album review

  • On the Beck-produced Demolished Thoughts, Sonic Youth member Thurston Moore takes things down a notch for a series of acoustic songs wrapped in well-arranged violins and harps. Some tracks come off like softer versions of what might make on a Sonic Youth album, but others reveal a sweeter side of

  • On the band’s sixth album, Black Lips clean up their sound with Mark Ronson at the mixing board. And even though things are coming in cleaner and clearer, the band hasn’t lost any of their energy and attitude in the process–which is what makes Black Lips records

  • Considering this album’s lineup change, its group of new guest singers, Gloss Drop must have been a bit of a challenge for Battles. Also, don’t forget to add the fact this thing is the band’s Sophomore LP, which comes after a highly praised first album. If this

  • On Arctic Monkeys’ latest album, the band drains themselves of adrenaline to play a set of songs that go back in time and try to revive a group of dated sounds. The guys play with sunshine pop, garage rock, and even some Queens of the Stone Age-esque riffage make it

  • On the Shivers’ More, the band’s frontman, Keith Zariello, comes off a little more lovesick than usual. The songs here deal with many flavors of love, but many of them don’t taste all that good. And intentionally so, because More doesn’t have a very positive outlook when

  • On Ulver’s latest album, the band brings on Guapo’s and Mothlite’s Daniel O’Sullivan as a collaborator. He certainly helps Kristoffer Rygg and company bring the band’s sound in a different direction for this new record, but I seriously wonder if it’s for the record.

  • On its latest release, Woods make their sound a little sunnier with brighter guitar leads and attitudes. But some of the songs here just feel too unfinished to really feel memorable or exciting for me. I dig this band a lot, but I almost feel like I’ve fallen off

  • What can I say about Planningtorock’s latest album that’s positive? Honestly, not much. Not only that, but I’m awestruck at how positive some of the receptions have been to what she’s doing. I don’t begrudge her the fanbase she’s gathered so far–especially since

  • OK, so it’s widely acknowledged that a lot of people don’t care about Death Cab for cutie anymore. I guess I used to be one of them, too. But because of all the requests and my own curiosity, I figured I’d try out Codes and Keys since

  • MP3 Hailing from Arizona, TOAD–which stands for Take Over and Destroy–is a six-piece metal band that sounds kinda like the genre’s scrapyard. While scrapyards are full of junk, there’s also hidden treasure in them for anybody who is willing to to dig through the rusty pipes