The Beach Boys’ ‘That’s Why God Made the Radio’ Begs to Be Knocked
The Beach Boys’ That’s Why God Made the Radio is unsettling and inoffensive in a way I cannot compare to any album except God Bless Tiny Tim.
Pop Past
Roxy Music Invented the 1980s with Their Swan Song ‘Avalon’
Forty years ago, Roxy Music stepped away from the recording studio, but not before leaving behind an album that defined the 1980s. It’s the ultimate marriage of high concept, high art, and high-quality popular music.
41 Essential Pop/Rock Songs with Accordion
No popular musical instrument has been more frequently maligned than the accordion. Despite gaining hipster cred in the 1990s, its role in pop remains underappreciated.
Stereolab Debuted with the Fluorescent ‘Peng!’ 30 Years Ago
Three decades ago, the lucid yet obscure (and antiquated yet postmodern) first entry in Stereolab’s superabundant catalog foreshadowed greatness. Peng! is 30.
Queen Hit the Dance Floor on ‘Hot Space’ 40 Years Ago
Many Queen fans might not want to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Hot Space, but the album checks too many quirky boxes to ignore it.
Frank Sinatra on Top of the Heap: Revisiting ‘Sinatra at the Sands’
Sinatra at The Sands is my favorite Frank Sinatra performance – cocky, charming but not oily, warm but not soppy. Each listen lays bare the sheer “cuckoo calculation” of it all.
Criminal Subterfuge and Dark Desires in Chabrol’s Minimalist Murder-Mysteries
While murder and crime certainly run deep in Claude Chabrol’s world of subterfuge, the dark desires of human nature that provoke them run immeasurably deeper.
Radiohead Became Worldwide Rock Stars 25 Years Ago With ‘OK Computer’
The Bends hinted at Radiohead’s potential, but OK Computer allowed Radiohead the freedom to experiment and started their progression to forward-looking music.
‘The Colour and the Shape’ Found Foo Fighters’ Peaking in Their Adolescence
Conceived under fraught circumstances and rife with youthful passion, Foo Fighters’ most cherished album, The Colour and the Shape, is also a relic, never to be replicated.
Adam Levine’s Vanity Project: Reassessing Maroon 5’s ‘It Won’t Be Soon Before Long’ at 15
Maroon 5’s sophomore album, It Won’t Be Soon Before Long, pivoted away from their pop-punk beginnings and set them up for a decade of pop culture omnipresence.
Wilco’s Wisdom in ‘Sky Blue Sky’ Resonates 15 Years After Release
Is there such a thing as middle-aged rock? If so, it would sound like Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky with its measured simplicity and reflective intensity.
Buried in These Hands For Years: Thomas Dolby’s ‘The Golden Age of Wireless’ Turns 40
Thomas Dolby’s 40-year-old debut The Golden Age of Wireless is a definitive synthpop album that raises many questions but only answers a few of them.
