Sean Tillmann, aka Har Mar Superstar, is a veteran musician who should be more famous than he is, given that he’s a stellar singer/songwriter with a sublime set of pipes. On Bye Bye 17, his fifth album under the Har Mar moniker, Tillmann takes a detour from 2009’s disco-infused Dark Touches and delves into full-on classic R&B, Sam Cooke-style soul, and early ’70s-era Al Green-inspired tunes. On the opener, “Lady, You Shot ... Read More

Actual pyramids are bottom-heavy, just like Brightest Darkest Day, the debut from a duo made up of vocalist Drea Smith and OK Go’s Tim Nordwind. The two concoct a range of sonic textures which sometimes captivate and other times get lost in the fray. Album closer “Nothing I Can Say” staggers under a feedback loop as dreary as a rainy day in Manchester. About half the album is bogged down in these kinds of post-punk ... Read More

Honor is a novel about twin sisters—one who marries and moves to London and the other who stays behind in their Turkish village—and follows the pains they go through for love, family, and tradition, even when that tradition is honor killing. In the 1970s, Pembe and her husband Adem move to London for a better life. As they try to fit into a different culture, their loveless marriage crumbles, and Adem leaves Pembe to fend for ... Read More

  I had a professor in college once tell me that John Milton was the most humorless poet he knew of. He could be warm and ironic, but he never joked-- he was up to something too serious for that. You could say the same of James Blake, whose new album Overgrown was released this week. It's the second LP from the 24-year-old British musician who has more than twice that many EPs to his name. Blake seems to have backed into music ... Read More

     Ursula Todd is born and dies during a snowstorm in England in 1910. The next time she is born in that snowstorm, circumstances change and she lives. And so Kate Atkinson’s compelling novel bears witness to a life and the ability to change it, given a second (or third, or more) chance. Although Ursula dies at the end of each version of her life, she manages to change the outcome the next time around, as one avoided ... Read More