.

song reviews

The National

8

"Don't Swallow the Cap"

Brooklyn indie-rock sadsters the National are at their best when they remember to inject some rhythmic drama into their poetically moped-out music. And on this track from their upcoming sixth album (due May 21st), the National chunnel through a dark night of the soul like first-rate gloom-raiders. Drummer Bryan Devendorf's taut 4/4 pulse falls somewhere between krautrock and Springsteen's "I'm on Fire," with Aaron and Bryce Dessner's spare, lovely guitar and keyboards glan... | More »

Drake

7

"Girls Love Beyoncé"

Leave it to Drake to burrow into a ladies' anthem like Destiny's Child's "Say My Name" – which provides the chorus moaned here by James Fauntleroy – and discover a gooey, placenta-like sac of male feelings. And to lure you right in behind him: Questioning get-money, fuck-ho's "values" and his fear of commitment, Drizzy is so commanding that when he tells you to speak his name, it just sounds like sex play. | More »

The Hold Steady

7

"The Bear and the Maiden"

How's this for codpiece-busting fantasy fulfillment? The quintessential bar band shoulders through a drinking song written for Game of Thrones – with bear-meets-girl lyrics by George R.R. Martin himself. The show's composer, Ramin Djawadi, wrote the music, but it sounds like prime Hold Steady, with wittily observed romantic confusion meeting guitar solos and a beer-sloshing chorus. | More »

Psy

6

"Gentleman"

The K-pop king returns with another disco-cheese grenade, dropping an I'm-still-too-sexy rap: "Gonna make you sweat/Gonna make you wet/You know who I am/West Side!" In the video, he takes his dickhead playboy shtick to stratospheric levels. (A stink palm? In a library? Impressive.) Learn it or you'll feel pretty lame next time you party over on the West Side. | More »

Pusha T

8

"Numbers on the Board"

Released the same day as Jay-Z's "Open Letter," this sounds like a pure-basics counterpoint to Jay's grandiose celebrity vitriol. "Thirty-six years of doing dirt like it's Earth Day" is about as autobiographical as Pusha gets. The star is Kanye West's beat, a contusive bass blur with percussion that's like bamboo sticks on a busted radiator. The result is near-perfect no-bullshit hip-hop. | More »

Empire of the Sun

6

"Alive"

This Aussie duo's psychedelically smiling dance pop unfurls synth-y Eighties radiance without the moody undercurrent you get from Passion Pit or Foster the People. This ode to freshly found romantic bliss is a beach-ball-slapping lobotomy of the first order. | More »

Martyn

7

"Newspeak"

European bass producers, recoiling at brostep, have moved into house music. This moody, dirty jam by a Dutch Flying Lotus associate rides an irresistible bass lope as low-fi video-game samples festoon the mix. | More »

April 19, 2013
April 15, 2013

Prince

8

"Let's Go Crazy (Reloaded)"

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 new tour, Prince erases all doubts. Recast as a juke-joint grind that could knock the Black Keys to their knees, it spews Hendrixian napalm, then lurches into a monster jam on Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein." $250? If this is what's on offer, it's a bargain. | More »

Music Reviews

more Reviews »
Daily Newsletter

Get the latest RS news in your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Rolling Stone newsletter and special offers from RS and its
marketing partners.

X

We may use your e-mail address to send you the newsletter and offers that may interest you, on behalf of Rolling Stone and its partners. For more information please read our Privacy Policy.

Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

More Song Stories entries »