album reviews
Gold Panda
Half of Where You Live Ghostly International/Notown
Recorded while he dog-sat for his aunt and uncle, this London producer's debut compacted the big sounds of techno, hip-hop and ambient into music so transfixing it could make a walk around the block seem like an adventure. The pace of his second LP is quicker, but the style is happily the same. Short samples of hand drums and string instruments ricochet around in the mix like pinballs; one-word vocal phrases like "Brazil" repeat till they sound like mantras. As a break from the busier tr... | More »
The Lonely Island
The Wack Album Republic
Last time out, the Lonely Island made a classic joke-rap album while somehow persuading Michael Bolton to belt, "This whole town's a pussy just waiting to get fucked!" Their third LP isn't as sublimely silly, or as consistent, but it rocks the same mix of guest stars (T-Pain, Robyn), sophisticated concepts ("Semicolon") and totally unsophisticated sex jokes ("I F****D My Aunt"). The secret weapon is musical skill: TLI are versatile MCs, and A-list producers turn jokes into pro-grade... | More »
Queens of the Stone Age
...Like Clockwork Matador
Is there a more debonair dirtball in rock than Josh Homme? The Queens of the Stone Age frontman is the high priest of grimy rock tradition, exalting in exquisitely wrought guitar scraping and wry machismo – whether with his main gig or in side bands like the Dave Grohl collaboration Them Crooked Vultures. For the Queens' sixth album, their sole continuous member has the band at full power, with Grohl drumming on five of 10 tracks, former members Nick Oliveri and Mark Lanegan pitchi... | More »
Eleanor Friedberger
Personal Record Merge
Listening to the classic-rock jigsaw puzzles Eleanor Friedberger and her brother Matthew create in the Fiery Furnaces can be difficult work. As a solo artist, she's more approachable. Her second LP is full of crisp, jangly indie pop that can suggest Harry Nilsson or a bookish early Stones, and it's packed with stories of young people too mopey and absent-minded to realize the person across the bar is hitting on them. As its title suggests, Personal Record is intimate but slyly self-... | More »
Quadron
Avalanche Vested in Culture/Epic
Producer-musician Robin Hannibal is having a killer year, in large part due to his great taste in singers. The follow-up to Rhye (his collaboration with gender-bending vocalist Mike Milosh) is the second album of new material from the project with his Danish homegirl Coco Maja Hastrup Karshøj, a.k.a. Coco O. An understated soul-pop diva whose sweetness belies her stone funkiness, she's already charmed hip-hop's new guard, including Jay-Z (who featured Coco on the Gatsby sound... | More »
Various Artists
Ghost Brothers of Darkland County Hear/Concord
Elvis Costello playing Satan – summoning his inner music-hall ham – is just one notable star turn in this soundtrack to Stephen King and John Mellencamp's musical. Based on a true story, the tale of Southern brothers and their grim family legacy is sung by Neko Case, Sheryl Crow, Taj Mahal, Kris Kristofferson, Rosanne Cash, real-life feuding siblings Dave and Phil Alvin, and more. T Bone Burnett shapes the time-traveling roots music, which illuminates the story, along with Ki... | More »
Black Sabbath
13 Vertigo/Republic
"We decided to write horror music" is how Ozzy Osbourne describes Black Sabbath's birth in the great new heavy-metal oral history, Louder Than Hell. And that's exactly what they're doing, once again, on 13 – a reunion set with three-quarters of the original band – that revisits, and to an extent recaptures, the crushing, awesomely doomy spectacle of their first few records. Needless to say, this is kind of a big deal. It's impossible to imagine heavy metal wit... | More »
The-Dream
IV Play RadioKilla/Def Jam
"I can give a fuck about the IV Play/I want it now," The-Dream sings on his fifth album. The Atlanta singer-songwriter's romantic poetry makes Prince look like Art Garfunkel. But if his booty-poppin' subject matter isn't original, the kaleidoscope R&B butter-storms he cooks up give his sexcapades a hallucinatory drama. Check the white-noise synth slaps on "Pussy," the sparse, swirling trills on "Turnt" (featuring Her Beyness) or his nearly seven-minute fun-house mash-up of ... | More »
Wings
Wings Over America [Deluxe Edition] Hear/Concord
Wings Over America was Paul McCartney’s bold arena-rock (as opposed to pop) move of the 1970s – a triple-disc live set, complete with vocal showcases for the backup guys. It was also the first time he remade Beatles oldies – “Blackbird” and “Bluebird” fit together well. There’s something daft and touching about how McCartney strives for band democracy: Whenever Denny Laine sings lead, you can almost hear the fans stampede for their bathroom weed... | More »
Laura Marling
Once I Was An Eagle Ribbon
"It ain't me, babe," sings Laura Marling in "Master Hunter," echoing Dylan for her own back-the-fuck-off-my-love song. Since her days singing folk pop with the Mumford & Sons clan, she's followed her own muse to more-interesting places. Her fourth LP begins with seven songs linked by drones, lyric shards and a suicide-haunted relationship. The set goes on to explore loneliness in brighter shades, with percussion, strings and organ-coloring acoustic guitar. But her voice is the h... | More »
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