Matthew Fiander is a music critic for PopMatters and Prefix Magazine. He also writes fiction and his work has appeared in The Yalobusha Review. He received his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from UNC-Greensboro and currently teaches writing and literature at High Point University in High Point, NC. You can follow him on Twitter at @mattfiander.
Features
Monday, March 18 2013
Now Hear This!: Plates of Cake - 'Teenage Evil' (album premiere)
PopMatters is excited to premiere Teenage Evil, the second full-length by up-and-comers Plates of Cake.
Thursday, December 13 2012
The Top 10 Overlooked Albums of 2012
With the long arm of the internet putting any and all music at our fingertips, it should make for a glut of bands getting their due attention. But what really happens is so many great acts get hidden in plain view.
Tuesday, July 31 2012
Modern Life Is Repetition: Blur's Spare Lexicon and Endless Atmosphere
Blur sang of daily routines in an attempt to crack them, to chisel away at them until they broke. Lyrics repeated often and guitars swirls, but while they spun furiously in place, the band still managed to move forward, and Blur 21: The Box documents their progress with a staggering breadth.
Friday, June 24 2011
The Piano Bares Its Teeth: Reversals and Redemption in Nick Cave's '90s Albums
Through a series of reversals -- of sound, of focus, of theme, of our expectations -- Nick Cave, ever the demonic circus hawker, turned his sights onto something different as he emerged from the '90s: Himself.
Thursday, December 9 2010
The Best Female Artists of 2010
While the men were showing us their dark and beautiful fantasies, or pulling us into their high brooding violet, the women were absolutely taking over 2010.
Reviews
Tuesday, May 14 2013
Marquis De Tren & Bonny Billy: Solemns
Solemns' virtue comes in its unassuming nature, in how it feels like a glimpse into an inspired moment between musical friends.
Monday, May 13 2013
Human Eye: 4: Into Unknown
Human Eye has been slowly building their name, and this record is their loudest shout for us to take them seriously. We should listen.
Thursday, May 9 2013
Snapper: Snapper EP
Snapper's sound -- less jangly than the Clean, more fierce than the 3Ds -- is both of a piece with the Flying Nun aesthetic and utterly singular.
Tuesday, May 7 2013
Ola Podrida: Ghosts Go Blind
Ghosts Go Blind succeeds because it manages to pull tension out of spacious textures. It never unleashes a rock fury and often deals in isolated space, but it never sounds slack or insular.
Friday, May 3 2013
David Bowie: Aladdin Sane (40th Anniversary Edition)
Aladdin Sane may be the best example of one of Bowie's central themes: the artifice not as something to break through, not as an impediment on the way to the real, but the artifice as its own sort of realness.
Blogs
Wednesday, February 27 2013
The Kingsbury Manx - "Handsprings" (Stream) (PopMatters Premiere)
North Carolina's Kingsbury Manx returns in March with their sixth full-length, Bronze Age.
Monday, December 13 2010
Bob Dylan - The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964
Bob Dylan - The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964 -Columbia/Legacy [$18.98]
Thursday, December 3 2009
Red Red Meat - Bunny Gets Paid (Deluxe Edition)
Red Red Meat - Bunny Gets Paid (Deluxe Edition) - Sub Pop [$14.98]
































