Reviews

The maddening irony of reviewing a watermarked disk of What Will We Be is that it forces the writer to hunt down her quaint, much neglected boombox—a gesture that implicitly bears a Devendra Banhart stamp of approval.

Discerning fans of subdued, synthy Swedepop will be hard-pressed not to fall head over heels for El Perro Del Mar’s latest release.

On her latest, Magic Neighbor, Lisa Germano evokes her early-’90s recordings On the Way Down from the Moon Palace and Happiness.

With all the best bits of the recent nu-shoegaze craze (see: the Big Pink, A Sunny Day In Glasgow), it’s amazing that veteran Robin Guthrie has made an album that, however unintentionally, takes the newcomers to school.

Reissues can be a little ho-hum, but this 1976 collab between electronic-music pioneer Brian Eno and kraut-rock darlings Harmonia (a side project of NEU!’s Michael Rother) is worth the attention.

Rockabilly has always been a prime ingredient in Jon Spencer’s stew, but it wasn’t until forming Heavy Trash with Matt Verta-Ray that it moved front and center.

With seven years, several Grammys, and one Wong Kar-wai movie under her belt since her ubiquitous debut (Come Away With Me), Norah Jones releases her fourth record to a musical landscape dominated by panty-flashing, futuristic electro, which makes her laid-back, jazzy pop seem a little bit tame.

Take a breather from holiday commercialism with Why You Runnin’, the new, wrenchingly sincere EP from Illinois singer/songwriter Lissie.

In the three years since making their major-label debut with a cool and cocky self-titled album, Morningwood’s vocalist Chantal Claret and bassist Pedro Yanowitz have split to different coasts, endured couples’ therapy (though their union is strictly creative), and redefined the passion that brought them together in the first place.

It’s not dance music, it’s drug music, and it’s made by a kid who was raised on video games.