Perhaps more than any other show, The Walking Dead is burdened with the unenviable task of satisfying viewers who want nonstop zombie-stomping action and those who want the character development that makes the storytelling meaningful.

The third full-length recording by Adam Granduciel and company picks up where 2011’s Slave Ambient left off, finding a remarkably confident band capable of grand anthems without losing the subtler touches that separate them from lesser bands.

Guy Trilby (Jason Bateman) is on a mission: to win the Golden Quill national spelling bee, a contest intended for middle school children rather than middle-aged men.

Small town pharmacist Doug Varney has a disapproving father-in-law for a boss, a hyper-competitive fitness junkie for a wife and a disaffected weirdo for a son. When he stumbles into an affair with a bored trophy wife, Doug’s attempts at recreational self-medication begin to spiral out of control.

There’s a pleasing raucousness in Manchester all-female four-piece PINS that many will miss on their first listen of Girls Like Us, their self-produced debut release, recorded in just a single week.

With his Sock Monkey stories, Tony Millionaire breathes life into the iconic stuffed toy and sends it on some amazing adventures.

“A modern folk artist in the purest sense,” is how Linda Perhacs was described in High Fidelity’s review of her most recent album…44 years ago.

By far the most chilling set of images in tonight’s season finale (and close to the first story in the True Detective anthology series) wasn’t the revelation of a terrestrial Carcosa, the preserved body of Billy Childress, or the superhuman murderous antics of his son Errol.

Dean Wareham‘s debut solo recording—last year’s majestic mini-album/EP Emancipated Hearts—brought out the softer side in the former frontman of both Galaxie 500 and Luna. Emotive, fragile, and soaked in haunting melody, the EP’s collection of faint lullabies was one of 2013’s most understated and beautiful releases.