Music Reviews

The former rock god collaborates with a cadre of world instrumentalists to craft music as fresh as anything you will hear this year.

Alt-J strips things down, taking away a lot of the dark, twitchy grooves from songs like "Fitzpleasure" and settled for a more reserved sound on their sophomore follow-up.

The hard-rocking dance-punk duo of Sebastien Grainger and Jesse F. Keeler come alive on their first album in a decade.

Catchy, intelligent psych-folk that's one of the best new regional indie albums.

The once-lauded New York City band continues its slide into producing songs that are mere shades of its past glory.

M.C. Taylor fills his latest album as Hiss Golden Messenger with breezy, bouncy songs that make for a lovely alt-country record.

When the clattering argument about what emo really is and whether Braid can really be defined as such is stripped away, it is apparent that the vast majority of the band's old fans are overjoyed by this record.

Mascis trades in the searing solos of his Jazzmaster for the softer picks and strums of his Martin, putting on a plucking performance in soft and sweet numbers like "Me Again" and "Wide Awake," the latter of which he sings with Chan Marshall of Cat Power fame.

The new album kicks off with fun contributions from Newman and Case in the title track and "Champions of Red Wine" before turning into a party on Bejar's synth and harmonica assisted "War on the East Coast."

The Staten Island, N.Y. band has always employed a sort of manic energy during their music, but LOSE sounds like a band that has matured, able to blend their excitable sonic freakouts with doses of restraint.

California punk band sells out.

No Second Guessing The New Depression starts with circus-like fanfare, but there's no funny business after that – only serious rhymes layered upon thick, jazzy samples that don't neglect the booming bottom-end we all appreciate.

If you are an inveterate fan of New Jersey pop-punk quartet The Gaslight Anthem, you will likely be disappointed or at least befuddled by their latest release.

After releasing their debut album back in 2011, Buffalo-quartet The Albrights return with their self-titled sophomore release, and the results are as catchy as ever.

The sole founding members of Spoon have mastered the art of piecing together separate sonic parts to create a memorable whole, carefully constructing songs with basic elements before adding special touches through audio engineering tricks to dazzle all of the headphone listeners out there.