effort to build on ...

Nada Surf’s latest release is built on searing guitars and soaring melodies, lively rhythms and absorbing refrains. But to concentrate on the structure of “The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy” is to miss the bigger picture: The deft arrangements are ...

Good news for those absorbed by the months-long, pre-release hype for Lana Del Rey’s “Born to Die”: The singer is totally committed to the vibe and persona she puts forth on the advance singles “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans.”

Despite what the calendar says, it’s always summer-like in most of Brazil. And the nation’s most famous music forms are sultry, evoking feelings of sensual, tropical warmth. So the new compilation “Brazilian Beat” could be as effective an anti-winter remedy ...

If music genres were blood types, Jeff Lorber’s redefined version of “jazz fusion” would be O positive: It’s universal and it blends with everything.

Attack Attack! lives up to its name, full-throttle, by aggressively blazing through its 10-track would-be concept album "This Means War."

CBS has revealed information about "Survivor: One World," debuting Feb. 15, and for fans of the show, the news is promising.

It’s good of Liftoff to include a suggested listening time in the title of the group’s new “Sunday Morning Airplay.” Playing it at the wrong hour could lead to dire circumstances: For example, those who operate heavy machinery wouldn’t want ...

It’s hard to reconcile Madi Diaz's storied background with her new “Plastic Moon,” which sounds like the humble project of a small-town girl with little experience in the music industry.

Yo Gotti’s new “Live From the Kitchen” sounds like something from years ago — and not just because it has reportedly been delayed from release by a couple of years. It sounds older than that, like from more than a ...

SafetySuit may be fractured on “These Times,” but its heart is in the right place. The Nashville-based band's new “These Times” is loaded with radio-friendly songs, though they don’t fit together for a satisfying whole.

Sure, Kathleen Edwards is one of the many low-key, brooding singer-songwriters who cross genres and overshare about themselves via intimate lyrics. But few of them do downcast confessionals like Edwards does on her new “Voyageur.”

Some mainstream observers might mistakenly regard Skrillex as this year's Esperanza Spalding, who last year was a surprise Best New Artist Grammy nominee against much-higher-profile competition.

The Chickadees have graduated from music for preschoolers to music for primary-school-age children with their new “The Froggy Hop,” which follows the Milwaukee-based quartet’s younger-skewing debut, “Songs From the Great Outdoors.”

Camille Bloom navigates through the ordinary ups and downs of the human experience on her new “Never out of Time,” and her challenge is to avoid sounding ordinary. That’s a tall order for the Seattle-based acoustic-rock singer-songwriter, given all the ...

KG Omulo is an “Afro-urban” music mixologist, a native of Kenya transplanted to Florida who has concocted a range of Afro-hyphenate styles — Afro-funk, Afro-pop, Afro-beat — with a heady Caribbean flavor and strains of rock and blues for his ...

Indo-Canadian singer Kiran Ahluwalia teams up with Mali band Tinariwen for “Aam Zameen: Common Ground,” and indeed they find common ground in their music, though their homelands are world’s apart.

If they don’t know any better, those who happen across songs from Astral’s “Forever After” might be scratching their heads trying to identify what old band is playing — Joy Division? The Cult? The Cure? My Bloody Valentine?

On “Archive + Spiral,” Thomas Comerford sounds like one of those friends you go to when you’re feeling down, because he’s always feeling worse.

The Brooklyn duo Little Jackie essentially invites listeners to psychoanalyze frontwoman Imani Coppola, who on "Made for TV" presents herself as a strong, intelligent, plainspoken, lustful woman who has trouble landing and hanging on to relationships.

Producer John Parish, most famous for his work with PJ Harvey, amped up the electricity for the British trio Peggy Sue, positioning them in a post-grunge, post-apocalyptic darkness with “Acrobats.” Not coincidentally, the formerly acoustic-orientd Peggy Sue now harkens 1990s-era ...

Artists who make music for themselves above all others are creating on a pure level. Trouble is, others may have a hard time connecting to their work.

hose who loathe mainstream music should consider the eerie gorgeousness of Reigns’ “The Widow Blades.”

Eli Lieb is reportedly a lifelong devotee of Transcendental Meditation, and one listen to his self-produced, self-titled debut confirms he’s way off pace from the norm. Unfortunately, the mopey “Eli Lieb” likely destines him to obscurity for now, an underappreciated ...

Kids today sure like that ’80s music. London trio The Good Natured — featuring 20-year-old Sarah McIntosh as its frontwoman — is one of the more recent, and more effective, acts to put a modern spin on pop’s quirkiest decade.

Brooklyn-based, Bulgarian-born singer Vlada Tomova went on a song-finding mission to a remote village in her native land, and the results manifest themselves in her new “Balkan Tales.” Yet those who expect this to be a revealing tribute to indigenous ...

Those who listen to the near-constant squalls of electricity from Junius might feel blown over from the noise of the band’s deep exploration of the afterlife on “Reports From the Threshold of Death.” The Boston band couldn’t tackle a heavier ...

Unlike releases from other singing-show competitors, "RED" doesn’t force "The Voice" runner-up Dia Frampton into a generic hodgepodge of mainstream-targeted styles. Instead, it’s mostly tailored to her offbeat voice and unusual perspectives.

The hard-rock band Alesana is breathtakingly ambitious on its new “A Place Where the Sun Is Silent,” going farther than few bands of any genre would go. Yet paradoxically, they don’t go far enough.

Howie D, aka Howie Dorough, attempts to stand on his own with the appropriately titled solo release “Back to Me.”

By emphasizing the “evolve” in “revolver,” T-Pain, the king of Auto-Tune and juvenile party songs, apparently wants us to think he’s a mature romantic, too. That’s hard to buy given that he rarely shows heart and doesn’t even sound human.

Kate Bush hangs many associations of winter on the season’s most fragile icon, the snowflake, with her gorgeous new “50 Words for Snow.” The veteran U.K. artist relies on her deeper range here, and she sinks into her compelling concept, ...

Family bands are an old-fashioned idea, so it’s fitting that Kitty, Daisy & Lewis have such an old-fashioned sound on “Smoking in Heaven,” a melange of roots rock, swing, jump blues and more, resulting in something of an adult-oriented, old-school ...

Mary J. Blige's dubious decision to make a sequel to her breakthrough release "My Life" hits several rough patches, but she ultimately pulls it off.

There’s nothing remotely mainstream about Beats Antique, but the masses have heard little bits of what the San Francisco band is all about.

The soundtrack for the new "Muppets" movie features a little bit of everything — new songs by Muppets, new songs by people, old songs by Muppets, old songs by people ... and a whole lot of dialogue bits from the ...

Nickelback is susceptible to relentless criticism because the band is blatantly formulaic and simplistic, and the Alberta, Canada, group makes the target that much bigger with “Here and Now.” But even if Nickelback is disposable rock, does everything have to ...

Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Mariah McManus introduces herself with “Nice to Meet You,” a debut that reveals considerable promise. But thanks to her erratic delivery, all is not rosy

Anything can happen in a dream: You might be running for your life from a toothbrush in one and simply stuck in traffic in another. Dreamers of the Ghetto produces music for life-changing dreams — like if you were to ...

Crafty Pink Martini offers its services to Japanese singer Saori Yuki on “1969” to commemorate the year of her debut release.

In the most intense episode yet of “Survivor: South Pacific” (8 p.m. Wednesdays, WVLT), Knoxville native Ben "Coach" Wade undermined his opponents' elaborate strategy with a weapon they hadn't thought of: kindness.

Anything can, and does, come out of Austin, the Texas city whose vibrant music scene isn’t limited to outlaw country and hard-nose rock. So it isn’t surprising that SPEAK’s roots are in Austin; the surprise is that the group exists ...

Knoxville native Ben “Coach” Wade made God a key part of his alliance on the last episode of CBS’s “Survivor: South Pacific” (8 p.m. Wednesdays, WVLT), praying early and often, alone and in a group.

Cosmo Jarvis is an inventive/indulgent artist run amok on his new “Is the World Strange or Am I Strange?” The 22-year-old multi-media talent has produced droll short films and music videos with eccentric flair, so it’s no surprise his new ...

Kelly Clarkson sells it. She takes all that is artificial and makes it sound organic. “Stronger” is angry and vindictive, and her gutsy vocals carry the relentless theme from one defiant anthem to the next, edging her near Adele’s level ...

Knoxville native Ben "Coach" Wade turned to prayer as a means to strengthen his Upolu tribe on the last episode of "Survivor: South Pacific."

Knoxville native Ben “Coach” Wade hit some bumps in the road on the last episode of CBS’s “Survivor: South Pacific” (8 p.m. Wednesdays, WVLT), though he ultimately made a big play that could benefit him, if not his Upolu tribe.