On each successive album, the New Pornographers have become less off-the-cuff and more cerebral.
Perhaps what’s most interesting about Hounds is how it fits into the narrative arc of Robison and Maguire’s career.
Malin’s solo career has always shown promise, but this album finally makes good on it.
Mary Chapin Carpenter has more or less been rewriting and rerecording the same album of introspective NPR and AAA playlist-ready songs with uneven results.
I Am What I Am an honest reflection of who Merle Haggard has become in his twilight years.
Lynne’s production instincts are spot-on, never overindulging in the freedom afforded by her role as the producer.
Kate Nash’s sophomore effort proves that she’s still the best of the lot when it comes to balancing her pop hooks with a compelling persona.
That Nelson is in especially fine vocal form only heightens the impression that the album was recorded decades ago.
After five proper studio albums, middling songs like “Red Light” and “Bump in the Road” shouldn’t be the best he has to draw from.
Palomino is one of the more exciting bluegrass albums in recent memory.
A vocalist of unparalleled intuition and depth, Burke is able to mine genuine emotion from even the most pedestrian of material.
McCready is going to have to exercise better taste in material if she wants to make a full-fledged comeback.
This is easily the most loaded, fascinating country debut since Big & Rich’s Horse of a Different Color.
While there’s something to be said for the band’s playing to its and Jones’s many strengths, there’s also something to be said for risk.
The album packs an entire SXSW’s worth of musical styles and instruments into a scant 19 minutes.
If there’s something a bit too calculated about all of it, the deliberate weirdness of Brown’s style ultimately works in her favor.
Dear Companion finds Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore making the most of their collaborators’ unique gifts.
The album marks the most consistent set of songs Allan has yet recorded.
The question that hangs over the project is whether or not it works on a level other than that of a clinical academic remove.
The album displays an inventive, freewheeling approach to pop songcraft.