The band’s first album in a decade is more haunted than its arena-sized choruses suggest.
Twin Shadow’s sophomore effort is emotional and muscular, racing through its pathos-filled contents with speedier, high-energy melodies.
Celebration Rock finds a band that had previously claimed they “just wanna worry about those sunshine girls” with a few bigger ideas on their minds.
Rejuvenation may aspire to a comeback, but it’s a lukewarm effort from an MC who likely has nowhere to go but down.
Don’t be shocked if this all turns out to be nothing more than a Pied Piper act.
The Tarnished Gold is a consistently lovely, unassuming set.
It sounds a lot like Believe was recorded on both sides of the chasm.
The Idler Wheel feels thoroughly modern because of Apple’s lack of an internal editor.
Oceania benefits from Corgan’s new sense of freedom, resulting in the Pumpkins’s best album since the gothic Adore.
That Usher would arrive at Looking 4 Myself seems like a natural result of his musical Benjamin Button act.
The only reliable human standby amid the parade of dreary automation is Alexis Taylor’s voice.
Grizzly Bear has finally emerged to bring us the first cut off Veckatimest’s long-awaited and still nameless follow-up.
Listening to a Patti Smith album always feels like an invitation to glimpse her roster of influences.
Turner settles back into a comfortable and familiar style that balances traditional country conventions with slickly modern recording techniques.
While Kristian Matsson’s music is never that interesting, it at least remains solidly propulsive and catchy.
Ashes and Roses is so slight for so much of its overlong running time that it sounds like it actually could blow away.
Every song on Synthetica is a poker-faced exercise in resigned indifference.
“She Said OK” is a hip-hop Lars and the Real Girl.
If lyrically This Is PiL marks a step forward for Lydon, then musically the album seems caught in a mid-’90s production rut.
Too often the album glides on reputation when it should be tilting toward idiosyncrasy.
Ambition makes Amanda Mair a winning debut.