Song Reviews

So good to see you…I missed you so much…

A Perfect Circle returns with a perfect vengeance.

[rating=8.00] Nashville’s All Them Witches is a group that defies the modern need for hyper-classification. A case can be made for calling them sludge, psych, post-metal, or even, perhaps, doom. The cold hard fact is that all of these labels fit, more or less equally, so perhaps it would be best to use the good […]

“Should Have Known Better” stands up and walks us through a devastating path of isolation, loneliness, regret, and ultimately resurrection.

[rating=10.00] Three years ago, psych-rockers Tame Impala released their signature opus “Apocalypse Dreams,” the sprawling centerpiece of their second LP, Lonerism. But they’ve matched its brilliance with new single “Let It Happen,” a seven-minute epic with not one second misspent. The song burrows in deep within the first 30 seconds, with a jittery MGMT-styled keyboard […]

Mumford & Sons deserve credit for taking a huge risk with their music, but we won’t know until the entire album is out whether that risk pays off.

Rediscover My Morning Jacket in all their glory with majestic new single, “Big Decisions.”

With “No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross,” Sufjan Stevens hearkens back to the gently lilting, folk-inflected stylings of his masterworks, ‘Illinois’ and ‘Michigan.’

With their cover of Elliott Smith’s “Somebody That I Used to Know,” Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield are reverent to the late singer-songwriter, even if the track doesn’t quite strike the appropriate tone.

Turn out the lights and set the lampshades on fire, please. It’s time to party. Sort of.

[rating=9.00] Swooning strings introduce D’Angelo’s new single, “Really Love.” They never let up, and neither does anything else. Not Pino Palladino’s loping, melodic bassline, which seems to respond to the singer’s nonstop vocal coaxings and maneuvers. Not the flamenco-inflected guitar, which moves as naturally and idiosyncratically as Big D’s speak-singing. Not the whispered conversation in […]

[rating=7.00] One of the most accidentally astute critiques I’ve ever heard came not from a professional critic but from a co-worker, back in my service industry days. Speaking on Faith No More’s most popular track, “Epic,” he looked at me and said “the thing I love about Faith No More is that there’s this song, […]

[rating=7.00] “Make You Better” first appeared a week ago, when Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy teased the track and announced the band’s new album, What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World , through a street-busking performance in Brooklyn, but the studio version hit the internet on Monday. The song strays away from the country-folk of 2011’s The […]

[rating=3.00] Earlier this month, a bemused Roger Waters reminded fans via Facebook that he hasn’t been a part of Pink Floyd for nearly three decades. This was in response to a barrage of questions he’d received regarding the upcoming Pink Floyd record, The Endless River, the band’s first new material in 20 years — and, reportedly, their […]

“Somebody’s Talking” is a deliciously catchy, foot-tapping tune full of sass and momentum.

If “Exit Only” is any indication of their newest direction, ‘La Isla Bonita’ may be one of the year’s most interesting albums.

While the road to success is long for many independent artists, “Forget,” the first single from Home Video’s new album, indicates that the band is focused and on the right track.

If there’s only one thing Zach Braff can do right, it’s put together an amazing soundtrack, and Bon Iver’s sultry new ballad is the latest proof.

[rating=9.00] God bless Robert Plant! (For him, I guess that would be Odin or Pan.) The workingman’s Celt who burst on the rock scene as a grinning satyr has somehow managed to age gracefully as a performer. Embracing the limitations that time, moans, and smoke have placed on his voice, he has sought out musical […]

The Wilco frontman’s new solo single builds to an affirmative, if not triumphant, conclusion.