This was a tough one. A whole lot of good albums come out today, including two that I think are just fucking great: The Men's Open Your Heart and Ceremony's Zoo. Both of those albums come from bands…   Read Story »

Back when School Of Seven Bells first started, they seemed like some perfect lab-created hybrid combination of early-'00s dream-rock warriors. Benjamin Curtis, one third of the trio, was also one…   Read Story »

First things first: The real best album to come out today is Sleigh Bells' Reign Of Terror, a sophomore album that does everything sophomore albums are supposed to do. It deepens and widens the…   Read Story »

Shearwater's last three albums, the ones that brought the Austin band to prominence, all made up parts of a loose overarching concept-album trilogy, one that had something to do with islands and…   Read Story »

A year and a half ago, I had a perfectly lovely telephone conversation with Isobel Campbell, the former Belle & Sebastian member who has recorded three ultra-satisfying albums of Nancy Sinatra…   Read Story »

The story goes like this: Just a couple of years ago, Leonard Cohen was a septuagenarian retiree, more or less done with music, living in a Buddhist monastery in California. He stopped touring in…   Read Story »

The first two volumes of Clevelander Dylan Baldi’s work as Cloud Nothings showcase a musician with a precocious knack for hooks, ping-ponged hooks laid onto a backdrop of Baldi’s sunny jangle…   Read Story »

The young L.A. rapper Kendrick Lamar is well on his way to becoming something truly special. Section.80, Kendrick's very strong 2011 album, was the work of a ferociously talented rapper and a…   Read Story »

First things first: The music business is still on an extended holiday break from releasing almost any actual music. Next week is the first week in what feels like forever that more than one…   Read Story »

An important thing to remember about the Guided By Voices reunion: They were the weird old guys in the club the first time around, too. Back in the day, the music press had an easy time lumping them…   Read Story »