Room on Fire features the catchy guitar riffs and choruses that are expected with any album from The Strokes, but they come at the cost of sounding like leftovers from “Is This It.”

But, unbeknownst to many, this album comes with a hidden meaning. The track “Meet Me In The Bathroom” is an instruction to the listener, as Julian Casablancas has set the Room on Fire with the tracks preceding it, and is now singing from a new location. This explains why his vocals are so ... read more

Stranger in the Alps manages to find emotions within the listener that they didn’t previously know existed. Phoebe’s raw storytelling allows for her to connect on a deeply personal level, and absorb you in with her magical voice and atmospheric instrumentals. Her most recent effort Punisher features tighter songwriting and stronger tugs on the heartstrings, but this is still an incredible debut from an artist who is undoubtedly on her way to greatness.

SZA delivers with hip-hop and soul inspired R&B that has an attitude and confidence all her own. She stays within a set vocal range throughout, so her singing can sound similar between songs, but the variety in composition and instrumentals more than makes up for it. This is an extremely solid project, and I hope to see more from her soon.

Be the Cowboy brings a nice variety of sounds, but the short song lengths and underdeveloped ideas hinder it from having any lasting impact.

Alt/Indie rock and Synth Pop is mashed together in the most off the wall fashion, jumping back and forth with little consistency in tone. The songwriting isn’t great either, with decent concepts never evolving past their most basic premises, much like the structure of the songs themselves.

Horns are forced into the outros of many of the tracks as ... read more