First Listen: Los Hijos De La Montaña, ‘Los Hijos De La Montaña’
Y La Bamba’s lead singer teams up with the head of the thrilling neo-mambo band Sergio Mendoza Y La Orkesta. The result is somehow even greater than the sum of its parts.
Category: Music Reviews
First Listen: Shana Cleveland & The Sandcastles, ‘Oh Man, Cover The Ground’
Best known as the guitarist and singer for Seattle girl-group/surf-rock hybrid La Luz, Cleveland has made a delicate and inward-facing solo debut.
First Listen: J*Davey, ‘POMP’
The duo returns from a three-year hiatus with a plan to reclaim its spot among R&B’s avant-garde. POMP, as its title implies, is intended to be a big deal, and it accomplishes that goal.
First Listen: Circuit Des Yeux, ‘In Plain Speech’
Until now, Circuit des Yeux has been a singular entity. But Haley Fohr refocuses the intensity of past records in full-band arrangements that glide even as they exude delirious urgency.
First Listen: Jim O’Rourke, ‘Simple Songs’
The musician and producer has seemed to make a game of setting out challenges that can be solved, bested and subverted in surprising ways.
First Listen: Faith No More, ‘Sol Invictus’
The band’s first album in 18 years sounds lean and to the point, and it doesn’t let up. Along the way, playfulness and aggression intermingle to the point where it’s hard to tell them apart.
First Listen: Daniel Bachman, ‘River’
The guitarist, an outstanding young purveyor of a form called American Primitive, finds new levels of sharpness and confidence in River‘s seven masterful songs.
First Listen: Holly Herndon, ‘Platform’
Platform draws drama out of changes in speed and texture and many little parts that work together to make a sort of musical machine.
Review: Patrick Watson, ‘Love Songs For Robots’
The Montreal singer-songwriter’s brain seems to overflow with wise and exacting ways to reflect on the way hearts work.
Review: Tyondai Braxton, ‘HIVE1’
What sets the Battles mastermind’s new album apart is its playfulness — the feeling that experimenting with sound is a joyful game rather than an academic exercise.
First Listen: Joanna Gruesome, ‘Peanut Butter’
On a sophomore album that packs 10 songs into less than 22 minutes, the Welsh band showcases its considerable gift for balancing sweetness and chaos.
First Listen: Buffy Sainte-Marie, ‘Power In The Blood’
On her first studio album since 2008, the 74-year-old firebrand’s voice remains relevant, full of spit and vinegar and fun.
First Listen: Surfer Blood, ‘1000 Palms’
On its first album since leaving a major label, the Florida band sounds at once self-assured and wistful, as confident as ever and yet more careful.
Review: Torres, ‘Sprinter’
On her second album, Sprinter, Torres confronts the problem of confession head-on and proceeds to annihilate its boundaries.
First Listen: Chris Stapleton, ‘Traveller’
Stapleton presents himself as a true Southern character, a family man who clings to his vices and a searcher whose dreams of home don’t prevent him from wanting to roam.
Review: Kamasi Washington, ‘The Epic’
A versatile sideman serves as leader, filling a three-disc, nearly three-hour album with dozens of players, new ideas and transformed old ones. The title is justified.
Review: Metz, ‘II’
Raw, belligerent and dissonant — that’s just the tip of the noise-rock iceberg when it comes to Metz.
Review: Rana Santacruz, ‘Por Ahí’
Rana Santacruz’s latest, after a five-year hiatus, has music that could only come from a chilango — a Mexico City native — living in 21st-century Brooklyn.
First Listen: The Tallest Man On Earth, ‘Dark Bird Is Home’
The Tallest Man On Earth has a way of upending expectations and rendering familiarity moot.
Review: Brown Bird, ‘Axis Mundi’
David Lamb of the folk duo Brown Bird died of leukemia in 2014. One year later, his musical and life partner Morgan Eve Swain is set to release the pair’s final album together.