Contributor
402 items by Jon Dolan
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Come of Age | ALBUM REVIEW
"I'm not magnetic or mythical/I'm suburban and typical," Justin Young sings on the Vaccines' second LP. The quippy, punky London band generated a big U.K. buzz with its 2011 debut, even scoring a coveted Liam Gallagher diss....
September 25, 2012 12:00 AM ET -
Somethin 'Bout Kreay | ALBUM REVIEW
"I got the swag and it's pumpin' out my ovaries," Kreayshawn noted on 2011's viral smash "Gucci Gucci." The Oakland MC's debut explores her skill at giving hormonally bonkers post-Odd Future shock rap a bratty, ashtray-Madonna...
September 25, 2012 12:00 AM ET -
"Been Away Too Long" | SONG REVIEW
"You can't go home," Chris Cornell warns in a loose, blues-beast yowl. That sentiment might've applied to "Live to Rise," the soft-bellied song Soundgarden lodged on the Avengers soundtrack. But the newest offering from their first...
September 24, 2012 1:33 PM ET -
Battle Born | ALBUM REVIEW
The fourth Killers record might be their wildest neon-Springsteen fever dream yet. "This natural selection picked me out to be a dark horse running in a fantasy league," Brandon Flowers sings over Eighties soundtrack-rock synth...
September 18, 2012 8:10 AM ET -
Kiss | ALBUM REVIEW
Twenty-six-year-old Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" is weapons-grade teen pop; after global warming kills us all, insects will still be doing karaoke routines to it. On her second LP (she released a singer-songwriter-y debut after...
September 18, 2012 8:05 AM ET -
"Push and Shove" | SONG REVIEW
On No Doubt's M.I.A.-tinged comeback hit, "Settle Down," Gwen Stefani reminded us how a true food-court princess gets down. The band calls this Diplo-produced track its "Bohemian Rhapsody." It stacks SoCal ska, a big alt-rock chorus, dancehall...
September 11, 2012 10:50 AM ET -
Away From the World | ALBUM REVIEW
Dave Matthews is one of rock's most underrated Pretty Complex Dudes – as horny as Lil Wayne, as troubled as Thom Yorke, able to growl "war is the most vulgar madness" like the American Sting he's always...
September 11, 2012 12:20 AM ET -
"Work Hard Play Hard (Remix)" | SONG REVIEW
Despite its title, no one on this relentlessly half-assed ode to long money sounds as if he's expending much effort or having much fun. Weezy is pretty open about what he'd rather be doing: "My dick...
September 10, 2012 4:15 PM ET -
"Every Chance We Get We Run" | SONG REVIEW
French DJ Guetta usually works with big rock and R&B personalities, but on this bonus cut from the reissue of his 2011 LP, Canadian indie-pop duo Tegan and Sara's sheer, shy vocals give the Guettanator's airy thwump...
September 10, 2012 4:05 PM ET -
"Everything is Embarrassing" | SONG REVIEW
"Maybe if you let me be your lover," dance-pop shape-shifter Ferreira mumbles sexily over stark, twinkly electro, before adding forlornly, "But I would not bother"; it's just the kind of slow-burn zinger that can leave you drooling...
September 10, 2012 4:00 PM ET -
The Sheepdogs | ALBUM REVIEW
On their major-label debut, these Saskatchewan rockers – who won Rolling Stone's "Choose the Cover" contest last year – roll out taut, sun-beaten boogie that's snapped into scuzzy shape by producer Patrick Carney of the Black Keys....
September 4, 2012 12:00 AM ET -
A Thing Called Divine Fits | ALBUM REVIEW
Spoon's Britt Daniel and Wolf Parade's Dan Boeckner are both true coffee achievers: high-energy dudes who tend to write tightly wound songs. So it's no shock that their side band is a genuine synthesis. Daniel's sharp...
August 28, 2012 12:15 AM ET -
Havoc and Bright Lights | ALBUM REVIEW
Alanis Morissette recently gave birth to her first child, so her seventh LP brings the mama drama. "I wake up and first thing's first/I'm of service," she sings, like the Mother Teresa of diaper duty. She...
August 28, 2012 12:05 AM ET -
America | ALBUM REVIEW
University-trained Baltimore composer Dan Deacon makes busy, bombastic electro-classical clatter. He's the EDM Aaron Copland, piling on marimbas, strings, blips, bonks, live percussion and operatic vocals on pieces like this LP's four-part suite, "USA." Yet the most...
August 28, 2012 12:00 AM ET -
"Golden State" | SONG REVIEW
This live acoustic cover of a song by former X frontman John Doe was released in honor of the West Memphis Three. Maines and Vedder’s two very different voices merge for a shabbily heraldic ode to hard-won...
August 24, 2012 8:10 AM ET -
"Better" | SONG REVIEW
Three sisters plus a pal (convened by Teeny Lieberson of dreamy indie poppers Here We Go Magic) cook up some darkly pulsating basement New Wave rapture. The song was produced by Sonic Boom of Eighties indie-psych gods...
August 24, 2012 8:00 AM ET -
Centipede Hz | ALBUM REVIEW
Midway through the 10th Animal Collective album, Josh "Deakin" Dibb shouts, "I get wide-eyed! Wide-eyed!" into infinity – like some kind of psychedelic drill sergeant leading a battalion of dream warriors into battle against the...
August 23, 2012 10:40 AM ET -
Fragrant World | ALBUM REVIEW
Brooklyn's Yeasayer are just as experimentally world-hugging as homeys like Animal Collective and Dirty Projectors, but they're also dedicated to pop grandeur on its own terms. Each Yeasayer record has been hookier than the last:...
August 21, 2012 10:15 AM ET -
Big Inner | ALBUM REVIEW
On the cover of his debut album, Matthew E. White rocks a white suit he might have borrowed from 1970 Eric Clapton and a mane/ beard combo he might have borrowed from 1975 Bob Seger....
August 21, 2012 10:05 AM ET -
"I Will Wait" | SONG REVIEW
Mumford & Sons' debut was a surprising breakout record: A bunch of Pogues-loving Brits dressed like they just galloped in from the set of Little House on the Prairie suddenly became the next Coldplay. But...
August 10, 2012 4:30 PM ET
