Will Hermes | Rolling Stone

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482 items by Will Hermes Will Hermes’ Profile on

American Kid | ALBUM REVIEW

After detours including a Grammy-winning gospel LP and a key role in boyfriend Robert Plant's Band of Joy project, Griffin is back to her day job: singing her own artful country-folk songs. Except here, with a...
May 17, 2013 10:15 AM ET
Random Access Memories | ALBUM REVIEW

French duo Daft Punk helped create our current stadium-shaking, Coachella-dominating dance-music moment, and their new album is by far the year's most anticipated EDM set. The only issue is that it sounds almost nothing like EDM. Random...
May 13, 2013 4:00 PM ET
"Q.U.E.E.N." | SONG REVIEW

"Am I a freak for getting down?" asks Janelle Monáe on this first track from her second LP, The Electric Lady. No, girl, not when the music is this tight. An anthem of self-determination with a funkadelicious...
May 8, 2013 10:25 AM ET
The Sun Country Box | ALBUM REVIEW

The most revelatory of a three-volume survey of Sun Records (see also Blues Box and Rock Box), this six-CD set comes via Germany's Bear Family, which has arguably done more to preserve country-music history than any U.S....
May 8, 2013 10:20 AM ET
Extended Play | ALBUM REVIEW

"We fall to Earth together/The crowd calling out for more," goes a couplet on this four-track EP by the remaining Macs (Christine McVie sits out). Note to band: That doesn't mean y'all have to answer. But...
May 7, 2013 12:15 AM ET
Live From Festival Au Desert, Timbuktu | ALBUM REVIEW

This documents the annual celebration of the Sahara's rich musical tradition, a festival whose alumni include Robert Plant. The 2012 fete was more Afropop hootenanny than motherland Lollapalooza, long on semiacoustic jams full of virtuoso soloing and...
April 30, 2013 12:00 AM ET
Furthur Keep the Dead Alive at Historic New York Theater | ARTICLE

The Capitol Theatre holds a special place in Grateful Dead lore. A cozy auditorium about 30 miles north of Manhattan, it's the site of many shows on the bootleg A-list (see 6/24/70 and 2/19/71...
April 24, 2013 12:50 PM ET
To Dust | ALBUM REVIEW

We may have invented it, but as with many things (rock & roll, punk, house), we've no choice but to accept that the British do soul music as well as we do, often better. See Alice Russell,...
April 23, 2013 3:40 PM ET
Love Has Come for You | ALBUM REVIEW

Did Steve Martin rock his signature arrow-through-the-head prop at these bluegrass-y sessions? Hard to tell; except for unfussy harmonies, he expresses himself only via his stately, joyous banjo-plunking. The star is Edie Brickell, the hippie-pop one-hit wonder...
April 23, 2013 12:05 AM ET
She | ALBUM REVIEW

Smith works a nether region 'twixt Beyoncé and Norah Jones, no doubt why she wound up in major-label limbo after her eclectic 2006 debut. The equally adventurous follow-up lands in a new R&B world that embraces...
April 22, 2013 2:10 PM ET
"Get Lucky" | SONG REVIEW

When teaser fragments of "Get Lucky" began morphing across the web, it already sounded like the club anthem of summer. Heard in toto, the first single from the forthcoming LP by EDM godfathers Daft Punk reveals...
April 19, 2013 12:00 AM ET
Mosquito | ALBUM REVIEW

Ten years in since the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' debut LP, frontwoman Karen O is a primal institution – the hipster next door lurching from one emo spectacle to another on bigger stages than anyone expected;...
April 16, 2013 12:20 AM ET
Free the Universe | ALBUM REVIEW

A DJ's job is to throw a party, and that's what DJ-turned-It-producer Diplo does with his reggae-centric side project. The guest list is crazy: "You're No Good" mashes up Santigold, R&B folkie Danielle Haim, Brit soul...
April 16, 2013 12:15 AM ET
True Romance | ALBUM REVIEW

"We use to be the cool kids/You were old school, I was on the new shit," chants Charlotte Aitchison, a.k.a. Charli XCX, on "You (Ha Ha Ha)." She's on it still: Built from a shining sample of...
April 16, 2013 12:00 AM ET
Nomad | ALBUM REVIEW

Produced by the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, this set showcases Omara "Bombino" Moctar, a firebrand guitarist from Niger rooted in the electric-blues tradition of the nomadic Tuareg tribes (see also Tinariwen, fellow denizens of the...
April 15, 2013 3:55 PM ET
Jake Bugg | ALBUM REVIEW

Jake Bugg is a 19-year-old from a Nottingham housing project whose self-titled debut topped the U.K. pop charts late last year, somewhat astonishingly, with songs that seem steeped in The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, The "Chirping" Crickets...
April 15, 2013 3:45 PM ET
Pioneer | ALBUM REVIEW

For a such a well-groomed bunch of kids, Kimberly, Neil and Reid Perry are remarkably death-obsessed: In the wake of their 2010 country smash "If I Die Young," the lead single from their second LP is "Better Dig...
April 15, 2013 2:45 PM ET
"Let's Go Crazy (Reloaded)" | SONG REVIEW

OK, trashing someone else's vintage guitar on Fallon was dickish. $250 for a GA concert ticket raises eyebrows. You may question his new songs. But on this remake of his 1984 synth-rock signature, a promo for his...
April 15, 2013 2:25 PM ET
"Fine China" | SONG REVIEW

Selling his new single with the hashtag #tributetoMJ, Rihanna's beau engages in transparent image-doctoring on a song that channels the King of Pop, starting with the "Owwww!" that kicks it off. A generic, if...
April 15, 2013 2:20 PM ET
"Oblivion" | SONG REVIEW

A soaring ballad by synth-pop scientist Anthony Gonzalez, belted by Sundfør, a shiny-voiced Norwegian pop star. Cut for the titular Tom Cruise sci-fi thriller, the song is capped with a jazzy instrumental section, just like M83's 2011...
April 15, 2013 2:10 PM ET