The National Find Heart on ‘First Two Pages of Frankenstein’
Indie rockers The National use every tool in their toolbox, from devastating lyrics to a Taylor Swift feature, to create a cohesive and expressive ninth LP.
4ad
Tearing Down the Fence Between Lisa Germano and ‘Happiness’
With 1993’s Happiness, Capitol Records tried to sit Lisa Germano on a fence between Americana and alternative. With 1994’s Happiness, 4AD Records dismantled the fence.
Dry Cleaning Seek Bright Spots Amid a Deadened London on ‘Stumpwork’
Dry Cleaning follow last year’s breakthrough debut with Stumpwork‘s indie-flavored post-punk woven together via Florence Shaw’s dispassionate musings.
‘WOMB’ Reclaims Purity Ring’s Distinctive Electropop
Although Purity Ring's WOMB never stops sounding good, the bops came easier in 2012. WOMB is an effortful return to form for the electropop duo.
Lost Classic Or Self-Indulgent Folly? Gene Clark’s ‘No Other’ Redefines Country Rock
A flop in 1974, but now looked on as one of popular music's finest albums, does this expansive 4AD reworking of Gene Clark's No Other confirm its greatness, or reveal a case of the emperor's new clothes?
Pixx’s ‘Small Mercies’ Is Strange Yet Endearing
Despite the mostly upbeat nature of Pixx's Small Mercies, there's a dread surrounding its world.
The National’s ‘I Am Easy to Find’ Is a Tangle of Beautiful, Messy Humanity
The National's eighth album is not as easy to locate or to live with, as its title suggests, but it contains passages of sublime beauty and grace.
Deerhunter’s Transcendent Trajectory
Deerhunter's Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared? and Cryptograms are antithetical twins -- shattered mirror images, whose fragments echo each other and reflect Deerhunter's beginnings of and return to inspired experimentation.
Big Thief’s ‘U.F.O.F.’ Embraces the Unknown and the Unknowable
Big Thief's third album U.F.O.F. is a sublime odyssey where the journey blithely overshadows the destination. U.F.O.F. is an almost perfect album.
Beirut Returns with Another Exquisite World Music Experiment in ‘Gallipoli’
On Gallipoli, Beirut bridges indie music with traditional world music elements, creating a work of somber beauty.
The Lemon Twigs Have Written a Rites of Passage Musical About a Chimp
On Go to School, the Lemon Twigs have taken a lot of what made the first part of the 1970's vibrant and colorful and fascinating and applied those things to a contemporary work.
tUnE-yArDs Dial Back Their World Sound on ‘I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life’
New England duo tUnE-yArDs shoot for a more accessible sound on their fourth studio album, I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life.
