The album advances the thesis that the nature of modern life is inherently carceral.
The album speaks to our current circumstances without being exclusively tethered to them.
Review: The Magnetic Fields’s Quickies Is a Deft Collection of Mini-Character Studies
The songs on the album may be brief, but they more than make up for it with depth.
The album is a confident solo debut that suggests the singer has valences she’s just beginning to explore.
The singer stretches her talents in adventurous new directions throughout the album.
The album finds the band crackling with energy, with a batch of songs that blend mammoth punk energy with power-pop melodicism.
The album boasts some genuine earworms, but its lyrical content is sophomoric.
The album explores new levels of sonic innovation, expanding on old themes while finding new shades of emotional maturity.
The more the band moves outside their comfort zone, the worthier they become of their apparent permanence.
The album is an invitation to burrow into the work of one of the great cult figures of indie rock.
The singer’s seventh album boasts a sharper point of view while evoking a broader range of sonic influences.
The album takes family as its central theme with songs that express the perspectives of a range of characters.
The album seems destined to be, if nothing else, the weirdest debut of the year.
The album boasts a few moments of exploration but seems more staid in its ambitions.
The double album speaks to the hyper-distracted way we live today.
The album is autumnal in its resignation to death as a necessary part of life.
The album is a piece of blood-spattered Americana, a haunted-house version of the fabled American dream.
The group’s fourth album occasionally threatens to collapse beneath the weight of its overstuffed songs.
The album is a portrait of the band’s skills as musicians, a document of a group hitting its stride.
The band’s 11th album doesn’t break the mold, though its sound is a bit more pared down.