CHAI Embrace Full-body Synthpop Bliss on ‘Wink’
Japan’s CHAI tend toward high energy and irrepressible positivity, all with a satisfying rock edge. Wink opens not with a bang but with full-body synthpop bliss.
pop punk
20 Years On, Sum 41’s ‘All Killer No Filler’ Is a Classic Pop-Punk Party
Despite an initially lukewarm critical reception, Sum 41’s All Killer No Filler enjoys a place in the pop-punk pantheon as it hits its 20th birthday.
Canadian Pop-Punkers PONY Wrap ’90s Sounds Into Their Debut ‘TV Baby’
Canadian pop-punkers PONY release a debut, TV Baby, that hits close to home for millennials, and anyone who is a fan of 1990s alt-rock, pop-punk bands.
Irreverent Power-Pop Legends Too Much Joy Roar Back to Life with ‘Mistakes Were Made’
On their first album in 25 years, Too Much Joy offer up the first bona fide roll-down-the-windows, crank-up-the-car-stereo album of 2021. Welcome back.
Weezer Pull Themselves Out of a Rut with Help From an Orchestra
Fresh out of gimmicks, Weezer think outside the box and deliver their most sincere album in years with OK Human.
All Things Reconsidered/Between the Grooves/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Music/Pop Past/SAVE/ IGNORE: popular
Between the Grooves: Green Day – ‘American Idiot’
Part social commentary and part fictional narrative, Green Day's American Idiot came out of nowhere and impressed with its biting political subversion, exploration of teenage angst, love, and uncertainty, and perhaps most importantly, brilliant structures, transitions, and overall cohesion.
Between the Grooves of Green Day’s ‘Dookie’ (1994)
Green Day's Dookie was the best rock album of 1994. Scores of critics admitted that, yes, this 14-track album full of speedy pop-punk tunes about panic attacks, boredom, and masturbation was quite catchy, but no one would've held it against them if they doubted that Dookie would have had staying power.
Buzzcocks Beat the Bootleggers with ‘Late for the Train’
Buzzcocks' Late for the Train features concert recordings and radio sessions from the second age of punk rock's most resilient romantics.
Catholic Guilt Deliver Accidental Anthem for Pandemic via “A Boutique Affair” (premiere)
Catholic Guilt's "A Boutique Affair" taps into the zeitgeist of distance, isolation, while adding a spirit of uplift and community.
‘Stratoplay’ Revels in the Delicious New Wave of the Revillos
Cherry Red Records' six-disc Revillos compilation, Stratoplay, successfully charts the convoluted history of Scottish new wave sensations.
Steve McDonald Remembers the Earliest Days of Redd Kross
Steve McDonald talks about the year that produced the first Redd Kross EP, an early eighth-grade graduation show with a then-unknown Black Flag, and a punk scene that welcomed and defined him.