Kandi Coded:
Fell For the Gift
Fell For the Gift's pleasures are thus few and far between, and any kicks it might provide were already delivered in spades 20 years ago. [Chris Middleman]
Juliana Hatfield:
Peace and Love
Armed with a secondhand eight-track recorder, Hatfield ditched the confines of the studio and retreated to the back room of her Cambridge apartment to capture her most independent, intimate work. [Stacey Pavlick]
Interview: Jack Barnett of These New Puritans
"Pretentious is the most ridiculous word, I don't really understand it. We're not as pretentious as the bands playing jangly guitars trying to look all cool and appeal to everyone." [Marcus David]
Rediscover: Baby Gramps
Same Ol' Timeously
Listening to Gramps perform is like taking an interactive tour through America's musical heritage, from the first generation of recordings in the 1920s to the folk ballads of the Great Depression to the jazz and blues-infected Southern folklore that followed. [Marcus David]
Ewan Pearson:
We Are Proud of Our Choices
A great DJ mix isn't meant to have standouts. The music is meant to live and breathe as a whole being, and We Are Proud of Our Choices follows that code pretty vehemently. [Luke Winkie]
Titus Andronicus:
The Monitor
Listening to The Monitor is like being shoved face-first into a musical blender, with large chunks of punk colliding with smaller fragments of horns, barroom piano, bombastic arena-ready group sing-alongs, strings, harmonicas and bagpipes. [Eric Dennis]
The Watson Twins:
Talking To You, Talking To Me
The Watson Twins swap their homespun country-rock and relaxed delivery for a vamped-up, full sound owing more to jazz and smoke-filled soul than apple pies and slide guitars. [Jason Stoff]
Ruby Suns:
Fight Softly
Fight Softly is entirely and unabashedly a cutesy diversion, but this time it's released in a market utterly swollen with bands trying to evoke the same feeling. [Luke Winkie]
Gentle Friendy:
Ride Slow
The duo's style recalls a quirky, hard-hitting and entropic version of bands like the Jesus and Mary Chain and Depeche Mode. [Jory Spadea]
Moon Duo:
Escape
You can lose yourself several times over the course of Escape, waking with a jolt with one of those "this song is still playing" moments. [Chris Middleman]
Interview: James Husband from Of Montreal
"I enjoy a big audience. Singing or playing in front of several thousand is comfortable to me now, but in a bar with less than a hundred... I shit myself." [Melissa Muenz]
High on Fire:
Snakes for the Divine
Snakes for the Divine is an absolute rampage with some of the slickest instrumentation and staggering momentum of anything released recently, regardless of genre. [Luke Winkie]
Past Lives:
Tapestry of Webs
Past Lives' first full-length, Tapestry of Webs, has no easily-identifiable stylistic hook or quirk and instead demands more attention of the listener. [Chris Middleman]
These New Puritans:
Hidden
Hidden is among the most complex, ambitious and downright exhausting, the rare kind of trend-altering effort that critics and fans may find themselves eulogizing for years to come. [Marcus David]
Jason Falkner:
I'm OK... You're OK
Falkner played virtually every note, but the results sound less like an obsessive studio rat and more like a rollicking live band. [Barbara Mitchell]
Pantha du Prince:
Black Noise
Minimal techno has become so stuck on single-idea tracks that it's rather refreshing to hear the trappings of the genre culminate into something that isn't a diminishing fadeout. [Luke Winkie]
Excepter:
Presidence
Excepter may be perpetually giving aesthetic guidelines the finger, but their singular, anti-logical process has proven a stubborn imperative. [Brady Baker]
Son Lux:
Weapons EP
By denying all pretentiousness, Weapons becomes a perfect tool to whet our appetite for the next Son Lux album. [Jory Spadea]
Tindersticks:
Falling Down a Mountain
Falling Down a Mountain is an interesting and curiously charming album that pales slightly next to Tindersticks' early classics, failing to improve on an established formula but doing little to tarnish it. [Michael Merline]
Galactic:
Ya-Ka-May
If you're looking for old, funkadelic Galactic, they blasted off many years ago and probably won't be coming back. [Jory Spadea]
Joanna Newsom:
Have One On Me
The main selling points here are individual moments that sneak up on you and reel you in. Right when you decide to play it back, you're enraptured by the hint of another momentous musical shift on the horizon. [Kyle Wall]
Phantogram:
Eyelid Movies
With pop aspirations that are capably met, Eyelid Movies is My Bloody Valentine meets Nightmares on Wax. [Brady Baker]
Eluvium:
Similes
Similes has some singing, but about 90% of it is still an ambient record and a pretty good one. [Neal Fersko]
Last Spin: Traveling Wilburys
Vol. 1 and Vol. 3
If you told a classic rock leaning fan who was unfamiliar with the Wilburys about their line-up (Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne) they'd probably freak out and wonder why they hadn't heard their albums. [Lukas Sherman]
Shearwater:
The Golden Archipelago
The Golden Archipelago could use more peaks and fewer valleys, but it is an impressive, complex album that rewards multiple listens and continues Shearwater's ascent. [Lukas Sherman]
The Soft Pack:
The Soft Pack
From its very first track, The Soft Pack is easy to write off. After all, we live in a post-Ramones, post-Fugazi and post-Strokes world here. [Brady Baker]
Adam Green:
Minor Love
Minor Love comes off like a collection of anti-folk campfire songs. Essentially, it's a guy with a guitar telling stories through song. [Stacey Pavlick]
Toro y Moi:
Causers of This
Causers of This is certainly more album-orientated then most of its contemporaries, which probably explains why it took until the new year for it to surface as a full-length. [Luke Winkie]
Shining:
Blackjazz
Shining is proving that there is a way to extend a bridge to disparate listenerships by playing with a fierce and passionate creativity that makes everyone stand at attention. [Neal Fersko]
Mount Eerie:
Black Wooden EP
Black Wooden is music excavated from the dirty corners of the world, an arid basement, a creaky farm or a haunted mansion. [Luke Winkie]
Robert Pollard:
We All Got Out of the Army
Cynics may quip that the only thing that ever changes about a Robert Pollard record is the title and listeners might get the feeling that they've heard the songs on Army before. [Marcus David]
The Brunettes:
Paper Dolls
The Brunettes' synth-pop background that makes jewel heists and prize fights sound as innocuous as a stroll though the park with an ice cream cone. [Barbara Mitchell]
Screaming Females:
Singles
As time goes on, the Screaming Females actually become heavier and more discordant than on their earliest recordings. [Neal Fersko]
Max Richter:
Memoryhouse
Memoryhouse, recorded with the BBC philharmonic orchestra, is an admirable, extended concord, with a lot of propulsion and some truly breathtaking highlights. [Luke Winkie]
Local Natives:
Gorilla Manor
Local Natives' debut, Gorilla Manor, although never not pretty, does substantially little to solve the stymied progress of psych-folk's creative growth. [Luke Winkie]
Pepi Ginsberg:
East is East
Ginsberg's voice recalls both Bob Dylan and Patti Smith, although to pigeonhole her as a mere amalgamation of the two isn't fair or accurate. [Marcus David]
Gil Scott-Heron:
I'm New Here
I'm New Here represents a sort of resurfacing for Scott-Heron who shifts away from the social concerns with which he's associated, toward the product of an elder artist taking stock of more personal concerns. [Chris Middleman]
Home:
Seventeen
Seventeen won't embarrass its creators, but it won't be considered Home's finest moment either. [Eric Dennis]
Massive Attack:
Heligoland
All the different guest singers make Massive Attack's latest feel more like a singles compilation and you find yourself evaluating it singer by singer rather than as a whole. [Lukas Sherman]
Retribution Gospel Choir:
2
2 is ultimately an inferior sequel to a side project that leaves the listener wondering when Sparhawk will turn the volume back down and drop a new Low album. [Kyle Wall]
Interview: Jenny Owen Youngs
"I am fond of Jameson. Normally I wait until its dark which means about 4:00 this time of year. But it's harder and harder for me to drink whiskey nowadays because it gets me so angry." [Neal Fersko]
Yeasayer:
Odd Blood
If Odd Blood pisses off a few diehards, Yeasayer will still have plenty of new fans by the time their next album rolls around. [Michael Merline]
Pit Er Pat:
The Flexible Entertainer
Though Pit Er Pat still posses their indistinct, atmospheric sound, the loss of Doran's bass means a loss of the band's sense of timing and structure. [KayJay]
Revisit: Elvis Costello
Spike (Demo Version)
In retrospect the demos hold up much better than their polished album counterparts: their simplicity and sparseness are what make them so fascinating and far superior to the actual album in many respects. [Eric Dennis]
Hot Chip:
One Life Stand
Introspective, un-electronic and kinda mopey, Hot Chip has matured their sound into a much more subdued rendition of their previous puppy-dog excitability. [Luke Winkie]
Fredrik:
Trilogi
Trilogi is the kind of album that goes with winter; it's the kind of album that you listen to deep in the dark of the night. [Nathan Kamal]
The Album Leaf:
A Chorus of Storytellers
One would hope that the next time the Album Leaf takes three years off between albums to focus on songwriting, the result contains a more substantial story. [Kyle Wall]
Basia Bulat:
Heart of My Own
The problem with Basia Bulat's Heart of My Own is for all her compositional and arranging chops, it comes off as too polite in her songwriting and in her own vocals. [Chris Middleman]
Malachai:
Ugly Side of Love
Despite their own allegiance to some brilliant influences, Malachai's Gee and Scott have manipulated their musical pilferage into something greater. [Jory Spadea]
Interview: Franz Nicolay
"We had a big spread on the cover of the Times arts section talking about the band and talking about the record. It really felt like that, that night, we were playing the biggest show in New York." [David Harris]
Midlake:
The Courage of Others
Most of the songs here, for better or worse, are most reminiscent of their Van Occupanther brethren, and too often sound like the work of a band running in place. [Eric Dennis]
Various Artists:
Casual Victim Pile
An anagram of the city's nickname, "live music capital," the disc has 19 tracks that don't even begin to serve the listener by offering an accurate cross-section of rock music in Austin. [Chris Middleman]
Charlotte Gainsbourg:
IRM
Although the basic elements stay consistent throughout the album, Gainsbourg and Beck manage to stretch the boundaries of a formula to both great and poor effect. [Nathan Kamal]
Four Tet:
There Is Love in You
There Is Love in You sees Hebden return to the euphoria and accessibility of Rounds though he no longer resembles the artist who produced that seminal work. [Brady Baker]
Shapes Stars Make:
These Mountains Are Safe
Largely instrumental and dominated by Gooden's shimmering, deceptively simple guitars, These Mountains Are Safe never quite becomes an ambient album and remains a little too grounded and firm to turn into dream pop.. [Nathan Kamal]
Eels:
End Times
End Times is a stark contrast and fitting complement to Hombre Lobo, rejecting the latter's hopeful outlook in favor of reluctant acceptance and increasing disillusionment. [Michael Merline]
Beach House:
Teen Dream
There are echoes of such stalwarts of slow, pretty music as late Velvet Underground, Galaxie 500, Mazzy Star and Low, but Beach House never sound derivative. [Lukas Sherman]
Polysics:
Absolute Polysics
Absolute Polysics is exactly what you'd expect from a new Polysics record. It's short, punchy, full of frivolous retro-rock splendor and utterly devoid of shame. [Luke Winkie]
Tape Deck Mountain:
Ghost
Tape Deck Mountain makes yet another good case for the power of lo-fi pop music. In an increasingly polished world, a little fuzz and distortion can do the ears and the heart well. [Nathan Kamal]
Revisit: New York Dolls
New York Dolls
New York Dolls' debut album was the sound of a couple of young guys rampaging through the city while the city rampaged right back through their psyches. [Chris Middleman]
The Magnetic Fields:
Realism
Although most bands that focus on the lonely topics of puppy love and broken hearts grow tiresome after a single record, the Magnetic Fields somehow continue to sound as fresh and innovative as they ever have. [Marcus David]
RJD2:
The Colossus
The collaborations on The Colossus are certainly a success. The same can't be said for RJD2's solo offerings, which hit or miss as often as they flip genres. [Jory Spadea]
Interview: Langhorne Slim
"I hope not, because we're going to play some with those guys soon, and if it did I'm gonna beat them up." [Melissa Muenz]
Laura Veirs:
July Flame
It seems Veirs has traded studying rocks for canning peaches, letting her defenses crumble and her vulnerabilities glow. Even her enunciation is more ethereal. [Barbara Mitchell]
Spoon:
Transference
As you might expect with a band at the boards on their own album, there's a lot of vintage Spoon on Transference. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Interview: Eddie Argos of Art Brut
"I try to write lyrics that are conversational. Like me in a pub talking. These are the things I talk about. I'm pissed off that all these bands sound like U2 or I love comics or I just heard the Replacements." [David Harris]
Final Fantasy:
Heartland
Heartland is a nearly cinematic listen, although both the inscrutability of Pallett's lyrics and his tendency to bury his own fine, if slightly unmemorable, voice deep in the mix make the lyrics frequently difficult to decipher. [Nathan Kamal]
Devil Eyes:
Devil Eyes
Devil Eyes plays like a bunch of songs and jokes you've already heard. [Chris Middleman]
Vampire Weekend:
Contra
Vampire Weekend's sophomore album couldn't be better timed, as January is a bleak month, in terms of both climate and music releases. [Lukas Sherman]
13th Chime:
Complete Discography
Though the Chime's catalog contains heavy amounts of stereotypically goth themes, their best songs are notable for their introspective undertones and social concerns. [Eric Dennis]
General Elektriks:
Good City For Dreamers
Continuing the vintage electro-R&B crust Cliquety Kliqk initiated, Paris native Salters dishes out another home-baked casserole of Moog-y Euro-lounge. [Jory Spadea]
Interview: Vic Chesnutt
"Oh, it's a timestamp. There's no doubt a-fucking-bout it, man. This is a fucking timestamp. I can't do it now because it's so dated. I never do it. But at the time it was one of my greatest songs." [David Harris]
k-os:
Yes!
The real message of Yes! lies right in its title: positivity- which comes in abundance here. [Cameron Mason]
Lucero:
1372 Overton Park
There's something about Ben Nichols' fixation on the dark side that is genuinely galvanizing. [Jason Stoff]
On Fillmore:
Extended Vacation
Extended Vacation picks up where Sleeps With Fishes left off, though this time around Glenn Kotche and bassist Darin Gray favor a more compositional approach instead of previous improvisational tendencies. [Jory Spadea]
Vitalic:
Flashmob
Vitalic's sound is a glossy club enterprise, and not much has changed some four years after his worthy debut. [Michael Merline]
Tribute: Vic Chesnutt (1964-2009)
Life is often portrayed as painfully transient at best in a Vic Chesnutt song. His albums are littered with characters whose little dramas we can recognize as our own and take consolation in. [Eric Dennis]
DJ Spooky:
The Secret Song
The Secret Song, his sixth full-length album under the DJ Spooky moniker, shows evidence that Miller has long left behind the narrow confines of hip hop, embracing a wealth of collaborators from a wide variety of musical spheres. [Sean Marchetto]
Pants Yell!:
Received Pronunciation
Though too generic to inspire more than a passing interest, Received Pronunciation is clever enough to hold your attention for 26 minutes. Brevity is sometimes a virtue. [Brady Baker]
Russian Circles:
Geneva
Russian Circles is not afraid to layer and spread their sonic textures, which weave together into a complex and rounded audio landscape. [Rafael Gaitan]
Annie:
Don't Stop
Initially scheduled to mark cult-electropop singer Annie's major label debut last year, Don't Stop has finally made its way onto record shelves. [Sean Marchetto]
Lymbyc Systym:
Shutter Release
Those unfamiliar with Lymbyc Systym will find these 42 minutes a perfect starting point. Shutter Release is a thesis of their music, a hybrid of the sound they've been honing. [Jory Spadea]
Interview: Cass McCombs
" I don't know where this came from that I don't like doing interviews. I've always done every interview that someone has asked me to do. Somehow people think that I'm evasive. I don't know what it is." [David Harris]
Revisit: William Burroughs
A Spoken Breakdown
Those versed in Burroughs' fiction will find plenty of the familiar characters who have graced and disgraced the pages of the writer's seedy rants and semi-autobiographical novels throughout A Spoken Breakdown. [Marcus David]
Little Dragon:
Machine Dreams
Knowing, at this stage in the game, Little Dragon is this consistently good can only mean the band has unbelievably classic material waiting to be released in the future. [KayJay]
Dead Man's Bones:
Dead Man's Bones
Actor Ryan Gosling appears neither egotistical nor irrelevant as the big name behind Dead Man's Bones. This is a high-concept, lo-fi slice of weird that's often delightfully novel without ending up a mere novelty. [Brady Baker]
Asobi Seksu:
Rewolf
With only three previous albums to their credit, it would seem awkward to consider Rewolf a "Best Of" collection, which in essence it is. [Sean Marchetto]
Arrington de Dionyso:
Malaikat dan Singa
On new solo album, Malaikat dan Singa, Arrington de Dionyso sings entirely in Indonesian, taking lyrics from mystic poet/artist William Blake and a Kabbalah text. Are you sufficiently intrigued? [Lukas Sherman]
PLAYLIST: David Bowie
The newest PLAYLIST focuses on David Bowie. What if you had to choose the best of the Thin White Duke? Unfortunately, there is just one small parameter to overcome....
Cobra Killer:
Uppers & Downers
The real fun the record presents us with is the way D'Orio and Trost treat the English language, and by extension, pop music, as an artsy playground. [Chris Middleman]
Bobby Birdman:
New Moods
New Moods is an immensely promising, rewarding work that easily stands out in a year crowded with excellent electronic releases. [Morgan Davis]
Weezer:
Raditude
Although, Rivers Cuomo is far past his sell-by date, his earnest songwriting has always been attuned to this teenage sensibility. [Rafael Gaitan]
Interview: Peter Silberman of The Antlers
"I wasn't in a sensory deprivation tank or in a cabin in the woods. It's gotten out of hand. What happened: I stopped talking to my friends. Why that happened: that's explained in the record." [Eric Dennis]
Rediscover: Songs: Ohia
The Lioness
Hidden among his many albums released under the Songs: Ohia moniker, in a year in which he recorded three records, 2000's The Lioness stands out like smoldering coals in a dark night. [Sean Marchetto]
Clare & the Reasons:
Arrow
Clare Muldaur's voice is the centerpiece of these songs, as it should be - she often sounds as if she's singing from inside your head- high, clear and impossible to ignore. [Jason Stoff]
Tegan and Sara:
Sainthood
There aren't really any surprises on this album, a disappointment especially when fans have waited so long for something new. [Aimee Herman]
Holy Sons:
Criminal's Return
Holy Sons' albums are best listened to as complete, organic pieces, in which the small intricacies of the sound can be best appreciated. [Nathan Kamal]
Gift of Gab:
Escape 2 Mars
In Escape 2 Mars, Gift of Gab has made his most obvious grab for the mainstream market yet, albeit a mainstream that doesn't really exist anymore. [Morgan Davis]
Tom Waits:
Glitter and Doom Live
Glitter and Doom Live will help ease the pain for the many of us who could not make the trip to Tulsa to catch this elusive eccentric at work. [David Harris]
Revisit: Allen Ginsberg
The Lion For Real
Like baseball, bebop and blue jeans, the Beat Generation is entwined in the consciousness and identity of America, its influence transcending its relatively brief heyday and continuing to impact American culture. [Marcus David]
Maps:
Turning the Mind
There's elements of both Spiritualized's electronic gospel and the kind of weary narcotics-fetishism that British house has always embraced, but it's all far too washed out by mid-'90s club clichés and synthesizers so overblown they sometimes sound a parody of themselves. [Nathan Kamal]
Real Estate:
Real Estate
There is just not enough variation to complement these songs' ethereal and nostalgic qualities, and eventually the album collectively becomes fairly ponderous and plodding. [Eric Dennis]
Lou Barlow:
Goodnight Unknown
Goodnight Unknown is the first solo work from the prolific Barlow, built around songs he wrote in hotel rooms while on various reunion tours. [Sean Marchetto]
White Denim:
Fits
Fits, the third full-length from Austin's White Denim, is one of those rare albums that, upon its conclusion, renders pretty much every other CD, mp3 or record in your music library temporarily impotent. [Chris Middleman]
Themselves:
Crownsdown
Maybe Crownsdown is just palette cleanser Themselves needed to make before going back to rewriting the boundaries of hip hop once more. [Morgan Davis]
The Swimmers:
People Are Soft
People Are Soft is a rare thing- an album that borders on pastiche yet still sounds fresh and rewarding. [Nathan Kamal]
60 Watt Kid:
We Come From the Bright Side
Three tracks into We Come From the Bright Side, it's evident that we are light-years away from the comfort of traditional, grounded music. This vast distance doesn't mean 60 Watt Kid founders Kevin Litrow and Derek Thomas have backed us beyond the borders of alienation. [Jory Spadea]
Interview: G. Lucas Crane of Woods
"Yeah, that's funny. I remember seeing the porn theatre when I ate the donut. That's comforting.
You get your music, you get your sugar fix and you get your porn." [David Harris]
Wolfmother:
Cosmic Egg
The primordial trudge and explosive riffs still make appearances, but they're largely undercut by attempts at musical growth - something it initially seemed Wolfmother rejected the very idea of. [Aaron Passman]
Julian Casablancas:
Phrazes for the Young
While a promising solo debut, it feels like Casablancas was performing a trial run for the next record in the same way that his guest vocals on the Lonely Island's "Boombox" felt like a trial run for this album. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Elvis Perkins in Dearland:
The Doomsday EP
This six-song effort at least showcases the singer's rich, absorbing voice and pays tribute to the folk and gospel influences that he's hinted at before, but never made so obvious until now. [Marcus David]
The Jesus Lizard:
Head/Goat/Liar/Down (reissue)
For those not familiar with the Jesus Lizard, the reissues will serve as an ideal overview of the band, while hardcore fans who know there is no better insult than calling someone a mouth-breather should be satisfied with the bonus tracks and the releases' overall aesthetic. [Eric Dennis]
Small Black:
Small Black
This musical incarnation successfully showcases Kolenick's undeniable lyrical skills and the duo's ability to create a multi-layered sound indicative of a quality greater than with which it was created. [KayJay]
R.E.M.:
Live at the Olympia
For the first time in ages, R.E.M. would no longer be playing to an arena of millions, but an intimate club show. Rather than fill up an album with bombastic live pieces that may work well in the impersonal chambers of the Wachovia Center, R.E.M. offers up 39 tracks here whose nature also succeed on the intimacy of the home stereo, car stereo or iPod. [David Harris]
Jemina Pearl:
Break it Up
In a plastic pop world of Miley Cyruses, American Idols and Lady Gagas, Jemina Pearl is a much-needed blast of attitude and punk spirit. She's the anti-diva. [Lukas Sherman]
Flight of the Conchords:
I Told You I Was Freaky
Flight of the Conchords doesn't take the easy road- sticking to what they know best. But whatever their formula is for succeeding at tackling each genre they set their sights on, they should keep it a secret. [Cameron Mason]
Morrissey:
Swords
You may love Steven Patrick Morrissey because nobody understood your adolescent self like he did; he knew why you wore black on the outside, but that doesn't mean he doesn't want your money. [Lukas Sherman]
Thao with The Get Down Stay Down:
Know Better Learn Faster
By turns yearning and brash, Thao is reminiscent of Karen O's more girlish moments, and her new album is a collection of bright, wistful songs so upbeat that it's a pity that it didn't come out a few months ago. If anything ever sounded like summer, it's this. [Nathan Kamal]
Rediscover: Phantom Planet
Raise the Dead
Sounds like a lot of high-concept stuff for the guys who opened a half hour of teen drama with a wistful song about The Golden State, right? Wrong. Raise the Dead was by no means a perfect record, but it is what so many rock records refuse to be - pure, energetic fun. [Jason Stoff]
The Clientele:
Bonfires of the Hearth
The Clientele continue to seduce ears and seemingly pine for an eternal autumn, a season full of earthy colors and crisp breezes, not yet cold and sunless. It's a lush season, and an unsurprising subject for the band's equally lush musicianship. [Jason Stoff]
Kings of Convenience:
Declaration of Dependence
Kings of Convenience fight the doldrums with hooks, marking the band's greatest feat: deeply sad acoustic songs that are simultaneously catchy. It's pop for people who hate to dance. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Interview: Stephen Kellogg of Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers
" You know, there's just a sort of--through living this life and through going through all that experiences, I think our music is way more interesting and meaningful. It's not like cool-people music, it's like music for real people." [Aimee Herman]
The Very Best:
Warm Heart of Africa
There is no denying that Warm Heart of Africais infectious, with pulsing dream beats interspersed with piercing violins, buzzing electro and sample upon sample. You may not know just what you're singing along to, but you will definitely find yourself singing along to this music. [Nicola Fairhead]
Princeton:
Cocoon of Love
Cocoon of Love is an emotionally wrenching reflection on love and love lost which is an acceptable album by debut standards, but annoying in its attempt to forcefully intrigue rather than effortlessly entertain. [KayJay]
Bob Dylan:
Christmas in the Heart
Christmas in the Heart is not some radical reinvention of carols and hymnals. In fact, the album is what it is, a holiday record featuring Bob Dylan taking a swing at some of our most beloved Yuletide times. And he does a pretty good job at it. [David Harris]
Orenda Fink:
Ask The Night
Orenda Fink is one of those prolific but low profile musicians that deserve cult followings much larger than they have. Accompanied here by a country and gospel-style band, she channels these influences into 10 well-crafted songs created in homage to the lonely night. [Sean Marchetto]
The Swell Season:
Strict Joy
The ironically titled Strict Joy, the duo's second record as The Swell Season, is about as joyless as an all-expenses paid trip to Flint, Michigan. It's also one of the most beautiful and complex albums in recent years. [Marcus David]
The King Khan & BBQ Show:
Invisible Girl
With Invisible Girl, King Khan and BBQ sound just as gleeful as they look on the front of their self-titled record. With something for everyone in its grooves, if you don't like any of it, you simply don't like rock 'n' roll. [Chris Middleman]
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis:
White Lunar
While some soundtrack music is little more than incidental, it is obvious that Cave and Ellis worked not only to create soundscapes that fit the moving images but also could exist as stand-alone mini-suites of sorrow and melancholy. [David Harris]
Interview: Sonya Cotton
"My spirituality is based in a reverence for the natural world, and a reverence for love. I perceive that there are forces greater than we can know or understand, and they are powerful." [Eva Gordon]
Nirvana:
Bleach (reissue)
Bleach remains Nirvana's most inconsistent and least appreciated album, a tiny and wobbly baby step for a band whose legacy and permanent pop culture presence are both assured. [Eric Dennis]
Air:
Love 2
Love 2's best quality is its mood. As indicated by the glossy, pop gem "Sing Sang Sung," Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel are in the sun's warmest rays since Moon Safari. [Jory Spadea]
Fuck Buttons:
Tarot Sport
Like a Gestalt illusion or the neon-orange Rorschach album art, these layered tracks have ambiguous shapes that tend toward varying interpretation. A given track can sound completely different through successive listens depending on which elements happen to catch the ear. [Brady Baker]
J. Tillman:
Year in the Kingdom
Tillman's throaty croon - or more importantly his stylistic use of it - may be what prevents those impressive moments on Kingdom from occurring throughout the entire album instead of just peppering it. [Michael Merline]
Halloween '09 Mix Tape: Release the Bats!
Halloween may be the most rock 'n' roll of all holidays (sorry Bastille Day). Despite its innocuous, even religious, origins, Halloween has come to represent all manner of evil, both supernatural and terrestrial, illicit behavior and things that decent folk avoid. [Lukas Sherman]
Memory Tapes:
Seek Magic
Seek Magic is simultaneously dreamy and wistful, indebted to the elements of dance music while rarely actually being danceable. Hawk's influences are right out on his sleeve, but his skill to meld them keeps it refreshingly original. [Nathan Kamal]
Le Loup:
Family
The entire notion of a music "collective" may reek of ill-conceived indie-art pretentiousness, but the Washington D.C. group Le Loup tows the line perfectly between thoughtful, intelligent experimental musical act and over-inflated, self indulgent high pseudo-art. [KayJay]
Neon Indian:
Psychic Chasms
Neon Indian has been building buzz in the indie community with their strong avoidance of publicity, which is further inflamed by their singles, which have been fawned over by blogs all summer long. [Rafael Gaitan]
The Black Heart Procession:
Six
The songs are about Heaven, Hell, rats, devils and death. Then again, the band is called the Black Heart Procession, so you're not expecting Jack Johnson. [Lukas Sherman]
Revisit: The Best of the Beat Generation Recordings
The 1997 tribute album Kicks Joy Darkness demonstrates Kerouac's staying power and features some of the heaviest hitters in music, literature and showbiz offering a variety of recitations - often set to music - of some of Kerouac's most cherished poems and stories. [Marcus David]
Devendra Banhart:
What Will We Be
Although What Will We Be, Banhart's latest effort and major label debut, still mostly adheres to the template he has followed throughout his career, it is also his most musically straightforward and direct record to date. [Eric Dennis]
Karen O and the Kids:
Where the Wild Things Are OST
Where the Wild Things Are is filled with acoustic guitars, woodwinds, pianos and shouting, joyous choruses; if the thought wasn't so antithetical to the mind, it could be Yeah Yeah Yeahs Unplugged. [Nathan Kamal]
Alec Ounsworth:
Mo Beauty
Those still clutching their dog-eared copies of CYHSY's self-titled debut should be placated, as Mo Beauty shares that album's spirit of genre-hopping without sounding derivative or intentionally difficult. [Eric Dennis]
Harmonia & Eno '76:
Tracks and Traces Re-Released
Tracks and Traces Re-Released is a fine record and a worthy detour into dark territories of sound yet in no way a great lost work from an electronic supergroup of decades passed. [Chris Middleman]
Atlas Sound:
Logos
Logos is an album with potential from a songwriter who could benefit from reigning in his output. Bradford Cox has plenty of great ideas but is sometimes handicapped by his unending stream of output. [Morgan Davis]
Interview: Aimee Mann
"Before, I'd write a song and go, how is the A&R guy gonna react to this? What's the President of Geffen gonna say about this record? In what ways are they gonna tell me to change it?" [Aimee Herman]
Boston Spaceships:
Zero to 99
The trio does what Pollard bands have always done best: assault the senses with a blitzkrieg of rapid-fire punk-pop sing-alongs that reel listeners in with catchy melodies before ending as abruptly as they peaked. [Marcus David]
Mason Proper:
Olly Oxen Free
Olly Oxen Free is a difficult album to fully embrace and is by no means a whimsical or particularly easy listening experience. [Eric Dennis]
Drummer:
Feel Good Together
Feel Good Together speaks with torrents of guitar distortion- a little too rhythmic to be called shoegaze, echoing and billowing entirely too much so as to draw comparisons to a Black Keys kind of earthiness. [Chris Middleman]
Revisit: Big Black
Songs About Fucking
With songs covering topics that few other bands would have the balls (or perhaps good taste) to take on - indiscriminate violence, sexual dominance, South American torture techniques - the album is about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the skull. [Eric Dennis]
The Flaming Lips:
Embryonic
Embryonic marks the audacious, boundary-pushing, 70-minute rebirth of these fearless freaks that reminds us just who we'e dealing with. [Brady Baker]
The Twilight Sad:
Forget the Night Ahead
Setting aside the operatic twee mentality of the previous record, the Scottish quartet has fallen in love with drum and guitar basics of Britpop hooks on their sophomore effort, Forget the Night Ahead. [Neal Fersko]
Lightning Bolt:
Earthly Delights
Lightning Bolt's newest record, Earthly Delights, explodes the moment it begins with "Sound Guardians" as if to deliver the message "Yes, this is a Lightning Bolt album. What did you expect? Now fuck off." [Danny Djeljosevic]
Various Artists:
Warp20: Chosen/Warp: Recreated
Rather than being just a simple cash grab, as so many tribute albums are, it's clear on Recreated that the artists that have taken part have a passion for the label and the acts that it's nurtured over the years. [Morgan Davis]
The Avett Brothers:
I and Love and You
It's time to acknowledge that the Avett Brothers are no longer the underrated college radio gem that made their way to your county's bluegrass festival, but rather an unlikely powerhouse amalgamating pop, rock and folk. [Melissa Muenz]
Sea Wolf:
White Water, White Bloom
Like Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago - another highly stylized success - the wonderful songwriting in Sea Wolf's White Water, White Bloom makes a unique vocal and compositional approach really work. [Michael Merline]
Built To Spill:
There Is No Enemy
Produced by Martsch and Dave Trumfio (Grandaddy, Billy Bragg & Wilco), Enemy dials back some of the lesser elements of their previous effort, 2006's You In Reverse, most notably, distortion and extended running times. [Aaron Passman]
Califone:
All My Friends Are Funeral Singers
This is a good introduction to Califone for those who have not arrived by way of Red Red Meat, but whether sharp songwriting and creative genre-hopping and sublime, chaotic density will stand the test of time still remains to be seen. [Bob McCarthy]
Guilty Pleasure: Crash Test Dummies
God Shuffled His Feet
And why the repeated references to peoples' hair mysteriously changing color? Did Roberts suffer from a rare but debilitating phobia of waking up one day to find his flowing locks an undesirable shade of blue? [Marcus David]
The Raincoats:
The Raincoats
Kill Rock Stars' vinyl-only reissue of The Raincoats' self-titled 1979 debut confirms that the record deserves a spot among the most essential post-punk releases. [Eric Dennis]
Mission of Burma:
The Sound The Speed The Light
The Sound The Speed The Light, the third album of Mission of Burma's aughts reunion is a solid collection of abrasive yet catchy songs. It may sound continually familiar, but it also sounds consistently great. [Nathan Kamal]
Q-Tip:
Kamaal the Abstract
Kamaal the Abstract fails to overcome the epic expectations hoisted upon it, bizarrely not as anti-pop as rumors at the start of the decade made it out to be and not as solid as Q-Tip's own rich back catalog. [Morgan Davis]
Girls:
Album
While it's understandable why Owens and company would want to coat their sugary pop in grime to maintain at least some street cred, it's unfortunately also to the album's detriment, making the band sound like any number of pretenders rather than the talented songsmiths. [Morgan Davis]
Tyondai Braxton:
Central Market
Rather than play off the recent success of his more famous quartet by slapping his name on a Mirrored redux, Braxton's capably ratcheted up the degree of difficulty and pulled off an often thrilling expansion of his own vision. [Brady Baker]
The xx:
xx
The xx have approximated that dreamy gloom of the Cure, This Mortal Coil or Cocteau Twins that made people love those bands so. [Chris Middleman]
Elvis Costello:
Live at the El Mocambo
This latest repackaged dud shows the complete lack of imagination, creativity, and bang-for-your-buck that we've all, unfortunately, come to expect from music labels. [Eric Dennis]
A Serious Man
By the time A Serious Man ends in a stunner of a conclusion, the Coen Brothers have once again pulled off a magic trick, forcing us to search for meaning in a series of scenes that possibly exist as abstractions only to obfuscate a lack of depth. [David Harris]
The Raveonettes:
In and Out of Control
The charm of the Raveonettes is that they can marry epic amounts of sleaze to virginal innocence and still make the destruction seem not just like a threat but a promise. [Morgan Davis]
The Maldives:
Listen to the Thunder
Over and over on Listen to the Thunder, the Maldives demonstrate their capacity for thoroughly uneven songwriting, amongst moments of interesting musicianship. [Jason Stoff]
Islands:
Vapours
With Vapours, Islands have firmly established a unique sound to their name. No longer can they be accused of retreading their work, or adventuring too far from their comfort zone. [Rafael Gaitan]
Osso:
Run Rabbit Run
Run Rabbit Run strips Enjoy Your Rabbit of its bleeps and glitches, revealing the skeleton of the music underneath. [Danny Djeljosevic]
The Mountain Goats:
The Life Of The World To Come
Every song is titled after a verse in the Bible, adding a layer of theological probing to John Darnielle's literary landscape. His characters are the core of his craft, but they usually only seek cosmic answers as a peripheral explanation. [Neal Fersko]
Grand Archives:
Keep in Mind Frankenstein
Grand Archives fall somewhere between the rich harmonization of Fleet Foxes and the easy, breezy songcraft of Vetiver, yet the musical threads connecting the band to either of those groups droop with too much slack. [Chris Middleman]
Monsters of Folk:
Monsters of Folk
The near-hour of material spread through 15 tracks couldn't hold a conversation with any of these artist's offerings on home turf. The middling sum is substantially less than its parts; but we're in some luck; these parts were pretty massive to begin with. [Brady Baker]
The Fresh & Onlys:
Grey-Eyed Girls
Grey-Eyed Girls, is a work of tremendous talent, energy and ambition. Unfortunately, the quality of the recording is so shitty, it undermines all the good things about the record. [Eva Gordon]
Rain Machine:
Rain Machine
Malone could have easily written a collection of songs like "Stork & Owl" and "Province" and called it a day. But, the songs on Rain Machine squirm with fresh life, filtering the poetry of a pissed-off artist through the sieve of delicate guitar on tracks that alternate from joyous to bleak. [David Harris]
Dappled Cities:
Zounds
Zounds tries its damnedest to be hooky and interesting, resulting in a record that's a bit frontloaded, with it's plateau of quality falling mid-album. [Chris Middleman]
Pearl Jam:
Backspacer
Perhaps Backspacer's most glaring weakness is that listeners will inevitably feel like they've heard these songs before- if not from Pearl Jam, then from countless other classic rock artists. [Marcus David]
Grand Hallway:
Promenade
Promenade is clearly the work of a growing band, brilliant in fits and prone to the exaggeration of the own fine qualities of others. [Nathan Kamal]
Times New Viking:
Born Again Revisited
Born Again Revisited is a good album, but it also feels like Times New Viking are treading water somewhat and the band may need to head in a different direction if they want to stay vital and creative. [Lukas Sherman]
Sondre Lerche:
Heartbeat Radio
Heartbeat Radio is the sixth album from Norwegian-born Sondre Lerche, a 27 year-old emigrant now residing in Brooklyn. Since the turn of the millennium, he's made a name for himself making shiny pop and occasionally scruffy garage rock in the vein of A-ha and Elvis Costello. On this outing he pretty much sticks to that formula, erring more on the innocuous side of things. [Bryan Kerwin]
PLAYLIST: Belle & Sebastian
The newest PLAYLIST focuses on Belle & Sebastian. What if you had to choose the best of this Scottish band? Unfortunately, there is just one small parameter to overcome....
WHY?:
Eskimo Snow
Those pleading WHY?'s case have been more and more blown away with each effort, with last year's Alopecia standing as the high water mark. Eskimo Snow, which in Amnesiac fashion was culled from the same sessions as the essential Alopecia, is the first time that it seems like the group has stopped evolving; if we're talking about winning new fans over, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. [Morgan Davis]
Amy Millan:
Masters of the Burial
Amy Millan (of both Stars and Canadian supergroup/music collective Broken Social Scene) has produced her sophomore solo effort, Masters of the Burial and not surprisingly, it doesn't share much of a sound with her group releases. That's not terribly unusual- solo records from an artist usually associated with a group (or two) often deliberately try to depart from expectations. What is more surprising is that Millan's choice of sound and mood should turn out quite so forgettable. [Nathan Kamal]
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart:
Higher Than The Stars
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's second EP, Higher Than The Stars, is essentially more of the same from the New York indie sensations; fuzzy guitars, '80s pop sensibilities and boy-girl vocals courtesy of Kip Berman and Peggy Wang. But when a young band's output has been so consistently dazzling, I can hardly find anything wrong with that. Higher's four songs (and one CD-only remix of the title track) could have fit anywhere on their self-titled debut; that's a mark of their quality and not a holding pattern. [Nathan Kamal]
Monotonix:
Where Were You When it Happened?
Monotonix has a raw energy to be sure and there is some novelty to a foreign band putting their stamp on American rock 'n' roll. The Hives had a similar appeal, but they had better songs and funnier lyrics. Ami Shalev's vocals are almost entirely garbled and the songs have little personality or distinction, and the album is more like a long, woozy heavy dude rock orgy. It's too bad they weren't more imaginative in their packaging, perhaps including a DVD or a lock of chest hair. [Lukas Sherman]
Volcano Choir:
Unmap
Unmap is not as intimate and song-centered as Emma, instead favoring more of an experimental, sonically adventurous, even avant-garde bent. Where Emma was about the songs and emotions, Unmap is more about the mood, the layers and the textures. While it still feels rural, you'd be forgiven for thinking Brian Eno or John Cage is out in the Wisconsin woods with them. [Lukas Sherman]
Eddy Current Suppression Ring:
Eddy Current Suppression Ring
Having all met while working at a Melbourne vinyl pressing plant, the easily-Googled Eddy Current Suppression Ring started out as a goof during a company party; guitarist Mikey Young, bassist Brad Barry and drummer Danny Young kicked out some ham-fisted garage jams while Brendan Huntley ad-libbed very Australian-sounding inanities into the microphone. Voila, a band was born, then christened after an obscure machine part used in vinyl-pressing technology. [Chris Middleman]
Peter Broderick:
4 Track Songs
To gauge this body of work traditionally would not be fair, as this is not a traditional release. For fans of Broderick, this is a worthwhile release, as the chance to hear new material from his early catalogue gives a unique perspective into the creative process. If this album is your first taste of his work, in no way would it make for an accurate summation. [Josh Vietti]
Interview: Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips
"I really have no desire to see most people in the world without clothes on. I think most people, especially men, just appear a lot better in the world with clothes on. For me personally, women are one of the most beautiful things we have to behold. I'm not saying it from the point of sex. I just mean, I'm a grown man and I think women are beautiful. I try to stand in front of naked women as often as I can." [David Harris]
Wild Beasts:
Two Dancers
Two Dancers is a clear step forward for Wild Beasts, ably taking them from talented rookies to driven, inspired standouts in one leap. The few tracks that hold Two Dancers back are even inspiring in their own right, indicating that Wild Beasts are a band unhappy with sticking to any one template for too long, instead pursuing ideas as far as they can go and then moving on. [Morgan Davis]
Sonya Cotton:
Red River
Unlike a lot of folk compositions, Cotton's stories do not feel like clever puzzles on the thin edge between authenticity and mirth, between message and entertainment; despite gaps in literal storytelling, each song is emotionally compelling and feels whole and full of grace. They linger not as commercial songs do, but in the ways of dreams. They are emotionally resonant but sidestep expectations of what songs should be. [Eva Gordon]
The Clean:
Mister Pop
With a new batch of young bands (Times New Viking, Eat Skull) playing scrappy, sometimes dissonant pop songs, the time is fortuitous for a new Clean album. Mister Pop, their first studio album in eight years, is appropriately named, as they have an uncanny knack for sweet, but not cheesy melodies. [Lukas Sherman]
Vic Chesnutt:
At the Cut
Amid all the bizarre weirdos, tragic figures and other conflicted characters that populate Chesnutt's songs, death has been among the most frequent themes in his music. [Eric Dennis]
Andrew W.K.:
55 Cadillac
55 Cadillac is a drive through the city at night, with the lights reflecting in the windshield. It is elegant, stimulating, and full of twists and turns. Ultimately the ambition of the project is validated through W.K.'s talents for more conventional musicianship. 55 Cadillac manages to be a sign of a more accessible Andrew W.K., while still maintaining his passion through different channels. His skills and his ambition are like his car- vintage, refined, and guaranteed to turn heads. [Rafael Gaitan]
Findlay Brown:
Love Will Find You
Ocasional, overt lifts from other pop songs are the only true problems on Love Will Find You. Brown's predilection towards classic pop lends itself well to his deep, even croon, and even the instrumentation is note-perfect for the '50s style he's slowly perfecting. Melodrama is the key word of the record- there are no small emotions here, only the sounds of a man throwing his heart into his microphone. [Nathan Kamal]
The Dodos:
Time to Die
Time to Die is a tough listen after a few minutes - all the prog builds, drum-circle jams and rhythmic shifts make for the worst kind of sonic whiplash. [Michael Merline]
Sally Shapiro:
My Guilty Pleasure
While it's fun to speculate on a mysterious figure who releases records to worldwide acclaim, that's simply not the case here. Whatever aura Shapiro cultivates for herself gets shot down pretty quickly by how dull her music is. [Neal Fersko]
Damon & Naomi:
The Sub Pop Years
The Sub Pop Years will try the patience of even the most enthusiastic and sympathetic Damon & Naomi fan. At 15 tracks and over 70 minutes, it paradoxically showcases everything great about the duo's blend of understated arrangements and hazy atmospherics, while also exposing the group's tendency to hit on a formula and repeat it well past the point of decency. [Eric Dennis]
The Beatles:
Reissues
Sure, we all know the songs, but when is the last time we sat down and listened to an album all the way through? Luckily, these new editions feature crackling sound (not to mention gorgeous packaging) that makes their purchase essential to hardcore fans. [David Harris]
Mew:
No More Stories...
No More Stories... is filled with Bo Madsen's layered guitar, Silas Utke Graae Jørgensen's syncopated, polyrhythmic drumming and Jonas Bjerre's sugary vocals. Like their previous albums, it places the emphasis on the work as a whole over individual tracks. The traditional lines between songs aren't there. Each flows into another with a seamless motion. [Nicholas Ryan]
Pitbull:
Rebelution
With Rebelution, Pitbull continues to evolve lyrically, and he has crafted another solid Miami-bass/club electronica record that is sure to be heard in clubs as well as from cars, and just as loud in both. [Rafael Gaitan]
Vivian Girls:
Everything Goes Wrong
The Vivian Girls have an uncanny ability to tap into post-relationship alarm by stripping away the filler of their favorite music in the best tradition of lo-fi surf and garage music. They still love their Red Bird vinyls and no wave cassettes. However, when the time is right, they'll chuck both out the window in favor of an cavernous sound with overlapping guitar lines. [Neal Fersko]
The Entrance Band:
The Entrance Band
Thurston Moore described the Entrance Band as "the most alluring and, yes, entrancing vibe [he's] yet to experience in the new age." That should get some purist muso hipsters tizzied up enough to check out them out. [Chris Middleman]
The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir:
...and the horse you rode in on
Elia's utterly downtrodden and malicious shtick may grow tiresome after a while - eventually the Scotland Yard Gospel Choir will have to explore new topical waters to avoid going stale - but for now it works, spawning one of the most creative, contemptuous and darkly entertaining records in recent years. [Marcus David]
Shonen Knife:
Super Group
Super Group really only succeeds as proof that artists need to know when to say when. [Morgan Davis]
Interview: Phil Elverum
"It's been kind of annoying actually because I never said that and I'm embarrassed that people think that I might have said that. It's definitely not a black metal album and the whole idea of doing kind of a kitschy genre album is so embarrassing and shallow." [Brady Baker]
Raekwon:
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II
The flair for collaboration is what makes Cuban Linx II such a success as Raekwon seems to grasp, unlike so many of his Wu peers, that he works better when surrounded by an immensely talented crew, whether that's Wu or a mix of others. [Morgan Davis]
Revisit: Nico
Chelsea Girl
Chelsea Girl has disappeared into anonymity, which is unfortunate as quite a few triumphs appear on this unheralded jewel. Rightfully seen as a companion piece to that Velvet's masterpiece - both were produced largely by Wilson in 1967 and include contributions from Reed, Cale and Sterling Morrison - Chelsea Girl is a unique and bizarre piece of chamber folk. [Marcus David]
The Feelies:
Crazy Rhythms/The Good Earth
The reissuing of these two Feelies classics is a welcome occasion--it reminds listeners of an innovative sound in rock history, and may even spur some of today's ubiquitous indie bands to leave be the moment's fads and take their songwriting in new directions. As for the recently reunited Feelies themselves: how about some new stuff, guys? [Eva Gordon and Danny Djeljosevic]
Black Heart Moon:
Lovers and Makers
Black Heart Moon will have to work extremely hard to avoid comparisons to Cowboy Junkies. Their basic sound shares so many similarities that it's difficult to not to immediately associate the two; ethereal, yet rootsy female vocals, droning lap steel and acoustic guitars all combine into dreamy, simple music. [Nathan Kamal]
Sunny Day Real Estate:
Diary/LP2
Sunny Day Real Estate were a band with an almost telepathic connection to each other; Dan Hoerner and Jeremy Enigk's guitar lines seem to anticipate each other as Nate Mendel and William Goldsmith push and pull the rhythm between the notes-- this was a group that could start and stop on a dime. Those that would pillage the emo template would miss this, thinking it was just a matter of throwing a pummeling rhythm section up against a nasally voice and calling it good. [Morgan Davis]
Lullabye Arkestra:
Threats/Worship
Threats/Worship is made up of a series of quick and forceful tracks, drawing inspiration from punk's volatile delivery and garage rock's substance-before-style mantra. So get ready; this might be the nosiest record you hear all year. [Michael Merline]
Os Mutantes:
Haih or Amortecedor
Haih finds Os Mutantes struggling, but determined, to find their place in a world where the means of oppression and coercion are increasingly subtle, resulting in the arousal of the need for the band to help usher in a secret language of revolution for the second time in their career. [Sean Marchetto]
Rediscover: Sahara Hotnights
Kiss and Tell
Kiss and Tell has an intelligent and darkly confrontational tone which draws blood early and often. Songs come in the form of questions and accusations which are pushed forward with the type of harsh steadiness you get when you swing a baseball bat at a brick wall; narrow, heavy, memorable, and persistent. [Neal Fersko]
Pissed Jeans:
King of Jeans
Like the Butthole Surfers and Jesus Lizard before them, Pissed Jeans make music that leaves you feeling grimy afterwards, as though your ears are covered in filth. The rhythm section is thick and sluggish, the guitars sharp as a knife to the gut, the vocals not so much interested in melody as they are in sounding entirely fucked up. [Morgan Davis]
These United States:
Everything Touches Everything
Everything Touches Everything is just palatable enough to leave listeners hanging on, waiting in vain for the song that tilts the balance of likability in the band's favor, but such a track never emerges. Instead, These United States redefines mediocrity with the passing of each indistinguishable tune. [Marcus David]
Apples in Stereo:
#1 Hits Explosion
Apples in Stereo have a rare knack for crafting songs that thrive both within the album format and without it, allowing their material to remain strangely timeless-- as capable of surviving in the vinyl age as the iPod one. [Morgan Davis]
Brown Recluse [sings]:
The Soft Skin EP
Brown Recluse's bouncy and dreamy arrangements recall Os Mutantes and especially Belle & Sebastian; the latter band's influence finds its way both into Timothy Meskers' vocals and the songs' frequent use of horns. [Eric Dennis]
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha may succeed at remaining true to its subject, but that doesn't save it from being an idealistic flop of a film. [Morgan Davis]
Rediscover: Brant Bjork
Jalamanta
Brant Bjork was the founding drummer for Kyuss, whose guitar riffs, largely tuned down to C, were an accurate summation of wide desert expanses: intimidating and majestic. Though raised on the styles of Bill Ward with an ear also for Suicidal Tendencies, Bjork's drumming was much more expressive than any of the influences obvious for a metal band. [Chris Middleman]
David Bazan:
Curse Your Branches
With Curse Your Branches, David Bazan has managed to forge himself a new, eponymous identity, without turning from any of his old successes. Although he may not be Pedro the Lion or Headphones, he still has the delicate sensibility for synths and the paradox of faith and wit. [Rafael Gaitan]
Brendan Benson:
My Old, Familiar Friend
In this post-Raconteurs release, Benson seized the opportunity to invest in production quality, using the talents of producer Gil Norton (Pixies, Foo Fighters and Gomez) to take off the DIY edge his previous albums possessed. [Nicholas Ryan]
Still Life Still:
Girls Come Too
There's a lot of talent and potential on Girls Come Too, but also evidence that a lot of maturing that needs to happen. [Sean Marchetto]
Yo La Tengo:
Popular Songs
Like other Yo La Tengo records, Popular Songs is topically abstract, offering only patchy allusions to worry, escape, imagination and reverie. [Marcus David]
The Postmarks:
Memoirs at the End of the World
For those who crave cool artifice, Memoirs at the End of the World is a sexy, stylish album that not only provides a valuable lesson in putting together a cohesive record, but also works as a soundtrack for your Ian Fleming novels. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Cue The Moon:
Thought Forgotten Spoken
A cohesive sound may be an album or two away, but with the talent established on this tight, melody-filled collection it shouldn't matter to most listeners. [Jory Spadea]
Interview: Alejandro Escovedo
"It's always more glamorous when the guy dies, right? When the guy totally destroys himself is always more glamorous and romantic than the guy who survives and moves on. You know what I'm saying." [David Harris]
A.A. Bondy:
When The Devil's Loose
Bondy's voice is a pleasing one, built on straightforward earnestness. His interesting lyrics don't quite cohere into stories, but more often are only ghostly suggestions of stories; so the listener reaches for better grasp of the singer's emotions in the overtones and subtle shifts of attitude, rather than toward literal narrative. [Eva Gordon]
Division Day:
Visitation
Unfortunately, Rohner Segnitz sings 95% of his vocals in a kind of breathless coo, sounding all too much like the kind of emasculated American Apparel T-shirt model that the band's videos paint him as. [Chris Middleman]
Matisyahu:
Light
Much of Light also raises the question of Matisyahu's authenticity. If the guy has strong beliefs and wants to communicate those musically, it's probably a good thing if he can manage to improve on the largely (and justifiably) maligned genre of American religious rock. [Michael Merline]
Rediscover: The Modern Lovers
Precise Modern Lovers Order
The band that would ultimately record and release their debut album in 1976 was not the same band that garnered all the buzz and hype in 1972. That band can only be heard in live performances like Precise Modern Lovers Order with their earnest and heartfelt raucous energy on songs like the soon-to-be classic "Roadrunner," captured with speaker-bulging intensity. [Sean Marchetto]
Patrick Wolf:
The Bachelor
Like the actual music, all things Patrick Wolf are complex, stuffed full of vague references and enough twists and turns to make Hitchcock throw up his hands in resignation. [Morgan Davis]
Joe Henry:
Blood from Stars
On his 11th full length LP, Blood from Stars, veteran folk, jazz, blues and alt-country enthusiast Joe Henry re-establishes himself as a master of blending genres and as a profound songwriter - not to mention as a compelling bluesman and gifted guitarist -- whose complex musical arrangements embrace a variety of extremes. [Marcus David]
Mount Eerie
Wind's Poem
Wind's Poem sounds more like a Microphones record than anything Elverum has released since 2003, but also stands as the truest manifestation of the "Mount Eerie" name that he's since taken on. [Brady Baker]
The Action:
Complete Punk Recordings 1977-1978
The Action were not alone during that first flowering of punk to combine soon to be classic rock stylings with a punk edge, and fans of early punk will be happy that the western Canadian record label Sudden Death has chosen to unearth the group. [Sean Marchetto]
Arctic Monkeys:
Humbug
Humbug may be the album where people can finally turn on the Monkeys, as "new direction" albums so often are. It's a less guitar-driven affair than their previous efforts, with Josh Homme's production smothering the guitars in favor of Alex Turner's voice. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Throw Me the Statue:
Creaturesque
With the expansion of their repertoire on this quality record, TMTS have shown that growing beyond the lo-fi sound is within their reach. [Josh Vietti]
PLAYLIST: The Beatles
The Beatles are the focus of a new feature called PLAYLIST. What if you had to choose the best of the Beatles? Unfortunately, there is just one small parameter to overcome....
Reigning Sound:
Love and Curses
In Cartwright's songs, he never gets the girl. If he did, Reigning Sound would only be an awesome-sounding band that nails all the nuances of '60s guitar rock, substituting flab for punk rock curtness; a theoretical feast for vinyl fetishists, perhaps, but a shallow waste of an incredible sound. [Neal Fersko]
Dark Meat:
When the Shelter Came EP
Dark Meat (a shortening of the evocative Dark Meat Vomit Lasers Family Band) has singer and guitarist Jim McHugh and bassist Ben Clack teaming up with a host of cohorts, including singing back-up ladies, the Subtweeters, as well as a raucous horn section. Releasing When the Shelter Came as a taster for a full-length fall record, picks up from their previous Universal Indians. [Chris Middleman]
Robert Pollard:
Elephant Jokes
Of course an album dubbed Elephant Jokes may not necessarily be intended for listening with an appetite for depth and ideology. What's more to the point is Pollard is at his sonic best since his first post-GBV solo effort, 2006's From a Compound Eye. [Brady Baker]
Black Mold:
Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz
VanGaalen is no electronica wizard, but more of a performance artist you'd be embarrassed to listen to. True electronica fans will be disappointed with the lack of workable beats and the average listeners will be asking themselves "What the fuck am I listening to?" [Josh Vietti]
Second Chance: Jeff Buckley
Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk
Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk is just what it says it is- sketches, a diagram of something unfinished. By this point, there's been enough mythology to cover the sadness of loss, but a collection of songs like this makes me more regretful than ever. [Nathan Kamal]
Willie Nelson:
American Classic
Traditional Nelson fans have long since ceased freaking out and spilling their water bongs every time the iconic Highwayman dabbles in new musical realms, and for good reason; regardless of the genre, Nelson's vocals never fail to intrigue. [Marcus David]
Box Elders:
Alice and Friends
Alice and Friends is ultimately somewhat front-loaded; by the time "Necro" and "Ronnie Dean" roll around, the boys' welcome starts wearing a little thin. [Chris Middleman]
Blitzen Trapper:
Black River Killer EP
There seems to be a requisite stirring in the soul of the Pacific Northwest urbanite; there's a longing for a pastoral serenity that may or may not exist but certainly can be visited or approximated in song. Whereas the Fleet Foxes' modus operandi is a strangely wonderful meld of madrigals and The Beach Boys, Blitzen Trapper sound much more concerned with the vocabulary of American rock music and the eddies and channels that originally flowed into it. [Chris Middleman]
Band of Skulls:
Baby Darling Doll Face Honey
Had it been released in, say, 2003, UK trio Band of Skulls' Baby Darling Doll Face Honey would have been greeted with either critical spooge or critical scorn; it's hard to be certain of which. It's easier to say that it would have been issued on a major label. But in 2009, it's barely been noticed. [Charles A. Hohman]
Interview: Jason Webley
"The other day in Latvia, folks surprised me by kidnapping me and taking me out to a cabin on the Baltic where we hunted mushrooms, cooked them, swam in the ocean. I had no idea where I was, or where I was going. It was lovely." [David Harris]
Ramona Falls:
intuit
intuit's most distinct and consistent quality is the lushness of its production; it's a huge-sounding record, elaborately and carefully processed to (presumably) Knopf's idea of perfection. Considering Menomena's wonderfully weird sounds, this isn't particularly surprising, but Ramona Falls' beats and keyboards come with rounder, less abrasive sounds. [Nathan Kamal]
Patrick Watson:
Wooden Arms
Too often, Watson's lush vocals are mixed like a supplementary instrument when they should be front and center. The best tracks on Wooden Arms avoid these faults and are downright stunning. Unfortunately, these notable tracks don't carry the whole album. [Michael Merline]
Year One: Music
Imagine if the albums that came out during the year of your birth actually had some bearing on your development. As if a record somehow can be inextricably linked to your own lifeline. It's a funny thing to imagine- an album sharing the same age as you.
Desolation Wilderness:
New Universe
Transforming Desolation Wilderness into a rock band doesn't meet with a great deal of success. Zwart and company maintain their composure in crafting a convincing sense of place but can't seem to make the next logical step by telling a good story, which wouldn't be a problem if that wasn't what was clearly being attempted. [Neal Fersko]
Amanda Blank:
I Love You
There is of course a long history of exaggeration in pop culture, particularly where identity is concerned, but for Amanda Blank it goes a bit beyond that, rooted as she is in the hip-hop aesthetic, a world that has long nurtured sexual swagger as a badge of honor amongst its men. [Morgan Davis]
Jónsi & Alex:
Riceboy Sleeps
Once again the adjectives ghostly, eerie and delicate can apply but instead of the concrete song structures that rein in the most overlong Sigúr Rós experimentations, Riceboy Sleeps strips that equation to the very minimum, removing Birgisson's voice and any rock 'n' roll elements, leaving behind what could be described as formless New Age meanderings. [David Harris]
The Benjamin Clocks:
Locked Doors
Singer-songwriter Dillon Warnek is clearly a talented and poetic lyricist, even if his crystal-clear images of fruitless trees, crippled bandits, drowned lovers and burning churches are borderline excessive, leaving listeners feeling about as jolly as an overcast Seattle sky. There's only so much hunger, loneliness, pill-popping and sorrow a sane person can take, and this 24-minute effort will push most listeners to their limit. [Marcus David]
Rediscover: Kinky Friedman
Sold American (1973)
Sold American has aged like fine wine, growing in stature with the passing of time. Its topics, from school shootings to a drastically shifting national consciousness, are as relevant as ever, while its religious and heart-broken overtones speak to ageless themes. [Marcus David]
The Cave Singers:
Welcome Joy
Repetition is both the Cave Singers' strength and crucial flaw on Welcome Joy. It works well individually; guitarist Derek Fudesco's lines are beautifully sparse and stark, wholly distinct but the needed progression from debut to sophomore album is oddly absent. [Nathan Kamal]
Joe Pernice:
It Feels So Good When I Stop (Novel Soundtrack)
The finished product is forgivably uneven, given the subject matter he attempts to cover, yet is critically weakened by the songs themselves. With few exceptions, the album is one mid-tempo, strummy love song after the next. [Brian Loeper]
Jay Reatard:
Watch Me Fall
Watch Me Fall's beginning is easily one of the most exciting runs this year and it isn't too surprising that the momentum generated by it is impossible to maintain over the course of an entire album. After all, Reatard has always been an artist more interested in the world of singles, his energy perfectly suited to the creation of self-contained explosions of garage pop goodness. [Morgan Davis]
Fruit Bats:
The Ruminant Band
The Ruminant Band isn't in the business of breaking ground. This is a record meant be enjoyed simply, like a sunny day with fruit punch and a lawn chair. [Brady Baker]
Revisit: Bob Dylan
Oh Mercy (1989)
Time has a way of taking the luster off a release, and Oh Mercy is no exception. Now 20 years since its release in 1989, the album hasn't aged particularly well. Lanois' swamp-murk production shoulders a large part of the blame; it fails nearly as often as it succeeds, with "Political World" and "Most of the Time" suffering from the producer's quirks and idiosyncrasies and sounding too manufactured for their own good. [Eric Dennis]
Delorean:
Ayrton Senna EP
Barcelona pop-quartet Delorean's new EP, Ayrton Senna, is equal parts bubbly summer cheer and carefully designed pop smoothness- more remarkable than the infectiousness of the former is the appeal of the latter. [Nathan Kamal]
Howling Bells:
Radio Wars
Radio Wars is kind of a loud record, though one gets the sense that it's not because the band's music is dependent upon volume but seems instead, to be evidence of overcompensation for a desperately-sought sense of atmospheric drama. [Chris Middleman]
Brian Glaze:
Green Living
Green Living is not dissimilar from the scratching, echo-y ethos that marked so much of the indie scene in '90s America, but that's where its charm resides; it's not a work of polish, it's a work of affection. [Nathan Kamal]
Sian Alice Group:
Troubled, Shaken, Etc.
The simpler and more digestible approach behind Sian Alice Group's playing is also their strongest card in the deck. Going for crashing highs and lows like the Twilight Sad would negate Ahern's subtle consistency which comes in under each instrument sonically. [Neal Fersko]
Revisit: ZZ Top
Eliminator (1983)
Eliminator is the last classic record released by ZZ Top; their remaining releases sunk too far into glossy productions or were workmanlike blues rock recordings. For a brief time in the early '80s, it seemed like this bizarre, imposing, bearded duo with their tiny drummer could have been as big as Bruce or as omnipresent as Madonna. [Chris Middleman]
jj:
jj n° 2
The sound of jj is ultimately too thin, too uninspired to warrant the attention the group has received, forcing one to wonder if the hype really is just because of the mysteriousness surrounding the ensemble. [Morgan Davis]
Floating Action:
Floating Action
Floating Action is all about dub, Caribbean pop and Bossa nova, filtered through the mind of a Southern white boy who played just about everything on the record himself. [Chris Middleman]
Lightning Dust:
Infinite Light
Lightning Dust is the side project of Joshua Wells and Amber Webber, both members of Black Mountain; it seems like that particular group can't stop itself from birthing permutations. Their second album, Infinite Light, is a collection of alternately delicate and rousing songs, grounded in simple but compelling instrumentation and Webber's own fragile voice. [Nathan Kamal]
Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs:
Under the Covers Vol. 2
That's right: there's a Yes cover. It's eight minutes long and the ballsiest thing about this otherwise obvious, unnecessary, unchallenging, repulsively reverent album. It's also twice as awful as the Yes original, which makes it all the more impressive. [Charles A. Hohman]
Interview: Emil Amos of Holy Sons
"In skateboarding they often say that once you become a skater you never truly leave it and hardcore seems to go hand in hand with that. I often picture skateboarding and hardcore crystallizing my mind as if I was 'carbon frozen' like Han Solo was in Star Wars." [Nathan Kamal]
Nurses:
Apple's Acre
Apple's Acre is an intriguing depiction of the sound one imagines Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks were attempting to achieve all those years ago, filtered through the lens of someone who has only heard the root inspiration through an act separated from it by nearly half a century. It is alien but still comforting in its closeness to home. [Morgan Davis]
The Antlers:
Hospice
Hospice is a staggering, nuanced and near-perfect record whose triumphs and tragedies are never trivial or melodramatic; an album of mourning that nevertheless allows flickers of promise to shine through. [Eric Dennis]
Starlight Mints:
Change Remains
Change Remains, while not a bad album, is best when considered a stepping stone on the road to something more. [Melissa Muenz]
Julian Plenti:
Julian Plenti is...Skyscraper
Friends and Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino do make recording appearances - but they're clearly here as additions to Banks' concept, not creative forces of their own. Skyscraper manages to sound at once full-bodied and lush, yet often soulless, as solo pet-projects often do. [Michael Merline]
Wye Oak:
The Knot
Wye Oak have followed up If Children with an even better showing, showing more depth to their musicality and dropping a gem in our laps. If this is a sign of how good this band can be, then we may be witnessing the growth of an indie monster. [Josh Vietti]
Interview: Busdriver
"I'm not really a rap guy like that, you know? I wake up, I have breakfast, I make eggs, maybe some cereal, and I take my daughter to school." [Morgan Davis]
Serengeti & Polyphonic:
Terradactyl
Serengeti & Polyphonic have made an album about the difficulty of belonging. Serengeti's multiple personalities keep the lyrics fresh and diverse, really serving to draw the listener into a multi-part conversation with the same man, while Polyphonic's vibrant production acts as a point and a counterpoint. [Rafael Gaitan]
Rediscover: Mount Eerie
Dawn
Elverum is not crafting the tale of stagnant depression that such a sentiment may imply. He accepts it as a crucial detail of the human condition; difficult to fight and perhaps worth embracing. In this light, the apparent contradiction between the album's namesake and its thesis is resolved. From the darkest human emotion Elverum does his best to find brightness; his new perspective breaks like the light of a new day. [Brady Baker]
Yim Yames:
Tribute To EP
Covers albums are tricky because of their very nature; one artist tries to transform someone else's poetry into their own emotions. EPs are tricky because of their length; more than a single, less than a full length, could they have space enough to say anything of significance? Doubly refreshing, then, is Yim Yames's (the peculiar pseudonym of My Morning Jacket's Jim James) new Tribute To EP, a six-track selection of George Harrison songs. [Nathan Kamal]
YACHT:
See Mystery Lights
See Mystery Lights feels like something the old ZTT label would have put out circa 1980: a little bit Was (Not Was), a little Art of Noise and throw in some modern nods like LCD Soundsystem and you've pretty much got the idea. [Morgan Davis]
Lights:
Rites
Lights' new album Rites is by turns psychedelic, bass-heavy dance, sometimes even experimental. Unfortunately, being hard to place doesn't always translate to superior quality. [Nathan Kamal]
Second Chance: Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Forever
There's a good reason Wu-Tang Forever was so successful: sheer quality. It's simply a fantastic album. If it's still overshadowed by the band's monumental debut, that has more to do with Enter the Wu-Tang being a work of immortal genius than any failings from this second effort. [Nathan Kamal]
Portugal. The Man:
The Satanic Satanist
Like an overmatched vice-presidential candidate, Portugal. The Man is throwing everything at the wall in the hopes that something of value will stick. Maybe they can try again in 2012. [Brady Baker]
The Polyamorous Affair:
Bolshevik Disco
There's an overarching concept to the album, but the conception of a Soviet-style dance club with guards inspecting faces for entry and fun at gunpoint doesn't ever really take off the ground. [Nathan Kamal]
Interview: Paper Bird
"We were almost Paper Legs. But then someone said Bird and we were like, that's good." [Aimee Herman]
Eyedea & Abilities:
By the Throat
By the Throat unfortunately suffers in the end from its lackluster beginning and is hampered by its status as an attempted triumphant return of a duo that has been away from the game for too long. [Morgan Davis]
The Silent Years:
Let Go
Let Go's six songs manage the feat of actually sounding engaging and catchy. Good for you, people. [Nathan Kamal]
Ty Segall:
Lemons
Bay Area one-man garage explosion Ty Segall has christened his latest collection of songs Lemons, which turns out to be a rather fitting name for its 12 songs. From the scuzzy stomp of "It #1" to the sonic departure of "Untitled #2,"Segall's songs are brief, sour tastes of the kind of racket he can make all on his own in the studio. [Chris Middleman]
Heavy Hometown:
Action Figures
Action Figures is a disjointed and inconsistent work, its songs going in opposite directions that don't always mesh as a whole. The debut album from Midwestern-based trio Heavy Hometown, it undoubtedly covers a lot of musical terrain, though that terrain is somewhat sludgy and occasionally leaves shit all over your shoes. [Eric Dennis]
Summer Cats:
Songs for Tuesdays
The production on the album in general works against Summer Cats, not dirty enough to be considered lo-fi, not fleshed out enough to do the band any favors. Where the guitars should sparkle and punch, they whine; where the drums should have some snap, they whimper; where the vocals should be triumphant and full, they whisper. [Morgan Davis]
LOVE, DEATH & KNOCK-KNOCK JOKES:
Adorno, Said, & Late Style in Dylan
What Dylan has not done is ascend into the sort of ethereal world of Messaien or the Ives of the Universe Symphony. His relaxed, mature pleasures are resolutely earthbound, even as he looks forward, with puzzlement, resignation and curious interest to a personal sort of Elysian Fields. [Franz Nicolay]
Bibio:
Ambivalence Avenue
Rather than rehash old themes or remaking Compost for the second time in a year, Bibio instead pushes not only the boundaries of his sound but dares the listener to buy into an album that juggles both indie-folk and electronica. [David Harris]
Owen:
The Seaside EP
The biggest problem with The Seaside EP is that Owen's music has matured years beyond these B-sides. [Brian Loeper]
Oneida:
Rated O
Oneida has made music with this record that's a soundtrack for stress or for too much caffienation. Like Tangerine Dream, this is taciturn music for a very specific, perhaps dour mindset. [Chris Middleman]
The Dandy Warhols:
The Dandy Warhols Are Sound
Oddly, this version omits the brief title track, which would've been especially timely, as it contains the line " When Michael Jackson dies/ We're covering 'Blackbird.'" [Lukas Sherman]
The Fiery Furnaces:
I'm Going Away
As different as it may be for them, FF find sun-drenched lounge-rock a comfortable style. The album's opener and title track weasels its way into your head, with its hoedown beats and Eleanor's exclamations to a bothersome lover lingering through the album's remaining 12 songs. [Michael Merline]
Blue Roses:
Blue Roses
Like much of the current crop of such performers, Blue Roses sounds firmly rooted in the female singer-songwriter tradition that stretches from Joni Mitchell to Joanna Newsom, with Groves reminiscent of such checkpoints without being redundant. [Eric Dennis]
Interview: Bob Crawford of The Avett Brothers
"Ah-vit. Avery. Apparently, Bruce Springsteen has a station on Sirius and he guest DJs every once in awhile. He played "Go to Sleep" and said he said, 'Now, the Avery Brothers.' There's many different pronunciations and ideas of what the name is. It's Avett and a good way I like to tell people to remember it is it's like a corvette." [David Harris]
Magnolia Electric Co.:
Josephine
By avoiding many pratfalls into oblivion, Molina's concept album emerges as an exciting and complex success story. As a tribute record it is truly stirring and as a comeback album it's eye-opening. [Neal Fersko]
The Dead Weather:
Horehound
In The Kills' Alison Mosshart, however, Jack White may have found someone to share it with. Her seductive rasp and throaty howl bring a sexual edge to Horehound that White alone could never deliver. The raw energy of the record hangs in balance between the two born-rock stars; Mosshart's modern blues-punk punches up White's idiosyncratic take on blues-rock history, resulting in an album that's both oddly familiar and provocatively new. [Brady Baker]
Cage:
Depart From Me
While Cage's lyrics remain well-crafted and informative, with his latest, he's attempted to go with a more guitar and synth-oriented sound, which comes off as extremely hit or miss, particularly when the tracks are more guitar oriented. [Rafael Gaitan]
Interview: Rick Froberg of Obits
It was a much more physically demanding thing to be in Hot Snakes or Drive Like Jehu. It's much easier to be in Obits, physically. You would sweat buckets and be out of breath by the time you were done. Obits is a much more relaxed thing. [Morgan Davis]
The Builders and the Butchers:
Salvation is a Deep, Dark Well
On sophomore album Salvation is a Deep, Dark Well, the band continues to play acoustic music with the fury of punk, the elemental power of old blues and the communal spirit of a hoedown. What stands out is the bristling energy and forward momentum of this music. [Lukas Sherman]
The Minus 5:
Killingsworth
Killingsworth is unlikely to send fans in the direction of Possum or Waylon; it's just as likely to confirm their longstanding prejudices towards the genre. [Charles A. Hohman]
Discovery:
LP
As Discovery, Miles and Batmanglij have woven together 10 tracks with an impressive degree of variation: auto-tune here, a skittering synth line there, some vocoder and 8-bit sound effects that would make Dan Deacon proud. [Brady Baker]
The Higher:
It's Only Natural
The Higher are not different enough to be taken seriously, and they're not offensive enough to be written off completely. They find a radio-friendly balance. The problem is that they're middling; they do not have a strong enough identity to instigate any real conflict. [Rafael Gaitan]
The Rural Alberta Advantage:
Hometowns
Listening to these vivid descriptions of northern life, it's not hard to visualize lonely fields, smoky foundries and the people who inhabit both. [Michael Merline]
Amazing Baby:
Rewild
Amazing Baby is yet another band to come out of the much slobbered-over Connecticut scene that has given us MGMT, Boy Crisis and Chairlift. This Brooklyn quintet may be rubbing shoulders with these bands, but they are not really cut from the same musical cloth. [Josh Vietti]
Cass McCombs:
Catacombs
True to his restlessness, Catacombs shows McCombs toning down much the reliance on modern electric guitar that defined his previous efforts and instead focusing on a swaying style of music that stretches far past his own lifetime. [Neal Fersko]
Onna:
Onna
With only one song under five minutes, Onna allows the songs to breathe rather than fit a traditional pop song structure or conventional song aesthetics. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Moby:
Wait For me
Moby may have started his career on the dance floor, but it doesn't look like he's going back there anytime soon. [Michael Merline]
A Broken Consort:
Box of Birch
Musician Richard Skelton is more of a minimalist than a performer. On any of his seven releases, the listener is treated to variety of sounds, from ambient to neo-classical, all given to some sort of lazy Sunday afternoon effort. Box of Birch could be considered more of the same: four lengthy songs, the shortest just under eight minutes, take the listener on a dark musical ride down a cloudy river, going wherever the flow leads. [Josh Vietti]
Mos Def:
The Ecstatic
Mos Def hasn't been astray for too long, so it might be a bit of a misnomer to call The Ecstatic a return to form, a weirdly positive term that implies that an artist is best when not experimenting with his art. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Regina Spektor:
Far
Far offers a newer and more downbeat perspective on the type of music that it's safe to wager Spektor will always write successfully, a growth in self-reflection in lieu of an expansion of tricks and talents. [Neal Fersko]
Therefore I Am:
The Sound of Human Lives
Boston post-hardcore outfit Therefore I Am, after five years of self-releasing a multitude of singles and EPs, has finally released their debut full-length, The Sound of Human Lives. Apparently, five years is more than enough time when all a band can come up with are five chords on the entire album. [Cameron Mason]
Year by Year: Hip-Hop (1984-2008)
In this first part of a new series, members of our staff put together a list which picks the best rap albums from 1984-2008, year by year.
Tiny Vipers:
Life on Earth
Life on Earth feels too labored over and repetitive for its own good. With most songs adopting similar musical and vocal structures, they eventually blend together into what sounds like a single long piece with minor variations. [Eric Dennis]
Tom Brosseau:
Posthumous Success
At the heart of Posthumous Success is a good album. Brosseau's voice is fittingly pleasant and occasionally dramatic, while the music is often engaging enough to distract the listener from the thoughtlessness of the lyrics. [Brian Loeper]
Jets Overhead:
No Nations
Jets Overhead draw obvious comparisons to acts like Stars or Two Hours Traffic. All incorporate the same guitar-driven shoegaze pop; however, this Juno Award-winning band has a little more edge to their sound. [Josh Vietti]
We Were Promised Jetpacks:
These Four Walls
The group's simplicity is ultimately what seals the deal. The guitar work of vocalist Adam Thompson and cohort Michael Palmer is fluid, streamlined and catchy as all hell without being flashy. Rather than the instrumental mindlessness of Coldplay or the atmospheric jagged work for which The Edge used to be known, Thompson and Palmer revel in thin, bright rhythmic exchanges that recall Snow Patrol's early work. [Morgan Davis]
Foreign Born:
Person To Person
Person To Person isn't a perfect album, but it does show the band augmenting its arena-ready sound with a few subtle shifts: insistent melodies, tight harmonies, tempo changes and lyrics that will allow listeners to form their own misguided interpretations. [Eric Dennis]
The Bats:
The Guilty Office
This stripped down sound isn't a back to basics approach, since this record is pretty far from the compelling energy of where The Bats started. It doesn't gel with their songwriting, which hasn't really expanded or contracted during the band's lifetime. [Neal Fersko]
Revisit: The Beach Boys
Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) (1965)
Pressure by both Capitol Records and lead singer Mike Love for Brian Wilson to steer the band back to their wholesome beginnings makes this album a seemingly corrupt bargain that would be, ironically, a Trojan horse to test denser studio tricks and more psychedelic songwriting. [Neal Fersko]
Bowerbirds:
Upper Air
Upper Air marks a subtle step forward for the band. While Bowerbirds again incorporate heartstring-grabbing melodies, the album branches out to encompass themes that were only hinted at throughout Dark Horse. [Eric Dennis]
The Mars Volta:
Octahedron
The Mars Volta attempts to fine-tune a hybrid between their characteristic sound and a new path. [Jory Spadea]
Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard:
'Em Are I
Lewis preoccupies himself with the unconquerable topics of life and love, often through the universal prism of humor. His loose, ramshackle band (The Junkyard is the perfect name for these guys) instills his heartfelt songs with both energy and tenderness, easily capable of conjuring acoustic punk and droning atmospherics. [Jason Stoff]
Tortoise:
Beacons of Ancestorship
These instrumental studies of electronic sounds and evolving melodies find a voice in the organic movements of their structure, yielding the character and depth vocals can often provide, without straying from Tortoise's established sound. [Michael Merline]
Birds of Avalon:
Uncanny Valley
Recorded entirely on analog equipment, the Raleigh, North Carolina quintet's sophomore Uncanny Valley is a record whose pleasures aren't necessarily obvious on the first listen. Keep listening. [Chris Middleman]
Future of the Left:
Travels with Myself and Another
FOL's second album, Travels with Myself and Another, is everything you could possibly want from the latter-day project of your now defunct favorite band. It's similar enough to the core aesthetic of Mclusky without sounding redundant, but it also offers up enough change and potential to suggest that this might just be the group to succeed on a wider scale than Falkous'sprevious outfit. [Morgan Davis]
Woolfy:
If You Know What's Good For Ya!!
For a dance album, there isn't much of a motivation to get the asses gyrating. Most of the beats suffer from severe anemia. Good For Ya!! will surely come off as unenthusiastic and lackluster to even the most diehard night-clubber. [Jory Spadea]
Sunn O)))
Monoliths & Dimensions
Discarding any of the tropes present in most heavy metal, Sunn O))) members Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley are more interested in exploring the places that trance and silence can take us, creating a minimalist work where the empty spaces have quite a bit to say. [David Harris]
Rock Plaza Central:
...at the moment of our most needing
As a collective of Toronto musicians, Rock Plaza Central's current five-member roster centers on the vision of songwriter and twice-published novelist Chris Eaton. His anguished warble, often described as a hybrid of folk-rock demigods Jeff Mangum and Will Oldham, gives each anachronistic lyric a penetrating sincerity capable of plucking even the rustiest heartstring. [Brady Baker]
Wilco:
Wilco (The Album)
While this particular Wilco iteration may have reached a contented, happy place both personally and professionally, they're not content to stop writing great music, even if it lacks some of their former emotional struggles. [Jason Stoff]
Various Artists:
PDX Pop Now! 2009
Yes, PDX Pop Now is a bargain at $8 for two discs and it helps bolster a community that is usually vibrant and exciting. But where once the PDX Pop Now label was one you could trust your money with, it now seems like the well has run dry. [Morgan Davis]
Sunset Rubdown:
Dragonslayer
Dragonslayer is a solid work and shows plenty of development on Krug's part, but given that the artist in question averages two to three releases a year, it's difficult not to think that each release is only a brief glimpse at that development, which in turns lead to another brief glimpse and another and so on. [Morgan Davis]
Quest For Fire:
Quest For Fire
Quest For Fire is not a bad album, just one that wears its influences a bit too much on the sleeve. There's nothing wrong (or unique) about imitation or influence, but there's also very little interesting. Perhaps the band doesn't mind constant comparisons or "hey, they sound like...," but if they do, they probably shouldn't share a name with an Iron Maiden song. [Nathan Kamal]
Passion Pit:
Manners
Manners feels fully formed, a perfectly realized vision of a bright young songwriter whose music is refreshingly unpretentious. The album couldn't possibly begin more perfectly than it does with "Make Light," an unabashedly straightforward pop number with guitars straight out of an early Stiff Records single and a bass line that is marvelous in its simplicity, all sustained notes with bright little octave runs thrown in here and there. [Morgan Davis]
Kasabian:
The West Ryder Pauper Lunatics Asylum
This is Kasabian's most discernible aspect; seeing their easily comparable qualities on paper may trigger a copycat image, but their distinct hybrids speak in refreshing tones that countless lackadaisical imitators can't effectively execute. [Jory Spadea]
Tiny Masters of Today:
Skeletons
Skeletons is agonizingly repetitive and dull, a computer-generated album that favors software trickery over something - anything - worthwhile, meaningful, or, shit, even humorous. There's simply no soul or conviction here; it's imitation lo-fi music awash in technological overindulgence. [Eric Dennis]
Revisit: Beck
The Information (2006)
The Information is very much a watershed record between Beck's sonic interests and bridges the gap from the eclectic affair of Guero and the tighter focused, soul-softened production of Modern Guilt. As difficult as it is to accept, Beck can definitely be experimental AND popular when he doesn't stray from what he knows. [Rafael Gaitan]
Patterson Hood:
Murdering Oscar (and other love songs)
Patterson Hood's Murdering Oscar (and other love songs) will likely sound familiar to the legions of PBR-swillin', trucker-hat-wearin' Drive-By Trucker fans. Like Hood's work with DBT, its songs are deceptively simple, straightforward and full of rough edges. [Eric Dennis]
Rancid:
Let the Dominoes Fall
Let The Dominoes Fall is a well-rounded record; though it's likely not the high water mark of Rancid's career, it will definitely hold the interest of anybody who has enjoyed the band for the past couple decades. [Nicholas Ryan]
Headdress:
Lunes
Drawing on Western desert themes and the accessible aspect of drone, Lunes is a remarkable thing; an experimental album that's incredibly easy to listen to. 5 tracks and 42 minutes long, it feels brief partly because each song is so simply constructed, largely based off a single riff apiece. [Nathan Kamal]
The Paper Chase:
Someday This Could All Be Yours Vol. 1
The real appeal of Congleton's group has always been the slightly off-kilter nature of their structures, though Congleton's voice has a brilliant Texas twang to it that makes his melodies and words all the more interestingly rough, sweet enough to juxtapose the bitter machinations of the rhythm section and the haunting pianos but still throaty enough to hold its own. [Morgan Davis]
Deer Tick:
Born On Flag Day
Imagine Neil Young with the voice of a less whiny Billy Corgan, rub some gravel over it and throw in a Traveling Wilbury or two. Now let a blade of straw lazily hang from your mouth as you look over the grassy hills expanding in front of you, all while blasting it out of a Marshall stack. You now have the sound of Deer Tick. [Josh Vietti]
Spinnerette:
Spinnerette
It's no wonder that Spinnerette does little prowling; Dalle wrote the material almost entirely on bass. You can hear this in the songs' leaden steps. [Chris Middleman]
Interview: Neil Primrose and Andy Dunlop of Travis
"With Britney, it was a total accident. Fran had learned the chords just because he was fascinated by the cyclical nature of the song. It's the same chords that just go again and again and again." [Aimee Herman]
Dinosaur Jr.:
Farm
Unlike other reunited bands, Dinosaur Jr. is likely not interested in digging up the bones of their past. Now with two solid recent albums to their credit, Dinosaur Jr. will likely be of the few such bands whose victory lap won't end with them hacking and wheezing as they approach the finish line. [Eric Dennis]
Clues:
Clues
Penner fares better when he doesn't mutilate structures and try to force the music to be as grandiose or pretentiously epic as what he seems to think Islands does. The most effective songs on this debut are, without fail, the simplest. [Morgan Davis]
City Center:
City Center
City Center has a lot of flaws, but ambition certainly isn't one of them. Thomas is clearly going for a sound so full and inexplicable that catchiness and the songs' being listenable fall by the wayside. [Nathan Kamal]
Isis:
Wavering Radiant
The most startling thing about Wavering Radiant is the sonic dynamics present in the album's seven mini-suites. The common preconception surrounding metal is that it's fast, loud and dumb. More a kissing cousin to the hovering doom found in the music of sludge metalists such as Boris, Isis instead integrates principles of prog-rock, allowing lumbering menace to supplant the prerequisite shredding guitar. [David Harris]
Trainwreck Riders:
The Perch
Alive's modus operandi seems to be signing artists working within a framework of traditional, established rock idioms that connotes a fan base of dudes in brothel creepers and chicks in Bettie bangs. [Chris Middleman]
British Sea Power:
Man of Aran
How well the album will be received depends almost solely on whether Man of Aran is considered a score or the follow-up to 2008's lauded Do You Like Rock Music? [Brian Loeper]
Finn:
The Best Low-Priced Heartbreakers You Can Own
On his U.S. debut The Best Low-Priced Heartbreakers You Can Own Finn presents us with 16 songs full and sweet and sad. They range from the simple and acoustic to the orchestral and dramatic, and there's a deep melancholy in each track that hints at a grand story without ever revealing much. [Nathan Kamal]
Eels:
Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire
The production value adds a cohesively 1950s rock 'n' roll feel that exudes the innocence of the era while retaining E's contemporary approach to alternative rock, folk and occasional old-school hip-hop. The results are, not surprisingly, strangely accessible in the most inviting way. [Jory Spadea]
Viva Voce:
Rose City
Even as Viva Voce evolve, their strengths remain the same: the close folk-like vocals that blur into one another, the way they smartly evoke various styles while always sounding like themselves and their unerring, but not too sticky, melodies. [Lukas Sherman]
Revisit: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Murder Ballads (1996)
This album batters the listener with the chaos, noise and gothic arrangements for which Cave and the Bad Seeds are best known. A parade of psychopathic butchers tears through large parts of Murder Ballads, leaving a bloody trail of carnage in their wake. [Eric Dennis]
Elvis Costello:
Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
Secret, Profane and Sugarcane humbly succeeds, mostly because Burnett and Costello have kept things simple and refrained from glutting their project with kitschy clichés. [Neal Fersko]
Various Artists:
Luaka Bop's 21st Anniversary
The record is certainly a satisfying look at Luaka Bop's catalog and a decent peak into music one might not normally come across paying attention only to Pitchfork. [Chris Middleman]
Steve Earle:
Townes
It's clear that Earle has put a lot of love and care into Townes and by channeling this similarly troubled songwriter, Earle might have found some much needed inspiration. [Morgan Davis]
Dirty Projectors:
Bitte Orca
A more unified and soulful noise emerges out of the band' swamp of scrape-what-you-can percussion and exalted cross-gender voices. They tap into a bigger philosophy that works wonders with all of the spirit that blue-eyed soul is supposed to accomplish but has seldom delivered. [Neal Fersko]
Jim O'Rourke:
I'm Happy, And I'm Singing, And A 1,2,3,4
And that's the catch with this re-issue: it likely won't entirely please all of O'Rourke's fans. It's not an easy listen by any means, though as an artist O'Rourke has never pretended to be obvious or predictable. [Joan Wolkoff]
Busdriver:
Jhelli Beam
Jhelli Beam is nothing short of a revelation, a perfect amalgam of conscious rap's sheer love of the written word and the avant-hip-hop scene embraced by hipsters and the Oakland core alike, with bits and pieces of the indie and electronic elite thrown in for good measure. [Morgan Davis]
Black Moth Super Rainbow:
Eating Us
Voices are distorted by vocoder and strange klaxon-like sounds replace much of the traditional instrumentation, but the human heartbeat-via-drum-kit never disappears. This is cyborg music without the murderous connotations. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Apostle of Hustle:
Eats Darkness
The tragedy of Apostle of Hustle's third outing is that it doesn't feel like a cohesive thought under any circumstances. From one standpoint, it's a collection of songs from the same author, but the entirety of its thoughts feel jarring and counterproductive. [Cameron Mason]
Au Revoir Simone:
Still Night, Still Light
The trio has a solid base formula of keyboards, drum machine and nearly indistinguishable vocals on nearly every song, but with enough minor variations to never be quite monotonous. The harmonies are gorgeous and the gentle interplay of the voices adds to the dreamy atmosphere of synths and Casio beats. [Nathan Kamal]
Ear Pwr:
Super Animal Brothers III
Super Animal Brothers III sounds comparably close to the title's suggestion: a cute, fairytale-ish explosion of heavy beats and screeching synth samples that bloop, blip and bleep their way through 16 songs that fall just shy of 35 cumulative minutes. [Jory Spadea]
Various Artists:
A Psychedelic Guide to Monsterism Island
The disc is too bloated, too bogged down with instrumentals that add nothing to the whole. As background music, it does a fair job of being unobtrusive, neither stopping the listener from balancing a check book out of sheer annoyance or through the presence of mind-blowing jams. [Chris Middleman]
Revisit: The Jesus Lizard
Liar
Though the makeup of Liar certainly isn't to everyone's liking - those who offend easily or like their music smooth, optimistic and incidental should stay the hell away - it is the band's most enduring work and also the best starting point for anyone with a passing interest in The Jesus Lizard. [Eric Dennis]
Sonic Youth:
The Eternal
The band has honed their sound for the past 26 years, and while many milestone marks have been made, The Eternal ushers in the start of many more to come. [Jory Spadea]
The Curious Mystery:
Rotting Slowly
As excellent as the vocals are, as interesting as the guitars can be for a moment or two, there's just nothing about The Curious Mystery that is more memorable than a dream you've just had but have already started to forget. [Morgan Davis]
Polly Scattergood:
Polly Scattergood
The record comes off like the wild-eyed girl that's cornered you at a party, talking entirely too much and asking what you'll be doing together next weekend. [Chris Middleman]
Iggy Pop:
Préliminaires
As much as I like the idea of Pop playing the aging lothario, singing from a stool in a tiny Parisian café, it doesn't always work. And for songs that are supposedly about death, sex and the end of the world, it's pretty mellow. [Lukas Sherman]
The Durutti Column:
Love in the Time of Recession
More than ever, The Durutti Column seem content in hearkening back to their early roots. With such a bountiful discography accumulated after three decades now, it seems unlikely that Reilly would conduct things any other way. [Jory Spadea]
The Intelligence:
Fake Surfers
Within Fake Surfers lurks a tremendous, excellent album, full of Cramps-like boogie stomping and a White Stripes-esque love of hooks. It just all happens to be buried beneath sludgy, completely unnecessary edgy posturing. [Morgan Davis]
Interview: Chris Pureka
" My music isn't about being queer. It's about making music and I also happen to be a queer person. That doesn't mean that I don't think it's really important that people see me on stage and see my gender identity and like, identify with that and have intense experiences around that. I think that's awesome. But I don't specifically seek that out." [Aimee Herman]
Deerhunter:
Rainwater Cassette Exchange
Of course, this EP probably has little to do with what the next Deerhunter album will be like. It's more than likely a little exorcism of sorts before the band goes back into their heady, noisy home territory, but that doesn't stop it from being an excellent, casual affair. [Morgan Davis]
Weinland:
Breaks in the Sun
On their third album, Breaks in the Sun, Weinland doesn't entirely avoid the singer-songwriter trap. The music is always tasteful and the playing always efficient, but there's nothing very exciting about it. [Lukas Sherman]
Erik Blood:
The Way We Live
What carries The Way We Live is that producer's ear, which enables Blood to beautifully craft the arrangements of each song. [Chris Middleman]
The Courtesy Tier:
Map and a Marker
Although it won't spawn any new musical genres, The Courtesy Tier's Map and a Marker succeeds because of its direct and organic approach. Its five songs pulse with ringing guitars, insistent drums, soaring lead vocals and occasional background harmonies. [Eric Dennis]
Phoenix:
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Billed by some as the "French Strokes," Phoenix made effortless, breezy pop songs that became instantly familiar without becoming irritating. Their fourth full-length, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, is the garcons' most ambitious, experimental and European album to date. [Lukas Sherman]
Unknown Instructors:
Funland
Under no circumstances should anyone ever listen to this album. Nothing more than a collection of free-form nonsense, Funland is fucking intolerable. [Brian Loeper]
White Rabbits:
It's Frightening
Though the latest from the White Rabbits sounds a lot like Spoon, there is no denying this record seriously rocks. [Jason Stoff]
The Wooden Birds:
Magnolia
One of Kinney's big problems as lead singer in his old band was his habit of getting complacent on songs and never emphasizing one phrase over another. Often he could shake himself out of it with the right accompaniment, but the sleepy strum of The Wooden Birds just makes it worse. [Neal Fersko]
John Vanderslice:
Romanian Names
Most of the album is structured as a warm weather investigation into lost love rather than an examination of why the same affection is resplendent. Really, that's where Vanderslice has always been as a lyricist, fascinated with the driven and obsessed. [Neal Fersko]
The British Expeditionary Force:
Chapter One: A Long Way From Home
The British Expeditionary Force's Chapter One: A Long Way From Home is an ambient odyssey that takes its listeners through ups and downs within ourselves that we've never imagined. Fueled with swelling reverb, chimes, glinting pianos and a real ear for indie-pop flair, Aid Burrows and Justin Locksley have pooled their resources into a real thing of beauty and panache. [Cameron Mason]
Holy Sons:
Drifter's Sympathy
Drifter's Sympathy is a journey into something that can't be nailed down into words or stories, just like a drifter who can't keep to one place. [Nathan Kamal]
Years:
Years
The album's most prominent strength is its near-flawless blend of acoustic instruments with highly stylized electronic production. This tenuous relationship works best when the focus is on the guitar and the electronics are sparingly used to add character. [Brian Loeper]
Mark Kozelek:
Lost Verses Live
The music of Kozelek is dense, melancholy and gentle. Songs bleed together, creating a tapestry of a funereal somberness. Kozelek's voice, a rich, masculine baritone, make these songs even more heartbreaking, the voice of the big guy who isn't supposed to cry, but finally does. [David Harris]
Omar Souleyman:
Dabke 2020
To put something more important than musical criticism in perspective, Dabke 2020 is a wide-ranging profile of an elite artist embedded in one of the last holdouts from the increasingly Westernized Middle East. [Neal Fersko]
Interview: Ian Svenonius
"Who wants to hear importance? That's not what music's about, it's about fun, and about feeling, and about affirming some kind of feeling you have and maybe giving a voice to your own perversity that you feel isolated by." [Morgan Davis]
Grizzly Bear:
Veckatimest
Hearing what Grizzly Bear have accomplished with Veckatimest suddenly makes everything else about their catalog that much more obvious; aspects of the group that may have once seemed off-putting or unnecessary now fit in perfectly with the grand vision that led to this album. But most importantly Veckatimest reveals that the band are by no means content to rest on the laurels of indie fame and are instead aiming for something much larger. [Morgan Davis]
A.M. Architect:
The Road to the Sun
The Road to the Sun is a marvelously crafted, fully realized testament to music of all kinds. The album consists of rhythmically-supplementing keyboards, peddle steel, and electric guitar, and always manages to maintain a sound without abrasively assaulting the audience. [Rafael Gaitan]
Revisit: Killing Joke
What's THIS For...!
What's THIS for...! is Killing Joke's quintessential record- a collection of songs that sounds most like the greedy, post-atomic Cold Warring world they were railing against. [Chris Middleman]
The Field:
Yesterday And Today
Yesterday and Today, is an organic and meditative collage of live instrumentation, electronic structures and restrained sound patterns that blend together to create what can only be described as a sonic sensation. [Rafael Gaitan]
The Love Language:
The Love Language
What holds The Love Language back is its obviously lo-fi recording origins. These are pop songs at heart, deserving to be heard with melodies shimmering and with space between instrumentation - two things that are hard to come by in the pinched, midrange DIY recording McLamb was able to lay down. [Chris Middleman]
New York Dolls:
'Cause I Sez So
Unlike so many comeback albums, there's very little cynical or calculated about 'Cause I Sez So. There may not be anything that ranks with the Dolls' classic songs here, but it's a noble, spirited effort and if anyone deserves a second shot, it's the New York Dolls. [Lukas Sherman]
Iron and Wine:
Around the Well
Artists must evolve, however, much to the chagrin of some fans. While it seemed many of Beam's longtime followers split over the rich arrangements and incorporation of world beats on 2007's The Shepherd's Dog, Beam has been quietly evolving every since his 2002 debut of muddy lo-fi recordings, The Creek Drank the Cradle. [David Harris]
The Vaselines:
Enter the Vaselines
The Vaselines excelled at contradictions. They could be twee, but snarky; lo-fi, but poppy; coy, but sexy; sweet, but rough. [Lukas Sherman]
Kronos Quartet:
Floodplain
The band genre-skips their way around the Old World from song to song, leaving an alienation caused by the uncertainty of Floodplain's directionless meandering. Thus, what intends to be a concept album plays out like a poorly conceived World Music compilation. [Jory Spadea]
Interview: Eric Earley and Marty Marquis of Blitzen Trapper
"You know, he reads Pitchfork. He likes noisy stuff that is never going to be successful commercially or viable. It doesn't have a whole lot to do with the way he looks necessarily; it's more like his tastes and the kind of things he'd gravitate to. Like going to experimental cinema and performance art and stuff like that." [David Harris]
Eminem:
Relapse
Unfortunately, there's a lot of crap to wade through on the way to catharsis. Eminem has made a career honing his darkly comic menace, but what used to inspire uneasy guffaws is now just overly broad schtick: Eminem is a cartoon, and on this album, he's more Krusty the Clown than John Wayne Gacy, all improv-class accents and exaggerated vocal tics, desperately employed to mask hollow wisecracks. [Charles A. Hohman]
Maxïmo Park:
Quicken the Heart
If Our Earthly Pleasures was the breakup album, then Quicken the Heart is the recovery: a story of heartache after heartbreak told through a series of one-night stands with varying degrees of success. Present tense has become past tense, but it still feels like the now. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Pink Mountaintops:
Outside Love
McBean's songs here pour as slow as molasses, almost every track sounding like a stoned soul picnic. Despite interesting instrumentation ranging from violin to what sounds like a mellotron, the rattling percussion, enormous reverb and slow tempos bog down the songs. [Chris Middelman]
Company Flow:
Funcrusher Plus
Even without label issues, Company Flow probably wouldn't have ever been what you'd call a mainstream success. No, they were too adventurous, too chaotic for that. But there are traces of what others would ride to better success on Funcrusher Plus. [Morgan Davis]
Cracker:
Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey
For better or worse, Cracker soldier on, doing what they have always done. Longtime fans may see it as a mark of integrity that they haven't changed much since their burst of popularity. [Lukas Sherman]
Revisit: Neutral Milk Hotel
On Avery Island
The groundwork for the often disparate musical styles blended to such devastating effect on Aeroplane can be found on this debut effort. It alternates between moments of straightforward folksiness stripped bare and sections of wailing horns, loops, fuzz and other hallmarks of lo-fi. [Eric Dennis]
Jason Lytle:
Yours Truly, The Commuter
Lytle returns with a collection of 12 glorious songs that reaffirm he is not only a gifted songwriter, but also one of the best musicians at writing spacey pop tunes that can be reflective and fun. [David Harris]
Starfucker:
Jupiter
Starfucker have essentially locked themselves into a corner; sure, all of Jupiter is fun to dance to, and it'll have plenty of feet tapping on the morning metro. But the band lacks anything to make their irreverence have any lasting impact. Just wanting to have fun is good and all, but when you keep forcing yourself to have fun, doesn't it stop being enjoyable after a bit? [Morgan Davis]
NOMO:
Invisible Cities
Led by multi-instrumentalist Elliot Bergman, the music is as tightly woven together as any piece of pop music can be. From the opening title track, echoing horns and drums dominate the album, moving in and out of each other as deliberately as pedestrians on a busy street. [Nathan Kamal]
Japandroids:
Post-Nothing
Repetition can of course be a thing of wonder, but here it's mostly boring and exhausting, a sign of a band that puts more emphasis on energy than execution. [Morgan Davis]
Frank Sinatra:
My Way/Live at the Meadowlands
Sinatra's greatest strength - that extraordinary voice - was also his pitfall, as it was too easy for him to just coast on. This is evident throughout Concord Records' reissued versions of 1969's My Way and Live at the Meadowlands, taken from a 1986 concert. [Lukas Sherman]
Mika Miko:
We Be Xuxa
Fighting against the idea of a smarmier and more abstract revisionist history of punk music is a full-time job that the girls may have unknowingly taken on in the past six years. [Neal Fersko]
Interview: Chad VanGaalen
"You want to put as much positive energy out in the universe as you're taking, it's a pretty excessive thing to burn dinosaur bones and fly here and there and I mean it seems retarded. Actually, for the most part, I'm definitely not going to be doing it much longer, it's getting crazier and crazier all the time." [Morgan Davis]
Mastodon:
Crack the Skye
From Pearl Jam to Springsteen and now to Mastodon, producer Bredan O'Brien compresses everything into only the mid-frequencies so the general effect is not the sound of a doom-spewing, thunderous mouth of hell but rather state of the art amplifier, as in, "yes, this is the sound a guitar makes." [Chris Middleman]
Los Straitjackets:
Further Adventures of Los Straitjackets
For a novelty surf act, Los Straitjackets are losing the novel characteristic that initially garnered them their fan base. Whereas cousin rockabilly/surf bands like The Reverend Horton Heat have carved plenty of creative wiggle room by incorporating diverse styles, virtuosic playing and, most importantly, a dedicated set of vocals, the 'Jackets take complete advantage here of an old Hollywood producers' adage: "Give us more of the same, only different!" [Jory Spadea]
First Major: Big Dipper
Slam
Slam is junk. As an album it goes nowhere, but with the added torture of arriving there very slowly. [Neal Fersko]
The Church
Untitled #23
Untitled #23 finds the band in perhaps its most reflective mood yet, with very little rocking and rolling to it. It serves up a shoegaze gloss, with the album relying heavily on these reverb-drenched, circa-1980s production values to establish each song's calm demeanor. [Jory Spadea]
Alasdair Roberts:
Spoils
Alasdair Roberts seems to be deliberately aiming for the kind of dramatic rolling tone that brings to mind a minstrel wandering over a glen, or failing that, a plucked guitar in a smoky pub. [Nathan Kamal]
Hanne Hukkelberg:
Blood From A Stone
Hukkelberg is best known as a composer of found sounds. Utilizing bicycle spokes, train doors, table tops, ovens and field recordings, Hukkelberg's arrangements are a natural breath of fresh air as so many other musicians fall to the static of over production. [Brian Loeper]
Rick Ross:
Deeper Than Rap
With Deeper than Rap, Rick Ross has proven that although he is lyrically limited, he can still command respect. [Rafael Gaitan]
Revisit: Doves
Lost Sides
Doves deserve more credit for producing a quality b-side album that surpasses most a-side work, including some of their own. [Jory Spadea]
Art Brut:
Art Brut Vs. Satan
Under the production skills of Frank Black, Art Brut vs. Satan takes on the scratchy feel of a Pixies record. Argos' vocals remain the star of the show, but the instrumentation has a presence that was sorely missing on It's a Bit Complicated but made us - those who could stand it at least - keep Bang Bang Rock & Roll on repeat. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Brakes:
Touchdown
Touchdown is a collection of pop songs that don't sound so much tossed off as the work of randomness colliding with a deep desire to be poetic. [Nathan Kamal]
Woods:
Songs of Shame
Woods have been rightly lauded for their sonic concoction of freak-folk, quiet psychelica and straight up noise, but to ignore their ear for melody would be a tremendous mistake. [Nathan Kamal]
Cryptacize:
Mythomania
The name of the record itself is defined as a condition where one chronically exaggerates the truth. Ironically, Cryptacize may benefit from more exaggeration to the soggy fidelity of the approach utilized here. [Neal Fersko]
Peaches:
I Feel Cream
Peaches' material relies largely upon a gag and like watching any sitcom, when you know a gag is coming, you lose interest and will likely change the channel. [Chris Middleman]
Radio Moscow:
Brain Cycles
Radio Moscow's sophomore album Brain Cycles is obsessed with getting the garage archetype just right but mucks up the room it allows for personality. [Neal Fersko]
Thee Oh Sees:
Help
For those not aware of the reverb-soaked world of Thee Oh Sees, Help may be the perfect place to begin exploring. Tighter and more streamlined than previous releases, Help finds the group doing what they've always done - bracing, wiry rock that sounds as though it was recorded in a fallout shelter - but with a little more focus. [Morgan Davis]
Akron/Family:
Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free
Like re-watching a gory horror movie, the grace of the band's art manifests itself once the jarring surprises have lifted and become part of a clearer purpose. But unlike the steady and sometimes freaky bluegrass texture they're known for, more blood gets spilled though little of it is gratuitous. [Neal Fersko]
Booker T:
Potato Hole
On Potato Hole, Booker T.'s first solo record in over 30 years, he records with the young and hungry Drive-By Truckers, with occasional guitar work from none other than Neil Young. [Chris Middleman]
Nadja:
When I See The Sun Always Shines On TV
Clocking in at nearly an hour in just eight tracks, the songs themselves sometimes survive due to the strength of the source material, but rarely because of their treatment. [Nathan Kamal]
Life On Earth!:
A Space Water Loop
The guitars and organ lay a solid pop foundation, but it's the earthy woodwinds that drive the sound into other enchanting territories, recalling Old World mythology. [Jory Spadea]
Suckers:
The Suckers EP
It's as if the group had a list of what defined a Wolf Parade song and checked off ingredients as they went along: Off-kilter piano lines? Check! Random bursts of horns? Check! Drums that don't fill so much as roll lazily? Check! [Morgan Davis]
Revisit: Warren Zevon:
Warren Zevon and Excitable Boy
Now five years removed from his death, Zevon's place as one of music's more innovative and uncompromising artists is secure. An artist who straddled the line between cult favorite and household name, the popular yet somewhat stereotypical image of Zevon that still persists to this day is that of an unhinged artist with a strong nihilistic streak and hardass persona. [Eric Dennis]
St. Vincent:
Actor
At one time Annie Clark made music that was fascinating but a little too well mannered to be provocative. Now she might have the best record of 2009. [Neal Fersko]
Dntel:
Early Works For Me If It Works For You II
What's evident in this reissue - indeed, the very reason for its existence - is the idea of personal growth. Whether it's from album to album or within these boundless experimental pop songs, Tamborello seems unwilling to sit still, largely to the benefit of his listeners. [Jason Stoff]
Papercuts:
You Can Have What You Want
You Can Have What You Want is frequently about the textures that occur when the above elements coalesce. Cuever's voice itself works as an instrument; often it hardly even matters what he's singing, as long as he continues to hold that lovely note. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Eulogies:
Here Anonymous
You quickly realize that there's not a whole lot of diversity in Walker's vocals; they all seem to inhabit the same kind of blandly emotive croon from track to track, while the onus is on the guitars to convey the true visceral impact. [Chris Middleman]
Various Artists:
Bright as the Night Presents
No matter a listener's age, nothing invigorates quite like the messy dissonance and honesty of an out and out lo-fi compilation such as this compilation of Portland bands. [Joan Wolkoff]
Wooden Shjips:
Dos
Call it post-krautrock resurrected in California rather than its native Germany, call it psychedelic rock, call it motorik jamming; it really doesn't matter because it all just comes back to that groove. And that groove is a pretty damn good one when you get down to it. [Morgan Davis]
Metric:
Fantasies
The Canadian quartet is back with their first album in four years and make it quite clear that indie-pop can be catchy, inquisitive, fun, dark and deeply reflective all at the same time. [Cameron Mason]
In Flagranti:
Brash & Vulgar
The duo of Sasha Crnobrnja and Alex Goor take their name from this Latin phrase and exploit its present-day slang use - being discovered in the act of sex - to the hilt, making each song title a sleazy insinuation and each album cover a cheap come-on. [Chris Middleman]
Pterodactyl:
Worldwild
Dealing in the same densely layered, slightly askew group vocal tricks as Animal Collective but with a rhythmic intensity and interplay that sometimes recall the skronky post-punk of the sorely missed Q and Not U or Black Eyes, Pterodactyl are really like nothing you've heard before. [Morgan Davis]
Matthew Barber:
Ghost Notes
While he does drop the names of Canadian provinces, Matthew Barber's work humbly pays homage to the neighboring Heartland; how could that good old boys' tone come through any other way? [Joan Wolkoff]
Bob Dylan:
Together Through Life
While Dylan's voice has opened up to become not only an intrinsic part of musical history, he has also adapted the role of living curator of a time and place almost erased by those who care more about the trappings of stardom than the roots of music. [David Harris]
Rediscover: Cadence Weapon:
Afterparty Babies
In a sense, Cadence Weapon is a post-modern emcee, aware of the history of the musical realm he works within and able to comment on it and more culturally accepted works with equal aplomb; and unlike contemporaries like P.O.S. or Sage Francis, Cadence Weapon is stylistically diverse. [Morgan Davis]
Eat Skull:
Wild and Inside
It's refreshing to see Eat Skull and bands like them take inspiration from the wilder, messier side of indie, as too many contemporary indie bands are in the mellow Death Cab/Shins/ O.C. soundtrack mode. [Lukas Sherman]
Camera Obscura:
My Maudlin Career
Like countrymen Belle & Sebastian, to whom Camera Obscura is often compared, their's is a world redolent of paperback books, warm baths, walks in leafy parks and 45s. [Lukas Sherman]
Crystal Antlers:
Tentacles
Crystal Antlers makes it immediately clear from the first chord of "Painless Sleep" that rather than follow the now played out Detroit garage rock sound or the R&B-influenced Swedish archetype, they're stuck firmly in the more psychedelic palette of California garage, with their caterwauling organ bringing to mind the Seeds and other stars from the Nuggets series. [Morgan Davis]
Sun City Girls:
Napoleon & Josephine- Singles Vol. 2
The Sun City Girls never exactly released radio-ready little ditties, it's doubtful that they ever even released their music with the expectation that more than a handful of people would know about it or purchase it. So what then is a Sun City Girls single? [Morgan Davis]
Band of Skulls:
Baby Darling Doll Face Honey
Baby Darling Doll Face Honey is, for the most part, an unpretentious, no-frills kind of album, with songs that mostly rely on guitars, bass, drums and vocals. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Interview: Franz Nicolay of the Hold Steady
"I'm not trying to call out anybody. I'm really interested in the mechanics of performance and the mechanics of producing and entertaining. I think it's an interesting thing to explore and analyze why people go on stage in their street clothes or change clothes into a full-on outfit." [David Harris]
Silversun Pickups:
Swoon
Swoon is cut from much of the same cloth as its predecessor, yet where Carnavas worked hard to transport the listener deep into its shifting atmospheres, here the Pickups seem to want to suffocate that listener with several layers of sound. [Chris Middleman]
Mia Doi Todd:
Morning Music
The spare, droning soundscapes succeed as background music for quieter settings and daily tasks. The lack of lyrical or melodic hooks renders the songs faceless, working to their advantage in real-world settings. They tend to get lost in the noise of an environment; the compositions recede into the subconscious. [Jason Stoff]
Revisit: Chris Isaak
Heart Shaped World
The '50s and '60s pop styles that Chris Isaak has championed have, to a certain degree, always been defined by a certain amount of melodrama. But that melodrama is hardly ever as dark as Isaak when he's at his best, as he was on Heart Shaped World. [Chris Middleman]
Lady Sovereign:
Jigsaw
Lady Sovereign's new album, Jigsaw, is a different affair than her earlier music, a more polished, poppier album that showcases her less aggressive side. [Lukas Sherman]
King Khan & the Shrines:
What Is?!
Khan's strength lies in his encyclopedic knowledge of genre stereotypes and staples, making his releases always entertaining collections of songs that swerve between styles the way other bands switch tempos, simultaneously sounding classic and novel. [Morgan Davis]
Alligators:
Piggy & Cups
Nearly every band on the planet, from the shittiest garage-dwelling hacks to the most profound group hell bent on making a Big Statement, owes some sort of debt to the Beach Boys, and Alligators is no exception. [Eric Dennis]
Grand Duchy:
Petit Fours
Judged by any of Frank Black's standards and setting legacies aside, Grand Duchy's Petits Fours is an entirely underwhelming and largely lifeless album. [Eric Dennis]
1990s:
Kicks
1990s rock for rock's sake (often with a healthy dose of misogyny), and never allow an abundance of quippy phrasing to obstruct winning pop songcraft. [Charles A. Hohman]
Neil Young:
Fork in the Road
Let's face it: Fork in the Road is not the Neil Young release most people are anticipating this year. [David Harris]
The Veils:
Sun Gangs
While tackling so many different styles within an album may sound overambitious, The Veils take on the challenge with a technical prowess that excels from track to track, all held together by lead singer Finn Andrews' distinctive vibrato. [Nicola Fairhead]
Joker's Daughter:
The Last Laugh
The debut from Joker's Daughter, The Last Laugh, is itself like some joke played on the listener, completely devoid of irony and entirely devoted to answering the eternal question: what if Joanna Newsom learned how to sing and decided to make light electro-tinged folk? [Morgan Davis]
Bill Callahan:
Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
These are the type of songs where the listener can't help but listen to with just a little bit more attention; the songs' emotions and intentions unfold slowly and reveal themselves more fully with repeated listens. [Eric Dennis]
Gliss:
Devotion Implosion
Atmosphere is Implosion's secret weapon here, but upon repeated listens the secret reveals itself layer by layer. Cecilia's druggy, somber vocals paired with Kligman's pensive lyrics set a tone of intentional mystery that keeps listeners hanging on with just enough to get them to the next track. [Cameron Mason]
Chain and the Gang:
Down With Liberty...Up With Chains
Chain and the Gang's debut LP marks Svenonius' return to Calvin Johnson's K Records for the first time since his days with The Make-Up. But more often than not the songs themselves are noticeably underwritten. [Neal Fersko]
The Juan Maclean:
The Future Will Come
The Future Will Come stands as an album of contrasts - the disparate pairing of light grooves with raw, painful emotion-creating dance songs that ache with the cold sterility of unease and loss. [Jesse Cataldo]
Great Lake Swimmers:
Lost Channels
Aimless and sluggish, Lost Channels is a void of energy and charisma; easily forgotten after being played, it's the type of album you put on if you're having trouble sleeping or just want to lose half an hour or so of your life and not remember how you did so. [Morgan Davis]
Interview: Julian Koster of the Music Tapes
"Well I feel there's a glow that lives inside everything and every moment that sometimes we get to see and to know. We see it when we love people and things, when we are grateful. As for me, I love music, I love the ocean, I love my friends, rowboats, amusement parks, Elephant 6. There's no room to even begin, but all of these things are made of magic." [David Harris]
Bob Mould:
Life and Times
Mould's music has been wistful since the early 1980s, but it's hard to think of a time when he's felt as serene in his angst as he does on Life and Times, which might be the most meticulous record he's released. [Neal Fersko]
Thunderheist:
Thunderheist
While Thunderheist aren't the only sex-crazed party starters to have popped up in the last few years, the duo is much more self-aware and focused than so many of their swiftly vanishing peers. They show a diversity of purpose and intent that so many new groups lack, ignoring short-lived ironic trends and concepts in favor of the tried and true method of actually, you know, caring about the music. [Morgan Davis]
It Hugs Back:
Inside Your Guitar
Very rarely does anything actually move the listener, so insistent is It Hugs Back on sounding non-threatening and friendly. The record's songs quickly sound overly gauzy and largely indistinguishable from one another. [Chris Middleman]
John Parish and PJ Harvey:
A Woman a Man Walked By
As what is probably PJ Harvey's last album of the decade, A Woman a Man Walked By is good by mainstream standards, but it's mediocre by her standards, ending a creative but erratic period of music with a whimper rather than a hoped for bang. [Lukas Sherman]
Rafter:
Sweaty Magic EP
San Diego-based songwriter/producer Rafter Roberts seems overtly proud of the diverse music spectrum he incorporates into his sonic collages, and there's certainly nothing wrong with that. Sweaty Magic is hip-hop for a pop crowd, or maybe singer-songwriter music for the club scene. [Jory Spadea]
The Shortwave Set:
Replica Sun Machine
Often with a Danger Mouse production his presence is obvious, as songs tend to take on his signature percussion-driven retro-hip style. While this is a given in his collaboration albums with Cee-Lo and MF DOOM, it's also true when his name isn't on the cover, such as in Beck's Modern Guilt. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Fridge:
Early Output 1996-1998
Output plays just like what it is: a song compilation. Even with a rather arbitrary, genre-skipping song order, there's a definitive rhythm to the album. Repetitive setup-and-teardown song structures are partly to credit. Also to credit is the music's innate flow. [Jory Spadea]
Doves:
Kingdom of Rust
This British trio has been ignored by the mainstream and treated as Coldplay's overshadowed twin brother. Unfortunately, each subsequent release has been accompanied by slowly diminishing songwriting. [Jory Spadea]
Lotus Plaza:
The Floodlight Collective
Haunting is the only word one can use to describe The Floodlight Collective- the guitars drone and hum, sounding something like the Jesus and Mary Chain at their gentlest. [Nathan Kamal]
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone:
Advance Battery Life
Advance Battery Life, being a compilation, tends to work both against this point and for it, offering moments where the concept of a singer-songwriter who crafts his songs solely using his voice and a decrepit old Casiotone keyboard is immensely rewarding, and other moments where it is nothing short of infuriating. [Morgan Davis]
The Thermals:
Now We Can See
Since the breakthrough success of The Body The Blood The Machine, there is a new president in office and the Thermals have a new home on Kill Rock Stars. There isn't as much to be pissed off about and the mute button on anger has been pushed with this new set of songs. [David Harris]
Nick Lowe:
Quiet Please: The New Best of Nick Lowe
Yep Roc is doing a community service by releasing the epic anthology Quiet Please. Featuring nearly 50 tracks covering the bulk of Lowe's career and spread across two discs, this may seem like a ridiculous amount of material for an introduction to an artist, but Nick Lowe is an artist who has spread himself across so many genres and whose songs are so identifiable that to limit a retrospective to just one period of Lowe's repertoire would be a disservice. [Morgan Davis]
Interview: Hutch Harris of the Thermals
"I personally think politicians should get laid. George Bush probably wasn't getting laid very much or maybe at all these last eight years. Maybe if he was, he wouldn't be so angry. Maybe he would have made decisions differently if he was in a better mood." [David Harris]
Junior Boys:
Begone Dull Care
Picking at the rare flaws in Begone Dull Care is a futile exercise, though; Junior Boys have been a promising act since their beginning and with this album they may have propelled themselves to the forefront of a genre cluttered with pretenders and con artists. [Morgan Davis]
O+S:
O+S
O+S promises the haunting qualities of Angelo Badalamenti mixed with the pop sensibilities of 10cc. If this does not sound like your train, get off immediately. [Chris Middleman]
Valina:
A Tempo! A Tempo!
If you're looking for a pungent dose of tight musicianship and complex, hard-hitting rhythms, A Tempo! A Tempo! is a headbanger of an album for the geek side of the post-hardcore scene. But, the rewards end there. [Jory Spadea]
Leonard Cohen:
Live in London
Some songwriters eventually get around to writing spirituals. It seems that Cohen is intent on proving that he's never stopped. [Neal Fersko]
Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band:
Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band
Climbing ladders enables bands to keep their sense of survival finely honed, and prohibits bands from so easily slipping into just being another flash in the pan. Because that is ultimately what MSHVB will be, unless some miracle happens that interrupts their fast decline into this year's Black Kids. [Morgan Davis]
Architecture In Helsinki:
That Beep EP
The theme of "That Beep" appears to be about a state of mind, about breaking down social norms and just having fun with life. As slowly as it builds up and ads layer upon layer, it soon breaks them down once again and gently fades away as to be pulled out when you need a quick pick me up at some point later. [Nicholas Ryan]
Amadou & Mariam:
Welcome to Mali
As Amadou & Mariam move further away from their blues roots and experiment with other musical tropes (such as the Latin rhythms of the title track and the English lyrics of "I Will Follow You"), their music is becoming more daring and exciting. [David Harris]
Oh No Not Stereo:
003
The album's tracks play like by-rote assembly line pieces just looking for a little MTV or PlayStation love; indeed, it's not hard to imagine these songs playing as Bam Margera attempts another half-baked stunt or as background music blaring in the next Skate video game. [Eric Dennis]
Mirah:
(a)spera
After five years, Mirah has returned with a new album that is worth the wait more often than not. [Melissa Muenz]
Julie Doiron:
I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day
On I Can Wonder, Doiron seems not out to paint a picture of the incredible life-affirming rewards of parenthood but has rather found through her children a different kind of inspiration. There's a genuine sense of wonder present in the songs that isn't forced and never preaches. [Chris Middleman]
Revisit: Woody Guthrie
Dust Bowl Ballads
Dust Bowl Ballads marked Guthrie's first commercial recording and, even when judged against his extensive recorded output, remains his finest effort. [Eric Dennis]
Peter Bjorn and John:
Living Thing
There's things to like about Living Thing, but ultimately, it stands in the shadow of Writer's Block's cinematic scope. [Chris Middleman]
Themselves:
theFREEhoudini Mixtape
The format of the mixtape winds up grounding Doseone's often idiosyncratic experimental tendencies, with the spoken-word elements and vast washes of ambience he so often utilizes excised in favor of an adrenaline fueled non-stop party for the lunatic fringe. [Morgan Davis]
Grandmaster Flash:
The Bridge
Rather than offer a vintage look at today's styles or a stubborn adherence to hip-hop's roots the latest by legend Grandmaster Flash instead sounds like the bizarro world version of What Hip-Hop Could Have Been...had the Space Jam soundtrack been the blueprint for our future. [Morgan Davis]
Interview: Fujiya & Miyagi
"I broke my collarbone twice, and it really hurts. You have all these bands crying about how their girlfriend left them or their cricket team lost. Try breaking bones. It really hurts." [Melissa Muenz]
Fever Ray:
Fever Ray
Fever Ray not only builds on the sounds of Silent Shout, that slithering trepidation and seething landscape, but brings something new to the music. [David Harris]
Bell Orchestre:
As Seen Through Windows
Though Bell Orchestre's songs often contain the momentum and energy of rock, particularly psychedelic/space rock, they're really they're own thing and have more in common with the adventurous side of classical music, film soundtracks and the experimental drive of the Kronos Quartet. [Lukas Sherman]
Extra Golden:
Thank You Very Quickly
Faults aside, Thank You Very Quickly doesn't diminish Extra Golden as an ensemble or an idea. It just makes us hungrier for a better dish. [Neal Fersko]
Röyksopp:
Junior
It's a party at the Swedish embassy, and even though some of us don't have blonde hair, we're invited anyway. [Neal Fersko]
Thunders:
The Sympathetic Oscillations EP
Driven mainly by propulsive beats and bass lines that give your hips no option but to shake, Thunders want you to forget your troubles and just dance, dammit. [Morgan Davis]
New Found Glory:
Not Without a Fight
It seems that the members of New Found Glory have fallen into a groove that they've grown lazy with, leaving the resulting work half-done without any regard for the consumer; who in the pop-punk market is getting fickler as the days go by. [Cameron Mason]
Obits:
I Blame You
I Blame You is an album hell-bent on reminding you why rock 'n' roll was originally perceived to be the work of the devil. [Morgan Davis]
Interview: Justin Ringle of Horse Feathers
"I think there has been a resurgence in quiet music over the last eight years. I think there's more of a place for it and I think it's partially because the world is so fucked up." [David Harris]
Rediscover: Angus MacLise:
Brain Damage in Oklahoma City
Though Brain Damage in Oklahoma City may not equal the long shadow cast by MacLise's legend, it offers a good opportunity to see MacLise as a musician and artist, not as a mystical figure best known for his extremely brief time with the Velvet Underground. [Eric Dennis]
The Decemberists:
Hazards of Love
Massive in scope and steadfast in focus, The Hazards of Love is not only the finest record of The Decemberists' already-impressive catalog, but is also a crowning achievement in a market flooded with concept albums. [Brian Loeper]
The Strange Boys:
...And Girls Club
It says a lot about the Strange Boys' humor when there's a song named "Should Have Shot Paul" that also includes the chorus " popped the wrong mop top." [Chris Middleman]
Dan Deacon:
Bromst
Bromst is both Deacon's best work yet and the perfect entry point for newcomers. [Morgan Davis]
Wild Light:
Adult Nights
Beyond a spirited introduction, Adult Nights yields a frustrating mix of indie rock's prevailing insipidness. [Jory Spadea]
Condo Fucks:
Fuckbook
This is a blistering, loud, fast, fun album that rewards repeated listens. [Bob McCarthy]
Bishop Allen:
Grrr...
Bishop Allen is a band that wears its influences on its collective sleeve, but that hardly distracts. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Cursive:
Mama, I'm Swollen
If Cursive's breakthrough The Ugly Organ was a now-classic bitter examination of the lower echelons of indie fame, the new Mama, I'm Swollen is an even more bitter resignation to Kasher's fate, stuck in the trenches of the indie world's dark outer rim. [Morgan Davis]
Cazals:
What Of Our Future
What Of Our Future is a fitful combination of tradition and experimentation; the band's reverence for the past can be seen in their classic two guitar, bass, drums, and vocals lineup. [Nathan Kamal]
Wavves:
Wavvves
What makes Wavvves so damned interesting is the fact that the sound is pushed to such an emotional extreme that you can't help but want to elbow your way into the recording, to feel the slight dread that Williams must feel. [Chris Middleman]
The Alternate Routes:
A Sucker's Dream
The album doesn't try to map out a new musical vision or strange new language; it's clear the band is more interested in working within the confines of existing styles than in trying to map out new ones. [Eric Dennis]
Interview: Krishna Das
"As far as for me, this was not planned, there wasn't any master plan. I just started singing to save my ass, because I was sinking." [Khara Lynn and Allyn Sterling]
Bonnie "Prince" Billy:
Beware
Beware may be the strongest example of the current that runs through most of Will Oldham's work: the loss of brotherhood and failed relationships that have been killed by fear. [David Harris]
MC Lars:
This Gigantic Robot Kills
On This Gigantic Robot Kills, Lars switches it up by taking on Guitar Hero, hipsters, the green movement and his own greatness. Too bad it's not much to brag about. [Nicholas Ryan]
Swan Lake:
Enemy Mine
Featuring members of Destroyer, Wolf Parade and Frog Eyes, Swan Lake's latest plays like a collaborative effort, and not just because of the album's recurring images of time, distance, death, fractured psyches and assorted acts of violence. [Eric Dennis]
Outrageous Cherry:
Universal Malcontents
An Outrageous Cherry convert will find nothing surprising here; guitarist-singer Matthew Smith's songs are three-minute power pop punches with slight touches of psychedelia. [Chris Middleman]
Rediscover: Owen
The EP
While the perfect EP remains elusive, Owen's The EP is a rare example of one that's at least worthwhile. [Brian Loeper]
Pan American:
White Bird Release
Mark Nelson's warm, organic sampling floats underneath otherworldly drone-scapes; in a way, it's a metaphor juxtaposing the grounded reality of science with the imaginative possibilities of things beyond man's reach. [Jory Spadea]
Handsome Furs:
Face Control
Side projects are a slippery slope but Wolf Parade's Dan Boeckner pulls off another Handsome Furs album with his dignity intact. [Eric Dennis]
Throw Me the Statue:
Purpleface
Like so many classic examples of the sophomore slump, this EP reveals TMTS to be a group that has lost its way, missing much of the energy and promise that made their debut the indie version of a feel good summer hit. [Morgan Davis]
Marissa Nadler:
Little Hells
With Little Hells, Nadler has caught up to her immense talent and offers more of the same characters we've seen from her previously, but with newer maps to guide us to their hearts, while passing through rougher and more interesting terrain. [Neal Fersko]
Mi Ami:
Watersports
Fans of up-and-comers, and obvious Black Eyes devotees, Ponytail should look towards Mi Ami as the next band to explore if they're into primal freak outs you can dance to. [Morgan Davis]
Interview: Ethan Rose
"It was certainly a surprise to the organist, I think. When I was first going in, he thought I was recording organ music and when I gave him the finished album he said, 'I couldn't hear where the organ was in there. Well, I could, but it's so buried.'" [David Harris]
Elvis Perkins:
Elvis Perkins in Dearland
Elvis Perkins In Dearland mines similar lyrical territory to that debut effort, but also marks a noticeable shift in both instrumentation and mood. [Eric Dennis]
Mountains:
Choral
The audio-layers that crop up on Choral may be better suited to a shadowy face-à-face at some local venue. [Joan Wolkoff]
Rediscover: Liquorice
Listening Cap
Unlike their punk brethren across the Potomac, Toomey and Littleton turned down their amps enough to keep their brand of wistful pop under the radar. [Neal Fersko]
The Hunches:
Exit Dreams
Sounding like it was recorded in the depths of a burning dumpster, the album is so shoddily produced that it's difficult, if not impossible, to sift through the murk and figure out if there's anything even remotely interesting happening underneath. [Morgan Davis]
Neko Case:
Middle Cyclone
Neko Case's latest is far too studied and reserved, with a lack of spontaneity and an excessively clean production that make it both overlong and dully repetitive. [Eric Dennis]
The Lonely Island:
Incredibad
What groups like The Lonely Island and contemporaries Flight of the Conchords are doing is a dizzying combination of outright comedy and ADHD-addled genre dabbling for the YouTube generation, firmly separating them from the idea of "musical comedy" pioneered by the likes of hacks such as "Weird Al" Yankovic and Stephen Lynch. [Morgan Davis]
The Drones:
Havilah
Havilah starts out strong, but loses steam at its midpoint. Either way, it's still a damned good rock album. [Jory Spadea]
Odawas:
The Blue Depths
The Blue Depths utilizes the gentle quaver of Neil Young's ballads, mixes that with My Morning Jacket's spaciness and then applies a frosty layer of synthesized gauze to the proceedings. [David Harris]
Rediscover: Yelle
Pop-Up
Pop-Up is exactly what it sounds like: pop music of the finest sort. It's catchy, dance-y, funny and flirty all in equal measure; it's also dirty, sensual, dismissive, and best of all, it knows what it is and loves you anyway. [Nathan Kamal]
Interview: Adele
"I was in Washington and I went on and said: Hello Philadelphia. And everyone was like: What? So I said: Oh, I was just watching Dave Chapelle and there was a joke about it and I had to cover it up." [Aimee Herman]
Abe Vigoda:
Reviver EP
Rather than sticking to the "tropical punk rock" that garnered them attention last year as the darker counterpart to Vampire Weekend's collegiate Afropop pillaging indie, Abe Vigoda have evolved towards a sound that pairs No Age's shoegaze tendencies with the disco-on-steroids rhythms of HEALTH's better moments. [Morgan Davis]
Henry's Funeral Shoe:
Everything's For Sale
The rhythms are leaden and more often than not, the Cliffords' attempts at being outrageous, raucous rock-n-rollers are de-fanged by Tim Hamill's too-slick production. [Chris Middleman]
U2:
No Line on the Horizon
From the opening hum of "No Line On The Horizon" on, the epic sound both the band and its producers are known for has rarely been so refined and yet so powerful. [Nathan Kamal]
Bombs Into You:
Metaphorically Yours Vol. 1
Wielding arpeggiated microkorgs as hook machines and using guitars almost exclusively as devices for shaping background textures, BIY excel at dynamic structures and anthemic tunes, the choruses of their songs practically demanding an audience to chant along and pump their fists in the air. [Morgan Davis]
Goodbye: Silver Jews
As indie rock's own poet laureate, David Berman populated his songs with characters who operated on the fringes of society, much like himself. In honor of the demise of the Silver Jews, we offer a look at their sometimes intimidating back pages. [Morgan Davis]
Alela Diane:
To Be Still
Allusions to unspoiled native beauty are too numerous to count and bring a nice consistency to the record. Like much of the new freak folk, there's a learned quality on display that isn't bogged down by clunky delivery or self-conscience hooks. [Neal Fersko]
Ben Kweller:
Changing Horses
Had Kweller drawn more from Alan Jackson or Brooks & Dunn, Changing Horses might have been a less listenable record, but it would invariably have been less boring as well. By drawing too heavily from the Parsons well, Kweller plays country in the worst possible way: safe. [Charles A. Hohman]
Vetiver:
Tight Knit
Tight Knit, Vetiver's fourth album and first for Sub Pop, is 45 minutes of soothing, gauzy acoustics perfect for Sunday mornings or the archetypal coffeehouse of your dreams. [Chris Middleman]
Revisit: Squeeze
Cool for Cats
Squeeze was a group that wore its influences proudly on its sleeves yet managed to become something more than the sum of the members' record collections. Revisit them on their breakout album Cool for Cats. [Morgan Davis]
Dex Romweber Duo:
Ruins of Berlin
With Ruins of Berlin, only his third album under the Dex Romweber Duo moniker, Romweber may very well finally find the fame that has so long eluded him. Along for the ride are hot musicians Chan Marshall and Neko Case, as well as Exene Cervenka and Rick Miller of Southern Culture on the Skids. [David Harris]
Vulture Whale:
Vulture Whale
Though not a motley album, Vulture Whale spins like a solid Friday night set at a bar. The energetic Birmingham, Alabama quartet offers a narrow palette of colors, but they're well rehearsed at painting inside the lines. [Jory Spadea]
Interview: Lenka
"I love flying and skydiving and dancing, which I regretted immediately because it was actually really painful. Really uncomfortable. I had bruises from the weights. And trying to like, find wardrobe that can fit over a harness." [Aimee Herman]
The BPA:
I Think We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat
How Cook managed to take a song by the Monochrome Set, add Iggy Pop on top, and still wind up with something that sounds so trivial and vanilla is without a doubt the most intriguing thing about the entire album. [Morgan Davies]
Black Lips:
200 Million Thousand
Maintaining a devotion to the lowest of lo-fi recording techniques, Thousand is psychotic garage rock at its finest, meters stuck firmly in the red and vocals peaking like crazy. [Morgan Davis]
Heartless Bastards:
The Mountain
To be fair, many of Fat Possum's releases have been inconsistent or, at least, rather dry listens to anyone except the most hardcore blues-obsessed fan. Unfortunately, The Mountain shares some of these characteristics. [Chris Middleman]
Morrissey:
Years of Refusal
As with many polarizing figures, the Mozzer's best work tends to be sublime and the worst tends to sound like a lousy self-parody. In a strange turn of events, his ninth and latest solo album, Years of Refusal, manages to be both in the course of 12 tracks. [Nathan Kamal]
Golden Bear:
Everest
This EP accomplishes its mission: it makes our reviewer hungry for an upcoming LP with its melodic, catchy bits of pure indie pop. [Eric Whelchel]
Dan Auerbach:
Keep It Hid
The man is such a dyed-in-the-wool admirer of music of days gone by that decades and fads since have had no bearing on what he does artistically; Auerbach plays white-boy electric blues because he happens to be a white boy who loves and plays electric blues. [Chris Middleman]
Revisit: Lou Reed and John Cale
Songs For Drella
Revisit this concept album by Lou Reed and John Cale that chronicles the private life of Andy Warhol. It's a moving and striking homage to the artist as a person instead of his more widely known, primarily distant public persona, and still stands as one of the most inventive concept albums to date. [Eric Whelchel]
Various Artists:
Dark Was the Night
Perhaps the best compilation of the decade, Dark Was the Night boasts more than 30 tracks from some of the biggest names out there in indie rock. Is it worth the purchase? Definitely. [Eric Whelchel]
Six Organs of Admittance:
RTZ
Altogether two free-floating hours in running time, RTZ's tracks are like a giant chocolate bar; they taste better broken into small pieces. [Chris Middleman]
Duncan Sheik:
Whisper House
With razor-sharp in-jokes and indelible pop songcraft, Whisper House is an enjoyable enough listen. But like a cast recording purchased in a theatre lobby, the album itself works better as a companion piece or a souvenir. [Charles A. Hohman]
M. Ward:
Hold Time
M. Ward's songs are somehow both immediately accessible and hard to place; disparate elements are often melded together to create something that sounds both rooted in music tradition and singularly unique. Unfortunately, this is his least interesting effort yet. [Eric Whelchel]
Krishna Das:
Heart Full of Soul
Though a great document for Krishna Das fans, listeners who aren't familiar with K.D.'s work may wish to consider one of the previously released albums for their first exploratory taste. [Allyn Sterling]
Revisit: Elvis Costello
Brutal Youth
Unfairly maligned on its release, Brutal Youth has emerged as one of the strongest, and most caustic, albums of Elvis Costello's later career. [Eric Whelchel]
Dälek:
Gutter Tactics
This album may just force us to reexamine and question MC Dälek's place on hip-hop's intellectual pedestal; it's just that it's impossible to listen to his crafty rhymes with any semblance of clarity. [Jory Spadea]
The Sleepover Disaster:
Hover
On this dense homage to shoegaze, the vocals are too buried, the guitars are too much and this disc is too easy to forget. [Chris Middleman]
Phosphorescent:
To Willie
On this collection of Willie Nelson covers, Phosphorescent brings emotional truth to 11 classic tracks, never losing Nelson's flavor, but creating a work entirely his own. [Edmond Stansberry]
Loney, Dear:
Dear John
There's an almost childish sensibility to Loney, Dear's approach, not only in the high-register vocals and summerlike breeziness of the melodies, but in the way this brand of pop is stacked with a feel of wonder, engagement and wide-eyed playfulness. [Bryan Kerwin]
Rediscover: Fred Neil
Most famous for penning Roy Orbison's hit "Candy Man," and the Midnight Cowboy theme "Everybody's Talkin'," made a success by Harry Nilsson, Neil released only two proper albums on his own, 1965's Bleecker & MacDougal and his 1967 self-titled masterwork. Rediscover it here. [Chris Middleman]
Bibio:
Vignetting the Compost
Vignetting the Compost takes pride in its simplicity and the gentle beauty of a lightly plucked acoustic guitar over digital tampering. [Morgan Davis]
Nickel Eye:
The Time of the Assassins
The worst, and hopefully final, Strokes side project, The Time of the Assasins feels half-baked, half-cocked and worst of all, half-hearted. [Chris Middleman]
Lily Allen:
It's Not Me, It's You
Lily Allen is unapologetic as she offers up a new album that unhinges her brain, allowing entrance into her sarcastic display of tales and opinions. [Aimee Herman]
Telefon Tel Aviv:
Immolate Yourself
It's unfortunate that Immolate Yourself, the latest from Telefon Tel Aviv, is destined to become an album tied less to its merits or worth than to the sudden death of co-creator Charles Cooper. [Morgan Davis]
Interview: Claudia Gonson of the Magnetic Fields
"I've been really lucky. My job is eternally re-inventive. It spirals out. You meet someone at the comic book store who's drawing comics and you think, it'd be cool if we did something with that person. It's always like a new chapter...it's great. It's fun being in the arts." [Morgan Davis]
Clue to Kalo:
Lily Perdida
Strummed acoustic guitars, keyboards, piano, child-like bells and Mark Mitchell's unremarkable voice all intertwine and bubble, weaving together a record full of pleasant indie rock vernacular that never draws the listener in. [Chris Middleman]
Cotton Jones:
Paranoid Cocoon
Paranoid Cocoon is a quietly insistent album that doesn't need screams, shouts and jagged guitars to make its presence felt. [Eric Whelchel]
Revisit: Godspeed You! Black Emperor
f#a#∞
Equal parts moving and disturbing, f#a#∞ is somehow both comforting and unsettling; if the apocalypse sounds anything like this, at least we'll go out with some great tunes. [Eric Whelchel]
Ethan Rose:
Oaks
Ethan Rose surprises and relaxes us on his newest album, Oaks, composed on a 1926 Wurlitzer organ. [David Harris]
Franz Ferdinand:
Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
Although Tonight incorporates more keyboards and a hint of studio experimentation, it's still very much a classic Franz Ferdinand album that is instantly infectious and catchy. [Lukas Sherman]
Deer Tick:
War Elephant
Though McCauley has been studying the greats since childhood, War Elephant would have benefited from more tradition here; with more tradition comes more life, more sin, and more specificity. [Caren Scott]
Interview: Matt Johnson of Matt and Kim
"(Vermont) was definitely the middle of nowhere, but we just wanted somewhere where we could go and have sufficient time to try whatever the fuck we wanted to try." [Nicholas Ryan]
Andrew Bird:
Noble Beast
Though not the masterpiece Andrew Bird has been promising since Weather Systems, Noble Beast gradually unfolds to be an album overripe with ideas, beauty and mystery. [Eric Whelchel]
The Telescopes:
# Untitled Second
Though the Telescopes will always be an obscurity, hidden under the tutelage of shoegaze acts like My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus and Mary Chain, this reissue is worth a second look. [Nathan Kamal]
Bon Iver:
Blood Bank EP
Blood Bank is not so much a new statement as an affirmation of For Emma, Forever Ago's strengths. [Lukas Sherman]
Lisa Hannigan:
Sea Sew
Stepping away from the shadow of Damien Rice, Lisa Hannigan achieves a thing of rare beauty on her debut album. [Aimee Herman]
Bruce Springsteen:
Working on a Dream
Working on a Dream is primarily concerned with the steadiness of a contented and domestic married life, and its songs often lack any sense of turbulence or conflict and, unfortunately, depth. [Chris Middleman]
Cut Off Your Hands:
You and I
The album is as arena rock friendly as indie pop gets. Now all that Cut Off Your Hands needs are the arenas. [Eric Whelchel]
Interview: Sam Phillips
"Well I played for prostitutes on Hollywood Boulevard and you know in medium security prisons - you know that kind of thing." [Ezra Matteo]
Matt and Kim:
Grand
This short album seems to end before it even begins, leaving the listener wanting more. That's not a bad, is it? [Nicholas Ryan]
Rediscover: Now It's Overhead
Fall Back Open
Rediscover this album that successfully navigates that fine line between emo and overly emotional. It's an atmospheric snapshot of anxiety and the inability to escape it. [Eric Whelchel]
Titus Andronicus:
The Airing of Grievances
This reissue of last year's great album is for you indie music fans or those woefully angst-ridden suburban kids who happened to miss it the first time around. [Eric Whelchel]
The Nerves:
One Way Ticket
Have you heard that Blondie hit "Hanging on the Telephone?" Well, these guys wrote it! [Chris Middleman]
Interview: Amy Ray
"I think I'm this older, masculine woman playing rock 'n' roll in sweaty clubs. I'm being myself and it's very queer sometimes and I think that's defiant to what is the norm." [Aimee Herman]
A.C. Newman:
Get Guilty
For the most part, Get Guilty doesn't really find A.C. Newman wandering too far from his comfort zone but his ability to write catchy songs has not diminished in the least. [Eric Whelchel]
Blackout Beach:
Skin of Evil
On this side project by Frog Eyes's Carey Mercer, all remnants of pop music are left behind to give way to off-beat compositions. [Jory Spadea]
Animal Collective:
Merriweather Post Pavilion
Riding on the strength of 2007's Strawberry Jam, Animal Collective hits home with Merriweather Post Pavilion, the epitome of what it means to become more accessible without abandoning eccentricities, exploration, and sheer weirdness. [Lukas Sherman]
Franz Nicolay:
Major General
A few clunkers aside, multi-instrumentalist Franz Nicolay expands upon his Hold Steady sound to make an album full of interesting songs. [Brian Loeper]
Brimstone Howl:
We Came in Peace
Brimstone Howl explode out of Nebraska with a collection of songs that reference, but expand on, the sounds of Screamin' Jay Hawkins and the Gun Club. [Chris Middleman]
Supersuckers:
Get it Together!
The blue collar has worked for some and came to be a joke for others, but Supersuckers fall somewhere in between. Sounding not exactly lifeless, the band does sound like they're punching the clock. [Chris Middleman]
Little Joy:
Little Joy
Little Joy's debut album is not another derivation of the Strokes. It is, however, short and sweet music, for enjoying viscerally more than contemplating, and in that it's resoundingly successful. [Bryan Kerwin]
The Gourds:
Haymaker!
The Gourds have been around for a long while and their unique ability to blend country, folk, bluegrass and other elements into something new is still going strong. [Eric Whelchel]
Cale Parks:
Sparklace
This guilty pleasure seems to be going through the motions, riding the coattails of LCD Soundsystem and Cut/Copy into the '80s synthpop revival, but adding very little new to the party. [Bob McCarthy]
Interview: o'death
"I would say a lot of that old time music that inspires us deals with a lot of heavy of issues like life and death and struggles with God and struggles with how to survive in a fucked up world. Dark elements." [David Harris]
Hacienda:
Loud is the Night
Hacienda surprise with a set of breezy '60s-era AM Gold songs that are perfect for a warm, summer afternoon colored with romantic melancholy. [Chris Middleman]
Facing New York:
Get Hot
Facing New York have certainly carved their own sound, but because of its hints of immaturity, it is a sound that will inevitably appeal more to Gen-Xers than progressive fans. [Jory Spadea]
The Pink Snowflakes:
Sun Chasing
Portland's Pink Snowflakes do pop songs in a sharp, whacked-out psych relief; they are not on the other side of the psych-rock spectrum, where volume and sustained guitars or themes equal mind-alteration and temporal displacement. [Chris Middleman]
The Decemberists:
Always the Bridesmaid
More a stopgap than anything groundbreaking, this series of singles features some of the most light-hearted music yet from the Decemberists. [Brian Loeper]
The Raveonettes:
Wishing You a Rave Christmas
This is a Christmas album for depressed, solitary sad-sacks, whose every word trembles like Sune Rose Wagner's falsetto, who pine for a Sharin Foo to harmonize their holidays away, whose trains of thought screech against tracks of feedback. [Charles A. Hohman]
The Rapture:
Tapes
Tapes is a 74-minute rave and everyone is invited. Unfortunately, this rave sounds too contrived to be convincing. [Jory Spadea]
Mark Kozelek:
The Finally LP
Worth checking out for one song, our writer muses that an album of only Bob Mould covers may have been the way to go here. [Bob McCarthy]
Jesse Malin:
On Your Sleeve
The problem of the covers album as a novelty hangs over this new release that is neither essential nor original. [Charles A. Hohman]
Fennesz:
Black Sea
Fennesz is firmly in control over this new batch of compositions that continue to make him one of the best out there in the electro-minimalist movement. [Jory Spadea]
Wild Beasts:
Limbo, Panto
With a distinct sound and apparent vision, Wild Beasts appear to have skipped the embryonic phase and shifted straight into a developed band on this startling debut. [Edmond Stansberry]
Viking Moses:
The Parts That Showed
A sordid concept album about a teenage prostitute, The Parts That Showed is a harrowing listen that has some great parts, but probably won't come off the shelf that often. You're not going to play this one on a first date. [Chris Middleman]
Interview: Hutch Harris of The Thermals
"We take small steps, and we only take a few a year. Our songs and recordings are always moving in the same direction - wider, brighter, deeper." [David Harris]
Nebula:
Peel Sessions
Though whether Nebula actually deserves a Peel Session is debatable, something about this release makes our writer's heart go thumpety-thump for that Endless Summer we all mythologize. [Chris Middleman]
Q-Tip:
The Renaissance
Q-Tip is still at the top of his game with The Renaissance, one of the finest rap albums of the year that outclasses most of the competition. [Cameron Mason]
Kanye West:
808s & Heartbreak
Though gimmicky and sometimes annoying, Kanye West produces an album about heartbreak that may not equal the stature of his previous records, but still has some choice cuts on board. [Cameron Mason]
Arrington de Dionyso:
I See Beyond the Black Sun
This album just drones on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. [Chris Middleman]
Interview: Vic Chesnutt
"Well, there's a million things wrong with America. Racism, for one. I come from the South. It's a violent place. Deep, dark, violent place. And Christianity pisses me off. It makes me sick to my stomach every time that it occurs to me that everybody in power believes in Santa Claus." [David Harris]
Guns N' Roses:
Chinese Democracy
If only it were 1987. We would have big hair and hang out on the boardwalk; maybe eat a gyro. Yeah, that would be great. Remember when Axl Rose was a rock god? [Eric Whelchel]
Los Campesinos!:
We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed is a sonically and thematically darker follow-up to the critically acclaimed Hold on Now, Youngster, full of endearing indie-pop odes replete with pointed barbs, squealing guitars and meaty hooks. [Charles A. Hohman]
Andrew Lipke:
Motherpearl and Dynamite
Lipke's music is the sound of 5,000 coffeehouses augmented sometimes with the particular kind of cloying rhythmic sensibility that can only come from time served in a jam band. [Chris Middleman]
Interview: Raymond Raposa of Castanets
"I think once the record started taking shape, the way that worked out felt really natural to me. It wasn't a distancing move and it wasn't a "fuck you" move, but when I got around to sequencing things it felt like the right way to do it." [David Harris]
Deerhunter:
Weird Era Cont.
This second, surprise disc wouldn't stand up as powerfully if not included with Microcastle, but it's unfair to judge it as a separate entity. [Nathan Kamal]
DJ/rupture:
Uproot
More of a masterwork than a mash-up, Uproot is a welcome return from a DJ who has been quiet for too long. [David Harris]
Interview: William Elliott Whitmore
"I have an outhouse. I don't even have a bathroom. But it's on my farm, so it's where I grew up, but it's very simple living for sure." [Edmond Stansberry]
The End of the World:
French Exit
Though French Exit does not merit too many repeated listeners, there are a few keepers on here for those fans of Neil Young's more emotional works. [Chris Middleman]
Fucked Up:
The Chemistry of Common Life
Forget "post-hardcore." This Toronto outfit's latest revitalizes the hardcore music you loved as kid with a vengeance, yet pushes the envelope with songs clocking in over five minutes. [Jake Stuiver]
Jóhann Jóhannsson:
Fordlandia
Fordlandia fails because its innovations are no longer fresh and that most experimental music really is experimental no longer. [Bob McCarthy]
Absentee: Victory Shorts
On this excellent album, Absentee plumb the dark depths of the soul to create a work that is funny, mordant and even hopeful. [David Harris]
Grampall Jookabox:
Ropechain
On Ropechain, faux hip-hop beats meet the tendrils of the Deep South and combine with a sardonic sense of humor to create what must be one of the year's most bizarre releases. [David Harris]
Belle and Sebastian: The BBC Sessions
Despite great songs, only the most dedicated and hardcore Belle and Sebastian fans can distinguish these radio versions from those released on the band's studio albums. [Eric Whelchel]
Past Lives: Strange Symmetry EP
Former members of Blood Brothers make an interesting little album that could herald some great things to come. [Chris Middleman]
Interview: Baby Gramps
"I've been doing this for 45 years now and I hope to maybe pull a Tiny Tim or a Judy Garland on stage. You know, die on stage. That may sound a little morbid but Halloween is coming - oogidy boogidy boogidy!!!!! " [Ezra Matteo]
Bloc Party: Intimacy
Intimacy is a letdown by a band that knows how to use intertwined guitars, bass and drums in perfect harmony. [Brian Loeper]
HushPuppies:
Silence is Golden
Despite the presence of one killer track, the HushPuppies spend most of Silence is Golden emulating British Invasion bands rather than focusing on their own sound. [Jory Spadea]
Cobra Verde:
Haven't Slept All Year
Cobra Verde kick out some more expert rock on Haven't Slept All Year. It never once comes off as mechanical or dispassionate. [Chris Middleman]
El Guincho:
Alegranza!
Using everything from traditional Indian music to interlocking rhythms, El Guincho has created a masterwork of pure joy. [David Harris]
The Dears:
Missiles
A recast version of The Dears returns with this release that probably won't win over any new fans. [Cameron Mason]
Secret Machines:
Secret Machines
On Secret Machines' self-titled third album, the ghosts of the past overtake what may have been a good record of the present. [Chris Middleman]
o'death:
Broken Hymns Limbs and Skin
o'death is a welcome reminder that there are still uncharted frontiers in music and this latest release is musical breath of fresh air. [Brian Loeper]
Rediscover: Neu!
Neu!
Neu is an icon of German Krautrock and the self-titled release is a classic example of Motorik. [Chris Middleman]
Skeletons:
Money
Money is a disorienting and unsettling listen that will most likely drive your neighbors crazy. And that's a good thing. [Eric Whelchel]
Curumin:
JapanPopShow
Curumin blends music from all over the world on this debut record, but sometimes his own material gets lost in the shuffle of genre twists. [Ezra Matteo]
Times New Viking:
Stay Awake EP
Stay Awake is a complicated EP from this lo-fi band that rides on hidden pop hooks to form a cohesive unit of dissonance and ennui. [Edmond Stansberry]
Frightened Rabbit:
Liver! Lung! FR!
Scotland's Frightened Rabbit dishes up a live offering that might have benefited from more deviation of the textures of their studio releases. [Bryan Kerwin]
Various Artists:
The Best of Bond....James Bond
Though not an album for someone lacking interest in James Bond films, 007 fanatics will appreciate this collection that charts the musical history of Britain's most lucrative franchise.
[Chris Middleman]
Mount Eerie:
Lost Wisdom
Phil Elverum writes an album of music about the passionless comfort that comes from familiarity when introspection becomes boring. [Brian Loeper]
Lou Reed:
Berlin: Live at St. Anne's Warehouse
Though Berlin: Live At St. Ann's Warehouse does not meet the majesty of its original incarnation, it is an affirmation of its greatness and provides a fresh take so many years later. [Nathan Kamal]
WOMEN:
WOMEN
On this self-titled debut, WOMEN take a foray into the depths of experimental noise and dreamy rock. [Michael Lawrence]
Wilderness:
(k)no(w)here
James Johnson shouts and rants like a schizophrenic carnival barker on this challenging new release from the Baltimore collective. [Eric Whelchel]
Annuals:
Such Fun
Annuals put out another album of sunny pop that, unlike their indie counterparts, does not try to dishearten the masses. [Cameron Mason]
Vivian Girls:
Vivian Girls
Vivian Girls burst out with 22 minutes of bashing, drunk-heavy songs that are intoxicating. [Edmond Stansberry]
Girl Talk:
Feed the Animals
Girl Talk's follow-up to the acclaimed Night Ripper is another samples-filled affair in which DJ Gregg Gillis shows off his mastery of computer software. [Cameron Mason]
Telepathe:
Chrome's On It EP
On this two song EP, Telepathe creates a broad pastiche of layered trance, techno, dub and hip-hop. [Edmond Stansberry]
Sun Ra:
Secrets of the Sun
In this recently unearthed recording, Sun Ra's transitional period from his Swing Era to the Experimental is given its due. [Brian Loeper]
Deerhunter:
Microcastle
Microcastle will undoubtedly be one of the most notable indies albums of the year, as the band builds on the sound that made Cryptograms and Fluorescent Grey so compelling. [Nathan Kamal]
Jay Reatard:
Matador Singles '08
Though written to be singles, the tracks on this latest collection comprise an album full of essential rock 'n' roll. [Jake Stuiver]
Castanets:
City of Refuge
There is a lot of stark room on Castanets' latest release, a choking, vacant work that plays like a swan song for an incredulous sinner. [Brian Loeper]
Daniel Martin Moore:
Stray Age
2008 has been the year for gentle folk songs and Daniel Martin Moore has produced a collection of songs that are both comforting and affirming. [David Harris]
Antony and the Johnsons:
Another World EP
While Another World features Antony Hegarty's distinctive voice and downbeat songwriting, this release is little more than a warm-up for this winter's The Crying Light. And that's not a bad thing. [David Harris]
Various Artists:
Johnny Cash Remixed
Though there a few tracks that build on Cash's already impressive body of work, it is hard to find much merit in a release that features so many generic remixes. [Eric Whelchel]
Lambchop:
OH (Ohio)
Though Lambchop's latest is another solid album from this hard-working band, the darkness that lurked in previous releases is conspicuously absent here. [Bob McCarthy]
+/-:
Xs On Your Eyes
A worthwhile album continues to elude +/- as the band's latest does anything possible to emulate Nada Surf. [Brian Loeper]
Of Montreal:
Skeletal Lamping
On this schizophrenic new release, Kevin Barnes unleashes his inner Prince in the form of a black shemale. Can he recapture the magic of Hissing Fauna? [David Harris]
Lucinda Williams:
Little Honey
While there are solid songs scattered throughout, Little Honey continues Williams' creative slide of unremarkable music. [Eric Whelchel]
Final Fantasy:
Spectrum, 14th Century
Owen Pallett's newest album is a huge step forward in an already impressive catalog, but it's the story within the music that makes Spectrum, 14th Century so exciting. [Brian Loeper]
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