Album Reviews Archive

Boards of Canada’s stunning ability to produce chillingly memorable atmospheres continues with resounding success on their fourth album Tomorrow’s Harvest, the Scottish duo’s first in eight years. Brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin practice extreme patience in their songwriting, resulting in intoxicating soundscapes that range from the starry-eyed serene to the anxiously awaiting. Despite some

The ominous guitar halts of opener “End of the Beginning” play like an apt arrival for a comeback of epic proportions. “Is this the end of the beginning, or the beginning of the end?” Ozzy Osbourne asks to kick off Black Sabbath’s first album in 18 years. It’s a question that’s seemingly impossible to answer,

Rock titans Queens of the Stone Age have always touted superb musicianship, continually led by songwriter and guitarist Josh Homme since their 1998 self-titled debut. Homme’s propensity for melodically clean distortion has been present ever since he fronted stoner-rock favorites Kyuss in the ‘80s, and throughout the years with Queens of the Stone Age and

Trip-hop pioneer Tricky generated lofty expectations for his tenth studio album, False Idols, even before its release. “Musically, this is a better album,” he said, comparing False Idols to his classic 1995 debut, Maxinquaye. He called False Idols “gentler, more mature”, the latter a factor in the album’s theme. When Tricky refers to “False Idols“,

Electronic music duo Daft Punk release one of the year’s most anticipated albums in Random Access Memories, their fourth full-length and first since 2005’s Human After All. The duo are noted for their patience between releases, and hearing the vastness that is Random Access Memories makes that approach entirely understandable. This is a jam-packed, 74-minute

The National are a group with no pressure to change. Matt Berninger’s deeply somber baritone seems right at home over the band’s current arsenal of guitar-driven murmurs and narrative deadpans about societal disappointment and lost loves, and they have churned out quality albums like clockwork since their 2001 self-titled debut. Their sixth, Trouble Will Find

On their third album, Vampire Weekend continue to progress from the collegiate prep-friendly Afro-pop revivalism of their 2008 eponymous debut into something more expansive. The Paul Simon influence is still there, but gone is the constant comparing to specific tracks of the Graceland ilk. This is no longer a band whose success is contingent on