Laura Snapes
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Katie Crutchfield's gorgeous sixth album affirms that real lives are lived not in clear chapters, but as a zig-zag of pitfalls and revelations one can only hope to learn from. -
The pop singer has superstar ambition and a knack for clever genre collisions. But while her new album sometimes matches intensity with innovation, it more often grinds her nuanced story to a paste. -
As a kid discovering music, you assemble a hodgepodge of other people's opinions. But there's a lot of joy to be found when the urge to agree with the critics melts away, writes critic Laura Snapes. -
M.C. Taylor has a rueful, weary reediness that makes the tensions in his songs pull that much harder. In a beautiful outtake from Heart Like A Levee, dreaming and reality are at odds. -
The 16-minute track manages to be concise and lean, almost speeding on an empty tank through a tireless groove that solders dusty Ohio punk to krautrock's soothing repetitions. -
Ever since Boxer, the band's pledged to release a record channeling the cataclysmic energy of its concerts. With the first single from Sleep Well Beast, it's finally come through. -
Inspired by its time at an experimental Berlin festival, this single offers a cool, cryptic introduction to the Bristol-Paris folk band's kaleidoscopic new phase. -
For the singer, introspection became a lens that nearly ended his career. Focusing on the lives of others changed that. "In a world of mouths," Lekman sings on his new album, "I want to be an ear." -
After more than a decade on the road, the prolific punk singer (of Swearin' and p.s. eliot fame) releases her solo debut in a bold attempt to unhitch love from nostalgia.
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Erin Birgy echoes the liberationist vibe of the West Coast's hippie heyday with a seven-piece rock band blissing out by a glimmering shoreline.
