album reviews
Various Artists
The Great Gatsby: Music From Baz Luhrmann’s Film Interscope
This ain't your great-grandfather's West Egg. Jay-Z executive-produced this score, which infuses F. Scott Fitzgerald's Jazz Age tale with the sounds of the hip-hop age. The result is an unusually diverting mixtape, with an all-star lineup: Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love" is here – in a jauntily jitterbugging cover version by the Bryan Ferry Orchestra, with vocals by British soul upstart Emeli Sandé. Queen B herself teams with André 3000 for a moodily d... | More »
Scott Morgan
Three Chords and a Cloud of Dust Easy Action
It's unfair but true: Scott Morgan is Michigan rock's greatest unknown singer. Locally in the Sixties, with the Rationals, Morgan was as big as Bob Seger and Mitch Ryder, fusing British young-man blues with native soul on a stunning run of singles. Morgan kept on making near-miss classics ("Take a Look," "Electrophonic Tonic," "16 With a Bullet") with a murderer's row of high-energy accomplices, including the MC5's Fred "Sonic" Smith and Stooges drummer Scott Asheton. This... | More »
LL Cool J
Authentic 429
"Authentic"? What jive. LL Cool J is rap's longest-running act, and it's his pop savvy, his indifference to orthodoxy, his easygoing star power that've kept him going. On Authentic, LL's first LP not released by Def Jam, the guest list is a testament to open-mindedness and crossover ambitions: Snoop Dogg, Travis Barker, Chuck D, Charlie Wilson, Eddie Van Halen, Earth, Wind and Fire, Monica, Seal, Brad Paisley. The beats are unfussy and direct; the choruses are built for ra... | More »
Various Artists
Live From Festival Au Desert, Timbuktu Clermont
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 trance-inducing grooves. Following the decree of Sharia law in part of Mali, the 2013 festival has been "postponed," making this a glimpse of an endangered culture. | More »
Alice Russell
To Dust Tru Thoughts/Caroline
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, whose fierce remake of the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" in 2006 began a lively run through the UK rare groove DJ scene. Her fifth set, To Dust, works Russell's exquisite taste for beats and atmosphere into some of her strongest songs. "Heartbreaker" smolders like a Black Keys jam; h... | More »
Phoenix
Bankrupt! Loyaute/Glassnote
Bands like Phoenix aren't supposed to make it on Main Street USA. Globally ambitious European acts from Abba on down have usually tried to sound as Anglo-American as possible, but these Versailles-bred indie-pop guys radiate continental elegance. And yet they pulled off a stateside breakthrough with their fourth LP, 2009's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, and its cunningly fun hits "Lisztomania" and "1901" – sublime songs about old-world Europe that ran the radio-play-TV-commercial-w... | More »
Steve Martin and Edie Brickell
Love Has Come for You Rounder
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 (and Mrs. Paul Simon), whose sassy vocals feel down-home but all her own. The songs tap folk tradition without getting stuck in it; they’re full of struggling lovers, an ’84 Ford, a baby in a suitcase and some memorable mel... | More »
Junip
Junip Mute
As a solo artist, Argentine-born, Sweden-based indie-folk auteur José González can massage your worried mind like Cat Stevens. With his band Junip, there's a dark, funky undercurrent pulling against the pastoral kindness. Here, he dangles tensile guitar and low-talking tenor over stark, worldly grooves and drone-haunted synths, like Fleet Foxes with a hellhound on their trail. González's hippie bromides have a "hey, whatever" mordancy; see the mumblecore dirge-b... | More »
Ghost B.C.
Infestissumam Loma Vista
The Swedish metallers raised eyebrows with their Lucifer-loving lyrics, Blue Öyster Cult choruses and their frontman's infernal pope get-up, but on their second LP they embrace something even more unholy: prog. The songs are knotty and complicated; the multivalenced "Jigolo Har Megiddo" feels like it's set not in hell but in Kansas. The results are intricately plotted, if not as instantly bewitching. | More »
Kid Cudi
Indicud Republic
Someday this Cleveland MC/producer/former weed enthusiast will find the lyrical and vocal charisma to match the scrumptiously dark, quasi-industrial tenor of his moody beats. But Cudi’s pitchy-dawg voice remains his own worst enemy. He has some interesting pals (Father John Misty, Kendrick Lamar, RZA, Too Short), and they are, without exception, welcome presences. Keep your friends close, Cud! | More »
Music Reviews
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star ratingRandom Access Memories -
star ratingModern Vampires of the City -
star ratingTrouble Will Find Me
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star ratingExcuse My French -
star ratingDemi -
star ratingSports (30th Anniversary Edition)
Photos & Videos
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Gallery: Summer Tour Preview 2013
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