Category: Reviews
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Music always plays a major role in Baz Luhrmann’s films. The soundtracks for Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge are two of the biggest-selling soundtracks of all time and they are masterpieces. For the soundtrack for his adaptation of The Great Gatsby, he sought out Jay Z and entrusted him to find songs that would…
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It’s hard to get inside my ears; it’s even harder to get inside my brain. If anything I have ever written for Love is Pop consists in pure, unaltered fangasm or clearly a cry for help, sometimes, it feels good to focus on someone with talent, who sends you music just because they can, that…
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It seems like just yesterday Little Boots — otherwise known as Victoria Hesketh — released her amazing debut album Hands, but it actually came out in 2009, and so four years have passed between Hands’ release and the release of her sophomore effort Nocturnes, which was released on May 3, 2013. There are a couple…
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Singer/songwriter Gabrielle Aplin’s new single, “Panic Cord,” is taken from her album English Rain, which was just released in England today on May 13, 2013. (She is, in fact, English.) It’s the opening track on the album and for good reason: it’s a highly addictive song that showcases Gabrielle’s ability to write poignant lyrics and…
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The Joy Formidable’s “A Minute’s Silence” was released on vinyl on Record Store Day this year. An exquisite piano ballad, it doesn’t have any percussion or guitars, but it’s easily one of their very best songs to date. The melody is beautiful but melancholic and the piano is rather dark. The song also uses keyboards…
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This might be one of the most anticipated releases of 2013. The National’s sixth studio release is a beacon of what Brooklyn-based indie rock can offer: it features appearances from Sufjan Stevens, Sharon Van Etten and Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry. Following 2010’s highly praised High Violet, Trouble Will Find Me has slowly leaked through…
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Today, Bono turns 52. Today, the world finds out that Jack White’s cover of Love Is Blindness is part of The Great Gatsby’s soundtrack. Today, I need to revisit a few of my basic rules. Achtung Baby is unequivocally one of the most visited and revisited U2 albums, considered a landmark in alternative rock and…
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New York City is a place filled with unfulfilled dreams, unrealised hopes, and infinite potential. It is both exhausting and exhilarating. It’s difficult to find who sounds best and who matters in the general cacophony of the city, from open mics in the West Village to that one amazing once-in-a-lifetime concert at the Bowery Ballroom.…
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It’s funny that the opening track on this album is called “Sacrilege” because that’s what I initially felt about this album. Oh, like the rest of the world, I thought “Sacrilege” was a fantastic track. It’s truly amazing, the way it builds and builds, becoming something greater and more emotive as it goes on, and…
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When I see She & Him in concert in Boston this July the opening act will be Camera Obscura and I can’t think of a better match. For it’s Camera Obscura that immediately comes to mind when I listen to She & Him’s new album, Volume 3. A mere ten seconds into the opening track,…
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Bradenton, Florida’s finest are back with a red hot new single every bit as infectious as past hits like “Secret Valentine,” “Heaven Can Wait,” “Party, Fun, Love & Radio,” and “Friday is Forever.” It begins with twinkly guitars then the drums and vocals kick right in and immediately hook you. “I’m all alone / holding…
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Until recently, I thought that Diplo and Major Lazer were two different people. Alas, I was wrong. Diplo is Major Lazer, Major Lazer being his reggae-ish alter-ego. Although many of the songs on Free the Universe stray pretty far from reggae. And I have to say — this is a very difficult album to digest.…
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I really hate that there’s a hash tag in the title of this song. It was obnoxious enough when will.i.am used one in the title of his new album. We certainly didn’t need Mariah to do that. It just seems like a lame attempt to capture the attention of the Twitter generation. She’s a living…
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Although many of the songs were in English, Iggy Pop’s last two albums, Preliminaires and Après, were essentially French pop albums. Iggy is a national icon in France, arguably as popular as Elvis is in the States, so I’m sure one of the reasons he made those albums was to thank his devoted French fans.…
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“Everybody have fun tonight, everybody have fun tonight,” will.i.am sings during “Hello,” the first track on his fourth solo album, #willpower. If that sounds boring and uninspired, well, welcome to a whole album of boring and uninspired anthems. I’m talking about songs so horrifyingly bad that they make even the worst songs he’s done with…
