Various Artists: After Dark 2

Various Artists: <i>After Dark 2</i>

Rarely do compilation albums add up to something greater than the sum of their parts.  read more

JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound: Howl

JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound: <i>Howl</i>

JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound are doing that thing the people always say they want bands to do—that thing where a band transforms their early, almost literal take on retro-minded soul music into a sound that's unique and modern.  read more

Daft Punk: Random Access Memories

Daft Punk: <i>Random Access Memories</i>

Sasha Frere-Jones’ review of Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories baffled many in the critic’s corner this week as he insisted that this album asks, “Does good music have to be good?”  read more

Scout Niblett: It's Up To Emma

Scout Niblett: <i>It's Up To Emma</i>

Though there was precious little excess to burn, Scout Niblett subjected herself to trial by fire on her previous release, The Calcination Of Scout Niblett.  read more

Dirty Beaches: Drifters/Love is the Devil

Dirty Beaches: <i>Drifters/Love is the Devil</i>

Two years ago, Alex Hungtai (a.k.a. Dirty Beaches) still had a day job.  read more

The National: Trouble Will Find Me

The National: <i>Trouble Will Find Me</i>

Trouble Will Find Me may be The National’s funniest album to date. Not that it has a whole lot of competition.   read more

Pistol Annies: Annie Up

Pistol Annies: <i>Annie Up</i>

They worked better as a cartoon than a franchise  read more

R.E.M.: Green 25th Anniversary Reissue

R.E.M.: <I>Green</i> 25th Anniversary Reissue

Integrity has always been a big part of R.E.M. When the band finally did make the jump to the bigs, some fans, not surprisingly, didn’t take it well.  read more

The Breeders: Last Splash LSXX

The Breeders: <i>Last Splash LSXX</i>

CONSUMER ALERT: This vastly expanded, packed-to-the-gills 20th anniversary reissue of The Breeders' Last Splash album contains exactly the same version of Last Splash that can currently be found crowding 99-cent CD bins all over the world.   read more

Peals: Walking Field

Peals: <i>Walking Field</i>

There’s a song on Peals’ debut album called “Tiptoes In the Parlor,” a title that sums up the Baltimore two-piece’s sound, which is soft and inconspicuous.   read more

Sam Amidon: Bright Sunny South

Sam Amidon: <i>Bright Sunny South</i>

During every long journey there are moments of looking back, of breathing in the vast traveled landscape as an inspiration to tighten the straps and press onward.  read more

pacificUV: After the Dream You Are Awake

pacificUV: <i>After the Dream You Are Awake</i>

“After the dream you are awake,” coo pacificUV’s Clay Jordan and Laura Solomon on the opening track of the Athens group’s newest offering.  read more

Wild Nothing: Empty Estate EP

Wild Nothing: <i>Empty Estate</i> EP

Where the 2000s saw an explosion of folk groups, the second decade of the new millennium has so far been characterized by a couple of great dreampop records and a lot of subpar ones.  read more

Mark Kozelek and Jimmy LaValle: Perils From the Sea

Mark Kozelek and Jimmy LaValle: <i>Perils From the Sea</i>

Some musicians just don’t want their music played in daytime.  read more

John Grant: Pale Green Ghosts

John Grant: <i>Pale Green Ghosts</i>

John Grant is one of the most enigmatic, endearing vocalists making music today.  read more

Wampire: Curiosity

Wampire: <i>Curiosity</i>

There’s been no shortage of cutesy synth-pop bands sprouting up in Portland over the past few years.  read more

Still Corners: Strange Pleasures

Still Corners: <i>Strange Pleasures</i>

At a certain point in every music lover’s life, there comes a moment that all have experienced in some capacity.  read more

Natalie Maines: Mother

Natalie Maines: <i>Mother</i>

The lines that separate country music fans from, well, fans of any other style of music are some of the most blindly protected and strictly observed separations that occur in this country.  read more

Patty Griffin: American Kid

Patty Griffin: <i>American Kid</i>

With a bit of juke-joint loose blues strumming rising from a National guitar, Patty Griffin leans into “Don’t Let Me Die In Florida” with a tortured cry on what becomes a steamy track with a deep, surging pocket.  read more

The Uncluded: Hokey Fright

The Uncluded: <i>Hokey Fright</i>

The first thing that comes to mind upon hearing "Kryptonite," opening track of The Uncluded’s inaugural album Hokey Fright, is that perhaps you’re listening to two songs at once.  read more

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