Laetitia Sadier: The Trip
Stereolab chanteuse flies solo With her distinctly ethereal voice, it’s hard to imagine Laetitia Sadier operating outside the dreamy electro-pop of her longtime band Stereolab or her side-project Monade. What sets her solo debut apart from her past work is its emotional frankness. The Trip opens with the spacey synths of “One Million Year Trip,” a sobering tale about her sister’s suicide: “My little sister’s voice / Forever muted, inaudible / She went on a million year trip / And left everything behind.” Where Stereolab’s songwriting was tangential and detached, with lyrics arranged around the melody, Sadier’s solo work is... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsMavis Staples: You Are Not Alone
She’ll take you there Though now on the far side of 70, Mavis Staples remains one of American music’s national treasures, with a smoldering voice that’s as compelling today as it was 40 years ago on Staple Singers’ hits like “Respect Yourself.” Likely the only singer whose resume includes collaborations with Curtis Mayfield, Bob Dylan and Prince, she affirmed her vitality on 2007’s We’ll Never Turn Back, produced by Ry Cooder. This time around, Jeff Tweedy is the lucky guy at the helm, and he’s done Staples justice, giving the album throwback flourishes and a modern aesthetic.... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsInterpol: Interpol
Back in black Interpol has mostly sat on the sidelines since 2007’s disappointing Our Love to Admire, so their fourth album’s eponymous title feels like a statement of purpose: “We’re back, and we’re more us than ever.” The songs just about prove it, too. Though the record meanders into aimless moping in its final third, most of the 10 tracks are bold, heavy and among Interpol’s best. Debut Turn on the Bright Lights presented pitch-black landscapes of reverb, Antics brimmed with taut, sharp hooks, and the new record fuses the two, with Paul Banks’ tight vocals wandering through the shadows.... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsJenny and Johnny:I'm Having Fun Now
Los Angeles duo buries complexity The 11 tracks that comprise this longtime couple’s joint full-length debut are almost uniformly playful, draped in peppy “oohs” and “aahs,” but this sonic repetition masks I’m Having Fun Now‘s lyrical depths. Although Rilo Kiley frontwoman and increasingly formidable solo artist Jenny Lewis’ California roots show throughout (especially on the heavily melodic, surf-rocky “Scissor Runner” and “Big Wave”) her and singer/songwriter Johnathan Rice’s words are less than sunny. References to the economic worries of recent years permeate nearly every song: “2009, it was a bastard of a year,” Rice sings on “My Pet Snakes.”... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsBill Frisell: Beautiful Dreamers
Mostly beautiful Over the last three decades, Bill Frisell’s instrumental compositions have blended smooth jazz with twangy country, occasionally getting downright bluesy. His latest effort—which enlists the artistry of composer/multi-instrumentalist Eyvind Kang and drummer Rudy Royston—maintains his signature genre-meshing qualities in its reimagining of six classic ballads dating as far back as the Civil War (which sit nicely among Frisell’s 10 original compositions). Title track “Beautiful Dreamer,” an instrumental adaptation of Stephen Foster’s folk song, is a jazz-injected lullaby carried by Frisell’s careful electric guitar plucking. Although the stagnant electric guitar thrumming on “All We Can Do” and “Who... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsJJ Grey & Mofro: Georgia Warhorse
Solid, but scattered... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsSean Michael Wilson (Ed.): Ax: Alternative Manga
A celebration of form Top Shelf’s compelling new anthology of work from Ax, Japan’s premier magazine for alternative manga, features work by 33 artists over the course of more than 10 years. The narratives, translated into English for the first time, range from linear to hallucinatory, and are, at turns, funny, disgusting, bawdy and heartbreaking.... read more
Found in: Books, ReviewsBest of What's Next: Lost in the Trees
"It was almost a kind of religious experience for me to go to class..." read more
Found in: Music, Features
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