Rhino/Reprise Some things just go well together: peanut butter and jelly, spring and baseball, Frank Sinatra and Las Vegas. The Chairman of the Board arguably was never more at home than prowling the stages of Sin City nightclubs, dishing out snappy patter and electric readings of signature tunes like “Fly Me to the Moon” and […]
Music Features
Posted inMusic
Mickey Avalon-Self Titled
MySpace Records Nothing good can come of this MySpace Records, I’m convinced. Although the social Web site has been a boon to several indie bands, the idea of pulling unsigned talent from its cesspool and giving them a major-record deal is a dangerous one, judging solely from the no-talent behind its first single-artist release: Mickey […]
Posted inMusic
Lady Sovereign-Public Warning
Def Jam Lady Sovereign (Lady Sov if you’re nasty; Louise Harman if you’re her parents) arrives on American shores behind a mountain of hype taller than she is. Pint-sized but big-mouthed, this latest British hip-hop export is the newest face in Jay-Z’s galaxy of petite female stars (oh, whither Rihanna?)’ a foul, verbally agile hybrid […]
Posted inMusic
Sarah McLachlan-Wintersong
Arista Sarah McLachlan is slowly, steadily turning herself into a reliable brand; you know exactly what you’re getting when you pick up the latest album. Which is to say, said album will be stuffed with the same damn thing you’ve heard countless times before. “Wintersong,” McLachlan’s crack at a holiday-themed disc, cribs a track from […]
Posted inMusic
The Byrds-There is a Season
Columbia/Legacy If ever a band merited two box sets, it would be The Byrds. In under a decade, the band pioneered what has collectively become known as Americana: folk rock, psychedelia, country rock and, eventually their through influence, alt-country. “There Is a Season” improves on the first box set (now out-of-print) by giving a […]
Posted inMusic
The Hold Steady-Boys and Girls in America
Vagrant Who knew that tales of drug-addled teens could be so operatic? The Hold Steady’s “Boys and Girls in America” is a blistering rock ‘n’ roll album that merges the storytelling of Bruce Springsteen, the riffs of Thin Lizzy and the bleary-eyed stomp of the Replacements. The album title references Jack Kerouac’s “On the […]
Posted inMusic
Oasis-Stop the Clocks
Epic If there were ever a better argument for Oasis being a singles band, “Stop the Clocks” pretty definitively would prove that Liam and Noel Gallagher are much more adept at penning three minutes of brilliance than whole albums. “Stop the Clocks” is a band-curated glance backward at what could be charitably described as […]
Posted inMusic
Moby-Go: The Very Best of Moby
V2 In the liner notes for this Christmas-ready career-retrospective disc, Moby writes he’s baffled he’s had a career at all, claiming he’s “just a weird bald guy who makes music in his bedroom.” While that’s true, he’s also the one who helped propel electronica from club-only marginalization into a viable art form. Say what you […]
Posted inMusic
TV on the Radio-Return to Cookie Mountain
Interscope One of the things musicians TV on the Radio do so well on “Return to Cookie Mountain” that they failed to do on “Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes,” is find a perfect way to present the band’s shambolic mix of poetry, New Wave, electro sampling and guitar by simply not caring. Each track is […]
Posted inMusic
Dirty Pretty Things-Waterloo to Anywhere
Interscope Trying to put the looming legacy of the Libertines’ and former bandmate/rock star cliché Pete Doherty’ behind him, Carl Barat formed Dirty Pretty Things; “Waterloo to Anywhere” is their first release, and it’s proof that Barat was underrated all along. Though indie rock inspired by punk is quickly becoming yesterday’s shtick in Brit-rock, Dirty […]