Album Review: Waxahatchee’s “Saint Cloud” is a folk-rock triumph

How fitting that Katie Crutchfield would release her best album in the midst of an unprecedented (in our lifetimes at least) global storm, given that her last album was called, well, Out in the Storm. Of course, Crutchfield conceived and recorded Saint…

Album Review: Sebadoh – “Act Surprised”

They long ago abandoned the lo-fi aesthetic that made them famous, and Sebaoh’s latest is another set of slick rock songs. Whether that’s a good thing or not will depend on your level of saturation with modern alt-rock. Opener “phantom”…

Album Review: Deerhunter – “Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared?”

It should come as no surprise to anyone who’s been closely following this band to hear me observe that lead singer and songwriter Bradford Cox is a walking mass of contradictions. But it struck me hard when listening to Deerhunter’s…

Album Review: Hippo Campus – “Bambi”

They were coy little things when they began — back when the world bid adieu to Don Draper and people booked stays at The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. They took a spirit ride down to the slower states when they…

Album Review: Gin Blossoms – “Mixed Reality”

The past few years have been witness to a 1990s revival as the millennials who came of age during the decade mature to adulthood (as do their finances). It’s apparent in a lot of places, from fashion to television, but…

Music Review: Snow Patrol – “Wildness”

It’s been seven years since Snow Patrol last put out an album, explained by the band in part because of lead singer Gary Lightbody’s struggles with writer’s block, mental health, and alcoholism. It’s a long time for a band that…

Album Review: Incubus – “8”

Of all the subgenres that birthed from rock music, nu metal may be the hardest one for bands to shake off. With all the heights that came from the Family Values Tour and Woodstock ’99, nu metal was a rocket…