Venus and Mars might be Paul's most underrated post-Beatles work, as it has plenty of undeniably great pop rock tunes. The success of Band on the Run seems like it gave Wings the confidence to experiment a little more, and the results are interesting. Plenty of odd sonic textures pepper the tracklist, giving the album a moodier feel than BotR. You can feel the energy from Paul's performance on "Rock Show" and "Letting Go", and the gusto is infectious. "You Gave Me the ... read more

The hype has been answered! This album is amazing! Just about every part of the album sounds the part of the title, be it the fantastic production or Natalie Mering’s glorious vocals. Everything here is clicking for Weyes Blood, and in turn she’s given us one of the best albums of the year.

Every arrangement on Titanic Rising is huge, full of gorgeous, spacious melodies that other artists only dream of concocting. These songs can be dreamy, pillowy soft, like floating down a lazy ... read more

This chamber pop effort is a mixed bag. The album starts out well enough, with both "Talk Talk Talk" and "Impossible" being shimmering earworms. They both combine the best bits of chamber and indie pop, with incredibly catchy rhythms and hooks. "Impossible"'s synth breakdown at the peak of the song is sublime. Even the first slower track, "Wrong Side of the Door", is lazily enjoyable. However, much of the rest of the album is sluggish, falling victim to ... read more

On their sophomore LP, Kero Kero Bonito don't change their sound so much as evolve it. Gone (but not forgotten) are the sugar coated cutesy songs of simple pleasures like taking pictures and sleeping in. "Time 'n' Place" comes at you with an agressive loudness, full of fuzzy guitars, bumping drums and moody synths. Beneath the controlled chaos of the instrumentation, you'll find emotionally resonant lyrics about the pain of growing up and our devout fondness of the past. The end ... read more

Not so hot take: Billie Eilish is the Lorde of the Soundcloud generation. She has the same electropop/artpop aspirations as her New Zealander contemporary, minus the subtlety and nuance with a heaving helping of millennial indulgence. Still, I can't get some of the great beats from her debut album out of my head.

For the most part the production is surprisingly good. The album takes the best bits from Lorde/Lana Del Ray songs and strips them down to their bare essentials. Many of these ... read more

Stella Donnelly's debut is solid indie rock with more wit than most albums possess. The tunes are all good but pretty standard for the genre, featuring crisp guitars, drums, and other bells and whistles. Stella's singing is impassioned, regaling tales of the many shitty men from her past. The songwriting is strong, and the best examples are when she's cracking jokes on tracks like "Season's Greetings", "Tricks" and "Die". The production on each is upbeat and ... read more

On the Line is a singer/songwriter record with plenty of great melodies. There's not a moment where the production sounds bad, but also not many moments where one part stands out from the rest. It's just full of solid, above average pop rock tracks. One moment that does stand out is "Dogwood", which starts with a sparse piano melody but crescendos with Jenny's singing to a flourish of guitars, bells, and drums, then back to a slower piano driven finish. It's a lovely emotional peak ... read more

Combining the seediest of male tendencies in the lyrics and the best of indie/synth/yacht rock in the production, Alex Cameron delivers a sleazy, groovy and highly entertaining record for the ages. Each track hits you head on with glitzy, shimmering synths and chords, from the opening drum beat on "Candy May" to the ending piano synths on "Politics of Love". There's never a moment where the album takes a break, and that's a great thing! Whether you're jamming out to the ... read more

Indie legend Karen O and legendary producer Danger Mouse joining forces is an interesting proposal, and for the most part, Lux Prima is a successful collaboration. Danger Mouse is at his absolute best here, and from the first 30 seconds of the album you know you're in for sonic joy. Odd mid song transition aside, "Lux Prima" is a great tone setter, with lovely orchestration from start to finish. Lush strings sections bring "Ministry" and "Drown" to beautiful ... read more

I remember Pitchfork described one of his albums as "half killer half filler", and honestly that's the best descriptive of any T-Pain release ever. This one has slightly more killer, but still too much filler.

Standouts: RIP to the Parking Lot, Getcha Roll On, It's My Dog Birthday, Goat Talk

Good At Falling is a solid debut record for The Japanese House. I can hear a lot of influence from music like The Postal Service, Bon Iver's stunning 22, A Million, RADWIMPS' Your Name soundtrack and The 1975's latest work (whose drummer, coincidentally, helped produce Good At Falling). Comparisons to The 1975 are furthered by the album art, which also features song titles and an overwhelming sense of emptiness. While Good At Falling doesn't feature the same ambitions as A Brief Inquiry Into ... read more

A joy from start to finish, In a Galaxy is modern synthpop at its finest. Mixing layers of synths, strings, drums, piano and much more, each song is a highlight of synthpop, jazz, funk and soul music. The excellent production throughout makes it hard not to want to groove along. Full out 80's synth jams like "Jungles", "4Qrtrs" and "For a Fool" pepper the album with bubbly rhythms and catchy hooks. Slower, moodier cuts like "Tropix" and the piano driven ... read more

Comparisons to Tame Impala be damned, Pond makes some really good psychedelic rock music. Tasmania takes some obvious cues from the last Tame Impala effort, Currents, seeing how the two bands share members and producers in music ubergod Kevin Parker. So if you're gonna take inspiration from something, might as well take it from one of the best, right?

The production on Tasmania is great, ranging from woozy bangers like "Hand Mouth Dancer" and the middle section of "Daisy" ... read more

6/13: the more I think about this album the more it annoys me. My rose tinted Weezer goggles broke

Weezer doesn’t really care what you want. Rivers Cuomo and company make whatever kind of music they feel like, regardless of fan desires or beliefs. That DGAF attitude has brought forth The Black Album, the weirdest and most out there Weezer album yet. Taking more inspiration from its direct predecessor than older efforts, Black is full of oddball grooves, twists, and yes, missteps. Would ... read more

Some choice words for the soundtrack: UNBELIEVABLE; SUPER COOL; OUTRAGEOUS; AMAZING; PHENOMENAL; FANTASTIC; SO INCREDIBLE.

(Obvs watch the movie first but regardless these are some great songs.)

Standouts: Not Evil, Catchy Song, Everything's Not Awesome, Super Cool, Hello Me & You

After they released the smash "Barbra Streisand", one could've easily written off Duck Sauce, the mega-producer duo of Armand Van Helden and A-Trak, as nothing more than mildly catchy music for juice commercials. Doing so was your mistake to make, as not only is "Barbra Streisand" one of the best disco house hits of the decade, but these two goons keep the infectious rhythms and grooves going for an entire album. There isn't a dull moment on the 50+ minutes of music on ... read more

Another excellent addition to LCD Soundsystem's catalog of live versions of their music. Almost every track is more kinetic, more raw, and more fun. The synthesizers on "tonite" and "oh baby' sound positively 80's new wave, giving the tracks a new layer of fun. "call the police" has James Murphy giving an uplifting performance, while the synthesizers bubble like crazy on "home. Covers of The Human League, Chic and Heaven 17 all stick like glue, harkening back to ... read more

thank u, next proves that Ariana Grande is really good at what she does, and that's putting her titanic voice over adequately catchy pop friendly beats. She pulls from a variety of currently popular styles, from trap to r&b and even a little latin pop on "bloodline". For the most part, each different genre meshes well with Ariana's singing. The horns on "bloodline" are fun and the string section in "imagine" really bring the song to a great climax. There's a ... read more

It really isn't that bad, y'all are just jealous Weezer can karaoke and make millions off of it and you can't.

Standouts: Happy Together, Paranoid, No Scrubs, Billie Jean

It's not nearly as compelling as past efforts, but Deerhunter manage to scrape together enough good grooves and bleak lyrics to warrant a few listens.

Standouts: Death in Midsummer, Greenpoint Gothic, Futurism, Plains