Autre ne Veut’s most recent album, ‘Anxiety,’ merges the vocal styling of late 80s and early 90s R&B with experimental electronic backdrops.
The 1990’s were a good time for emotional indie rock. Bands like The Smiths, Radiohead, Belle and Sebastian all peaked during this tumultuous decade.
The career of Boston pop-punk outfit Transit has been characterized by musical baby steps. Their first effort, ‘This Will Not Define Us,’ was surprisingly derivative in definition, blending melodic sensibility while flying the no-holds-barred flag of the New England scene.
U.Va’s Opera Viva troupe is out to prove that opera isn’t just for your grandparents. For its upcoming performance of Engelbert Humperdinck’s classic Hansel and Gretel, this talented and innovative group of students plans to hit the stage with a high level of intensity and accessibility, appealing to operatic aficianados and newcomers alike.
As a songwriter, Kacey Musgraves made her stamp on the country music scene early. Before releasing her first record this March, Musgraves co-wrote Miranda Lambert’s single “Mama’s Broken Heart” and a also co-wrote the song “Undermine,” written for the popular ABC drama series Nashville. Same Trailer Different Park voices various anxieties of small town life, but not always the pleasant ones.“Merry Go Round,” released as a single earlier this year, begins with a pleasant high-pitched banjo roll but soon devolves into this cynical reflection on the dreariest aspects of small town life.
While most bands tend to produce music that declines in quality after the second or third album, last week’s release of OneRepublic’s new album, Native, proves that the band is still as strong and creative as ever.
On March 22, eighties synthwave band Depeche Mode released their thirteenth album, Delta Machine. From the title alone, it is immediately apparent what the threepiece is going for: electro-blues.
It’s apparent forty-five seconds into lead-off track “Sail to the Sun” that Afraid of Heights, the latest record from surf-rockers Wavves, is sunkissed and spontaneous. After the album presses start on a strange chime section, it barrels into a late-90s punk jam. I don’t know if Nathan Williams (vocals/guitar) has a prized copy of Green Day’s Dookie jammed in his stereo, but I wouldn’t put it past him.
While Justin Timberlake was busy pursuing a career in acting, I was busy wondering whether he’d ever come out with a new album. After a long, seven-year hiatus, he finally released The 20/20 Experience and I’m not disappointed.
Phosphorescent’s Muchacho settles into a groove, but unfortunately it’s one that feels all too comfortable by the end. Houck’s latest does little to offend but, by the same token, little to distinguish itself.
When The Strokes released their first album, everyone said that this was it, that these guys were the saviors of Rock and Roll music. With the album’s melodic take on 70‘s garage rock, 2001’s Is This It generated the template for 21st century guitar music and engendered a surge of interest in “indie” rock as a sound, rather than a designation of contra-mainstream status. Because of this hype, the general populace has held its tongue about the steadily decreasing quality of The Strokes’ records in the hopes that the next record will herald a return to their classic form. Sadly, now with their most recent Comeback Machine, it seems clear that all hope for a comeback is lost.
Scrolling through my iTunes library, cluttered with only the hottest, most mainstream artists of the day, such as everyone’s favorite extreme gothic metal band, Graveworm, I fail to come across many groups that I have ignored as thoroughly as the Swedish sextet of Soilwork (accidental alliteration accomplished). Having previously purchased only two songs from Stabbing the Drama (2005), I had almost no incentive to sit down and listen to the 84 minute, 38 second monstrosity that is The Living Infinite…until I happened across the pre-release singles on YouTube.
Britney Spears’ debut album …Baby One More Time offers up timeless songs that are perfect summertime jams.
Any self-respecting nineties kid knew and loved the compact collections of pop songs from NOW That’s What I Call Music.
The 90s were a strange decade for music. It seems the catharsis for the laughable panache of hair metal, the unmistakable sheen of shameless power-pop outfits, and the homebrewed sincerity of hip-hop’s early years split into two dominant camps.
“Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone?” Joni Mitchell asked in her 1970 single “Big Yellow Taxi.” Mitchell may have been singing about paving paradise to put up a parking lot, but her message applies just as well to the way in which we, as a society, tend to approach pop culture.
Before the time of Facebook and Twitter, of rip-off 3-D films and BlueRay, of Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift, there were the ’90s.
The University Jazz Ensemble, directed by John D’earth, played an engaging concert Feb. 23, showcasing a unique and varied sound that showed the audience a new and exciting type of jazz.
If you are brave enough for the lyrical liaisons of Thom Yorke’s voice or are willing to let your ears dive into Yorke’s consciousness, AMOK is crooning your name.
Don’t lie: whether you love her or hate her, you’ve probably seen at least one (or ten) Taylor Swift music videos. No matter how many times you’ve watched them, however, you may be missing out on some of the valuable life lessons Swift espouses through her videos.
