Katie Burden Strange Moon
75%Overall

Katie Burden: Strange Moon

Albums
It often takes artists an entire career to figure out exactly what they want to sound like. Debut albums, generally speaking, are tentative; proof-of-concepts for the music yet to come. So when an artist releas...
Bon Iver 22 A Million
89%Overall

Bon Iver: 22, A Million

Albums
By now, anyone with even a passing interest in music has heard The Passion of Justin Vernon™. He’s the heartbroken indie rocker who retreated to a cabin in the remote woods of Wisconsin and cranked out one of t...
Frank Ocean Blonde
87%Overall

Frank Ocean: Blonde

Albums
Four years. That’s how long the world has been waiting on Frank Ocean — and not just “the world” as in music geeks or pop culture junkies, but the world proper. Channel Orange, Ocean’s 2012 debut, was a masterp...
The Descendents Hypercaffium Spazzinate
85%Overall

Descendents: Hypercaffium Spazzinate

Albums
“Thou shalt not commit adulthood.” Of all the adages from “All-O-Gistics,” a quasi-Ten Commandments from their 1987 album All, this one is perhaps most indicative of the Descendents. They’ve always been a ba...
PUP - The Dream is Over
89%Overall

PUP: The Dream is Over

Albums
In two short years, Toronto-based punk quartet PUP has gone from being one of music’s best-kept secrets to the potential scions of a genre. Their 2014 self-titled debut, all shredded throats and shark-toothed g...
Kanye West - The Life of Pablo
79%Overall

Kanye West: The Life of Pablo

Albums
I’ve never had to wait a week before reviewing an album for fear that its creator’s endless tinkering might turn it into something completely different. Yet here we are, one week later, and I finally think I’m ...
Baroness Purple
83%Overall

Baroness: Purple

Albums
On 2012’s Yellow and Green, it became apparent that sludge metal outfit Baroness was not going to be the band many knew them as for long. The double album saw the four-piece veering into a tighter, more streaml...

Elohim: “Bridge and the Wall”

Songs
When Elohim was first pitched to me, the term used to describe the L.A.-based elctro-popper was “CHVRCHES-y.” Being a proud member of the FANCLVB, I was immediately intrigued. Listening to “Bridge and the Wall,...
logic the incredible story
88%Overall

Logic: The Incredible True Story

Albums
There’s no doubt in my mind that if Logic hadn’t become famous as a rapper, he would have made it as a filmmaker. The Maryland emcee fills his songs with cinematic instrumentation and esoteric references to Chr...