On his first album of new songs in 13 years — a long wait even by his meticulous standards — James Taylor’s past is never far in the rearview mirror. “Somehow I haven’t died,” he observes in “Today Today Today,” the album’s back-porch-ready single. “Angels of Fenway” is a poignant reflection on… Source: RollingStone Link: Before This […]

Adam Lambert is so great at glam-rock theatrics that he toured the world as Queen’s frontman last year. On his third LP, though, the onetime American Idol runner-up channels the softer corners of his impressive vocal range over radio-friendly deep-house beats (check the excellent “Ghost Town”). Lambert is still larger-than-life… Source: RollingStone Link: The Original […]

Nate Ruess is the Freddie Mercury of freaking out: “I thought of taking my own life,” he sings over moody, triumphal backing on his solo debut. “But Mama, don’t cry, I found songs among the tragic.” As lead singer in alt-pop drama kings fun., Ruess has a self-deprecating romanticism that… Source: RollingStone Link: Grand Romantic

With his credits on Yeezus and global huzzahs for TNGHT, his skull-crushing EDM tag team with Lunice, it’s unsurprising that Scottish DJ Ross Birchard (a.k.a. Hudson Mohawke) has sidelined the goofy bedroom funk of 2009’s solo Butter. His follow-up is an A-list beat scientist’s version of Brian Eno’s Another Green… Source: RollingStone Link: Lantern

On their sixth LP, Hot Chip look back toward their disco, soul and funk rootstocks. The clavinet on “Started Right” is straight-up Seventies Stevie Wonder, dressed in disco strings; “Love Is the Future” crosses Minneapolis funk with Motor City techno and an old-school verse from De La Soul’s Posdnuos. This… Source: RollingStone Link: Why Make […]

Neil Young has been sounding the alarm about environmental issues for more than four decades. He warned us to “look at Mother Nature on the run” in “After the Gold Rush,” way back in 1970, a few months after the first Earth Day. He’s stayed on message through records like… Source: RollingStone Link: The Monsanto […]

Palma Violets came straight out of London in 2013 with a rollicking live show, a solid debut (180) and an endearing, Clash-y spirit. They can sound a little spoiled on their second album, griping about America with a snickering antipathy that hardly feels earned. Then again, these guys’ re-enactment of… Source: RollingStone Link: Danger in […]

Chance the Rapper’s 2013 mixtape Acid Rap marked him as one of the brightest new voices in hip-hop. For his next move, he’s swerved left, collaborating with a crew of Chicago pals led by Nico Segal (a.k.a. Donnie Trumpet) on a warm, evocative pop-soul-jazz album that comes straight from the… Source: RollingStone Link: Surf

Well, here’s a supergroup nobody would have predicted. In this corner, Sparks, the 1970s art-rock duo who drove Britannia mad back in the day with endearingly flaky albums like Kimono My House. And in that corner, Franz Ferdinand, the Scottish lads who’ve written a sizable chunk of the past decade’s… Source: RollingStone Link: FFS

The Rolling Stones’ first studio album of the Seventies was their sayonara to a messy 1969: Brian Jones’ death; Altamont; guitarist Mick Taylor’s partial entry on Let It Bleed. Recorded over more than a year and finally issued in April 1971, Sticky Fingers was an eclectic affirmation of maturing depth… Source: RollingStone Link: Sticky Fingers: […]