Category: RECORD REVIEWS

Essential New Music: Various Artists “Remembering Mountains: Unheard Songs By Karen Dalton”
She had one of the most haunting, most arresting voices in all of American musical history, as immediately recognizable as

Essential New Music: Graham Parker & The Rumour’s “Mystery Glue”
This is Graham Parker’s second album with the reunited backup band that gave his early albums so much fire and

Essential New Music: The Helio Sequence’s “The Helio Sequence”
The Helio Sequence has worked on a fairly panoramic screen over the past decade and a half, projecting its evocative

Essential New Music: Beauty Pill’s “Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are”
On its first album in 10 years, D.C. band Beauty Pill takes a sledgehammer to boundaries and orthodoxies. Prior releases

Essential New Music: Half Japanese’s “Volume 3, 1990-1995”
Rock ‘n’ roll doesn’t get any better than this. Period. These three albums—1990’s We Are They Who Ache With Amorous

Essential New Music: Low Cut Connie’s “Hi Honey”
Even when a mere year separated the release of Low Cut Connie’s second album from its first, the energetic combo

Record Review: The Tallest Man On Earth “Dark Bird Is Home”
Kristian Matsson is a musician who can hold a theater of thousands in rapt attention with just an acoustic guitar

Essential New Music: Mew’s “+ -“
Since 1994, the Danish indie rockers in Mew have found interesting and engaging ways to bend progressive rock into exotic

Essential New Music: Prurient’s “Frozen Niagara Falls”
In an about-face to the insular world of American noise music, which he’d been the preeminent voice of for nearly

Record Review: Wire’s “Wire”
A curiously self-titled Wire album betrays a lack of new ideas When a band names its debut after itself, the

Essential New Music: Red House Painters’ “Red House Painters”
“So much that I can’t say to you,” Mark Kozelek croons on “Drop,” a raw, ethereal epic toward the end

Record Review: Metz “II”
Post-hardcore throwback Metz unloads sophomore thump Metz spent five years solidifying a reputation as a must-see live band before it

Essential New Music: Speedy Ortiz’s “Foil Deer”
With Foil Deer, Speedy Ortiz fully owns its style, quirks and neuroses on a level that would have been unimaginable

Essential New Music: Squarepusher’s “Damogen Furies”
Recent chatter around the water cooler concerns the strides Tom Jenkinson has taken toward injecting harsher, more aggressive elements into

Essential New Music: Turbo Fruits’ “No Control”
For a band that titles its album No Control, Turbo Fruits really seem to have their shit together. We’re loath

Record Review: The Replacements’ “The Complete Studio Albums 1981-1990”
The Replacements’ studio output illustrates that the Minnesota legends were at their best together If your dictionary had really good

Record Review: Bill Fay “Who Is The Sender?”
Veteran U.K. folkie Bill Fay practices what he preaches Bill Fay’s second album since his comeback enlarges on themes, lyrical