British singer-songwriter Natasha Khan, better known as Bat for Lashes, created a buzz with the luscious fantastic landscapes of her 2006 debut Fur and Gold; think Tori Amos while she was writing Little Earthquakes sitting in the same room as Bjork while she was writing Homogenic while Sarah McLachlan and a band of gypsies listen on, all the while Talking Heads is playing softly the background. Her second album, Two Suns, is just as promising; it’s a microcosm of duality, at times a straight-out spiritual throwdown between Khan’s mysticism and …

I am not a big fan of EPs. Let’s get that out of the way. I start into an EP listening session with a chip on my shoulder; as if being invited over to friend’s house for dinner and being told that the brisket won’t be ready for another two days.
So, maybe that’s a built-in hurdle that’s unfair to a release like this, but I feel it’s most definitely expected. A long album can stand some filler. But an EP of b-sides is all filler to begin with, so why review it? Not only …

In the 1980s Lionel Richie was the consummate troubadour, his music ruled the Top 40 countdown; an accomplished songwriter, his lyrics were ingrained in your memory whether you wanted them to be or not; you knew all of his hits—everyone knew all of his hits—because he had so many of them. He was the godfather to a new generation of R&B; the lothario of love for anyone raised on MTV. And then he was gone, a relic relegated to adult contemporary radio and cheesy VH1 Top (Whatever) Songs of the …

By now Killswitch Engage have established who they are—the cliché that doesn’t quite fit into the box—and they’re still not apologetic for it. There’s no extraordinary growth in their sound with their latest release, the self-titled Killswitch Engage, which is their fifth studio release, third with Howard Jones as the singer, and first with a major producer (Brendan O’Brien of Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen, Aimee Mann, amongst others fame) at the helm. At their very core Killswitch Engage is a metalcore (whatever that distinction really means anyway) band built on …

It’s impossible not to hear Arcade Fire all over London-based Fanfarlo’s debut album Reservoir; at times, if you didn’t know any better, Fanfarlo might sound like the best Funeral era tribute band you’ve probably never heard of. And though the sound is never as full as Arcade Fire, Reservoir is more whimsical—a dance in the cool rain of a hot summer night, John Cusack in seemingly every movie he’s ever made style—and more personal, forever brimming with the threat of a washout but never quite making it; less catastrophic than …

Nobody in entertainment has a (split) personality like Eminem— the Trickster, the Sinner, the Demon. He’s like a stacked deck of Tarot cards, and he’s got nothing for you but bad, bad news. And maybe a hard taco. If you’re lucky.
And now a genuinely interesting new face in the deck: the Addict. It’s a story he’s been living for some time, and seems eager to confess. The opening skit of Relapse has Eminem talking to a doctor one last time before re-entering society (both literally and figuratively) after a stint …

In true do-it-yourself fashion, Toronto singer-songwriter Danny Handes took pretty much whatever he could find—guitar, microphone, tambourine, knitting needles—and weaved an impressive debut album. The Asterisk Eye is a musical quilt, a patchwork of 14 songs that cover a lot of ground. It travels pretty much everywhere, from “So Bad” with its AC/DC-like driven riff to the softer land of “Our Leaves Are Green Again” and “Long Road,” which would be fitting on a mix-tape with the likes of Keane and Thom Yorke. “Hearts Again” is a catchy windows-rolled-down-on-a-cool-fall-night companion …

On Hold Time, his sixth studio album, Portland, Oregon Indie-rocker M. Ward sounds like a man who is thinking things through, trying to make sense of the proverbial “I’ve been a few places.” On the opener, “For Beginnings, he sings, “When you’re absolute beginners/ It’s a panoramic view,” and from there he’s off to get a closer look at things, from the underground of New York City, to next stop Shangri-La. Faith is on his mind; in “Epistemology” he reveals, “I learned how to hold on from a book of …

It was a bigger thrill than I honestly thought it was going to be— the reissue of Ten, remixed, repackaged.
I am aware of how drastically tastes can change over time, and I thought this was going to be nothing more than a dutiful purchase by a longtime fan. I have learned to distrust my memories. I used to think C + C Music Factory was the future of music. And so I doubted Ten was what I remembered; it has always been a touchstone album in my personal music collection …

“How low  / are you willing to go / before you reach all / your selfish goals?”
The question is laid bare at the very outset of the album, and is repeated in spirit for its half-hour length to one extent or another under a web of deft acoustic melodies. How gently it infiltrates, the questioning of authority and challenging of broken ideas.
It’s the stoic conviction that makes this so appealing. Jose is a quiet and to-the-point singer, his voice unadorned but insistent. When he sings, “Put down your sword / send home your dogs,” …