The album sounds beamed in from an earlier decade, but it runs deeper than nostalgia.
Classical allusions notwithstanding, there’s not a trace of pretense in Crowell’s writing.
The album attempts to reconcile the often disparate elements that constituted the considerable charms of Grandaddy’s previous releases.
The songs that form the core of Oh No cohere into a consistently engaging take on modern rock.
Despite explosive passages of electric guitars, there isn’t much context for the album’s words or sonics.
Kanye West never ceases to amaze me. And not in a good way.
Of all people, the exacting troubadour Michael Penn can surely appreciate the irony of being rendered obsolete before his time.
The occasional stabs at overblown topicality almost seem like their own punchlines.
If inconsistency is Music from the Sun’s biggest flaw, Rihanna is doing quite well by today’s paint-by-numbers R&B standards.
The Invisible Invasion is a pleasant enough album that ultimately does nothing to distinguish itself from the efforts of countless other bands.
Possibilities’s selection of tunes comes with little rhyme or reason.
Yeah, it’s like a mannequin dressed up like a website. I need an emoticon for vomiting.
The individual songs run just a measure or two too long, and at 14 tracks there are simply too many soundalike songs on the album.
It’s all the more miraculous because it lacks the suffocating pretense of so many deliberately meticulous, would-be literary indie-rock albums.
The album establishes a solid foundation for what should be an artistically rich career.
Time Well Wasted at least has the decency to provide an excess of material, both for better and for worse.
Sadly, none of the album’s 14 tracks were taken from Duff’s 2002 debut, Santa Claus Lane.
Godson of Soul is an album that sounds organic in the best possible sense of the word.
Made in China is a confused, sloppy, childish, conflicted mess
Nickel Creek’s selling point remains their technical gifts and, again, Why Should the Fire Die? showcases a phenomenal learning curve.
The album could give Hootie & the Blowfish the kind of commercial relevance they haven’t had in a decade.