It’s hard for adult contemporary singer-songwriters to stand out. Because their music must appeal to everyone from high schoolers to middle-aged moms, they have mass commercial potential, but the competition is fierce. To make waves, artists either need to write excellent, catchy songs (Jason Mraz, Damien Rice) or have a signature sound (Ed Sheeran with his loop pedals and […]
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When Tortoise started in the early ‘90s, they pioneered post-rock. Ever since their self-titled debut in ’94, every ambient rocker has owed them some musical debt, and they’ve got nothing left to prove. So with The Catastrophist, the band’s first album in seven years, Tortoise didn’t seek out paradigm-shifting aesthetics or far-flung experimentalism. They simply went out and made an album that’s […]
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When three veterans of film and television score writing come together for a new project, their material will probably sound cinematic. The real question raised by Unloved’s album Guilty of Love was what sort of movie it would create in my head. With Jade Vincent’s sultry, devil-may-care vocals layered over the tremulous and airy production of David Holmes and Keefus Ciancia, the […]
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The context of Blackstar changed entirely overnight. When I first listened to it on the day of its release, it was already haunting, sure. I could detect the krautrock influences in several of the tracks’ motorik beat and the free-flowing woodwinds over cold synths; shades of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly manifested themselves in the visceral content […]
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Pusha T surprised the public this November when he announced that he’s releasing the prelude to his long-awaited King Push, which now carries an expected April release date. But when you’re sitting on material this good — even though its narrative does not tell the story of your planned magnum opus — how could you withhold it from the public? Push tells his story […]
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Like the coastal Florida island they’re named after, Kansas City foursome Captiva brings the ocean to the American heartland with their self-titled EP. Their debut struggles to find its legs, but they deliver a beachy promise, even if that coastal energy feels more like the Pacific than the Atlantic. They kick it off with the raucous “Road to Ruin,” which is also the band’s […]
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