The big city is dark and full of terrors if you take Smerz’s word for it. The Norwegian duo never rises above a whisper on their takedown of big city life here on, well, Big city life. The dreamy pop beats are similarly quiet, perhaps mirroring the unintended boredom one might face in a city they were promised was full of life. It’s just that the approach itself is more boring than I think the duo intended. The writing is pretty dry and funny, but the wispy beats are lacking when it ... read more

There’s a lot of boilerplate indie rock instrumentals that run together on Sabrina Teitelbaum’s latest record. Not a lot of songs really distinguish themselves through their sound; it’s up to the songwriting to do the heavy lifting. And Teitelbaum is still an accomplished artist with her pen, and the way she subtly tears into current and past partners is both funny and chilling. Beyond relationships, she struggles with her sexuality, her body image and more. It’s just a ... read more

Ever felt like having a panic attack in song form? That’s the crux of Model/Actriz’s sound; there’s an ever-present stress to each track of Pirouette that threatens to push you over the edge. The beauty is in that teetering feeling, and both Cole Haden’s performances and the jittery, uncomfortable nature of their post-punk sound. There’s a couple shorter tracks that are mostly spoken word and are pretty forgettable, but otherwise the band is operating in good form ... read more

A quaint little pop EP centered around a childhood dream about owning a house with your future partner. The first two songs are more conventional pop and catchier, especially “23:42”. The latter two songs (one being a demo) are sparser, allowing their emotions to fully be shown. It’s a nice little project, perhaps a vision into whatever the sound will be of Chinouriri’s 2nd LP.

Lucy is a bona fide indie rock star now, signed to a major label and appearing on every popular playlist on Spotify these days. That success was built on emotional lyricism with instrumentals to match, and that’s mostly the case for Forever is a Feeling. It’s just that these songs are more watered down than Dacus’s other albums are. Lucy is still a very poignant songwriter when it comes to love, but there’s not that many songs that grab you with their sound like a ... read more

Immensely listenable if you’re a fan of any power pop from the 1970’s. The album’s fuzzy sounds makes its memories of youthful love all the more universal, allowing you to fill in the blanks with favorite memories of your own. Kai Slater’s voice even emulates what a wannabe 70’s star might sound like. It’s not as musically diverse as other bands that mine power pop’s golden era like a Lemon Twigs album, but it’s a promising beginning for Slater, a ... read more

Skrillex may as well be the Andy Warhol of dubstep. He took something super underground and, for a brief period of time, turned it into the biggest sound in the world. After spending a long time away from the genre that made him a star, this new album that functions as a 46-minute continuous DJ mix shows he’s back on his bullshit. Not only do we get some of his nastiest drops since his heyday on the likes of “SPITFIRE”, “MORJA KAIJU VIP”, “ULTRA INTRO” ... read more

In all likelihood, Ghost was always going to end up here. Tobias Forge has never been shy in what his intentions for what the band could be: the occult metal version of Foo Fighters. With Skeletá, their ascent to stadium-filling rock band is complete. Just look at how the new Papa Emeritus is dressed in the music video for “Lachryma” and you’ll see how far the band has come from their Satanic origins. But at what cost? Whereas previous Ghost albums were definitely ... read more

Nothing about Solar Power worked for Lorde, while everything about Melodrama worked. So it’s a pretty natural inclination for the artist and her fans to want to return to what worked, right? “What Was That”, Lorde’s first single since that summer bummer four years ago, is pretty clear in its intentions to get back to the heights of her sophomore LP. Its bumping synths groove along, moody as all get out as Lorde relives the best and worst moments of a past relationship at ... read more

How does one release their debut album at 50 years old and have it stand out after making iconic music with their main band? By charting the very path that made that band stand apart. Tunde Adebimpe’s first solo record is unbothered by expectations fans may have had and is better for it. The heavy electronica influence allows Thee Black Boltz to shine often in weird and wonderful ways. Why try to match the heights of TV on the Radio when you can to do your own damn thing?

For as great of ... read more

Listening to Spellling’s excellent 2021 album The Turning Wheel is akin to wandering through a magic forest, never knowing what mythic creatures you’ll find on your way to the witch hut where Chrystia Cabral (the project’s mastermind) resides. Its follow up charts new ground by flying above said forest on a rocket-powered broomstick. Cabral brings a new edge to her fantastical indie rock, with heavier guitars and crashing drums the standard on Portrait Of My Heart. ... read more

Throughout Bon Iver’s history, Justin Vernon has shifted focus frequently. From cold log cabins to digital distress, we’ve never had to worry about Vernon sitting still. But he’s never been as outwardly happy as he is on SABLE, fABLE, a jubilant mix of his brightest sounds yet. Years of working with musical minds like Taylor Swift, Kanye West and Aaron Dessner have driven Vernon down a path that’s unabashedly pop, but with the irresistible level of detail and love that ... read more

The noise pop duo aims to recapture the magic from their earlier work, and the latter half of the record does produce some real fun bangers like “Badly” and “Real Special Cool Thing”. But you only get to them after slogging through songs are either too slick for their own good like “Roxette Ric” or a jumbled mess of obnoxious noise and poorly mixed vocals like “This Summer”. It’s a hit or miss effort on the whole, surprising given how well ... read more

The first few albums from Black Country, New Road felt like they were made by a ringleader and his backing band. Singer Isaac Wood felt alone in the spotlight, messily spilling his soul on For the first time and Ants From Up There. His sudden departure left serious questions about the band’s future, but after hearing Forever Howlong, consider any question we had answered. BCNR’s third LP is truly the work of a band, one firing on all cylinders at that. The sextet weaves together all ... read more

Whether he’s the lovable Steve Harrington from Stranger Things or the murderous Kurt Kunkle from Spree, Joe Keery has played no shortage of interesting characters in his work in film. But his most interesting character yet might be himself, the one he shows more than ever on The Crux. Set at a hotel appropriately titled The Crux, Keery tells tales of its guests and all of their successes, failures and everything in between. These stories mirror his own personal turmoil and growth as a ... read more

Listening to a Destroyer song is to hear every thought Dan Bejar has ever had all spill out at once. It’s a beautiful thing. He’s long been one of music’s most cryptic, fascinating lyricists, and in recent years he’s honed in on the finer details of his brand of sophistipop to make some of his best ever records. Dan’s Boogie is another excellent entry in this new Destroyer canon, a more observatory experience than the sonic carnival that was 2022’s ... read more

Twigs really made an album so good she had to come up with a whole new word to describe it. The term “eusexua” is described by FKA twigs as akin to the moment of clarity as you stumble upon a breakthrough. In that sense, EUSEXUA is a mighty fine breakthrough into a danceable world. Top to bottom, this is as accessible as twigs’ music has ever been, pulsing with jittery synths and magnetic rhythms. It’s a dancefloor unlike anything she’s dabbled in before, yet she ... read more

It’s fitting that “No need to talk about it, no need to cry about it/Like dust, it all just blows away” are the most memorable lines from Porridge Radio’s last release. Those final musings on “Don’t Want To Dance” sum up both the group’s finale and the group’s general ethos through their run. The four songs on The Machine Starts To Sing are doomy and gloomy, and not a bad way to end a run that included a Mercury Prize nomination.

Nicolas Jaar’s most interesting side project has long been Darkside, but its melding of organic and synthetic production on Nothing leaves me feeling just that. It’s plenty functional if not particularly notable, save for the funky “S.N.C.”, which makes me wish the rest of the album was that lively.

The surveillance state controls this City Of Clowns, but that doesn’t stop Marie Davidson from having fun under Big Brother’s watchful eye. The album pokes at big businesses and their need to datamine everything about their customers in the internet age, turning the pioneering technopop of Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic Orchestra into something sinister yet danceable. Davidson often winks at us listeners from her government-assigned factory job, like on the chunky techno bangers ... read more