FullReviews Index - page 2
Yo La Tengo 'Popular Songs'
For their 14th-ish album, Yo La Tengo return to the 'variety show' format of 'I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One.'
Parenthetical Girls 'Entanglements'
The Portland outfit's latest longplayer marries jaunty orchestrations with lyrical grotesqueries, unexpectedly making for one of 2008's best discs.
Bat for Lashes 'Two Suns'
Natasha Khan's second Bat for Lashes record mixes its metaphors for duality.
Handsome Furs 'Face Control'
HF have authored an album as Russian travelogue, journeying deep into the dark heart of the neo-Soviet-Union.
Definitive Albums: Galaxie 500 'On Fire' (1989)
Capturing Galaxie 500's tender, swirling psychedelia at its best, 'On Fire' echoes with a quiet, humble perfection.
Dinosaur Jr 'Farm'
Has there been a better rock'n'roll comeback than the return of the original Dinosaur?
Various 'Dark Was the Night'
The National's Dessner brothers solicited every indie act in existence to help them achieve one goal: making a charity compilation that doesn't suck.
Tortoise 'Beacons of Ancestorship'
Five years since 'It's All Around You,' these slow-and-steady titans of mighty instrumentalism have picked up right where they left off.
Sonic Youth 'The Eternal'
With their rocking 16th LP, the forever-noisy greybeards prove themselves to be the Eternal Youth.
Here We Go Magic 'Here We Go Magic'
After two albums of cold classicism, Luke Temple is getting warmer, warmer...
Grizzly Bear 'Veckatimest'
Grizzly Bear's glorious third album is wondrous in its grandest gestures and its smallest details.
Papercuts 'You Can Have What You Want'
The work of gifted producer Jason Quever, Papercuts' retro-pop records are mood in search of a tune.
St. Vincent 'Actor'
Playing the part of St. Vincent, all the world's a stage for Annie Clark.
Phoenix 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix'
Every time Phoenix releases an album, you're guaranteed a smattering of killer pop-songs.
Jeffrey Lewis ''Em Are I'
Once again, the anti-folk bard searches for the silver lining on a dark cloud.
Brendan Canning 'Something for All of Us'
Brendan Canning's solo debut is like a duller, flatter take on Broken Social Scene's collectivist mediocrity.
Chairlift 'Does You Inspire You'
On their debut album, the New Yorker trio dabble in keytone kitsch, retrofuturist imagery, and, on occasions, country balladry.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs 'It's Blitz!'
The third YYY LP finds the band finally comfortable in their own commercially-accessible skin.
Crazy Dreams Band 'Crazy Dreams Band'
A joyous, jam-band racket that stumbles a line between classic-rock-approximation and shambolic capitulation.
The Decemberists 'The Hazards of Love'
Long live the rock-opera! So sayeth these ramblin’, politickin’, folk-pop purveyors of twee antiquity.
Crystal Stilts 'Alight of Night'
The moody, muted debut from the New Yorker quartet dowses pop-songs in lo-fidelity reverb in search of spectral qualities.
Chad VanGaalen 'Soft Airplane'
The third album for the self-styled Canadian mystic is a typical mixed-bag, an ad-hoc assemblage of mismatched instrumentage that occasionally seems magical, often not.
Death Cab for Cutie 'Narrow Stairs'
Death Cab for Cutie are back with their seventh album, [i]Narrow Stairs[/i]. After building a career around Ben Gibbard's sensitive sentimentalism, for their latest longplayer Death Cab sound a little ornery.
Death Vessel 'Nothing Is Precious Enough For Us'
The second Death Vessel album for super-high-voiced finger-picking songsmith Joel Thibodeau seeks to further his musical range.
Stereolab 'Chemical Chords'
Stereolab's latest longplayer sounds exactly like every other record they've ever made. But it's not exactly like every other record they've ever made.