Mar 04, 2014
Music
Issue #49 - February/March 2014 - Portlandia
Dead of winter, 2012: Toronto-based Robert Alfons and Maya Postepski (also of Canada’s Austra), who called themselves Trust, deliver what would become one of the year’s best and most self-assured debut albums.
More
Mar 03, 2014
Music
Issue #49 - February/March 2014 - Portlandia
Yardboat, the 2012 debut from this Athens four-piece, was mostly, with exception of one 10-minute atmospheric instrumental, a psych-tinged Americana album with interesting lead guitar work and an understated melodicism.
More
Feb 28, 2014
Music
Issue #49 - February/March 2014 - Portlandia
If only the easy listening genre wasn’t already dedicated to orchestras and big bands and voices made famous decades ago. If only it was accepting new albums into its category. Because Atlaswould absolutely define it.
More
Feb 28, 2014
Music
Bombay Bicycle Club
Bombay Bicycle Club have called their new album So Long, See You Tomorrow, but it could just as easily have been named Bombay Bicycle Club: Fun With Synthesizers. Never a band to shy away from experimentation, for their fourth full-length release the North London band have injected their glittering guitar pop with textural synths and dance sounds.
More
Feb 27, 2014
Music
Wild Beasts
British art rockers Wild Beasts may hail from the wilds of Cumbria in the far north of England, but their music has always defied their craggy-landscaped origin and ferocious name: their 2009 breakthrough albumTwo Dancers and it’s 2011 follow-up Smother were sinuously sophisticated and low-key—barbed tales of sexual longing and self-loathing wrapped in sleek, atmospheric indie rock.
More
Feb 26, 2014
Music
The Notwist
The career trajectory of German polymaths The Notwist has always been one of steady evolution and mutation. We’ve long waved auf wiedersehen to the early ‘90s punk stylings of The Notwist and Nook, and now it seems the sentimental bedroom electronica of Shrink and Neon Golden is headed the same way.
More
Feb 25, 2014
Music
Issue #49 - February/March 2014 - Portlandia
Attempt to connect the dots between Beck releases and you’ll rarely find moments where the artist has circled back on himself. Unfettered by genre or by audience expectations, his drowsy baritone and free-associative lyrics are the only things which remain consistent from album to album.
More
Feb 24, 2014
Music
Neneh Cherry
Not one to be rushed—it’s almost a quarter of a century since the release of her debut Raw Like Sushi and 16 years since her last solo release—Blank Project marks the long overdue return of Neneh Cherry.
More
Feb 21, 2014
Music
St. Vincent
Last fall, Annie Clark emerged from 18 long months on the road—which included the Strange Mercy tour and her Love This Giant gigs with David Byrne—ready to work. Rather than take the standard time off to recover and recalibrate, Clark dove right into songwriting again, expelling the last year and a half’s worth of ideas into these 11 new tracks. The simply-titled St. Vincent arrived far earlier than anyone would have expected from such a busy artist, but it doesn’t feel rushed; rather, it’s the product of a musician on an inspired streak.
More