Describing The Seer is an exquisite challenge. Swans’ follow-up to 2010’s My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky is primal. It’s as if the entire course of human history was recorded, the epochs at once discordant and harmonious with one another, the sounds of industry crashing Read More…
A Thing Called Divine Fits is no ordinary debut — these guys have been around the block a few times. Divine Fits combines the forces of Spoon mastermind Britt Daniel, Wolf Parade and Handsome Furs founding member Dan Boeckner, and New Bomb Turks drummer Sam Brown. The band oozes confidence, Read More…
As a band, Yeasayer could be defined by little other than reinvention. From their first two releases, All Hour Cymbals and Odd Blood, the band has evolved each time. While their second album drew criticism for the band’s change from more psychedelic music to poppier sounds, Yeasayer has managed to Read More…
Is Kele Okereke confused? Has he been consumed by his own hipster irony? With the release of Bloc Party’s fourth studio album, the creatively titled Four, it appears the songwriter has lost his touch. After a drawn-out hiatus, the band seems to have forgotten itself. Turning to mismatched influences — Read More…
The intro to the new Insane Clown Posse album, The Mighty Death Pop!, predictably starts with a death. A Juggalo and his lady-friend are standing on a rooftop. After less than a minute of braggadocio, the man takes a running leap off the roof attempting to reach the next building and Read More…
Considering the group’s erratic success in the past, Sixpence None the Richer’s 2012 album Lost in Transition seemed like the perfect opportunity for a strong comeback, but falters in producing a directed effort at gaining widespread popularity. After mild success in the early 1990’s with full Christian pop albums, Fatherless Read More…
It’s been three years since electropop lovelies Passion Pit released a studio album. We’ve heard the band’s upbeat, sickly-sweet synth melodies, and have even delved into some of their “Little Secrets.” It’s hard to listen to their debut album Manners without at least cracking a smile at vocalist Michael Angelakos’ Read More…
Frank Ocean gets it. That’s really what it comes down to. At 24 years old, Ocean’s lyrical and musical depth far surpasses that of most of his R&B contemporaries. After joining shock-rap collective Odd Future and dropping a celebrated solo mixtape, Ocean scored front-row seats to Watch the Throne by Read More…
Life is Good — Nas’s tenth album and the final under his Def Jam contract — is not solely a breakup album. Though Nas holds ex-wife Kelis’ green wedding dress across his knee on the cover, it’s not. I assure you. When you’ve been in the game as long as Read More…
If Woody Allen were a hip hop fan, one of his more recent films would probably contain some joke about ‘pseudo-intellectuals’ overanalyzing the latest Waka Flocka record. It would be funny because it’s Woody. And it would be riotously hilarious because it’s true. But Aesop Rock is the rapper who Read More…
