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402 items by Jon Dolan
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Lotus | ALBUM REVIEW
Don't let the spiritual-rebirth title of Xtina's fifth LP fool you. Christina Aguilera has only one religious affiliation – the cult of the voice. And she has a great diva theme to rap her pipes around:...
November 19, 2012 3:20 PM ET -
King Animal | ALBUM REVIEW
"I got nowhere to go ever since I came back," Chris Cornell growls over a warped-alloy guitar charge on "Been Away Too Long," the lead single from the first Soundgarden album since 1996. He's singing about Seattle,...
November 13, 2012 12:30 AM ET -
Take Me Home | ALBUM REVIEW
Cuteness-wise, One Direction make all the other boy bands look like hunchbacks who should've never been let out of the bell tower. That lets them get over as little more than bland song conduits. Their second album...
November 13, 2012 12:05 AM ET -
"Enemy" | SONG REVIEW
On this resplendently downcast avant-R&B come-on, Toronto singer-producer Abel Tesfaye whispers abstract-horndog disclosures ("I'm just tryin' to make you come without a word") over water-torture piano, slammed-door snares and neon-Eighties guitar kink. The codeine-android backing vocals quote...
November 12, 2012 10:25 AM ET -
"Breakers" | SONG REVIEW
These L.A. dream-poppers find a porous middle ground between the bird-boned gush of Grizzly Bear and the pushier throb of the National. Lyrics like "Breathing out, hoping to breathe in/I know nothing's wrong but I’m not convinced"...
November 12, 2012 10:05 AM ET -
¡Dos! | ALBUM REVIEW
The second installment in Green Day's ambitious trilogy of albums opens with "See You Tonight," a bare, ragged benediction where Everly Brothers harmonies mask stalker-y undercurrents, and puppy love might turn nasty if you...
November 12, 2012 12:25 AM ET -
Lace Up | ALBUM REVIEW
In Machine Gun Kelly, Cleveland finally gets its very own Eminem: a clever, working-class white kid who fires nail-gun rhymes in dense clusters. His big-label debut ranges from inspirational and R&B-tinged (see "Invincible," with Ester Dean) to...
November 9, 2012 10:20 AM ET -
"Stray Heart" | SONG REVIEW
On this nugget from ¡Dos! – the forthcoming second installment in Green Day's trilogy of albums – Billie Joe Armstrong makes like a boy idol over Fifties-tinged blitzkrieg bubblegum, unironically crooning fluffyy school-age angst like...
October 28, 2012 10:40 AM ET -
"Blues on Two Trees" | SONG REVIEW
Take a victory lap, Jack – you've just come up with the meanest, most riotously fucked-up thing of your career: The B side to "Shakin'" is a goth-blues funeral processional shambling through a banshee forest...
October 28, 2012 10:35 AM ET -
"Keep It Together" | SONG REVIEW
Trent Reznor can still worm his way into your heart and make your skin crawl at the same time. This track with his band How to Destroy Angels coasts on a torpid, mutant-slinky beat, but when...
October 28, 2012 10:15 AM ET -
Red | ALBUM REVIEW
Like Kanye West, Taylor Swift is a turbine of artistic ambition and superstar drama. So it's no surprise she manages to make her fourth album both her Joni Mitchell-influenced maturity binge and her Max...
October 23, 2012 11:45 AM ET -
Local Business | ALBUM REVIEW
Glen Rock, New Jersey's Titus Andronicus may be the most ambitious punk band in America. On 2010's The Monitor, they wrapped an epic breakup record around a Civil War conceit. Their third disc is a hilarious gut-wrenching...
October 23, 2012 12:05 AM ET -
Band to Watch: Cloud Nothings | VIDEO
Hometown: Cleveland Backstory: A teenage Dylan Baldi makes catchy low-fi punk songs in his parents' basement and releases a bunch of them on Cloud Nothings' 2010 debut, Turning On. The album is so acclaimed that he decides to...
October 22, 2012 7:10 AM ET -
Monster | ALBUM REVIEW
"Out in the streets/Takin' all the heat/Dancin' in the sheets," Kiss sing, describing either public sex or a funky Klan rally. They didn't spend much time thinking about it, and neither should you. Kiss' 20th...
October 19, 2012 4:55 PM ET -
The Black Bar Mitzvah | ALBUM REVIEW
The Black Bar Mitzvah is a perfect title for a Rick Ross mixtape: his vision of playalistic splendor has always been the stuff of thirteen year-old boy fantasy. "My new home look like it’s Al Capone/My new...
October 17, 2012 4:10 PM ET -
"Diamonds" | SONG REVIEW
Chris Martin took to Twitter to declare Ri-Ri's newest one of his "favourite songs." Not a shock: It's very close to Coldplay soul, a striking turn into lustrous power balladry after a string of filthed-up...
October 10, 2012 10:25 AM ET -
Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly Face Off in Debate | ARTICLE
Saturday’s blockbuster debate between Bill O’Reilly and Jon Stewart at George Washington University was billed as "The Rumble In the Air-Conditioned Auditorium," while its pay-per-view livestream was advertised with the tagline "Why Al Gore invented the internet."...
October 7, 2012 3:05 PM ET -
The 2nd Law | ALBUM REVIEW
Muse have specialized in drama-rock gigantism for more than a decade – long enough to get really good at it. The trio's sixth LP is their most expansive and varied yet, filling out a go-to mix...
October 2, 2012 12:25 AM ET -
Call Me Sylvia | ALBUM REVIEW
Low Cut Connie make rock & roll in the great, skank-brained tradition of the Replacements at their most platonically who-gives-a-shit. The band's excellent second record comes off like a drunk's glove compartment of influences: Piano-slapping New...
September 25, 2012 12:00 AM ET -
Mirage Rock | ALBUM REVIEW
Someone lit a fire under Band of Horses' porch. The quintet usually specialize in beard-y reverie, somewhere between Built to Spill's guitar majesty and Seventies AM folk of America. But the Horses rough things up on...
September 25, 2012 12:00 AM ET
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