Jim James: Regions of Light and Sound of God

By Wyndham Wyeth at 12:12 PM on February 5, 2013

Imagine you’re the frontman for a successful rock band. Over the course of your career, you’ve somehow managed to acquire not only indie credibility but a fan base sizable enough to pack stadiums.  read more

Frightened Rabbit: Pedestrian Verse

By Hilary Saunders at 9:53 AM on February 5, 2013

On its fourth studio album and first major label release, Scottish quintet Frightened Rabbit offers 12 tracks that are much closer to a rock record than ever before.  read more

The Lone Bellow: The Lone Bellow

By Holly Gleason at 4:00 PM on January 29, 2013

It’s hard to believe music rooted in tragedy can sweep listeners along with such potent exuberance, but Brooklyn’s The Lone Bellow creates a sweeping country rock that uses the three-part power harmonies of lead singer/writer Zach Williams, guitarist Brian Elmquist and mandolin player Kanene Pipkin to set Williams’ songs ablaze in emotion, passion and the moments where life is its most extreme.  read more

Henry Wagons: Expecting Company? EP

By Stephen M. Deusner at 3:48 PM on January 29, 2013

“I’m in love with Mary Magdalene!” Henry Wagons bellows early on his new duets EP, Expecting Company? Of course he is.  read more

Ducktails: The Flower Lane

By John Hendrickson at 3:11 PM on January 29, 2013

Roughly five years ago, when no one was looking, indie artists began sticking their hands into the deep corduroy pockets of jam bands.  read more

Fleetwood Mac: Rumours 35th Anniversary Reissue

By Ryan Reed at 2:09 PM on January 29, 2013

Besides squeezing out endless cash wads from the wallets of music buyers (an ever-diminishing breed), what's the point of a fancy-ass remastered deluxe box-set reissue? In the case of Fleetwood Mac's 1977 pop masterstroke Rumours, it's a question especially worth asking.   read more

Local Natives: Hummingbird

By Philip Cosores at 12:00 PM on January 29, 2013

On “You & I,” the opening song of Local Natives’ sophomore LP Hummingbird, Kelcey Ayer’s initial vocals flap and flutter on delivery, stretching out the song’s title like a clumsy inaugural flight.  read more

Tegan and Sara: Heartthrob

By Dan Weiss at 10:23 AM on January 29, 2013

Tegan and Sara Quin have decided seven albums in that it’s time to throw down the pop gauntlet and see where seven albums gets you.  read more

The Joy Formidable: Wolf's Law

By Philip Cosores at 5:04 PM on January 22, 2013

It might be on the first listen, it might be after a year, but chances are at some point in listening to The Joy Formidable, you will discover complete ignorance as to what the songs are about.  read more

Petra Haden: Petra Goes to the Movies

By Stephen M. Deusner at 4:52 PM on January 22, 2013

Petra Haden is best known as a vocal artist, less well known as a former member of the band That Dog or daughter of Charlie Haden.  read more

Camper Van Beethoven: La Costa Perdida

By Mark Lore at 4:06 PM on January 22, 2013

Camper Van Beethoven snuck into a fair number of ears early in their career making music that didn’t make a lot of sense—lyrically or musically.  read more

Widowspeak: Almanac

By Philip Cosores at 3:42 PM on January 22, 2013

The story of Widowspeak can be seen as a sudden musical venture, but also as a lifetime in the making, as both singer Molly Hamilton and former drummer Michael Stasiak grew up in the neighboring cities in Washington, the damp forests and muted colors informing the eventual aesthetic of their band, combining with their new Brooklyn home and the area’s sleepwalking nostalgia championed by the Captured Tracks label.  read more

Esben and the Witch: Wash The Sins Not Only The Face

By Beca Grimm at 2:39 PM on January 22, 2013

Esben and The Witch are destined to make an awesome sound one day, just not yet.  read more

Hilly Eye: Reasons To Live

By Charlie Duerr at 2:10 PM on January 22, 2013

When Amy Klein announced her departure from Titus Andronicus in late 2011, it came as a bit of surprise to those traveling in circles that, well, pay attention to the arrivals and departures of guitar players to and from marginally well-known indie rock bands.  read more

FIDLAR: FIDLAR

By Philip Cosores at 1:05 PM on January 22, 2013

With Black Lips looking beyond fistfights with fans and full-frontal nudity, FIDLAR may prove suitable heirs to the shock-rock throne.  read more

Toro Y Moi: Anything in Return

By Jeff Gonick at 11:06 AM on January 22, 2013

Toro Y Moi reminds me of a Portlandia character.  read more

Foxygen: We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic

By Mark Lore at 9:46 AM on January 22, 2013

The sooner you fumble your way through the unruly title of Foxygen’s latest LP, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic, the sooner you can get to the music, which is quite the opposite—immediately familiar and relatively easy to navigate.   read more

Erin McKeown: Manifestra

By Holly Gleason at 4:18 PM on January 15, 2013

With a louche saunter and a thick, descending ripple of horn punctuations, Erin McKeown opens her first self-released album with a high-ironic colonic that skewers double-dealing public servants with their flaccid protest “If nobody knows, tell me what’s the crime?”  read more

Free Energy: Love Sign

By Ryan Reed at 3:37 PM on January 15, 2013

"Don't wanna talk now," sings Free Energy frontman Paul Sprangers on "Time Goes On," engulfed in bar-rock guitar crunch, echoed by solar-eclipse harmonies.  read more

Christopher Owens: Lysandre

By Nathan Huffstutter at 2:01 PM on January 15, 2013

Christopher Owens can’t outrun his backstory: Born into the Children of God cult and hauled to proselytize across Asia and Western Europe before fleeing as a teen and dead-ending in Texas.  read more