Reviews

You know the old saying: You can't go home again. That's totally wrong, of course; people do it all the time. The trick is to go back in triumph,...

Another week, another legendary album celebrating its 50th anniversary. Hot on the heels of The Beatles' White Album, The Kinks' Village Green Preservation Society, The Band's Music From Big...

Life in the fast lane it is not. Dire Straits singer-guitarist Mark Knopfler is clearly in no hurry to get where he's going on his ninth solo album Down...

If the third time is the charm, what is the fourth time? Well, in the case of Mumford & Sons, it's the time when you try to reconnect with...

You almost have to feel sorry for Smashing Pumpkins. If only because they're in a no-win situation. For those who haven't been paying attention, three-quarters of the band's original...

Two decades ago, new albums from various Beatles, U2, The Rolling Stones and others were spinning away in my portable CD player. Here’s what I had to say about...

J Mascis has obviously dished up plenty of lead guitar heroism in his longtime day job with veteran indie-rock power trio Dinosaur Jr. And on some of his previous...

Hits? Jon Spencer ain't got no hits! Jon Spencer don't need no hits! Jon Spencer don't need to sing you any stinkin' hits! That's because Jon Spencer has something...

Buddy Guy sounded a little worried when I spoke to him a few years ago. What had him concerned? Nothing less than the future of the blues: The veteran...

"The world I live in, it’s painful. It hurts. In a word: It’s bittersweet." Charles Bradley admitted that to me about 15 months before he died of cancer in...

When you only make one album every decade, you have plenty of time to make it great. So you'd better. And to his credit, Swizz Beatz certainly does on...

Evolution isn't necessarily everything it's cracked up to be. Case in point: Origins, the Charles Darwin-titled fourth studio release from Las Vegas pop-rockers Imagine Dragons and (fittingly enough) the...

"Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas out the waz. Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas up the shnoz." If that line from the title track to Rodney Crowell’s first holiday album...

There are some things in this world that can't be explained. Not by science. Not by religion, Not by logic. Not by any source of knowledge known to modern...

Can not having a concept be a concept? It can if you're Muse. Or at least you can pretend it is. After painstakingly crafting a trio of grandly ambitious...