In light of Bruce Chester Alan Arthur Springsteen’s (note: not real middle name) 17th studio album, Wrecking Ball, hitting stores this week, Popblerd has turned to one of its resident Springsteen enthusiasts, native New Jerseyan Andrew “Drew” Ratliff, to provide a definitive (read: entirely subjective) ranked retrospective of The Boss’ studio ouvre. Naturally, sacrifices had to be made. First of all, no compilations: this weeds out the exhaustive bonus disc on The Essential Bruce Springsteen, the four-disc-strong unreleased material compilation […]
Posts tagged "rock music"
Spin Cycle: Bruce Springsteen’s “Wrecking Ball”
The Boss is back with his first new album in three years. How does it hold up to his lengthy list of classics?
The Viewfinder: The Black Keys’ “Gold On The Ceiling”
Who’s the hottest rock band right now? I’d have to say The Black Keys take the cake. With a hit album, endorsement money, critical acclaim, a sold out tour and Grammy nominations, Dan and Patrick are sitting pretty and are also a true artist development story. El Camino, which is about halfway to becoming their best-selling album after less than three months of release, is their 7th full-length. Following the goofy video for first single “Lonely Boy”, the “Gold On […]
bLISTerd: The 100 Best Albums Of The ’00s (90-81)
Regina Spektor is one of the names that pops up in this installment of the Be-he-he-he, he-he-he, he-heh-heh-heh-heh hest albums of the ’00s. Read on to see who else made the cu-huh-hu…oh, forget it.
Spin Cycle Plus!: The Staff Poptificates On Van Halen’s “A Different Kind Of Truth”
Mike D.: Some time ago – probably after Bob Dylan released Time Out of Mind – it became common for music pundits to slap their foreheads and declare that, you know, the newest album by a major pop/rock act previously viewed as past their prime actually isn’t so bad. Koomdogg: After a month of previews and slow reveals, Van Halen’s A Different Kind of Truth is finally out. Jay: Considering it’s been 14 years since their last album (and that album was VH III, which […]
Popblerd’s Grammy Preview & Predictions 2012: Rock Categories
Hey y’all! The same way that some consider the Academy Awards the Super Bowl for non-sports fans, the Grammy Awards is like the Super Bowl for a certain strain of music fan. Of course, I’m a football fan, so it’s kinda like having the Super Bowl a week after the Super Bowl…and it’s very likely that this year, Madonna will be at both. I won’t go into specifics about the history of the Grammy Awards. You all have Wikipedia for […]
Spin Cycle: Joseph Arthur’s “Redemption City”
Joseph Arthur is a prolific mad genius. Like contemporaries Ryan Adams and Robert Pollard, Arthur is a man who simply can’t seem to help making music. He once described songs that made up the four EPs he released in 2008 as “strange animals in a cosmic cage begging for release”; he released an album a scant seven months ago; and now, seemingly out of nowhere, he’s dumped Redemption City on his devoted fanbase as a free digital download, and surprisingly to […]
Spin Cycle: Snow Patrol’s “Fallen Empires” (Drew’s Review)
We don’t typically double-dip here at Popblerd, in terms of record reviews. But when my buddy and Popblerd brethren Mike A. had a much different reaction to the new Snow Patrol record, we decided an exception to the rule was in order; Mike would review Fallen Empires around its UK release date, while I would take the reins in time for the US release. Mike’s review can be found here , and it’s well worth a read, primarily because your reaction to Fallen Empires just […]
Spin Cycle: Guided By Voices’ “Let’s Go Eat the Factory”
There’s a tried-and-true indie rock algorithm that states that former schoolteacher and Guided By Voices mastermind Robert Pollard + anything = a song. Like Billy Corgan and Ryan Adams after him, the man’s songwriting muse is so restless that one imagines they must spend their days holed up in a smoky bedroom with the shades drawn, eagerly committing every phrase they’ve ever learned to a series of spiral-bound notebooks in an effort to mold the entire English language into a […]
The Viewfinder New Year’s Special: Featuring The Fray & Foster The People
There’s always a handful of fairly generic rock bands that crop up every era and make good music-and one of the better mainstream pop/rock bands of recent times has to be The Fray. Sort of like a more grounded, American version of Coldplay, the band first made it’s name with the hooky ballads “Over My Head (Cable Car)” and the ubiquitous “How To Save A Life” (which, despite being played to death, I’ve never grown tired of. That’s the mark […]
Spin Cycle: The Black Keys’ “El Camino”
The Black Keys follow up their breakthrough, “Brothers”, with a new album called “El Camino.” Does this album reaffirm Dan & Patrick’s superstar status?