We weren’t sure if Madonna could surprise us anymore. Until she did.
From the covers to the polished production, the choices on Promised Land all work well and play to Williams’s strengths.
That Simpson is audibly at least a quarter-pitch sharp on at least half of the album makes a good case for the use of Autotune.
Though Flamingo manages to maintain a certain cohesiveness throughout, its individual tracks are largely hit or miss.
Entanglements is an orchestral-pop-meets-modern-classical song cycle that thematically spans from the frantic pangs of adolescent lust to more mature, contemplative desire.
Most of the songs on Little Wild One pay tribute to New York City.
If they’re able to harness their Southern-revival hymns with the bravado of ’70s guitar rock, Delta Spirit will be a force to be reckoned with.
There’s a unique pleasure in hearing a once one-dimensional rapper discover complexity.
The album is a reassertion of Mogwai’s strengths and testimony that they are still credible and productive.
Apollo Sunshine is the kind of band that thinks because everything has already been done, the only thing left is ironic pastiche.
Caught in the Trees finds Damien Jurado at the height of his powers.
There’s no question that Kitchell’s on the way toward finding her voice as both a singer and songwriter.
Playhouse is a major disappointment for anyone other than George Jones completists.
Nelson is capable of taking unexpected material and tailoring it to his strengths as a performer and interpreter.
The trio achieves a kind of symbiosis of character on Hummingbird—without a credit sheet, you might not even know who did what.
Sex and Gasoline is topical and fiercely intelligent in a way that few modern country albums are.
There’s a real coherence and a definite focus on a common theme of keeping one’s head, no matter how hard times may get.
There’s nothing really contemporary about Forth, but that gives it a certain retro-minded charm that carries it through some weaker moments.
31Knots crafts challenging rock music in the grand tradition of iconoclasts like Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa.
Curse him for his heresy against indie/math rock/whatever, but Damon Che can still play those drums.
Brian Wilson’s greatest strength has always been his ability to express grief in the almost excruciating beauties of harmony.