Bon Iver Becomes One of Our Era's Defining Singers

In this week's slate of Rolling Stone reviews, Will Hermes praises Bon Iver's electrified and elaborately arranged second album Bon Iver, which finds songwriter Justin Vernon exploring new sounds and revealing himself to be "one of our era's defining singers." Hermes is less impressed by Alpocalypse, the latest from parody king "Weird Al" Yankovic, which spoofs too many easy targets. Also, Caryn Ganz slams LMFAO's new album of "brain-cell-depleting jams," Simon Vozick-Levinson digs the "giddy garage-psych ambition" of Wild Flag's new single "Romance" and Rob Sheffield raves about Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks' jovial new rocker "Senator."

ALBUMS

Bon Iver - Bon Iver (stream one song)

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Alpocalypse (stream one song)

Jeff the Brotherhood - We Are the Champions (stream one song)

LMFAO - Sorry For Party Rocking (stream one song)

Teddybears - Devil's Music (stream one song)

SONGS

Wild Flag "Romance" (stream)

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks "Senator" (stream)

Killer Mike "Ric Flair" (stream)

LAST WEEK: Neil Young Reveals Country Versions of Classics and Obscurities on 'A Treasure

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  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
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  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
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  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
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  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

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