Contributor
402 items by Jon Dolan
-
Sports (30th Anniversary Edition) | ALBUM REVIEW
In an era when "radio-friendly" was the coin of the Top 40-dominated realm, Sports was a veritable radio reach-around, spawning five Top 20 singles. (This reissue adds a disc of "Hell-o Cleveland!" live versions.) Lewis, a recovering...
May 17, 2013 10:05 AM ET -
LSXX: Last Splash: 20th Anniversary Edition | ALBUM REVIEW
On 1993's Last Splash, former Pixies bassist Kim Deal pulled off a shocker: a record as good as anything by her old band that was also a pop success. With sister Kelley on guitar, Deal churned...
May 14, 2013 12:00 AM ET -
"Get It" | SONG REVIEW
Noise-loving New York rapper-producer El-P and left-leaning Atlanta rhymer Killer Mike teamed up on R.A.P. Music, Mike's excellent album from last year. Now, they've decided to make it official by becoming a full-time duo. Nice move, fellas:...
May 8, 2013 10:20 AM ET -
"Clarity" | SONG REVIEW
This progressive house ballad by Russian-born producer Zedd, which has been oozing its way up the Top 40, is where EDM goes all "Wind Beneath My Wings." Over a gas-giant plod, English vocalist Foxes powers out garbled...
May 8, 2013 10:00 AM ET -
Time | ALBUM REVIEW
Rock's greatest interpretive singer wrote 11 of the 12 songs on his first album of original material in nearly 20 years. It's a companion of sorts to Stewart's endearing autobiography from last year; there's a song...
May 7, 2013 12:25 AM ET -
Division Street | ALBUM REVIEW
The self-titled 2009 debut by Harper Simon – son of Paul Simon and Peggy Harper – was a folk-rock outing that owed a lot to his dad's fingerpicking elegance and articulate lyricism. You can hear echoes...
May 6, 2013 1:50 PM ET -
"Don't Swallow the Cap" | SONG REVIEW
Brooklyn indie-rock sadsters the National are at their best when they remember to inject some rhythmic drama into their poetically moped-out music. And on this track from their upcoming sixth album (due May 21st), the National chunnel...
April 29, 2013 10:48 AM ET -
"Gentleman" | SONG REVIEW
The K-pop king returns with another disco-cheese grenade, dropping an I'm-still-too-sexy rap: "Gonna make you sweat/Gonna make you wet/You know who I am/West Side!" In the video, he takes his dickhead playboy shtick to stratospheric levels. (A...
April 29, 2013 10:20 AM ET -
"Numbers on the Board" | SONG REVIEW
Released the same day as Jay-Z's "Open Letter," this sounds like a pure-basics counterpoint to Jay's grandiose celebrity vitriol. "Thirty-six years of doing dirt like it's Earth Day" is about as autobiographical as Pusha gets. The...
April 29, 2013 10:10 AM ET -
"Alive" | SONG REVIEW
This Aussie duo's psychedelically smiling dance pop unfurls synth-y Eighties radiance without the moody undercurrent you get from Passion Pit or Foster the People. This ode to freshly found romantic bliss is a beach-ball-slapping lobotomy of the...
April 29, 2013 10:05 AM ET -
Bankrupt! | ALBUM REVIEW
Bands like Phoenix aren't supposed to make it on Main Street USA. Globally ambitious European acts from Abba on down have usually tried to sound as Anglo-American as possible, but these Versailles-bred indie-pop guys radiate continental...
April 23, 2013 12:10 AM ET -
Junip | ALBUM REVIEW
As a solo artist, Argentine-born, Sweden-based indie-folk auteur José González can massage your worried mind like Cat Stevens. With his band Junip, there's a dark, funky undercurrent pulling against the pastoral kindness. Here, he dangles tensile guitar...
April 23, 2013 12:00 AM ET -
Dear Miss Lonelyhearts | ALBUM REVIEW
Some bands are trendy. Cold War Kids are borderline schizophrenic. They began in the mid-'00s playing blues-gritty indie rock but ditched that sound for clumsy Springsteenian sweep. They've added a Bowie/New Order gloss for their fourth...
April 22, 2013 1:46 PM ET -
#willpower | ALBUM REVIEW
Will.i.am's fourth solo album is exactly the Death Star-size Jägerbomb you'd expect. On #willpower, the Black Eyed Peas rapper-producer compares himself to Mark Zuckerberg, rips off "Ni**as in Paris" and siphons Chris Brown, Bieber, Britney, Miley,...
April 19, 2013 5:31 PM ET -
Paramore | ALBUM REVIEW
"If I have to I'm gonna leave you behind," Hayley Williams sings on "Grow Up," from the first Paramore album since 2009. The singer has successfully powered through a very public, extremely not-nice split with...
April 15, 2013 2:50 PM ET -
Band to Watch: Parquet Courts | VIDEO
Hometown: Brooklyn Backstory: Austin Brown and Andrew Savage met at the University of North Texas in Denton, and met up again in New York, where they formed Parquet Courts with bassist Sean Yeaton and Savage's brother Max on...
April 15, 2013 9:00 AM ET -
Shaking the Habitual | ALBUM REVIEW
Swedish brother-sister duo the Knife's 2006 album, Silent Shout, was a micro-masterpiece of tensely brutal yet richly musical Euro-techno. Seven years later, they've released a 94-minute follow-up that explores even wilder styles of mordantly nutso android bleat:...
April 8, 2013 12:00 AM ET -
Above | ALBUM REVIEW
The short-lived mid-Nineties grunge outfit Mad Season was as much therapy session as jam session: Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready met bassist John Baker Saunders in rehab, and recruited Alice in Chains singer Layne Staley...
April 2, 2013 12:05 AM ET -
"She Makes Me Happy" | SONG REVIEW
Writing his 2012 autobiography inspired Stewart to pen 11 of the 12 songs on his forthcoming album, Time – his first to feature original material in nearly 20 years. The album might be an unexpected...
March 28, 2013 2:50 PM ET -
Delta Machine | ALBUM REVIEW
The 13th Depeche Mode album is foregrounded in blues and gospel influences that have often merely burbled beneath their synth-sad pop. "The angel of love was upon me/And, Lord, I felt so high," Dave Gahan growls...
March 26, 2013 12:15 AM ET
Most Popular
Photos & Videos
Random Notes: Hottest Rock Pictures
Gallery: Summer Festival Style
