On Fucked Up’s new album, the band brings concept to the forefront for a group of songs that tell a dramatic tale of love and loss. It’s pretty, well, complicated. As “epic” as this story is, what makes it grandiose also kinda kills it for me, too. These
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Snake Oil’s debut LP is a pretty nice piece of instrumental psych rock. The recording of this this is really great, too. It separates the instrumentation perfectly, and swells very nicely when everything layers on top of one another. The melodies are decent, and the grooves are nice, but
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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
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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
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Beirut has a new single out! Those who love hearing the sounds of Eastern European music filtered through an American lens can rejoice! But honestly, Zach Condon’s Beirut has put together two pretty solid full-length records, and this single has mouths–or ears, maybe–watering for a third. “East
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Come, my children! Indulge in this glorious thrash metal! Denver, Colorado isn’t exactly a mecca of thrash metal, but Havok still manages to string together some of the genre’s best characteristics into one 11-track gauntlet. This LP rarely lets up, and dishes out one hard riff after another.
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Theophilus London’s new EP, Lover’s Holiday, is a piece of pop rap I can really get down with. Not only are some strong new wave influences tastefully shown on off this thing, but the songwriting is crafted for maximum enjoyability. With strong melodies, beats, and guest singers, Theo
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My Morning Jacket’s latest album was a two-part surprise for me. First, I was happy to hear how alive and ambitious the first half of this album was. Not only are the hooks and instrumentation strong, but the band seems equally comfortable saying something beautiful or funny with their
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When it comes to choosing a direction, Seattle’s Master Musicians of Bukkake have a little bit of musical ADD. That’s fine, though. Most of the time–no matter what style these seven guys happen to be embracing–they always put a ton of heart and creativity into what
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On Coma Cinema’s third album lo-fi production backs up some real-life sadness on about 15 songs. It’s a little spotty, but nothing really sticks around long enough to disappoint. Some songs here really did hit me as memorable on my first listen, though. If you’re down with
