Music
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This blessed record is everything you'd want and more from the former (and probably, once again) Sleater-Kinney principal. On her first sort-of solo album, Corin Tucker shows that even the most acc...read more
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New Jersey trio Screaming Females is one of those overnight sensations that was four years in the making. (As if to prove it, their self-released 2006 debut, Baby Teeth, just got reissued by Don Gi...read more
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Brooklyn song-angel Lia Ices glided gracefully under the radar with her 2008 debut, Necima, a jaw-droppingly gorgeous collection of poetic, beautifully sung ruminations on love and all the things t...read more
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I wonder whether PJ Harvey’s been listening to freak-folk: On Let England Shake she
tries out a variety of vocal tones for characterization, a warped folk-song
feeling dominates, autoharp is freque...read more
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Julianna Barwick’s voice is the focus of her music to a far
greater degree than any other modern artists this side of Diamanda Galas. And
that's still true after the expansion of her musical palett...read more
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Joan Wasser's long journey to recognition has found her first becoming a chart-appearing star in the UK, where there's a market for her sort of between-the-cracks pop music — a bit sophisticated bu...read more
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"My country 'tis of thee / Sweet land of liberty" sings Merrill Garbus, a.k.a. Tune-Yards, leaning into the last word to show just how different her idea is than that of our founders. On her second...read more
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And for their second set (see also: Heavy Rocks), Boris will play it a little sultry. I mean, look at the cover; lead-guitarist Wata is all dolled up and she's playing it to the hilt, taking lead v...read more
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When an experienced artist decides that her fifth album will be self-titled, you can expect something like...well, like what we get with Marissa Nadler's new work. To be sure, pretty much everythin...read more
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People like us (you and me, I mean) tend to turn up our noses when a band like Cults rockets from just-posting-a-few-mp3s to major-label-contract in a matter of months. It's such a cliche of the mo...read more
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Lo and behold, Danger Mouse -- who first achieved notoriety with his
Jay-Z/Beatles mashing project The Grey Album -- has stealthily become
one of American music's real auteurs. His latest effor...read more
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When your debut solo album comes after your close-knit band (as close-knit as, say, family) has made eight and a half records, it gives you a distinct advantage: You know exactly what you've done a...read more
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The debut from Hercules & Love Affair drew immediate attention within the dance community for being good, and outside the dance community for having Antony "and the Johnsons" Hegarty on vocals,...read more
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The much-anticipated debut from the all-female supergroup Wild Flag
(with members of Sleater-Kinney, Helium and the Minders) is here,
and it delivers. Carrie Brownstein and Mary Timony blend thei...read more
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Annie Clark's first album not to star her delightful chin on the cover compensates wonderfully in other ways -- specifically, the vigorously talented artist's most diverse set of songs yet. Darting...read more
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It's true that Dum Dum Girls are one of many good bands drawing on '60s Spector-pop to have arisen over the past few years, both here in the States and (as proved by the recent arrival of Veronica ...read more
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You'll not hear a more simply beautiful record this year. Meg Baird first came to our attention as a member of Philadelphia's Espers, but a string of solo releases and performances have made her a ...read more
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This one's for the fans. And Leslie Feist can afford that—she can afford to make a gorgeous, sumptuous pop album that nevertheless makes no gesture at all in the direction of the marketplace. There...read more
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This singular artist's unique trajectory continues. Biophilia swings between dazzlingly technicolored soundscapes, both earthy and alien— which give platform for Björk's unmistakable vocal fli...read more
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Here at Sound Fix HQ we've coined the term Björky Projectors for this one, and the name might stick, because this pairing -- unusual on the eye at first -- has been making sweetly off-kilter music ...read more
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Equally inevitable and beautiful, 200 Years is the first official album by the duo of Ben "Six Organs of Admittance" Chasny and Elisa "Magik Markers" Ambrogio. Despite their extensive and woolly re...read more
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There are an awful lot of women with acoustic guitars making their way out there, and precious few of them do anything to distinguish themselves. Enter young Laura Marling of the United Kingdom, al...read more
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Even on record, Kate Bush is one of the most powerful presences in music. On her tenth album (and second release of the year!), Bush's slightly deepening voice -- still instantly recognizable -- is...read more
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A Record Store Day exclusive that we didn't think would stick around, this compilation of singles and never-before-on-LP tracks from NYC's undisputed champeens of soul-revue-style funk finds Sharon...read more
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Ladies, hide your boyfriends: First Aid Kit are a pair of young Swedish sisters who comfortably inhabit the best folk-pop traditions, from clothes to sound, and their second album, The Lion's Roar ...read more
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Tramp, Sharon Van Etten's third album and first for major indie Jagjaguwar, is one of the more feverishly anticipated records from a local artist in some time -- and it does not disappoint. That sa...read more
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CYRK, the second full-length from the Cardiff-based
Cate Le Bon, is a fine survey of surreal and cerebral pop styles, anchored with
a talent for stylistic shifts and an eye for detail. The influe...read more
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Whether or not you know it, chances are good you've seen parts of the 1902 silent film Le Voyage Dans La Lune, made be film pioneer Georges Méliès (a key figure in the new Scorcese film, Hugo). At ...read more
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Sign of the times: A best-of Cocteau Twins collection that came out on CD in 2000 gets a luxe reissue treatment...on vinyl. And you just don't see a lot of Cocteau Twins in used-vinyl bins, so it's...read more
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This unusual record from 1972 is Nina Simone's
statement on the Vietnam War. The cover is a collage of news clippings
from the conflict, and the song selection and arrangement, though
dealing...read more
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Things move quickly these days -- Frankie Rose already is (or at least, she seems like) a scene veteran, having released her debut solo 7-inch waaay back in 2009. Still, having moved through early ...read more
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Set your volume to 12 and your pop to bubblegum: Sleigh Bells are back with their second album, Reign of Terror. Whereas their debut, Treats, sounded like the Powerpuff Girls armed with Ministry’s ...read more
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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
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You can tell we dig this record, because you have to be good for us to allow any oddball capitalization scheme in your name. THEESatisfaction is a pair of coolly righteous ladies currently operatin...read more
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If you're like me -- well, my sympathies, firstly, but if so, you may be strongly ambivalent about Bonnie Prince Billy's records -- a few unquestionably brilliant songs, a few more very good ones, ...read more
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Four years after her debut made the songwriter and producer Santi White most famous as a recording artist, Master of My Make-Believe seeks to reinforce Santigold's place atop the global-pop sweepst...read more
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