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385 items by Jon Dolan
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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 -
The Chronicles of Marnia | ALBUM REVIEW
What's not to love about a blazing indie-guitar heroine who titles her album The Chronicles of Marnia? This New York singer-guitarist's records keep getting more nuanced and revealing, without losing a hint of the radiantly hyper...
March 25, 2013 3:50 PM ET -
Music From the Motion Picture 'Spring Breakers' | ALBUM REVIEW
Skrillex teamed up with seasoned film composer/ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Cliff Martinez to score Spring Breakers, in which Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens go wild and James Franco plays a rapper-criminal. Along with previously...
March 19, 2013 12:15 AM ET -
The Lone Bellow | ALBUM REVIEW
"We're broke in New York City/The F train takes us home," sing these Southern transplants, who call their sound "Brooklyn country music." But anyone expecting funny-bearded fiddle jams about artisanal pickles might be disappointed. The trio shape...
March 15, 2013 3:25 PM ET -
Chelsea Light Moving | ALBUM REVIEW
Thurston Moore, the recently divorced Sonic Youth singer-guitarist, uses his new band to air some bathrobe-at-noon bitterness ("Sleeping Where I Fall," "Lip"). But he'd rather torture his guitar than himself or his ex – a...
March 15, 2013 3:20 PM ET -
The Messenger | ALBUM REVIEW
The massively influential Smiths guitarist finally makes the solid solo debut he should've recorded a quarter-century ago. It's relatively anonymous Brit rock, and some of his gripes about the rock scene are less than becoming for...
March 15, 2013 3:10 PM ET -
Yeah Right | ALBUM REVIEW
Philadelphia couple Rob Garcia and Sarah Everton made two bedroom-rock low-fi records in 2010 as Reading Rainbow. They've since adopted an evocative new name (apparently Carrie Brownstein didn't like the old one), added a real rhythm section...
March 15, 2013 3:05 PM ET -
"I Wonder" | SONG REVIEW
Howard, the Alabama Shakes frontwoman, steps into Jack White's Third Man Records lab to take on "I Wonder," a Vietnam-era tune by Seventies sugar-man Rodriguez. Backed by one of White's touring bands, she and soul singer...
March 14, 2013 12:20 PM ET -
"Smart Aleck Kid" | SONG REVIEW
One sweet minute of primal, radioactive blurt from this year's hot new old-timey post-punk wunderkinds. The caffeine-jabber lyrics fly by as if Parquet Courts are trying to cram a life's worth of annoyance into the time it...
March 14, 2013 12:10 PM ET -
"Matangi Mix" | SONG REVIEW
This eight-minute-plus minimix – made to soundtrack a Paris fashion show – is as buoyant as anything M.I.A.'s done in a while. It shifts from South Asia-steeped stomp to a gonzo-electro track that's like Q*bert dancing on...
March 14, 2013 12:05 PM ET -
Sound City: Real to Reel | ALBUM REVIEW
Dave Grohl's great new documentary, Sound City, tells the story of the "dumpy" L.A. recording studio where a stunning number of rock worthies – including Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty,
March 12, 2013 12:15 AM ET -
What About Now | ALBUM REVIEW
The 12th Bon Jovi album extends the Springsteen liberalism in JBJ's stadiumrattling Jersey cheese into full-on "social commentary" (his term). "What About Now" and "I'm With You" are rousingly vague got-your-back anthems. But the songs...
March 12, 2013 12:05 AM ET -
Welcome Oblivion | ALBUM REVIEW
Trent Reznor has always been a solitary mandroid. But the Nine Inch Nails auteur's new band feels like a real partnership, with Reznor (and NIN assist men Atticus Ross and Rob Sheridan) handing lead vocals to his...
March 5, 2013 12:15 AM ET -
When It Was Now | ALBUM REVIEW
On their debut – and especially the lead single, "Trojans" – these two Australian brothers deliver Phoenix-like dance pop that's so big on airy hooks that its lyrical lightheadedness isn't too much of a problem. On a...
February 25, 2013 11:15 AM ET -
Holy Fire | ALBUM REVIEW
On their 2008 debut, this Oxford, England, quintet recorded with TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek and came up with an album of frenetic, glitched-out Brit pop. Two records later they're still expanding and ironing out that...
February 25, 2013 11:10 AM ET -
"Mirrors" | SONG REVIEW
Last year Frank Ocean released a 10-minute song about a stripper. So why shouldn't Justin Timberlake be allowed to get his prog on with an eight-minute song about a girl who's just like his mirror? Produced...
February 22, 2013 3:30 PM ET -
"Go Missin" | SONG REVIEW
Usher and Diplo's last collaboration was the sonically nuanced, sex-tacularly sensitive "Climax." Their new one isn't so subtle, with Usher trying to persuade a woman to ditch the schmo she came to the club with and high-tail...
February 22, 2013 3:20 PM ET -
"A Tattered Line of String" | SONG REVIEW
The first new song in a decade from Ben Gibbard's much-beloved synth-pop duo doesn't quite reach the heights of their 2003 bedroom-glitch-pop grail, Give Up. But the guy can still adjudicate post-hookup awkwardness over Depeche Modean tinkle...
February 22, 2013 3:10 PM ET
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