Contributor

378 items by Jody Rosen

• 

  "The Suburbs/Month of May" | SONG REVIEW

  "2009, 2010/Wanna make a record how I felt then," sings Win Butler on "Month of May." As usual, the Arcade Fire frontman is feeling a lot. Childhood nostalgia, suburban ennui, parenthood, war, death — these are just...

  June 8, 2010 8:35 PM ET
• 

  "Beautiful Monster" | SONG REVIEW

  There's a problem with Ne-Yo's girlfriend. "You're a knife, sharp and deadly," he sings. In lieu of couples therapy, superproducers Stargate lend a jittery Euro-house beat. It's more goofy than scary, but Ne-Yo's so amiable you root...

  June 8, 2010 8:33 PM ET
• 

  Up on the Ridge | ALBUM REVIEW

  Country hunk Dierks Bentley's sixth album is an excursion into bluegrass, which jettisons his usual power chords and booming choruses in favor of sawing fiddles and coal-miner ballads. His voice is too plain to deliver the pathos...

  June 8, 2010 2:00 PM ET
• 

  The Black Dirt Sessions | ALBUM REVIEW

  Deer Tick's John McCauley has a wobbly voice and a wobblier sense of self. "Raindrops like bullets on my fragile skin/Insecurities I've had are creeping within," he croaks on "Twenty Miles" over chiming guitar and swelling backing...

  June 8, 2010 11:10 AM ET
• 

  Rokstarr | ALBUM REVIEW

  American R&B has long had a Europhile streak, boosting beats from clubs in London, Stockholm and elsewhere. Now the U.S. charts are making room for actual Europeans: U.K. singer-producer Taio Cruz's single "Break Your Heart" crashed in...

  June 2, 2010 5:20 PM ET
• 

  The ArchAndroid | ALBUM REVIEW

  Janelle Monáe likes to hover outside categories, with a sound and a look that are both visionary and retro, steeped in OutKast-style hip-hop while hearkening back to Cab Calloway and Fifties doo-wop and James Brown. Her full-length...

  May 24, 2010 1:30 PM ET
• 

  This Is Happening | ALBUM REVIEW

  James Murphy, the disco-punk auteur who records as LCD Soundsystem, has become a star by doing the seemingly impossible: making his midlife crisis danceable. Early on This Is Happening, LCD's third album, Murphy laments, "Every night's a...

  May 17, 2010 11:25 AM ET
• 

  Night Train | ALBUM REVIEW

  Keane collaborating with rappers? On their fourth album, the erstwhile Brit-pop whimperers join forces with K'Naan on "Stop for a Minute," where the Canadian MC rhymes while Tom Chaplin belts out one of the band's patented big,...

  May 10, 2010 12:00 PM ET
• 

  Court Yard Hounds | ALBUM REVIEW

  Court Yard Hounds are sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire — two-thirds of the Dixie Chicks, not a bad place to start for a country duo. Toss in plentiful two-part harmonies, a few ringing love songs ("The...

  May 4, 2010 2:40 PM ET
• 

  Reasons to be Excited About Music: Pop Divas Rock the Charts | ARTICLE

  Has pop music ever been so in touch with its feminine side? The upper reaches of the charts seem to be exclusively the dominion...

  April 29, 2010 12:45 PM ET
• 

  B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray | ALBUM REVIEW

  Atlanta MC Bobby Ray's debut album can be filed next to those by Wale and Kid Cudi: He's a left-of-center rap hero whose skills lag somewhere several miles south of his hipster bona fides. The guest list...

  April 26, 2010 12:00 PM ET
• 

  Shame, Shame | ALBUM REVIEW

  "Where'd all the time go?" asks a fuzz-guitar-strafed ballad on Dr. Dog's latest. The Philadelphia quintet have spent much of their career looking back to the pop of the Beach Boys and the...

  April 6, 2010 12:55 AM ET
• 

  I Learned The Hard Way | ALBUM REVIEW

  Is I Learned the Hard Way a record or a museum exhibit? On the fourth album by Brooklyn's leading soul revivalists, the details are period-perfect: Every guitar scratch and brass blast sounds like it was...

  April 6, 2010 12:35 AM ET
• 

  Here Lies Love | ALBUM REVIEW

  Here David Byrne turns an unwieldy premise — a musical dramatization of former Philippines first lady Imelda Marcos' early life — into dizzy fun by setting 22 songs to Fatboy Slim's lush and...

  April 6, 2010 12:20 AM ET
• 

  My World 2.0 | ALBUM REVIEW

  My World 2.0 begins with 16-year-old Justin Bieber raising his pipsqueak voice in a wordless croon: "Oh- oh, whoa, ah-ah-ah." If it sounds...

  April 1, 2010 12:00 PM ET
• 

  Beat the Devil's Tattoo | ALBUM REVIEW

  Five studio albums in, California psych-garage trio Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are still religious zealots — worshippers in rock's Gothic cathedral. The song titles tell the tale: "Bad Blood," "War Machine," "River Styx." In...

  March 9, 2010 12:50 AM ET
• 

  Today Was A Fairytale | SONG REVIEW

  Fairy tales, princes, damsels in distress — yep, it's a Taylor Swift song. Her costume-drama vision of romance may get old someday. But for now, her tunes are so shapely that you hardly notice. Her latest,...

  February 18, 2010 12:25 PM ET
• 

  Fall Be Kind | ALBUM REVIEW

  At their best, Animal Collective combine shapely pop hooks with mind-broadening sonic freakery. At their worst, the sonic freakery is mind-numbing. Like most of their work, this five-song EP contains all of the above: The opening "Graze"...

  November 23, 2009 3:59 PM ET
• 

  Fall Be Kind | ALBUM REVIEW

  At their best, Animal Collective combine shapely pop hooks with mind-broadening sonic freakery. At their worst, the sonic freakery is mind-numbing. Like most of their work, this five-song EP contains all of the above: The opening "Graze"...

  November 23, 2009 12:00 AM ET
• 

  For Your Entertainment | ALBUM REVIEW

  "I was born with glitter on my face/My baby clothes made of leather and lace," crows Adam Lambert. The American Idol runner-up is on a mission to revive the camp theatricality of glam, one lip-liner stroke and...

  November 23, 2009 12:00 AM ET