On Lookaftering, it comes as a relief to hear not only how pristine Bunyan's delicate vocals remain but that she has retained her understated abilities as a songwriter.
Z abandons the Skynyrdisms of It Still Moves, but that album's lessons remain intact: Compared to those on previous albums, these tracks have more guitar crunch and tighter song structures.
When the songwriting is on, Ruby Blue seems perfect, the ultimate combination of human warmth and technological know-how.
Over canned synbeats and zaps, she struts her stuff, castigating silly boys who think they're playing in her weight class and generally acting like the shit.
Judging by You Could Have It So Much Better, these style-conscious art kids are content to be a fine, entertaining pop band instead.
Listen to Multiply once and you'll be struck by how reverent it is; listen to it three times and you'll start to notice the microscopic digital artifacts and subtle tweaks that give it personality and pop.
Picaresque captures the band in peak form, packing in exotic instrumentation that creates a lush and evocative backdrop to Colin Meloy's story-songs, which here are more colorful-- and more topical-- than ever.
The Upper Cuts is sleek and inspired and exhilarating, and after nearly a decade, it's nice to have all this stuff in one place.
Soft and subtle, Superwolf is the kind of record that unwinds slowly, and is best enjoyed over multiple listens and, unsurprisingly, many glasses of wine. Oldham and Sweeney mew coquettishly, stroking their guitars, cawing bizarre stories about love, death, and body parts: theirs is a rancid and beautiful landscape.
Second album from these Brooklyn boozehounds finds them molding the reckless shoutalongs of their debut into overdriven beer-soaked party anthems. Vocalist Craig Finn comes into his own here as a lyricist, and as a sweat-drenched and drunk back-alley bawler.
Even in the face of its cock-rock trappings, The Woods most closely recalls the righteous fury of their first great albums, Call the Doctor (1995) and Dig Me Out (1996).
Every time it seems like conventional indie rock has gasped its last, someone builds a mansion of song that reminds us that, at its best, the genre still pulls off raw, celebratory spirit more convincingly than almost any other.
The slight nods to accessibility and the decreased stylization might disappoint some of the faithful at first, but Strange Geometry grows more appealing with repeated listening.
Volume 2 delivers on the promise of "Zen". In alternating mismanaged heaters ("So Seductive", the murderous "Kobra"), hugely successful singles ("1 Thing", "Hate It or Love It"), and timeless thrillers ("Elevators", "Daytona 500"), the pacing never slows.
The long-awaited debut LP from Frenchman Pascal Arbez includes three-fourths of the seismic electro/techno Poney EP, which sits beautifully alongside his less dancefloor-friendly, album-oriented material.
The invaluable grime primer Run the Road provides a sweeping survey of the genre's biggest figures and strikes to the heart of its maneuverability by constantly changing gears without ever sounding anything less than massive.
LCD Soundsystem has been anticipated since Murphy's 2002 splash "Losing My Edge"/"Beat Connection", and like it, makes clear that although his musical reference points are upfront enough to be conspicuous, they never quite cross the line into hipster-wallpaper.
Like Animal Collective's previous full length, Feels is sequenced carefully, with jauntier, tuneful numbers leading to an amorphous back half.
The mingling of friends is a treat but, heart in his hand, Antony can more than ably go it alone-- even though he spends so much of I Am A Bird Now fearing solitude and celebrating those rare perfect connections.
The closest thing to a truism about Arular is that it's a taut, invigorating distillation of the world's most thrilling music; a celebration of contradictions and aural globalization that recasts the tag "world music" as the ultimate in communicative pop rather than a symbol of condescending piety.
As with the best LCD Soundsystem singles, Bang Bang Rock & Roll is at times some of the best music criticism going right now, and far better than our boringly verbose bullshit 'cause you can dance to it.
With the help of co-producer Jon Brion, West has taken his jumbled personae, buoyant enthusiasm, and vision for the grandiose, and transformed his chattering, seemingly unrealistic ideas into an expansive, imperfect masterpiece.
Musically, Illinois is strange and lush, as excessive and challenging as its giant, gushing song titles.