REVIEW: Blending big ballads with confessional lyrics, Sheva touches listeners at the core of their emotions. Scott G gets lost in the melodies of “The Closest Thing” even while admiring the sonic textures of her band.

REVIEW: You’ll find clever lyrics, strong melodies, and excellent musicianship on songs in several genres on the new Rob Kendt album. But as Scott G points out, this may be too much of a good thing.

REVIEWS: Scott G goes back to old habits by writing a batch of CD reviews. As in his prior reviews, the musical styles he covers are all over the place, from the hip hop of Enjae to the glorious organized noise of Nine Inch Nails, from East/West chanteuse Noa Dori to two very diverse soundtracks (’Rize’ and ‘Young, Single and Angry’).

REVIEW: Some music soothes you. Some seduces you. And some swaggers up to you and hits you over the head with a box of skateboard parts. Scott G (The G-Man) writes about an upstart new band called Manic Circuit that slams its way into your skull with songs of raw power combined with progressive structure.

REVIEW: I was pretty excited to hear about the new disc “Fingerprints” (A&M/New Door/UMe) from Peter Frampton, a seminal guitar god from the ’70s who became enormously famous for his “Frampton Comes Alive” album and for his formant-tube guitar “talk box” sound on that record 30 years ago. I hadn’t really thought about him much lately except when my iTunes jukebox cycled around to his tunes. So, getting the new disc was like hearing from an old friend again.