Twin Sister — In Heaven

NYC indie-pop dreamers concoct a solid debut album after an infectious single.

Indie
Matt Carney
Ever since “All Around and Away We Go” reminded me of Talking Heads last summer, I’ve kept my eyes out (and many fingers crossed) for flashes of Twin Sister’s name across the blogosphere. Much to my delight, it showed up last summer alongside fellow NYCers’ The Pains of Being Pure at Heart on a touring bill aimed at the Midwest, with a stop at OU’s campus (not three minutes’ walk from my house) right smack in the middle of it.

 

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Various Artists — The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams

Thank goodness these songs ‘Saw the Light’ of day.

Country
Matt Carney
As if the man born Hiram King Williams’ influence on country music (and all subsequently affected genres, particularly rock ’n’ roll) wasn’t already completely obvious and seminal, the long-dead crooner had to go and scribble a bunch more terrific songs about heartbreak and loneliness into his diary, just to remind us of his ownership of the subject matter even generations after he died.

 

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Mutemath — Odd Soul

I’d prefer odder. Wait, ‘odder’ is actually a word?

Rock
Matt Carney
Just two weeks ago, I enjoyed the pleasure of interviewing Mutemath drummer Darren King in advance of his band’s appearance at The Conservatory.

 

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Queen — News of the World / Jazz / The Game / Flash Gordon / Hot Space

Get ready for a second round of royal reissues.

Rock
Rob Collins
Queen ruled the world commercially from 1977 to 1982, fighting off punk upstarts and pioneering airwaves with its foray into funk.

 

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

St. Vincent — Strange Mercy

Born Tulsan, Annie Clark’s third record is alluring and fearless.

Indie
Matt Carney
Right away, “Chloe in the Afternoon,” the first track on St. Vincent’s new album, distinguishes itself as superior to both the band’s previous LPs, 2007’s “Marry Me” and 2009’s “Actor.”

 

Monday, October 10, 2011

Dream Theater — A Dramatic Turn of Events

Prog-metal legends survive shake-up for best album in nearly half a decade.

Rock
Eric Webb
It’s hard to believe that just a year ago, the future of Dream Theater was totally up in the air.

 

Monday, October 10, 2011

Portugal. The Man — In the Mountain in the Cloud

Belongs ‘in the’ trash.

Indie
Matt Carney
Billed as a psychedelic indie-rock band, I think Portugal. The Man is kind of neither.

 

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Neon Indian — Era Extraña

Set synthesizers to … video game?

Electronica
Matt Carney
Alan Palomo, Neon Indian’s oddball brain, is literally one week older than me, according to his Wikipedia page (note to self: Build my own Wikipedia page). This boggles my mind, although it really shouldn’t. The bands building these synth-thick, shoegazey, beat-propelled chillwave albums are all kids screwing around on the Internet (see: Washed Out, Youth Lagoon, Toro Y Moi), so it shouldn’t come as a surprise then to find out that they like to also sometimes record really cheeky, very fun music.

 

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

WU LYF – Go Tell Fire to the Mountain

Indie-rock with a voice that’s certainly … memorable.

Indie
Matt Carney
It’s rare for a debut album’s two most distinct features to conflict so aggressively, and for a band to command them with as much confidence as does WU LYF. This really is an impressive freshman effort, one that commands your attention for its nearly 50 minutes, spread out thick over 10 songs.

 

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know

Womanhood told by a lovely English nymph.

Folk
Matt Carney
Labeling Laura Marling and her British ilk with the awful tag of nu-folk makes about as much sense as nu-metal does, in general. Which is to say, very little.

 

Monday, September 12, 2011

Wilco – The Whole Love

Wilco’s relevant again!

Indie
Matt Carney
As far as Wilco albums go, 1999’s “Summerteeth” and 2004’s “A Ghost Is Born,” are two of the band’s most beloved, but rarely by the same fans. The former, the group’s third full-length, is a joyful romp of Americana indie rock and pop, bubbling along on a turgid undercurrent of relational struggle, drug abuse and loneliness.

 

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Red Hot Chili Peppers — I'm with You

Rock
Kelley Chambers
For some of us, “I'm With You,” the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 10th studio album, is a long-awaited and welcome project that very likely could never have happened. To others, it didn’t need to happen, and is simply more of the same from a group that should have hung things up 10 years ago and spent their time preening courtside at L.A. Lakers games and basking in their own fame.

 

Friday, September 2, 2011

Terius Nash – 1977

R&B’s hitmaker du jour drops his first record sans moniker.

Hip Hop/Rap
Matt Carney
As far as human beings go, Terius Nash may well be one of the most sought-after. Here’s a brief list of songs he’s written/produced for megastars:

 

Friday, September 2, 2011

The Weeknd — Thursday

Damaged and menacing, The Weeknd continue to push R&B to its scariest limits.

Hip Hop/Rap
Matt Carney
I was finishing up college when the then-more-mysterious R&B project The Weeknd dropped their first mixtape, “House of Balloons,” for free online. Unfortunately for 21-year-old Canadian Abel Tesfaye (who’s credited as singer and songwriter) not enough has changed in that time to warrant increased praise for “Thursday,” although that’s not to say he’s produced (with the help of veteran Doc McKinney and the also-mysterious Illangelo) a bad album.

 

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Superchunk – Foolish

A well-deserving ’90s indie classic gets a timely re-release.

Indie
Matt Carney
A few weeks ago I negatively reviewed the packaging of a pair of reissues from Experience Hendrix LLC. Note that I enjoyed the albums’ actual sonic contents, which definitely proved themselves to be two of the best Hendrix documents on the (flooded) market.

 

Monday, August 29, 2011