The emergence of Teleman in 2014 felt like something to get excited about. The U.K. quartet’s stream of infectious early singles—including the sublime “Cristina”— pointed to something very special. Yet, while good, debut LP Breakfast was never able to capitalize on this early promise. In truth, it felt like a holding statement for something else.

There’s greater beauty in imagination than there is in information, and Cate Le Bon knows it. “Crab Day is an old holiday. Crab Day is a new holiday.

Sooner or later there comes a time when everyone working in the sound recording business is going to get dragged into a criminal investigation.

There is dream pop and then there is Starwalker. As you would expect from a band with that name—as you would expect from a collaboration between Bang Gang’s Barði Jóhannsson and Air’s Jean-Benoît Dunckel—this is music that seems to float on an elevated plane.

Few bands have enjoyed the level of fan devotion directed at XTC, and Complicated Game certainly speaks directly to those people. But thanks to the tone of its author, XTC founder/singer/songwriter/guitarist Andy Partridge (along with Todd Bernhardt), those with even a casual interest in the band will still find themselves entertained.

Now that budgets for films that reside in John Carpenter‘s wheelhouse have become all but extinct, the auteur behind iconic films like Halloween and Escape from New York has taken his side hustle as a film composer—and popularizer of the analog synth—into the spotlight.

John Carney’s latest romantic dramedy set to song is a return to a contemporary model of cinematic musical that he’s making his trademark.

Ten years have passed since Sufjan Stevens released Illinois, a concept album rooted in themes surrounding the U.S. state of the same name, supposedly his second instalment in a series of such records that would explore each state.

There’s a beautiful, full-circle moment that brings The Hope Six Demolition Project to a close. Forlorn horns and ghostly organs eventually give way to the sound of children playing in the background, forcing a moment or two of filterless human connection. Listener on subject. PJ Harvey has said her piece. What a visceral piece it is, too.