Category: rock
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the sundays – reading, writing and arithmetic (1990)
The Sundays weren’t doing too much differently. In the previous decade, The Replacements had their edgy jaunt, Rickie Lee Jones had their unashamed sentimentalism, The Smiths had their riffs. At the start of a new age, and a refreshal of the consumer market, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic was equal parts mournful and joyous. Its effect […]
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built to spill – when the wind forgets your name
Built To Spill have shuffled members, matured, self-immolated, and started anew through various moments since 1992. They have always managed to look like a bunch of dudes showing up to a high school reunion. But anyway, this is their new album and it’s good. In the deck of cards that is their changing lineup, Doug […]
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bobbie gentry – ode to billie joe (1967)
On an unusually tempoed record, Bobbie Gentry ticketed a safari of her hometown. Folk, soul, blues, and rock were cross hatched, exhibiting the oneness of context-heavy music. While Ode To Billie Joe is not blessed with the most natural flow, the tracks come to purr with Southern verve and the synesthetic particulars of Mississippi life: […]
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gorillaz – plastic beach (2010)
Plastic Beach is about capability: what can be held in the hands and what can only ever be reasoned with in the abstract. While nature can be held in the hands, it has been undermined as a conceptual anchor that prevents a certain idea of capitalist progress. Streams of rubbish have lined our shores since. […]
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ylayali – separation
If you think about the texture of a dream, it’s really quite radical. Chopping up and recontextualising warmth, threatening order and expectancy. We are punks when we dream. Philadelphia’s Ylayali nosedives into his subconscious and, rather than meeting a surface, discovers that he can float. The sonic repetition only emphasises this bizarre mode of travelling […]
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