Contributor
402 items by Jon Dolan
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Blessed | ALBUM REVIEW
2008's Little Honey was Williams at her most content. But on her 10th disc, she revives the literary realism that's turned so many of her songs into true-talk crushers. The quietly heartbreaking "Soldier's Song" is an imagining...
March 1, 2011 12:30 AM ET -
Alexander | ALBUM REVIEW
If it's vaguely hippie-ish and vaguely Californian, count on Ebert to work it into his solo debut: acid-folk reveries, Beck-ish busker rap, lyrics about Vietnam, sensitive maleness, Dylanisms, yodeling, calling women "mama," reggae, bongos. A Jesus-beard guy...
March 1, 2011 12:20 AM ET -
The King of Limbs | ALBUM REVIEW
Radiohead's 2000 masterpiece, Kid A, came with a song called "How to Disappear Completely." On the band's eighth album, Thom Yorke has a new magic trick up his sleeve. "I will disappear," he sings. "I will slip...
February 24, 2011 11:30 AM ET -
"Rope" | SONG REVIEW
Click to listen to the Foo Fighters' "Rope" The Foos went for a stripped down, return-to-basics approach on their forthcoming seventh album, Wasting Light (recorded...
February 23, 2011 2:03 PM ET -
"Swate" | SONG REVIEW
Six heavy-lidded minutes of Bollywood-steeped wisecracking from Brooklyn's reigning rap ironists. They reference Marxist theorist Slavoj Žižek as casually as most rappers reference cheeba. They also reference cheeba. Listen to "Swate":
February 22, 2011 9:00 AM ET -
James Blake | ALBUM REVIEW
Click to listen to James Blake's "Limit To Your Love," "Wilhelm Scream," "I Never Learnt To Share" and "I Mind" U.K. dance music subgenres...
February 8, 2011 12:30 AM ET -
First Four EPs | ALBUM REVIEW
Keith Morris is 55 years-old, a fact that's hard to process when listening to Off!'s explosive punk rock. It's been over three decades since he sang on the first recordings by L.A. hardcore's founding band Black Flag,...
February 3, 2011 6:26 PM ET -
Emergency & I | ALBUM REVIEW
The third album from Washington D.C.'s Dismemberment Plan was a game-changer for indie rock fans coming up in the genre's fallow late Nineties — a link between the tense, complex emo-punk of Fugazi and Jawbox and the...
February 3, 2011 6:14 PM ET -
"Satellite" | SONG REVIEW
This scuzz-loving English blues-punk duo were on hiatus while singer Alison Mosshart howled alongside Jack White in the Dead Weather. Now they're back with bad vibes to burn and an even freakier new sound. On "Satellite," corrosive...
February 2, 2011 9:15 AM ET -
The People's Key | ALBUM REVIEW
Click to Listen to Bright Eyes' The People's Key It's been almost a decade since Bright Eyes' Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil,...
February 1, 2011 12:30 AM ET -
Rolling Blackouts | ALBUM REVIEW
Few Brit-pop bands could soundtrack an NFL apparel ad, but this Brighton, England crew's pom-pom waving spirit fit one fine. The naïve exuberance underpinning their mash-up of marching-band funk, jump-rope rap chants and indie-pop could feel forced...
February 1, 2011 12:00 AM ET -
Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes | ALBUM REVIEW
These Cali-punk lifers have released only seven albums in a 32-year career, and who can blame 'em: Social D have survived drugs, rehab, death and constant lineup changes. On their sharpest disc since their commercial peak in...
February 1, 2011 12:00 AM ET -
"Under Cover of Darkness" | SONG REVIEW
Click to Listen to The Strokes' "Under Cover of Darkness" The lead single from the first new Strokes record in five years barrels into...
January 26, 2011 6:19 PM ET -
Kaputt | ALBUM REVIEW
Click to listen to "Kaputt" and "Chinatown" Best known as the guy in the New Pornographers who sings the frizzed-out Bowie-esque songs, Dan Bejar has...
January 25, 2011 12:30 AM ET -
The Party Ain't Over | ALBUM REVIEW
Click to listen to "Thunder On The Mountain" Jack White's collaboration with rock's original trouble girl is at once reverent and uproarious. At 73, Jackson can still...
January 25, 2011 12:25 AM ET -
Content | ALBUM REVIEW
Click to listen to Gang of Four's "Who I Am" and "Never Pay For the Farm" Gang of Four are grumpy old Marxists and proud...
January 25, 2011 12:10 AM ET -
"Living in America (Remix)" | SONG REVIEW
On this unlikely collaboration, indie-pop band Dom slow their patriotic original while Atlanta MC Gucci Mane drawls hypnotically and turns "Brett Favre!" into a club chant. Only in America. Listen to "Living in America (Remix)":
January 21, 2011 9:15 AM ET -
"Oh My Heart" | SONG REVIEW
Even more than the brightly rocking "Discoverer," the newest glimpse at the upcoming Collapse Into Now finds R.E.M. in classic mode, employing a soft melody and a magnolia mandolin that cuts against an accordion. The lyrics suggest...
January 19, 2011 12:56 PM ET -
Dye It Blonde | ALBUM REVIEW
Click to listen to Smith Westerns' Dye It Blonde The second disc from this Chicago trio is what David Bowie might call a...
January 18, 2011 12:00 AM ET -
Native Speaker | ALBUM REVIEW
"I found my place in the wishing well/I found my place not feeling well," sings Braids vocalist/guitarist Raphaelle Standell-Preston, summing up the Montreal foursome's mix of euphoria and ambiguity. Their debut takes the beatific psychedelic washes of...
January 18, 2011 12:00 AM ET
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