Mystery Jets, Twenty One
At times this makes for rather surreal, though tantalizingly marvelous listening.
BB King, Live At The BBC
Neither ropey nor exceptional, this collection inhabits the sturdy middle ground between these extremes.
Coldplay, Viva La Vida Or Death & All His Friends
Any way you look at it, this is a massive album.
Vandermark Ken
Ken Vandermark to absolutna ikona awangardy jazzu dnia dzisiejszego. Muzyk szalenie wielowymiarowy, a zarazem ze wszech miar oryginalny. Co nie mniej ważne - artysta aktywnie kreujący współczesną scenę. ...
Madonna
Przeciętna wokalistka, niezbyt utalentowana aktorka, niczym niezachwycająca tancerka. A mimo to na jej koncertach długo nie milkną owacje ryczącej z zachwytu publiki....
Coldplay - Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
Artist: Coldplay Review: Coldplay's fourth release has been billed as their experimental record, as well as their political record. And it is both, relatively speaking. Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends opens with an anthemic riff played not on guitar but on a Persian santur — a hammered dulcimer common to the traditional music of Iraq and Iran. The album's lead single, "Violet Hill," describes a scene in which "priests clutched onto Bibles/Hollowed out to fit their rifles." Half the album's tracks float... Rating: 3.5 Stars
Martha Wainwright - I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too
Artist: Martha Wainwright Review: Part of Martha Wainwright's charm lies in her Tourette's-like impulse to overshare: Check out her 2005 ode to her singer-songwriter dad, Loudon, lovingly titled "Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole." Her folky second album mostly spares family members, but old boyfriends aren't so lucky. On the dusty-road rocker "Comin' Tonight," she seeks revenge on a musician/ex-lover: "I could steal a melody. . . . 'Cause you would never sue me, baby/It wouldn't look good." Wainwright's relentless self-analysis and... Rating: 4 Stars
Martina Topley-Bird
W połowie lat 90. jej hipnotyzujący, unikatowy głos za sprawą płyt Tricky'ego znali wszyscy fani trip-hopu. Dziś Martina Topley-Bird to w pełni samodzielna artystka, realizująca własną wizję muzyki. ...
The Black Keys, Attack & Release
Attack & Release is a remarkably easy album to like.
Michael McDonald, Soul Speak
On this evidence his voice still has more than enough authority to carry it off.
Jenny Lewis - Acid Tounge
Artist: Jenny Lewis Review: This Rilo Kiley frontwoman is everything a mother could want in a daughter: She's bright, talented — and ready to slice 'n' dice anyone who's done Mom wrong. "In your honor, I'm going to cut that man in half," she wails in "Jack Killed Mom," an enigmatic domestic fable that segues from chugging rock to a revival-tent rave-up. Lewis is indie rock's most sharp-elbowed songwriter, a crafter of taut meditations on love, sex and politics that are full of violent emotions and, occasionally, plai... Rating: 4 Stars
Randy Newman - Harps and Angels
Artist: Randy Newman Review: Randy Newman has earned a nice living in recent years as a film composer, but connoisseurs covet his Seventies work, when he emerged as one of the most cutting and empathic of American singer-songwriters. So his return to political-minded material on Harps and Angels is reason to wrap yourself in the flag and cheer. Newman works with piano, an orchestra and a Dixieland-style combo, using American musical tradition to amplify irony and yank heartstrings. The best moments echo classics like... Rating: 4 Stars
Genesis - Genesis: 1970-1975
Artist: Genesis Review: At first, Genesis were five English ex-boarding-school mates playing complex songs about hogweed and Greek myth. They slimmed that audacity into platinum pop as members left: guitarist Anthony Phillips (1970), singer Peter Gabriel (1975) and guitarist Steve Hackett (1977). But bassist Mike Rutherford, keyboardist Tony Banks and drummer Phil Collins were never as compelling later as they were in the band that made the five LPs in this box. The country-cathedral air of 1970's Trespass and the... Rating: 4.5 Stars
Infadels, Universe In Reverse
Infadels will win over plenty of new friends on the festival circuit this summer.
Adele - 19
Artist: Adele Review: Like fellow crooners Amy Winehouse and Kate Nash, Adele Adkins polished her skills at the Brit School in south London — as good a finishing academy as American Idol. Her debut, which topped the British charts earlier this year, lacks the bad-girl brio of those grads, but it shows off a vocal instrument that smokes the competition. Check out "Cold Shoulder," a lover's blues, produced by Winehouse's secret weapon, Mark Ronson: Over swirling strings and a snare pattern borrowed from James... Rating: 3 Stars
Tricky - Knowle West Boy
Artist: Tricky Review: 2008 is shaping up as the Year Bristol Bounced Back. Earlier this year, the city's trip-hop lords Portishead released the superb album Third. Now comes the first record in five years from Tricky, who helped codify the foreboding Bristol sound along with Portishead and Massive Attack in the mid-Nineties. Tricky's hometown is much on his mind: The album title refers to the hardscrabble hood where he grew up, and he has called the album a homage to the Brit pop of his youth. You can hear the... Rating: 3.5 Stars
Titus Andronicus - The Airing of Grievances
Artist: Titus Andronicus Review: Named for an obscure Shakespeare play and flaunting song titles like "Albert Camus," this fivesome of suburban punks are proud nerds. But they know when to kick ass: "Fear and Loathing in Mahwah, NJ" sounds like a kiss-off ballad, until the 23-year-old singer-songwriter Patrick Stickles stops short and bellows "Fuck you!" with his bandmates and they hurtle into a breakneck Celtic rocker that recalls the Pogues at their most raucous. There's emo in the tortured lyrics and E Street Band in the arr... Rating: 3.5 Stars
Phish - At The Roxy
Artist: Phish Review: Recorded in 1993 during a three-night run in Atlanta, this mammoth eight-disc box captures Phish right when they were putting a spit-shine polish on the live improvisation that would make them kings of the Nineties jam-band scene. At the Roxy is a must-have for one reason: the second show on February 20th, where Phish unleashed their most experimental set to date. On Disc Five, guitarist Trey Anastasio, keyboardist Page McConnell, bassist Mike Gordon and drummer Jon Fishman play for 60 nonstop... Rating: 4 Stars
Kings Of Leon
Gdy debiutowali, byli jedną z wielu kapel zaliczanych do nurtu nowych rockowych rewolucjonistów. Dziś Kings Of Leon to grupa, która jako jedna z niewielu przetrwała modę i zaliczana jest do puli "najgorętszych bandów" na światowej scenie rockowej....
Raconteurs, The
Rok 2005. Środek upalnego lata. Spotkanie dwóch muzyków przy szklance schłodzonej lemoniady. Dalszy scenariusz jest prosty. Piszą piosenkę, świetnie się dogadują, powstaje zespół, nagrywają płytę, jadą w wielką trasę....
Vanessa Hudgens - Identified
Artist: Vanessa Hudgens Review: History teaches us not to dismiss kiddie pop. Stevie Wonder was once Little Stevie Wonder, just as Lil Wayne was once little Lil Wayne, child gangsta rapper. And let's not forget ex-Mouseketeers Britney and Justin. Purists disdain teenybopper music as cynical pap, foisted on the young by Svengalis who lurk in the shadows, counting money. But bubblegum can be a great farm system, honing skills that pay dividends in later life. Lately, Disney's kiddie pop has been plenty profitable, with High... Rating: 3 Stars