Contributor
402 items by Jon Dolan
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Showroom of Compassion | ALBUM REVIEW
Click to listen to Cake's Showroom Of Compassion Cake graduated from the same Nineties class of alt-rock oddballs that produced Beck and Weezer. But where their contemporaries evolved...
January 11, 2011 12:05 AM ET -
"Used to Be a Cop" | SONG REVIEW
Over seven minutes of tensely coiled Southern rock, Patterson Hood plays an ex-cop whose "temper and the shakes" cost him his badge, his family and his mind. Maybe he'll shoot up a Cracker Barrel. Either way, his...
January 10, 2011 9:15 AM ET -
The Fall | ALBUM REVIEW
Recorded on tour, on an iPad, this low-key album (streaming for free on the band's website) is the sound of Damon Albarn blowing trees and tweaking apps as the American outback rolls by his bus window. Featuring...
December 29, 2010 12:00 PM ET -
"6 Foot 7 Foot" | SONG REVIEW
Wayne's first post-prison single (which he cut for Tha Carter IV) suggests his teeming brain was eating itself during all that time alone: Rarely has the man sounded so virtuosically loopy. Over thick synth burble and a...
December 23, 2010 9:15 AM ET -
All You Need Is Now | ALBUM REVIEW
Duran's Mark Ronson-produced 13th disc is a return to roots for a band that's all implants — which is part of the album's charm. "Being Followed" and the tawdry "Runway Runaway" are every bit the chic Riviera...
December 21, 2010 12:20 AM ET -
iTunes Session (EP) | ALBUM REVIEW
Vampire Weekend don't reinvent the six songs they run through on this live-in-the-studio session, but they do some nifty interior decorating. Trumpets add a Victorian air to VW's Afro-tinged hits "A-Punk" and "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa," and...
December 21, 2010 12:15 AM ET -
The Beginning | ALBUM REVIEW
It's kind of poetic that Will.i.am was one of the last people to record with Michael Jackson. Whether or not you like the Black Eyed Peas, their 11 million-selling 2009 album, The E.N.D.,...
November 30, 2010 5:50 PM ET -
Love Me Back | ALBUM REVIEW
Jazmine Sullivan's crowbar-wielding 2008 hit, "Bust Your Windows," was a tsunami of R&B man-hate. On her follow-up disc, the 23-year-old diva plays a little nicer, adhering to the Mary J. Blige school of gritty, nuanced hip-hop soul....
November 30, 2010 12:00 AM ET -
The DeAndre Way | ALBUM REVIEW
A shaky stab at Soulja manhood, the third disc from the "Crank That" cutie finds him hitting drinking age, torn between pup and pit bull. "Soulja Boy rich/Sayin' 'Fuck an allowance,' " he raps. R&B nuggets like...
November 30, 2010 12:00 AM ET -
"The Joy" | SONG REVIEW
Our first taste of the Kanye-Jay collaboration album (due next year) celebrates some simple pleasures: a dusty Curtis Mayfield sample, a butter-dripping beat, and Jay waxing nostalgic about listening to his mama's shit when...
November 24, 2010 8:40 AM ET -
Get Closer | ALBUM REVIEW
Nicole Kidman's husband is so naturally content that it's a little jarring when he tries to shoehorn some pathos into his albums. His seventh solo disc features good-natured country rock that's as likely to ...
November 16, 2010 3:10 PM ET -
"What's My Name" | SONG REVIEW
With the second single from the forthcoming Loud, Rihanna has created a perfect little tropical storm: Over dark, humid synths and swirling snare skitters, she's in full-on Caribbean-queen mode, dialing up her islander accent and...
November 11, 2010 6:05 PM ET -
"Speak Now" | SONG REVIEW
Taylor repurposes the "she wears short skirts" melody from "You Belong With Me" in order to bust up a wedding, Graduate-style. But freeing the man of her dreams from bad-marriage hell is almost an afterthought on "Speak...
October 27, 2010 5:07 PM ET -
Olympia | ALBUM REVIEW
At 65, former Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry is still the smoothest art-rocker ever. Here he reconvenes the original Roxy (minus drummer Paul Thompson) for their first recording together since Brian Eno departed in 1973, along with...
October 26, 2010 12:00 AM ET -
4 Stars | ALBUM REVIEW
The optimistically titled fourth disc from these Midwestern garage revivalists is not unlike the racket bassist Jack Lawrence and drummer Patrick Keeler kick up alongside Jack White and Brendan Benson in the Raconteurs. But whereas White relives...
October 26, 2010 12:00 AM ET -
Cardiology | ALBUM REVIEW
Now entering their 30s, the members of the poppiest of pop-punk bands are trading black eyeliner and pointy bangs for stubble and shades. Their fifth disc is rife with signs of rock ambition — acoustic songcraft, sweeping...
October 26, 2010 12:00 AM ET -
The Fool | ALBUM REVIEW
These L.A. guitar hypnotists tap into a tradition of desert-rock mysticism as old as the Doors. But they're introspective, female art rockers, not peyote-pumped shaman dudes. Gingerly funked-up bass lines and treble-trance guitars recall the xx and...
October 26, 2010 12:00 AM ET -
Wasted in Jackson | ALBUM REVIEW
On the fiery title track to her debut, 22-year-old Lauren Pritchard forsakes a drab life in her Tennessee hometown. It's a perfect calling card for a restless striver who performed in Spring Awakening before landing in London...
October 26, 2010 12:00 AM ET -
I Am the West | ALBUM REVIEW
Ice Cube was once gangsta rap's great chronicler of everyday brutality. Twenty years and a hugely successful family-comedy movie career later, he's content to spend his self-released ninth disc brandishing his OG rep ("Google me, bitch!") and...
October 18, 2010 5:15 PM ET -
Belle and Sebastian Write About Love | ALBUM REVIEW
Belle and Sebastian made their fragile bones whispering indie-pop songs about bicurious bookworms with huge cardigan collections. Lately, the Scottish septet have pursued more universal pleasures. "Make me dance," frontman Stuart Murdoch entreats over a soul groove...
October 18, 2010 5:10 PM ET
