Listen Before You Buy

“Jive With The Killer Instinct” is a scrappy EP that won’t be making anyone’s year end lists, but there are a couple of songs on here that you really shouldn’t miss.

With “Mylo Xyloto” and under the continued guidance of Brian Eno, Coldplay have created an electronically-focused atmosphere full of reverb and lushness. The record could easily be described as stadium-sized, especially in comparison to the group’s previous works.

Shoegaze lounge? Slow-tempo, jazz-infused melodrama? Whatever you want to call it, this EP grabs your attention and leaves you wanting more.

If you like one song on this album, chances are you like all of them. Take that as you will…

You should be prepared to get more than a little sad listening to this Dawes album, but it’s mighty pretty nonetheless.

Kate Bush’s latest is chilling, empty, eerie, and beautiful. You won’t hear anything like this for a while.

“When Fish Ride Bicycles” sounds like The Cool Kids growing up. Shame that’s no fun.

TweetShare For the past few months, it seems like Drake has been the most hated man in hip-hop. Endless blogs have attacked him and his self-developed cult of personality, calling him out for being “soft” in all-caps rants or decrying his lack of being able to “say anything new”. Does he deserve all the hate? [...]

TweetShare Boy oh boy, I sure love a quick announcement to release turnaround. Back on October 9th The Black Keys announced the name of their new album, “El Camino”, and revealed that it would be with us in less than two months. Two months! So much anticipation, so little time. But the public awareness that [...]

With their latest release, “In The Pit Of The Stomach,” We Were Promised Jetpacks proves than although they burst onto the scene with a song called “Quiet Little Voices,” their sound is far from that.

TweetShare Sardonic, quick-witted comic artist and folk-poet Jeffrey Lewis is a bit of a cult figure – when he’s not appearing in the The New York Times for the world to see, that is. It’s something he addresses head on with the song “Cult Boyfriend” from his latest album, “A Turn In The Dream-Songs“. Self-deprecating [...]

The album maintains the right mix of meaning and psychedelic smoke and mirrors so as to be entrancing to listeners – teetering on the precipice of playfulness and introspection, clarity and chaos. While its sound carries a decidedly vintage flavor, Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s debut is wholly of the present – a well-crafted and thoughtful representation of a very current youthful malaise.

Korallreven (meaning, I’m told, “coral reef” in Swedish) is a superb name for this project. It really is right on, because I think “An Album By Korallreven” may very well be the best tropical snorkel/scuba soundtrack ever made.

While many bands of this persuasion would be happy to settle for party-boy rock with country infusion, Deer Tick strips past this template and wanders straight out into the wilderness.

TweetShare The train-engine rolling sound of the Old 97′s doesn’t completely disappoint on their latest release “The Grand Theatre Vol. 2“. For those who appreciate Rhett Miller’s rambling poetry and fragmentary phrasing the album will be a welcome addition to the seemingly unending discography of this prolific band. I think the sign of a good songwriter [...]

TweetShare [This review originally ran in slightly longer form over at GoldFlakePaint] In August I moved to New York City, leaving behind the sun-weakened streets of Los Angeles, college, and grad school. A few weeks later I had my first listen of the album “Mount Modern” by Dad Rocks! During a period of such personal [...]