Always an underrated guitarist, Harvey makes use of the jaunty rhythms of British folk music, but takes no comfort in the past. And you don’t have to care about English history — or England in general — to fall under Harvey’s spell.
Bejar’s ninth disc detours into all manner of early-Eighties smoothness — glassy New Wave bass lines, blue-Monday synths, turquoise- sport-coat saxophones, backup singers straight off a Steely Dan record, all filtered through the obtuse, literary bent that turns Destroyer albums into such fun puzzles.
Their third set hits a sweet spot between the futuristic soul of their debut and the synth pop of 2009's Machine Dreams.
It might also be his most broadly emotional set ever; certainly it's his most sharply focused record since the game-changing tag team Swordfishtrombones and Rain Dogs decades ago.
The ideas on Bon Iver — Colin Stetson's shimmery horn parts, Rob Moose's elegant arrangements — are engaging even when they don't lead anywhere, and the music is beautiful, even when it veers into schmaltz.
The album reunites Grohl with producer Butch Vig, who worked on Nirvana's 1991 monster, Nevermind, and brings the same nuanced approach to weight and release here.
Metals has nothing with the instant appeal of the 2007 hit-cum-iPod-jingle "1234." But it's her best album, a mood piece that tosses in everything from folk to Malian-style desert blues.
On Collapse Into Now, they sound like they'd rather be a band than a legend, which must be why they keep pushing on.
El Camino is the Keys' grandest pop gesture yet, augmenting dark-hearted fuzz blasts with sleekly sexy choruses and Seventies-glam flair.
“When the Night Was Young” combines Sixties idealism and voodoo grind with memories of back roads and juke-joint gigs
The Whole Love seems like a celebration of that freedom, with songs that roam happily all over the place.
Gaga loves overheated cosmic statements for the same reason she loves dance pop and metal guitars – because she hears them as echoes of her twisted rock & roll heart. That's the achievement of Born This Way: The more excessive Gaga gets, the more honest she sounds.
Limbs keeps the intensity at a low boil, working the body as it follows strange logic down alleys it has no interest in coming out of.
It's his best album since 1990's The Rhythm of the Saints, and it also sums up much of what makes Simon great.