Croon your little heart out, Robin Thicke. Following the pop/dance triumph of “Blurred Lines,” which has gone from a YouTube curiosity (ooh naked women) to an actual hit, Robin serves his core constituency with the ballad “4 the Rest of My Life.” Rob’s slow jams are always dope (unless he’s shamelessly trying to recreate his biggest hit “Lost Without U,”) and this song is no exception. Stellar songwriting, those signature creamy vocals and a little more “edge” than usual? It sounds like […]
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Daft Punk, Random Access Memories: Album Review
From their 1997 debut Homework and even moreso with 2001’s Discovery, Daft Punk arguably became the foremost ambassadors of electronic music, at once pleasing the discerning tastes of college radio and mainstream audiences. They’ve simultaneously managed to maintain a sort of indie credibility while shilling commercial products for The Gap, Sony, Victoria’s Secret, Coca-Cola, and Adidas. Today’s release of Random Access Memories is one of 2013’s most anticipated releases, the culmination of a months-long publicity campaign waged primarily through television […]
Vampire Weekend, Modern Vampires of the City: Album Review
There was a time that Vampire Weekend perched, perilously, on the precipice of being one of the great one-album wonders of the ’00s. Like Cannibal Ox or At the Drive-In or Bloc Party before them, the Ivy League pop-rockers seemed poised to turn heads with one masterstroke of a record, and then retreat into either obscurity, oddity, or simple irrelevance. That album was 2008’s Vampire Weekend — the one with “Oxford Comma” and “A-Punk” and basically all the Vampire Weekend […]
RIP Ray Manzarek, 1939-2013
Organist Ray Manzarek has died at the age of 74 following a years-long battle with cancer. Best known for his work with The Doors, Manzarek was a key component in shaping that group’s sound. The Doors are equally embraced and reviled. While certainly overrated in the grand scheme of pop music, they managed to produce a unique aesthetic in their four-year run, which yielded six studio LPs and one live album (supplemented by numerous studio and stage releases following Jim […]
Metal Monday Volume 123 (5.20.13)
MA heavy rock is alive and well and Second Grave is definitive proof of that. Honestly, it doesn’t matter what bands the members of Second Grave used to be a part of. What matters is what they’re doing now which is completely and utterly fantastic. On their debut album/EP (It’s six songs but three of those hit the eight minute mark), the purveyors of true doom might come off as a female-fronted Sabbath (No, not Hand Of Doom) at first but they […]
The National, Trouble Will Find Me: Album Review
Drama and Discovery – these are two essential tenets to my history as an audiophile. I admitted to my facebook friends and colleagues here at Popblerd that I’d missed the boat for the past 13 years on The National. My bad. I’m making up for lost time and have immersed myself in their discography over the past couple of weeks. My listening and journey can be summed up in this arc — U2’s The Joshua Tree (1987), The Cure’s Disintegration (1989), Depeche […]
So…Kanye Was the Musical Guest on “SNL” This Past Weekend…
The return of Mr. West…or should we call him…Yeezus?
Songs in the Key of Life 34: “Fistful of Tears”
Ever stand in front of a mirror and just stare at yourself for a while? What happened? Did you check out your wonderful/flawed physical features? Did you begin to talk to yourself? Did you sing? I did it just a few days ago and the reflection lacked any type of humor. I realized that I am angry. For mother’s day, my family went to go pay a visit to my mother at her old South Carolina church’s backyard cemetery. My […]
The Carlton Shuffle, 5/18/13
Better late than never, as they say. Rock out with us in this week’s Carlton Shuffle!