reviews

  • On this title track from one of Grouper’s two new albums, Liz Harris creates “vastness,” and packs it into three minutes of arpeggios and ghostly vocals. The lo-fi production makes the music really smudgy and obscured, but there’s still something therapeutic about the repetition and textures here. Listening

  • On its latest EP, which is a folloup to 2010’s Silver, Eternal Summers being four new tracks into their discography, embracing the sounds of twee and fem-powered post-punk acts the UK was churning out in the late 70s and early 80s. Though not every track here hit me hard,

  • On Helplessness Blues, Fleet Foxes improve just about everything that they were doing on their last album. Keep in mind the key word here is “improve,” not change. Yes, the band is still walking down the same path they were on their previous LP, but they’re much further down

  • Natural Child’s 1971 is an attitude-heavy set of rock tunes that emulate everything from power pop to the kind of classic rock they play on the AM band. Stylistically, this LP is all over the place, which is kind of surprising since the 7” EP I reviewed of theirs

  • Every time a Kills album comes on, I feel a bunch of involuntary reflexes coming on: my eyes squint, my lips tighten, and my shoulders start to shrug. I’m just unsure of why this music should appeal to me. I could certainly see myself latching onto the noisy distortion,

  • Download: Curren$y- Covert Coup via 2dopeboyz Admittedly, I slept on New Orleans rapper Curren$y last year when he released Pilot Talk one and two. His extremely laid back–some would say “blunted”–delivery on the mic was really leaving me underwhelmed. He’s got a new tape out,