Music

Slowdive frontman Neil Halstead falsely claimed to the band’s label Creation Records that they had enough songs for an album. In six weeks, Slowdive created their debut. It shows.

1991’s "Morningrise" EP has Slowdive make gigantic strides in songwriting.

Shoegaze icons Slowdive begin their career with this modest, self-titled, 1990 EP.

"Souvlaki" is one of the most major albums to come out of the shoegaze movement of the 90s — and for very good reason.

Latter career Sonic Youth, meaning A Thousand Leaves sounds more melodic than their earlier stuff and has less of an attitude. That’s not a bad thing though, because the band has crafted some beautiful stuff past their heyday, and some…

The youthful energy pervading much of Sonic Youth’s music spoke a lot to me in my early adulthood. Detached, rebellious, and a yearning to express some kind of stronger emotion that you’re not yet quite sure of. The noise sections…

Dirty is commonly called Sonic Youth’s “sellout” album. Why, I have no idea, because this contains some of the band’s most abrasive material. I’m a big Sonic Youth fan, and the piercing noise some of these songs pivot around even…

Completely desolate. Wandering aimlessly through a seemingly abandoned, worn-down industrial city at the dead of night, from the streets above to the subway below and back home again. EVOL is Sonic Youth’s most atmospheric release and one of their absolute…

Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star is one of the only Sonic Youth albums I just cannot get into. There’s not even one song here I think is a killer and encourages returning to search out other highlights. I’ve…

Perhaps the apex of Sonic Youth’s output, "Goo" has the band reach equilibrium with listless noise, pop hooks, and their iconic, idiosyncratic style.

NYC Ghosts & Flowers isn’t as bad as some reviews would lead you to believe, such as a particularly fucking awfully-written one that I likely don’t need to name. I believe it comes closest to matching the atmosphere of EVOL, something…

Sonic Youth reached their peak when they learned how to work their experimental tendencies into the context of a good pop rock song. On Rather Ripped, the band hold back their noise outbursts and deliver 12 tight songs with pleasant,…

The Eternal isn’t a new direction for Sonic Youth, but who cares? The songs are great. They’ve got the accessibility of the songs on “Rather Ripped,” but combined with some easily digestible, noisy feedback. There’s some vocal interplay on some…

Washing Machine is like, the exact definition of mid-tier Sonic Youth to me. That ain’t a bad thing; it’s Sonic Youth, so it’s still a good album, relatively speaking. But as a prelude to their post-90s sound, Washing Machine lacks…

Technically the first Kyuss release—same band, different name. They’re already unquestionably stoner rock at this point, though the base in blues rock is more visible here than even on their faster and more aggressive “real” first album, Wretch. And as mediocre…

As of writing, Getz / Gilberto is currently my favorite jazz album, and it has met consistent critical acclaim from just about any person or publication over the years since its release, but Getz/Gilberto #2 somehow seemed to fly under everyone’s radar,…

Margerine Eclipse is one of Stereolab’s best albums and possibly my second-favorite right behind Sound-Dust. Stereolab play off their strengths by making an album full of great retro, space-age pop songs, avoiding lengthy repetition. The end result is a relaxing…

Stevie Wonder isn’t quite there yet. Music of My Mind is his first album as a soul artist, and as you might expect, he hasn’t gotten used to it. His vocal performance isn’t as transcendent as it would become and…

Musicians rarely have attempted releases even larger than a double album. Rarer still is when it’s the best move in their career. Enter Stevie Wonder’s "Songs in the Key of Life".

The Pearl Jam influence on Core that everyone points out is obvious and true. But, the songwriting is better than Ten. Take the clever, vaudevillian-inspired riff of the album’s smash hit “Plush,” for example. Scott Weiland’s vocals have more conviction in them than…

Strawberry Switchblade formed in 1981 and released their one and only self-titled album in 1985, an ostensibly synth pop album with curiously subtle dream and twee pop flair. This is particularly significant because both of the latter scenes were only…

Another Suicide album, another different sound. Martin Rev plays minimalist techno beats on American Supreme, which are kind of fun, but you quickly realize how repetitive they can get when not backed up by the layers and rhythmic complexity of…

Somewhere along the line, keyboardist Martin Rev and vocalist Alan Vega lost their initial one-of-a-kind chemistry and began to pull in different directions. If you ask me, it happened with Why Be Blue. I won’t deny Suicide’s self-titled debut album…

I’m surprised at how much less wispy Kozelek’s voice sounds on Benji. I thought it was an age thing, but he brings it back at certain points, so I don’t really like his alternate delivery. A change I care for…

Swans used to pummel you into oblivion with giant, cold mechanical fists (well, sometimes they’d squeeze you slowly like an iron giant). This personality conquered any music of a similar nature. It’s what they’re best at, and they still managed…

Velocity : Design : Comfort is quality, spacey, happy, dreamy IDM with a lot of sudden glitch beats. Pleasant female vocals for about half of the album that sound exactly like Mary Hansen of Stereolab, both in voice and inflection. Despite…

Oh, hell yeah. “Autodidact” may be a few miles from reaching a shoegaze classic, but it’s undoubtedly a Swervedriver classic. One track into I Wasn’t Born to Lose You, and we’ve already got another essential song from this once-lost band. Something…

There’s good songs on Raise, but they’re severely weakened by some of the worst production of all time. Raise sounds like it was recorded inside of a tin can, and mixed with a mixing board also made out of tin…

Damon Andy Rob Ron: The Yes Girls is legitimately one of the worst albums I have ever heard. Swirlies in their prime released two of the greatest indie rock albums of the ’90s, but this is utter nonsense. I’m not…

In an admitted attempt to raise sales, Tegan and Sara embrace contemporary, overproduced pop with ‘Heartthrob.’ What’s lost in translation?

The Tegan and Sara chill-out album. So Jealous is mandatory nighttime listening, significant for being one of the rare pop rock albums that can be enjoyed when you’re tired. Obviously, its setting is a quiet city. Don’t overlook those synthesizers…

I reminisce about one of the music acts most responsible for breaking me out of my high school "classic rock" phase.

Worth a spin. Sinking is one of those albums definitely in need of editing. Check out those song lengths. I can tell you right now few of them are justified, and a lot of repetitiveness should have been cut to…

AlbumThe Angelic Process’s first album is a bit amateurish and sounds like a collection of demos of songs that were never fully realized. The oppressive sound is still there, more than a match for the extremely low fidelity recording job…

Delightful. I thought I was never going to like Britpop outside of a few exceptions, but The Auteurs are much less obnoxious than the ear-splitting volume of Oasis or the smartass vibe of Blur. The guitar on this album is…

The first half of Abbey Road is full of generally amazing songs that unquestionably rank among The Beatles‘ best-ever material, which is quite an accomplishment. George Harrison’s songs in particular are lovely (“Something,” “Here Comes the Sun”). A few stragglers…

Sgt. Pepper’s some of The Beatles‘ simplest material. Considering they were writing songs like “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “I Am the Walrus” around this time, this album seems far below what they’re capable of. There are a couple of brilliant…

Everything The Beatles were is encapsulated in this double album. From R&B rock, to folk, to psychedelia and beyond. This is ‘The Beatles.’

Were The Brian Jonestown Massacre the kind of band to take risks? With a terrible name like that, I’d assume so. They began their career as promising shoegaze tag-alongs. When it was evident shoegaze had no immediate future, they coincidentally…

On ‘The Notorious Byrd Brothers,’ The Byrds oversaturate their album with too much hippy-dippy, reverbing, psychedelic production and undermine the immediacy of their signature jangly pop rock.

A solid album by The Byrds, but I’d have to say this one is only for fans. There are a couple of great songs on here, but an equal or greater amount of material are merely decent or good. The…

The Cardigans have an impeccable style inspired by ’50s lounge pop, but the incredible singles from ‘First Band on the Moon’ land every other song on the dark side of the moon.

The Cars really could have used some more muscle. Some of the band’s best hooks are played so weakly that they don’t excite as much as they could. The riff on “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight” is so underplayed, for…

The second album by the post-punk outfit, The Chameleons, is a storm of swirling guitars and ethereal angst. This melancholic beauty that does not compromise intensity would define the band’s sound and place within the post-punk movement.

For a compilation, B-Sides Volume 1 is sequenced professionally well and is extra incentive to pick this up. It plays like a lost Chemical Brothers album, and fortunately, it’s a good one—for the most part. Some typical (albeit typically competent)…

‘Further’ isn’t ‘Dig Your Own Hole’—but it doesn’t try to be. Further is much more reliant on frigid, glacial synthesizers than thick beats.

You guys wanna be mad? Have I got a hot take for you: The Church’s cover of “Hounds of Love” on Coffee Hounds makes Kate Bush’s original look like a joke. Steve Kilbey sells the lyrical metaphor with a sense…

Okay, everyone makes fun of the obvious irony in Cut the Crap‘s title, but really, the self-awareness here is killin’ me. Let’s take a look at the lyrics for “North and South”: “We ain’t got lifeDon’t want a cardboard cut-outDon’t…

Wow, color me surprised (which in this case would be a dark red). I decided to trust history writing The Cranberries off as a three-hit wonder responsible for the classic singles “Dreams,” “Linger,” and “Zombie.” I may have to stop…

With Electric, The Cult reveal their true allegiance: none other than AC/DC. 11 times that same song. The only thing The Cult have over their idols is that their lyrics are written about things other than balls and beers, and…

What a fucking cool album cover. It’s like an emblem you’d see emblazoned on the front gate of Dracula’s castle. The Black Album is a certain curiosity in The Damned’s discography, as the group are almost entirely known for their…

In ‘L.A. Woman,’ the Doors retreat into blues rock standards, thereby stripping large parts of their act that made them original.

The Doors’ second album sees the band moving away from their blues rock roots into more psychedelic territory. ‘Strange Days’ is The Doors’ most psychedelic album by a good margin.

Much, much better than expected. The main thing here is that despite The Dresden Dolls founding their own sort of punk cabaret rock they don’t rely on it for the songwriting, which is the main problem with most dark cabaret…

There’s a little bit of all the great ’60s rock acts here. Considering The Electric Prunes formed in ’65, it’s clear that they’re trying to latch onto a scene. But integrity in pop music can be forgiven if the songs…

The first disc of Lifeforms is some truly great stuff. But it all falls apart fast as soon as you hit the second disc, which feels like a collection of ideas in the same style but not up to the…

You know, I came into Afterwords optimistic. I was already planning on writing a review that praised this album. It was going to go a little something like this: It’s time we face the facts: Anneke van Giersbergen is not…

’80s jangle pop is truly a marvelous thing. I don’t know what it is about it, but it seems to me many of the best lyrics in pop rock music come from jangle pop. 16 Lovers Lane‘s lyrical imagery is…

Calling music “jangle pop” should be considered a misnomer when that jangle doesn’t glisten. Isn’t that the whole point? You know what did glisten? 16 Lovers Lane. Or in particular, the sun-soaked ray riff of “Streets of Your Town.” Every single Go-Betweens album that isn’t 16…

It’s depressing how lame Tallulah is, because it takes steps in the right direction. A lot of people complain about the production dragging this album down, but that’s only partially true. The Go-Betweens have always had bad production before 16 Lovers Lane. Albums…