All three original members of Little Brother have released solo albums in the past month or so. Latest up to bat is Rapper Big Pooh. How does his album “Dirty Pretty Things” fare?
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Spin Cycle: Thomas Dolby’s “A Map of the Floating City”
Thomas Dolby has a new album out. Yes, THAT Thomas Dolby. Check out our review, wont’cha?
Spin Cycle: Wale’s “Ambition”
DC rapper Wale joins Rick Ross’s Maybach Music team for his second album “Ambition”. How does he fare? Read our review.
Spin Cycle: Florence + the Machine’s “Ceremonials”
British act Florence + The Machine follow up their well-received debut “Lungs” with a new album called “Ceremonials”. Can Ms. Welch and company successfully avoid the sophomore slump?
Spin Cycle: U2’s “Achtung Baby (Super Deluxe Edition)”
U2’s “Achtung Baby” is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary with a super-deluxe fan package in which you get a lock of Bono’s hair. Kidding. But we do have a review of the actual deluxe package. Seriously.
Spin Cycle: U2 Tribute “ACH-toong BAY-bi Covered”
U2’s “Achtung Baby” turns 20, and some legendary artists have paid tribute to the band and their songs on a new album.
Pass the Popcorn: Kevin Smith’s “Red State”
The notion that Fred Phelps – pastor of the charming family church Westboro Baptist, prolific funeral picketer, originator of the adorable slogan “God Doesn’t Much Care For Homosexuals At All” “God Hates Fags” – is perhaps the worst person on the globe right now isn’t new; after all, perhaps the only good thing about the Phelps clan is that nobody actually takes them seriously. No, what’s truly surprising about public perception of the Westboro Baptist Church is that it took this […]
Spin Cycle: Tom Waits’ “Bad As Me”
Back in 2006, Tom Waits released a sprawling odds-and-sods collection called Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards. At a massive three discs, and packaged like a dusty hardbound American tome large enough to bludgeon with, Waits decided to cut directly to the chase: each disc was named after the type of songs contained therein, according to which of the three titular descriptors it matched. That mentality isn’t unique to that set, though; in Tom Waits’ universe, in fact, brawlers, bawlers, and […]
Spin Cycle: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin’s “Tape Club”
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin are easy to like, but they’re unlikely to be anyone’s favorite band. They’re a little too unassuming for that: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin write simple, unadorned pop songs. Classifying them as indie is difficult since, beyond their unwieldy band name and reasonably lo-fi take on things, their songs are generally catchy and devoid of pretense; lumping them in with groups that tread the indie/pop dividing line like Death Cab For Cutie or […]
Spin Cycle: William Shatner’s “Seeking Major Tom”
There’s nothing inherently offensive about William Shatner’s music career. His style is innately silly, sure – generally speaking, spoken-word recitations of pop songs strung over bombastic instrumentals – but it’s difficult to begrudge him his moment in the musical spotlight, given his hammy seriousness. The former Captain Kirk attacks pop tunes as though they were Shakespeare monologues (or, in the case of his first musical outing, 1968’s The Transformed Man, because they’re Shakespeare monologues). The amount of sheer, campy, go-for-broke melodrama […]
Spin Cycle: Justice’s “Audio, Video, Disco”
Sometimes, subverted expectations can be fun. Case in point: Justice, otherwise known as “that group that had that song” (“D.A.N.C.E.”, in case you were wondering) or perhaps “the band Daft Punk fans listen to between albums”, have returned with a sophomore set. Their fun, monolithic slabs of electronica sounded reasonably fresh on their debut, Cross, but the replay potential wore thin, and the prospect of a new record – especially in a week that sees a prolific release from fellow […]