November 29, 2022
2022 managed to pass the low bar of being better than the last two years, including some great new music.
| The Afghan Whigs – How Do You Burn? There are right ways and wrong ways to do epic emotion. Read more… |
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| Arcade Fire – WE Arcade Fire’s WE is return to greatness and a rebirth. Read more… |
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| Band of Horses – Things Are Great Benjamin Bridwell highlights some of the best of the Band of Horses sound on ‘Things Are Great’. Read more… |
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| Beach Bunny – Emotional Ceature Instead of whiny boy emo, it’s sad girls who are expressing their feelings with catch. Read more… |
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| !!! – Let It Be Blue While the dance-punk explosion of the aughts is long past, most of the acts either gone or gone full EDM, !!! is still waving the alt-disco flag. Read more… |
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| Jason Collett – Head Full of Wonder Jason Collett delivers his own brand of seventies wry sweetness with his latest, Head Full of Wonder. Read more… |
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| Death Cab for Cutie – Asphalt Meadows Another wonderful release from an increasingly reliably great band. Read more… |
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| Peter Doherty & Frédéric Lo – The Fantasy Life of Poetry & Crime Things that are honest, vulnerable, raw, and true are very often met in this world with derision, disdain, blockade, and attempted destruction. Read more… |
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| Drive-By Truckers – Welcome to Club XIII While the many strains of rock & more can do looking back, none quite do it like country. Read more… |
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| Florence & The Machine – Dance Fever Choreomania, basically the perfect subject for Florence & The Machine’s epic orchestral emotion. Read more… |
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| Fontaines D.C. – Skinty Fia As much as punk has been a cry for change (even if that change is just burning it all down), post-punk has explored the lives that cry out for change, but never receive it. Read more… |
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| Gang of Youths – angel in realtime. We all need hope these days, with catastrophes both personal and worldwide. Read more… |
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| Gogol Bordello – SOLIDARITINE Gogol Bordello keep being essential, if in a tragic way. Read more… |
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| Aldous Harding – Warm Chris ‘Warm Chris’ marks Aldous Harding’s fourth full-length album and finds her officially planted within the airy and sometimes arid soil of an indie pop career. Read more… |
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| Hot Chip – Freakout/Release There are still those who still fly the flag for a beautiful form of tones. Read more… |
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| The Lemonheads – It’s a Shame About Ray (30th Anniversary Edition) In the long-ago time of 1992, when alternative music was surprisingly blossoming everywhere (even MTV), one of the most wonderful blossoms was The Lemonheads’ It’s a Shame About Ray. Read more… |
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| Midnight Oil – Resist Australian modern music has had few acts as important as Midnight Oil. Read more… |
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| The Mountain Goats – Bleed Out It was Bob Marley himself who said, “Make way for the positive day.” Read more… |
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| The Natural Lines – First Five EP Matt Pond & long-time collaborator Chris Hansen now make beautiful music as The Natural Lines, starting with First Five EP. Read more… |
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| Pavement – Terror Twilight: Farewell Horizontal “There was no way I was going to be on the ‘Farewell Horizontal’ tour for the next year.” Read more… |
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| Pixies – Doggerel By now, Pixies are as removed from their seminal 2004 alt-rock reunion as they were then from their original early nineties break-up. Read more… |
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| Rubblebucket – Earth Worship Rubblebucket have long straddled the weird/dance divide, but done it well (if getting more lumped in the ‘weird’ by the mainstream). Read more… |
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| Sea Power – Everything Was Forever While their title may have shortened, Sea Power’s aspirations expand with Everything Was Forever. Read more… |
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| Amanda Shires – Take It Like a Man While things haven’t been good these past few years for so many of us, they have been for Amanda Shires. Read more… |
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| Spoon – Lucifer On the Sofa Spoon occupy a very nice spot in indie-dom. Read more… |
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| Stars – From Capelton Hill These are dark times, people, and we desperately need some light. Read more… |
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| Sylvan Esso – No Rules Sandy Sylvan Esso have carved out a nice place for themselves. Read more… |
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| Sharon Van Etten – We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong Sharon Van Etten has long been a sad artist, and that continues, but what’s notable is not just how well she does it, but also that she varies how she does it. Read more… |
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| Wet Leg – Wet Leg These days, rarely is buzz sustained, and rarely does it even happen at all for indie-rock. Read more… |
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| White Lies – As I Try Not To Fall Apart As I Try Not To Fall Apart does at times infuse White Lies’ sound with today’s electro-disco leanings, but not in a way to put off long-time fans, and still delivers their true, epic nature. Read more… |
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| The Wombats – Is This What It Feels Like To Feel Like This? EP While the holidays are a poor time to put out a new full-length, it’s a great time for a new bonus EP. Read more… |
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| Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Cool It Down One of the leading lights to come from the NYC aughts ‘return of rock’ was the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but they’ve forged their own path. Read more… |
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| Pete Yorn – Hawaii Since time immemorial, Hawaii has stood as a national emblem and epicenter for all manner of spiritual awakenings, elemental seekings, oceanic revelations, and volcanic ancestries. Read more… |
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| Yumi Zouma – Present Tense Yumi Zouma have persevered, and now comes the bright pop emotion of Present Tense. Read more… |
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