We weren’t sure if Madonna could surprise us anymore. Until she did.
And so the Mark “Eels/E” Everett train continues to rumble deeper down its quixotic tunnel.
July Flame partially frees Laura Veirs from the constricting mold of her own music.
The Sea is simultaneously intimate and frustratingly opaque.
With Heartland, Owen Pallett officially lays the Final Fantasy moniker to rest.
Enlightenment may just be Hubbard’s finest record, and it’s certainly the new decade’s first essential album.
Vampire Weekend’s Contra grounds the band’s heady sound in a world-weary sentimentality.
Just about the only thing Ke$ha makes convincing on Animal is that the current crop of party girls are every bit as soulless as they let on.
Blige, as always, does her damnedest to sell every clichéd platitude and mixed metaphor.
Florence and the Machine’s music is particularly sensitive to studio gloss.
Where does Lady Gaga fit into the typical conception of a pop musician?
As smart and savvy a songwriter as Keys should be able to do better than this.
It’s hard to pinpoint the exact source, but the music landscape of 2009 is perhaps best characterized by its slipperiness.
Love Is Not Pop is instrumentally minimal, often leaving Sarah Assbring and her trembling voice to fend against a whole lot of negative space.
Judging by the guest list attached to Malice, Snoop’s celebrating a lot of unbirthdays these days.
Clipse seemed much more comfortable on Road, nesting inside the work of others.
Shock Value II is the kind of bonus fluff that you can get away with releasing when you’re as famous and respected as Timbaland.
Brown spends most of Graffiti wondering why the rest of us haven’t simply moved on when there’s a new party up in here.
This is anthemic art rock, a sound that boldly rings like a cross between Linkin Park’s grungy emo-pop and U2’s brand of commercial rock.
I Dreamed a Dream doesn’t provide any insight into Boyle beyond what has already been widely reported in the media.
Before I Self Destruct is easily identifiable as a return to form: less commercial than it could be and better than it should.