Cloud Nothings – Attack On Memory (Carpark)
The anger on this album feels pretty real and palpable to me.
The Weeknd – House Of Balloons / Thursday / Echoes Of Silence (XO)
Sex, drugs, more sex, more drugs, each song details another night of Bacchanalian excess with no redemption in sight. Are you ready to party?
Balam Acab – Wander/Wonder (Tri-Angle)
It’s the difference between internet porn and actual sex, between Beavis and Bolaño, amusement and art.
Trailer Trash Tracys – Ester (Double Six/Domino)
Ester is a perfect debut album. It suggests that the Tracys are liable to head in any direction, including some we haven’t even imagined.
Guided By Voices – Let’s Go Eat The Factory (Fire)
Robert Pollard’s language is a universe that is both abstract and familiar, a poetry informed by gray skies and basements, used cars and starch.
Howler – America Give Up (Rough Trade)
Don’t mistake that album title for something so outdated as a point-of-view. As far as I can tell, Howler music is pretty much content-free.
She And Him – A Very She And Him Christmas (Merge, 2011)
Christmas culture is the ultimate test. Matthew and Zooey have hitched their wagon to that star, and many will judge them for it.
The Greatest Christmas Album Ever Recorded – Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
Ultimately, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer is a collection of songs about the struggle to find one’s place in the world — the isolated self-destruction that can occur when someone is rejected by their community.
REVIEWED IN WORDS: Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream (deluxe edition)
After tonight, I swear I’m never gonna laugh at a Christian rock band again.
The Field – Looping State Of Mind (Kompakt)
If I said I liked you better when I was stoned, how would that make you feel about yourself?
THE COLLAPSE BOARD REVIEW The Smiths – The Complete Smiths (Rhino)
They deserve better than this. And so does anyone who ever cared about them.
THE COLLAPSE BOARD REVIEW Kate Bush – 50 Words For Snow (Fish Music/EMI)
There is snow, and there are words. This lengthy, seven-track record, successor to this year’s deck-clearing Director’s Cut, is an album that loves language every bit as much as it loves snow; you can feel delight soaking through the syllables.
Dum Dum Girls – Only In Dreams (Sub Pop)
By Cheri Amour In her hazy days of, what one can only imagine was, singing into the mirror with comb to lips, LA singer songwriter Kristen Gundred (nom de plume Dee Dee) made a vow to only work with female musicians (no doubt, built up by her wide-eyed admiration for institutional girl bands like that [...]
Civil Civic – Rules (Civil Civic)
just a genuine love of guitar melody that goes straight from ear to heart.
Mary Hampton – Folly (Teaspoon)
So you’re thinking Tinkerbell and glitterwings, floaty velvet scarves and dream catchers. Please don’t.
THE ALTERNATE REVIEW: The Beach Boys – The Smile Sessions (Capitol)
The Smile Sessions is a candle made out of wax collected from the melted wings of Icarus
THE ALTERNATE REVIEW: Can – Tago Mago (Spoon/Mute)
Can belong to the iconoclasts, the cynics, the lovers, the thinkers and the visionaries with hungry ears and a low threshold for boredom.
Veronica Falls – Veronica Falls (Slumberland/Bella Union)
Call me shallow but I’m starting to tire of nufuzzwurld.
THE GOOD(ISH) REVIEW Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds (Sour Mash)
Does Picasso have a manager do the final brush strokes? Fuck that.
THE BAD REVIEW Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds (Sour Mash)
Outflanked by Coldplay? He should be fucking ashamed of himself.
Crooked Fingers – Breaks In The Armor (Merge)
Bachmann takes us through 11 Americana slices of reflection and redemption
