Sound Fix | Music

Music

1. Woods: At Echo Lake
Last year’s Songs of Shame made me a hardcore Woods believer, so At Echo Lake arrives just in time to keep this warm season cruising along in my corner of things. And wow is it sweet — ...read more
2. Phosphorescent: Here's to Taking It Easy
Summer's approaching and we all dream of lying around and doing a whole lot of nothing, but the title of the new Phosphorescent album could give you pause: Making music sound easy is usually pretty...read more
3. School of Seven Bells: Disconnect from Desire
Sure, both the Deheza twins and Benjamin Curtis, the trio who make up School of Seven Bells, had lots of experience before forming this group, but we can still marvel at how they've managed to more...read more
4. Twin Shadow: Forget
An '80s-gazing artist out of Brooklyn, how could this be new and special? But Twin Shadow is just that, and Forget is a result of some unironic appreciation for the over-referenced decade by one Ge...read more
5. The Morning Benders: Big Echo
This album sent echoes across the indie-rock diaspora this year, just as the Morning Benders themselves relocated from Berkeley to Brooklyn. We're not even talking about how Big Echo placed songs i...read more
6. Crystal Stilts: In Love with Oblivion
On their second album, Brooklyn mope-poppers Crystal Stilts expand upon the sound that made their debut so engaging, adding a welcome burst of energy that makes many of the songs danceable and ...read more
7. TV on the Radio: Nine Types of Light
Nine Types of Light begins (typically) cryptically -- for one thing, the opening tune is called "Second Song" -- but unmistakably positive, signaling a more emotionally upbeat TV on the Radio on it...read more
8. Liturgy: Aesthetica
What’s immediately gripping about Aesthetica, the second album from Brooklyn quasi-black-metal quartet Liturgy, are the contrasts: On one hand, the densely melodic guitars and relentless bass; on t...read more
9. Woods: Sun and Shade
I think I love Woods. The band, I mean, but the vast collections of trees too, though that would be a different conversation. Or would it? You get very comfortable being surrounded by trees, and th...read more
10. Chairlift: Something
More than three years after Does You Inspire You (and the iPod) vaulted Brooklyn emigrants Chairlift into the upper echelons of indiedom, the band -- now a duo after the departure of founding membe...read more
11. A Place to Bury Strangers: Onwards to the Wall
A Place to Bury Strangers come strong off of two great full-lengths with their newest EP, Onwards to the Wall. Longtime fans will likely find nothing especially new to coo over here, but the materi...read more
12. Mike Wexler: Dispossession
Fans of singer-songwriter Mike Wexler, especially those living in NYC who've watched him evolve over the years, have always known he had this record in him. Wexler came to prominence in the mid-200...read more
13. Jennifer O'Connor: I Want What You Want
Some of the best things come out of times of self-doubt. Add Jennifer O'Connor's fifth album, I Want What You Want, to the list. After her deal with Matador ended a few years ago, the local gal was...read more
14. Tanlines: Mixed Emotions
Most bands' Twitter feeds are self-serving and banal, yet Tanlines' (@tanlines) is awesome and witty -- and hardly ever even mentions band stuff. In much the same way, synth-pop as practiced in 201...read more
15. Mad Scene: Blip
It's not that the brilliant new Mad Scene album was unexpected -- more that a new Mad Scene album had been expected (or just wanted) for so many years that when it finally came, it caught us off gu...read more