U.S. Girls ‘Bless This Mess’ Embraces Materiality, Creativity, and Dance Grooves
In Bless This Mess, U.S. Girls identify funk and R&B grooves as conduits for the very pulse of life. It’s brilliantly conceived and executed.
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Bartees Strange Offers Sophomore Tour de Force on ‘Farm to Table’
Continuing to blend hip-hop and indie rock, Bartees Strange charts a musically agile, emotionally-charged journey through his psyche on Farm to Table.
Jenny Hval Dreams of ‘Classic Objects’ and Asks Us to Interpret
The songs on Jenny Hval’s latest album, Classic Objects, are purposely dreamlike and intended to inspire her audience’s reveries. Hval succeeds in creating a dreamlike state.
Big Thief Revel in the Joy of Making Music on Their Epic Fifth Album
Big Thief’s dazzling new record sees the foursome dabbling in a plethora of folk-based styles and coming out sounding like no one but themselves.
Helado Negro Celebrates Life in Times of Death on the Sumptuous ‘Far In’
On Helado Negro’s Far In, Robert Carlos Lange uses electric piano, drums, and lush textures to craft boundless dreamscapes worth inhabiting.
Tune-Yards ‘Sketch’ Out a Plan to Entertain and Instruct
Tune-Yards’ sketchy conceptually asks a lot of its listeners and does it right up front: should the purpose of music be to entertain or to instruct?
Future Islands Continue to Soar on ‘As Long As You Are’
Future Islands' sixth album, As Long As You Are, is more of the same -- deeply confessional synthpop -- and that's a beautiful thing.
The Lemon Twigs Amp Up the Glam Rock Obsession on ‘Songs for the General Public’
The Lemon Twigs' influences and tastes run deep, and Songs for the General Public shows that they can wrap all these ideas into a beautiful, oddly consistent package.
U.S. Girls Reckons With Being a Breakout Indie Star on ‘Heavy Light’
Meghan Remy's experimental pop project U.S. Girls ventures into more mainstream territory to mixed results on Heavy Light.
Revisiting Dream Pop Past with Pale Saints on ‘The Comforts of Madness’
Straining to be heard over the noise of a 1,000 over-effected electric guitars, are Pale Saints the lost champions of shoegaze?
Grimes’ ‘Miss Anthropocene’ Watches the World Go Out With a Whimper
Ironically, you may wind up wishing that Grimes' vision of a scorched Earth was a bit more fun.
Big Thief Know That It Takes ‘Two Hands’
On Big Thief's Two Hands, the songs flow together and were purposely linked without pauses. This is an arid record purposely made in the desert with an audible dryness and shimmer to the sound.