Album Reviews
A collection of album and EP reviews written and published from 2004 onward.
- Teller Bank$ “The I & I” Review and Interview ()
The album opener to The I & I by Teller Bank$ finds the Des Moines-based rapper reflecting on the practical value of processing his trauma through his art. In “Friends,” he comments on the market forces which encourage work that perpetuates negative stereotypes: “I had to swing my sword before I use my pen / I had […]
- FlyLife “A Different View” Review ()
“Cause who the fuck gon’ save your family if it isn’t you?” raps FlyLife on the title track from his recently released album. “I know it’s usually guns and drugs but this a different view.” The song serves as the culmination of a broader idea, each prior track helping to redefine a concept of what […]
- Joey Bada$$ “1999” Review ()
If web-hype were any indication of talent or potential, Brooklyn youngster Joey Bada$$ might well be one of rap’s hottest names right now. The typical talking points seem standard across the board: Despite being only17 he has a “sophisticated” and “confident” flow, reps hard for his Progressive Era crew (“a collective of 18 rappers, producers, […]
- Ty Segall Band “Slaughterhouse” Review ()
A consensus pick as one of last year’s top albums, the momentum behind Ty Segall’s Goodbye Bread has already carried over into 2012 with the San Fransisco garage punk’s collaboration with White Fence (Tim Presley). Listenability an increasingly moot concern, Segall continued his breakneck string of acclaimed albums about a month back with Slaughterhouse, released […]
- Aesop Rock “Skelethon” Review ()
It’s a tough position to be in, critiquing a piece of art that appears way above your head. It’s challenging to take in such a piece of work, from multiple angles, perspectives even, and still come away from it with little understanding of why it is that you appreciate it. You just do. Such is […]
- Jay-Z and Kanye West “Watch the Throne” Review ()
The success of Watch the Throne is going to have to be defined by how each unique passenger of the vessel approaches the collaboration. Kanye West and Jay-Z are undoubtedly two of the most elite and in demand voices in rap (or pop music, or simply music in general), and if the focus is the […]
- 311 “Universal Pulse” Review ()
In the ’90s, with the odd exception, there was no other band for me: 311 was it. As I ascended through junior high, then high school, the 311 insignia was not only a staple of my wardrobe, both emblazoned on t-shirts and patches that I had hand-stitched onto my backpack, but it was also found […]
- Moby “Destroyed” Review ()
Destroyed stands as quite the milestone for Moby as it is his tenth full-length studio album, coming nearly two decades after he issued his self-titled debut. It also serves as somewhat of an artistic retrospective for the multi-faceted artist: A soundtrack to his own personal insomnia, Destroyed takes on a variety of sounds that have […]
- Beastie Boys “Hot Sauce Committee Part 2” Review ()
Aside from breathing new life into a nearly 25 year old meme with the celebrity cameo-heavy Fight For Your Right Revisited short film, it’s no wonder that the campaign behind the Beastie Boys‘ Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 has been so tightly focused on building a sense of nostalgia around the group. For fans who […]
- Foo Fighters “Wasting Light” Review ()
The release of Wasting Light from the Foo Fighters carries with it an unusual sense of urgency that hasn’t been experienced for quite some time with the band. Perhaps the gravity of the release is due in part to the new documentary tackling the Foo’s history and recent tribulations, a film which has been largely marketed […]
- Fleet Foxes “Helplessness Blues” Review ()
“I have such a weird relationship with this record,” confessed Fleet Foxes‘ Robin Pecknold in an interview with Stereogum this past February. “The process of making it really took over my life and started affecting my relationships, which in turn affected the record.” Yet while the band’s new album Helplessness Blues is recognizable as a […]
- Wiz Khalifa “Rolling Papers” Review ()
Weed enthusiasts are a unique breed. I don’t mean potheads, but people who plan their entire lives around pot; those who roll out of bed, spin Black Sunday for their wake-n-bake session, and make it a point to spark praise for the plant on no less than half a dozen times throughout the day. Those […]
- The Kills “Blood Pressures” Review ()
Relationships have a tendency of continually changing; a difference which is only made that much more apparent given significant spans of time. It’s been three years since Jamie Hince and Alison Mosshart released their last album together, 2008′s Midnight Bloom, and during the years that followed Mosshart focused much of her creativity on her work […]
- Britney Spears “Femme Fetale” Review ()
Femme Fatale isn’t Britney Spears‘ “comeback” album, it’s not likely to stand as her best album and it’s not a “game-changing” collection of tracks, set to once again reshape her image to better blend in with the shifting pop cultural tide. That being the case, Femme Fetale is exactly what it needs to be. Like […]
- Lupe Fiasco “Lasers” Review ()
It has been over two and a half years since Lupe Fiasco wrapped on the first tracks for what would become his new album, Lasers. To call what followed “drama” might be an understatement: Atlantic rejected the tracks, froze Lupe’s production budget, and the emcee requested to be let go. Atlantic refused to either drop […]
- Avril Lavigne “Goodbye Lullaby” Review ()
While Avril Lavigne‘s 2007 album, The Best Damn Thing, has become an unquestionable success—certified platinum in the US within a few months, it has since gone on to sell over six million copies worldwide—the years that followed its release offered some unique obstacles for the young vocalist. Plagiarism claims persisted and by 2009 the bottom […]
- Radiohead “The King of Limbs” Review ()
As a band, Radiohead have been able to capture something very few artists have been able to: The band retains an aura of integrity while maintaining an impossible level of success. They’re the biggest “indie” band in the world, universally acclaimed for producing music that might not otherwise demand mainstream attention; “weird” music that doesn’t […]
- Bright Eyes “The People’s Key” Review ()
Conor Oberst has been anything but unproductive since dropping the last Bright Eyes release nearly four years ago. Recording a pair of alt-country albums with the Mystic Valley Band in addition to dropping the not-so-folky debut album from Monsters of Folk with Jim James, M. Ward & Mike Mogis, Oberst has clearly demonstrated an interest […]
- Nicole Atkins “Mondo Amore” Review ()
Nicole Atkins‘ Mondo Amore is the culmination of an immense change in the vocalist’s life; “Got a new band, wrote a new album, got a new apartment, new life, getting a new label, and yeah, basically changing everything,” she explained in an interview last year. Recording some 18 songs with her new band before eventually […]
- Cut Copy “Zonoscope” Review ()
While standing as a definite high point, Cut Copy‘s 2008 breakthrough In Ghost Colours was anything but the pinnacle of an overnight success for the Melbourne-based group. The album peaked on the Australian charts and was lifted to a respectable position on the Billboard 200, fueled in part by singles “Lights & Music” and “Hearts […]
- Social Distortion “Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes” Review ()
The creation of Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes has been a long and trying process for Social Distortion fans; the album continually being teased since work first began on it in 2006. Even this past year, when things seemed all but locked down, Hard Times was constantly pushed back until finally being given a 2011 […]
- Michael Jackson “Michael” Review ()
The release of Michael, while standing as a postmortem salute to the man’s final works, is not without its controversies. Michael Jackson’s father has spoken out against the new album, releasing a statement through his lawyer suggesting that Michael “would never have wanted his unfinished material to be released.” Like Joe, much of the other […]
- T.I. “No Mercy” Review ()
The year leading up to the release of T.I.‘s new album No Mercy has been nothing if not eventful. Eventful and well documented. After being released from prison, the drop on King Uncaged was set to come at any moment… and his fans stood by him and waited. In the meantime he released a collection […]
- The Black Eyed Peas “The Beginning” Review ()
The Black Eyed Peas’ sixth studio album, The Beginning, closes with a modern mission statement as announced by frontman will.i.am, “I pledge my allegiance to rhythm and sound/Music is my medicine, let the rhythm pound.” Now, long gone are the days when critics were able to relevantly bash the group for trading in their socially […]
- Kanye West “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” Review ()
Much has been made of Kanye West‘s outrageous behavior, his perceived narcissism, egotistical public outbursts, and general air of superiority. But there’s something to be said for a man who lives his life as his own biggest fan; especially when symptoms of which materialize in efforts such as My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Winking in […]
- Rihanna “Loud” Review ()
It’s hard to believe that Rihanna‘s new album, Loud, is already the 22-year old’s fifth studio effort. Actually, with all that the singer has accomplished to this point in her career, it’s also hard to believe that she’s still only 22 years old. The way she presents herself in public and on stage is reminiscent […]
- Kid Cudi “Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager” Review ()
On the surface Kid Cudi‘s Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager is an ambitious 17-track drug-fueled diary detailing dark times and the forces behind them. Beneath the surface however, Rager is a cautionary tale which captures Cudi’s shift away from one stage of his life to the next. As he explained […]
- Cee Lo Green “The Lady Killer” Review ()
Goodie Mob notwithstanding, Cee Lo Green was introduced to many a mainstream music listener through the universal success of Gnarls Barkley‘s “Crazy” in 2006. His soulful voice acted as the perfect complement to Danger Mouse‘s production, and the duo made the most of their new-found fame by touring the globe and gaining a vast fan […]
- N.E.R.D. “Nothing” Review ()
Somewhere over the course of the past decade Pharrell Williams‘ name became synonymous with style—not simply style, but innovation as well. Musically, if your project had the man’s name associated with it, its chances of failure were nil; even his 2006 solo debut, In My Mind, somehow avoided universal critical backlash despite being marginally bearable. […]
- Taylor Swift “Speak Now” Review ()
Something became quite evident as the term alternative rock morphed into a bastardized parody of itself in the mid-to-late-’90s: there was little left to be an alternative to. Bands such as Creed who were curiously pinned with the label helped contribute to its death, and as the new millennium dawned the vast world of mainstream […]