A young Fiona Apple once said, "I'm not shy, I just don't speak if I don't have anything to say." It's been eight years since her last album, but today, my friends, FIONA APPLE HAS SOMETHING TO SAY.
Rina Sawayama's self-titled LP jumpstarts the Y2K revival right on time, blending the teen pop and nu-metal of my teenage years into something bold and addictive. Max Martin, Loose-era Nelly Furtado, Evanescence - name your early aughts guilty pleasure and you'll hear it referenced here. When it all comes together on something like "XS" it's an absolute delight. Those juxtapositions will grab the headlines, but elsewhere the LP is elevated beyond pastiche by surprisingly personal ... read more
A solid collection that easily surpasses Dua's debut and puts her on the path to full-stop pop stardom. The album peaks too early with it's excellent singles, "Don't Start Now" and "Physical," but what follows is hardly a disappointment. It's not the most distinctive or boundary-pushing pop album you'll hear this year, but it makes up for the lack of innovation with an unabashed joy and a commitment to delivering the simple, danceable pleasures that Top 40 has largely ... read more
A healing record for hard times. Every masterfully chosen word, hell, every lilting, breaking, drawling syllable that escapes from Katie's lips is pure poetry. When the pandemic is over and you get to hug your friends again, it's going to feel like listening to this record.
The production is impressive, but the songs are as vapid as ever. Despite all the conceptual packaging, the lyrics are the same see-saw of vague self-loathing and hedonist bravado the Weeknd has been riding since 2011. When Abel's quicksilver vocals and those slick, sci-fi synths come together just right, like on "Blinding Lights," you can forget all of that, but too much of the album is wasted on unconvincing bad-boy brooding and, worst of all, yucky yacht-rock balladry.
Caroline Polachek "debuts" with a strong experimental pop album that could just use some better sequencing. Having the front half be mostly ambient and putting all of the bangers in the back half makes for a weird listening experience, and I think it would work better if the two halves had been better integrated. For me the album doesn't really come to life until you get to "Ocean of Tears" - but then those last 7 tracks are AOTY material. The album smartly merges what ... read more
Never been a huge Alabama Shakes fan but I was impressed by this. Her voice really is something else, and the music here is much more diverse and experimental than what you'd get from the Shakes.
Lower Dens is an underrated band from the same Baltimore scene that produced Beach House, Future Islands, and Wye Oak. And honestly, imagining a combination of those three bands doesn’t leave you all that far from Lower Dens’ sound. It’s dreamy and mysterious pop rock propelled by shimmery guitar lines and Jana Hunter’s husky, androgynous vocals. Fortunately Lower Dens are like their Baltimore peers in that they also know how to cut through the fog with an anthemic ... read more
Look, I don’t know a thing about Tool beyond the songs from Lateralus that were popular when I was a teenager. Those were good! Even though I never got into them, I can get why some people might love this band. This new stuff, though? It’s just boring. The drummer holds this thing down, or does his best to, but the guitars and vocals rarely go anywhere. The songs are all long and repetitive, and they all kind of sound the same too. There were moments I liked, sure, but most of the ... read more
After all of the drama about Janet and Annie and everything else it’s a relief just to hear the album. The Center Won’t Hold is a bold evolution for the band, radicalizing the new wave influences of No Cities to Love and twisting them in a darker, industrial-tinged direction under the guidance of St. Vincent.
That’s all well and good (especially if, like me, you love St. Vincent) but some crucial elements of a Sleater-Kinney album are missing: namely, the dynamic interplay ... read more
Before this album dropped, Hatchie had only nine songs to her name and every single one of them (except maybe "Adored," her Adult Swim single) was great. That includes the excellent pre-release singles from Keepsake - "Obsessed" is a beautiful dream-pop number that you should have on repeat all summer, and "Without a Blush" and "Stay With Me" are not to be missed either. Unfortunately, the rest of the album feels like diminishing returns. If the singles ... read more
Concise, fiery, and heartfelt, "Patience" delivers just about everything you could want from a punk album in an expertly paced 25 minutes.
I really like it but still its easily their worst album. Kinda seems more "Ezra solo album" than VW (has anyone else noticed that the press tour has been 100% Ezra?). There's also a Fleetwood Mac album ft. Danielle Haim embedded into the tracklist, its marital strife storyline being just one of the many threads running through this bizarre patchwork of songs. Some of the shorter and weirder sketches don't pack much replay value once the novelty wears off. However, there are some real ... read more
Calling all Beylievers to church. HOMECOMING is Beyonce's Greatest Hits but its live and its also a seamless medley of old & new & chart-toppers & fan favorites, with a kick-ass brass band backing it up and oh yeah a Destiny's Child reunion. It's one of Beyonce's best albums and an instant classic in the live album genre. Beyonce's albums this decade have been classics in their own right but no studio recording does justice to her insane level of charisma, discipline, and ... read more
A beautiful album about searching for love and meaning in a changing world. Natalie Mering's voice is so gorgeous and full-bodied you could just float inside it. Her arrangements sound classic but are deceptively complex, with chord progressions and harmonies that take these songs in a subtly psychedelic direction. The lyrical imagery has to do with mirrors, movie screens, pictures - the places where we encounter images of who we want to be and who we really are. Our protagonist wants to stop ... read more
The vibe I'm getting so far is Kacey Musgraves as a jaded middle aged divorcee, all weed smoke and rhinestones and heartache, but with just enough of that optimism left in her to keep the band playing. It's Jenny Lewis' best solo album yet.
I love Ex Hex's sound, but this feels like diminishing returns. Like "Rips" before it, it's music you could have a lot of fun blasting from your car during the summer. But the songs seem a little more subdued, the hooks a little duller, and some of their signature tricks - those crushing, harmonized chords that always evoke a Towshend-like windmill - feel a bit worn out. Since it's not as "rawk" as "Rips," I wish "It's Real" would have committed to ... read more
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On exception's review of Rina Sawayama - SAWAYAMA
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On FearFlour's review of Kali Uchis - Isolation
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On plowo's review of Björk - Utopia
"The Independent review is bad. I think the Under the Radar review is actually worse. It doesn’t even seem like they listened to it. Doesn’t mention even one song by name and they just say it sounds like a Bjork album.
Makes me sad that so many reviewers are just completely failing to engage with this album. Obviously a 71 minute Björk album won’t be for everyone but they could at least try. "
On Björk - Utopia
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On Björk - Utopia
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On EMR's review of St. Vincent - MASSEDUCTION
"It's cool, I'd personally rather read an interesting review that I disagree with then something that just restates my own opinion. I feel like you did a good job acknowledging Annie's strengths even though you didn't like the album."
On EMR's review of St. Vincent - MASSEDUCTION
"Lots of good insights here even though I cringe at your score. Honestly a really thoughtful review. Personally I don’t see the mixtape vibe as a flaw (like Beck’s Odelay or Bjork’s Post or more recently Grimes’ Art Angels I admire eclecticism when it’s done right), I think Annie has the vision and chops to pull it off. Yeah it’s messy and all over the place. Sexy turns to manic turns to bitterly sad. Sort of like being a human being."
On scott96k's review of Perfume Genius - No Shape
"Tbh it really sucks that someone who wrote two paragraphs basically saying "I don't like this" gets to have their opinion weighed as much as the critics who actually wrote professional reviews. If you're gonna count that might as well count random tumblr posts."
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