Contributor
380 items by Jody Rosen
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Hemingway's Whiskey | ALBUM REVIEW
Kenny Chesney grew up in East Tennessee, but his real home is Margaritaville. Chesney is Jimmy Buffett's spiritual godson, specializing in easy-rolling country-pop songs about fleeing the humdrum to go boozing and boating in tropical paradises. "No...
September 28, 2010 12:00 AM ET -
Going Back | ALBUM REVIEW
Rod Stewart, Michael McDonald and now Phil Collins — for veteran rockers, the Motown cover album has become an all-too-familiar move. Collins' love of the music is genuine — remember his sweetly slavish cover of "You Can't...
September 28, 2010 12:00 AM ET -
Record Collection | ALBUM REVIEW
The album title cuts to the chase. Like all good DJs, Mark Ronson is first and foremost a collector, the kind of guy with untold 45s lining his loft. In his production work for Lily Allen and...
September 27, 2010 7:20 PM ET -
All Birds Say | ALBUM REVIEW
This excellent solo record by My Morning Jacket guitarist Carl Broemel is a rare thing: a woodsy little indie-folk record that refuses to brood. On All Birds Say, Broemel spreads cheer with every pluck of his acoustic...
September 27, 2010 7:03 PM ET -
You Get What You Give | ALBUM REVIEW
"If you're honest and open, he will write you a song," sings Zac Brown in "Martin," an ode to his acoustic guitar. Honesty and openness are articles of faith for Brown, whose smash 2008 single, "Chicken Fried,"...
September 21, 2010 12:00 AM ET -
Hands All Over | ALBUM REVIEW
On Maroon 5's third album, their already polished sound is burnished to a high-gloss glow. With producer Robert "Mutt" Lange — the guy behind AC/DC's Back in Black, Def Leppard's Pyromania and Shania Twain's biggest hits —...
September 20, 2010 11:00 AM ET -
Wake Up! | ALBUM REVIEW
John Legend is modern R&B's classiest male singer, bringing old-fashioned suavity to hip-hop soul; the Roots are the world's most versatile (and maybe best) band. Together, they have made a brilliantly conceived and executed album, reviving music...
September 20, 2010 10:55 AM ET -
Flamingo | ALBUM REVIEW
The beautiful losers that populate Brandon Flowers' songs haven't got it easy. When they're not "playing with fire . . . out on a wire" ("Playing With Fire"), they're "caught up in the crossfire of heaven and...
September 14, 2010 12:00 AM ET -
A Thousand Suns | ALBUM REVIEW
"We're broken people living on the loaded gun," Linkin Park cry over clattering keyboards on lead single "The Catalyst," which suggests a scream-y Depeche Mode. With Rick Rubin co-producing, the band embraces not just synth-pop clamor but...
September 13, 2010 3:15 PM ET -
Body Talk Pt. 2 | ALBUM REVIEW
She's as feisty as Pink, as beat-savvy as M.I.A., does Eurodisco better than Gaga. But can this mercurial diva, a star in her native Sweden, crack the Billboard Top 40? The second EP in Robyn's Body Talk...
September 7, 2010 12:10 AM ET -
Mean Old Man | ALBUM REVIEW
Jerry Lee Lewis is the original, archetypal rock & roll rebel, and he's still pulverizing the piano keys more than half a century after he recorded "Great Balls of Fire." The terrific Mean Old Man — an...
September 7, 2010 12:05 AM ET -
I'm Having Fun Now | ALBUM REVIEW
Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice are, by all indications, a happy indie-rock power couple. But you wouldn't know it from I'm Having Fun Now. In their solo work, Lewis and Rice are bards of the bummer, and...
August 30, 2010 12:00 AM ET -
Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin | ALBUM REVIEW
Brian Wilson has more than a few things in common with George Gershwin. Both led wildly successful musical partnerships with their brothers. Both combined pop-song punch with harmonic sophistication worthy of the European classical tradition. Both blazed...
August 16, 2010 12:00 AM ET -
31 Minutes to Takeoff | ALBUM REVIEW
Mike Posner is at the head of a new genre: frat-house R&B. Posner, 22, released two mixtapes while he was a Sigma Nu brother at Duke, and on his major-label debut, he's still at the kegger, beer...
August 9, 2010 2:35 PM ET -
The Ghetto Blaster EP | ALBUM REVIEW
The second release by this rock-rap supergroup — Rage Against the Machine guitar virtuoso Tom Morello and the Coup's political firebrand-in-chief Boots Riley — has one ace in the hole: a full-fathom cover of LL Cool J's...
August 9, 2010 12:00 AM ET -
5 | ALBUM REVIEW
A group of self-proclaimed "zef" (i.e., white trash) South Africans who rap in English and Afrikaans over rave-style beats? Turns out, that's just what hip-hop needed. Die Antwoord's "Enter the Ninja" video went viral in February, introducing...
August 2, 2010 2:24 PM ET -
"Bollywood" | SONG REVIEW
Is Liz Phair serious? As tabla-laden electro tinkles behind her, Phair tells a tale of music-biz misadventure, "rapping" in a voice that sounds like a soccer mom impersonating Ke$ha. The results are an insult to rappers everywhere,...
July 22, 2010 12:00 PM ET -
Teflon Don | ALBUM REVIEW
In the past two years, Miami MC Rick Ross has been dissed by 50 Cent, mocked as a phony gangsta when photos surfaced of his tenure as a corrections officer, and slapped with a $10 million lawsuit...
July 20, 2010 9:30 PM ET -
Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty | ALBUM REVIEW
Big Boi's first official solo album is a stunning reminder of the OutKast rapper's hall-of-fame skills: He's got an inimitably slick and speedy flow and a personality bigger and more forceful than anything his producers can throw...
July 6, 2010 10:58 AM ET -
Streets of Gold | ALBUM REVIEW
"We could do an album or we could do it viral/Spread it like an STD you got back in high school," boasts Sean Foreman. Give the Colorado "crunkcore" duo accuracy points: Streets of Gold is about as...
June 22, 2010 3:48 PM ET
