The album is at once a reckoning and a self-conscious pivot.
Hurley favors scripted wackiness and blog fodder over the depth and sincerity that have made Weezer’s best work so endearing.
The band has established itself as consistently adept at melding inanity with seriousness via batshit songs that are gaudy while socially conscious.
Album #2 has enough bright spots that Joey + Rory should be able to build on their fanbase.
The album makes it clear that Megafaun hasn’t quite figured themselves out yet.
Earle sounds more comfortable on Harlem River Blues than he ever has on record.
Perhaps the band’s most amazing quality has been their ability to establish their albums and live shows as twin founts for this freewheeling power.
Penny Sparkle is clinical and almost always predictable, despite the exotic murmurs of lead singer Kazu Makino.
The Drums’s arsenal of three or five-chord pop songs are the sonic equivalent of cake, with reverb as the generous icing.
Fellowship is a testament to the power and relevance of gospel music when it’s approached with intelligence and grace.
No Ghost’s structural depth truly demands and rewards active attention.
For their sophomore album, Reckless, the SteelDrivers face a rather unusual dilemma.
Thank You for Your Love is the kind of slim, paltry offering that, in the old days, might have been compressed to fit a 7” single.
Good Southern Girl proves that Shaw is a fearless, whip-smart young talent worth following.
Interpol may not be quite self-parody, but it’s also not the sort of thing that’s going to make the band hip again anytime soon.
Mean Old Man may be a fundamentally lazy album, but it works in the right places.
Surfing the Void finds Klaxons taking their genre rock shtick way too seriously.
Body Talk Pt. 2 is further evidence that Robyn is still one of the most consistently innovative major-label pop artists working today.
Isla is a vibrantly atmospheric collection of music that pioneers an entirely new sound.
The album is aimed at delivering an uplifting, grand bow to a somber saga.
All Birds Say is worn down by its sluggishness and suffers overall from a surfeit of ineffectual good humor.