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CD Reviews

How To Destroy Angels | Welcome Oblivion

Columbia (2013)
Whereas the monsters and ghosts of NIN songs can scream in your face and rip you to bits with their fangs, Welcome Oblivion tracks like techno-folk haunter "Ice Age" and the doom-pop jaunt "How Long?" make uncredited cameo appearances in your nightmares until you go insane and eat your own hands.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | March 13, 2013

Marnie Stern | The Chronicles of Marnia

Kill Rock Stars (2013)
In the arena of charming and entertaining indie-music figures, Marnie Stern stands unopposed.

By: REYAN ALI | March 13, 2013

The Mary Onettes | Hit the Waves

Labrador (2013)
Hit the Waves is so heartfelt as a pastiche of '80s alternative music that it almost muscles its way into being brilliant.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | March 13, 2013

The Men | New Moon

Sacred Bones (2013)
They're just a band, they insist; they didn't realize that a name as authoritative as the Men makes a band look, well, definitive and self-important.

By: DAN WEISS | March 06, 2013

Pissed Jeans | Honeys

Sub Pop (2013)
On one hand, the album is a dazed Frankenstein's monster — the frantically paced "Health Plan" shows half-man, half-creature savagery.

By: PERRY EATON | March 06, 2013

The Virgins | Strike Gently

Cult Records (2013)
After a half-decade of semi-obscurity, frontman Donald Cumming is redefining his band as the hipster sultans of swing.

By: RYAN REED | March 06, 2013

Atoms for Peace | AMOK

XL (2013)
Kid A , Radiohead's confounding electro-rock masterpiece, is officially hitting puberty.

By: RYAN REED | February 26, 2013

Shout Out Louds | Optica

Merge Records (2013)
Stockholm's Shout Out Louds have always been a curious but consistent act.

By: MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER | February 26, 2013

Torres | Torres

Self-released (2013)
Twenty-two-year-old Mackenzie Scott's homemade music floats somewhere between the cathedral jangle of 10,000 Maniacs and the buzzy churn of EMA.

By: DAN WEISS | February 26, 2013

Atlas Genius | When It Was Now

Warner Bros (2013)
Atlas Genius are schooled students of modern pop architecture, seamlessly bouncing from Coldplay-styled acoustic rock to fizzy Phoenix funkiness to deadpanned Strokes-ian guitar chug. But When It Was Now is more like an alt-pop NOW compilation than a joyous synthesis.

By: RYAN REED | February 20, 2013

Beach Fossils | Clash The Truth

Captured Tracks (2013)
Last year in an interview with the Phoenix , Dustin Payseur of Beach Fossils said his sophomore album would be inspired by "a lot of frustration from a lot of different sources."

By: LIZ PELLY | February 20, 2013

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | Push The Sky Away

Bad Seed Ltd. (2013)
Much like the similarly low-key The Boatman's Call , Cave's highly anticipated 15th album with the Bad Seeds manages the puzzling feat of making a great band seem inconsequential, if not entirely absent.

By: ZETH LUNDY | February 20, 2013

Foals | Holy Fire

Transgressive (2013)
Even at their most expansive, Foals are digging into more primal territory.

By: RYAN REED | February 11, 2013

Frightened Rabbit | Pedestrian Verse

Atlantic Records (2013)
Worrywarts who were stressed about Frightened Rabbit making the major-label jump after three well-received indie full-lengths and a pair of EPs can quit fretting.

By: MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER | February 11, 2013

Iceage | You're Nothing

Matador Records (2013)
There's something intriguing about the ways Copenhagen punk band Iceage seem simultaneously to care so much and so little.

By: LIZ PELLY | February 11, 2013

Local Natives | Hummingbird

Frenchkiss Records (2013)
Local Natives' sophomore album bows out with closer "Bowery," a brooding indie-rock epic. But its true climax arrives a track earlier.

By: RYAN REED | January 30, 2013

Bloody Hammers | Bloody Hammers

Soul Seller Records/Sacrificial (2013)
Presented as some kind of satanic pigfuck ritual, this North Carolina quartet's debut is far less doomy than advertised.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | January 29, 2013

The History of Apple Pie | Out of View

Marshall Teller Records (2013)
London-based quintet the History of Apple Pie's debut LP for Marshall Teller Records is an essential spin for fans of Dino Jr. riffs and early Slumberland indie-pop.

By: LIZ PELLY | January 29, 2013

Bleeding Rainbow | Yeah Right

Kanine Records (2013)
The only defect of the sort-of-but-not-really debut from Bleeding Rainbow (no longer called Reading Rainbow, possibly due to litigious ire festering under LeVar Burton's genial television persona) is that the Philly foursome merely hop off the launching point forged by Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, and a handful of others from the oft-exalted grunge era.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | January 23, 2013

Ducktails | The Flower Lane

Domino (2013)
Whereas previous Ducktails albums collaged pop ideas with kaleidoscopic filters and home-recorded hiss, The Flower Lane distills those disparate parts into a more firmly structured songcraft, sewn together with psychedelic guitars and dreamy imagery.

By: LIZ PELLY | January 23, 2013