The Brunettes, 'Structure & Cosmetics' (Sub Pop)
Duo embellish playful indie pop with grown-up moodiness.
By William Goodman 09.20.07 3:00 AM
On 2004's Mars Loves Venus, these New Zealanders developed a scrappy, concise, girl-group-tinged sound. But with the band's third LP and Sub Pop debut, Heather Mansfield and Jonathan Bree inject their twee aesthetic with psychedelic flourishes both buoyant and shadowy.
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A Riot of Our Own
The Clash's Mick Jones tells us all about the year that was so massive his band wrote a song about it -- in 1976.
By Spin Staff 09.20.07 3:00 AM
The television went off at around 11 or 12 at night to the sound of the national anthem. Then there was only a test card on throughout the night, and nothing was open. No wonder we wrote loads of songs. We were bored.
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Patrick Cleandenim, 'Baby Comes Home' (Ba Da Bing)
Crooning whiz kid stirs up a sophisticated pop cocktail.
By Lindsey Thomas 09.20.07 3:00 AM
It's tempting to label Cleandenim a hip response to Michael Bublé, but in truth, this 22-year-old New York-via-Kansas jazz-pop prodigy is more obsessive Bacharach disciple than fashionable Sinatra impersonator.
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Fighting Words
Tell us what you REALLY think, Johnny Rotten
By Jack Rabid 09.20.07 3:00 AM
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Prince, 'Planet Earth' (Columbia)
His Royal Badness decides it's time to make the year's best pop album.
By Alan Light 09.19.07 3:00 AM
As his dazzling, rain-soaked Super Bowl appearance earlier this year reminded us, Prince can be the biggest star in the world any time he wants. If he chooses to turn it on, all you can do is stand back and let him blow the top of your head off.
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Eat to the Beat
For a punk turned chef, 1977 is more fun to look back on than it was to live through.
By Anthony Bourdain 09.19.07 3:00 AM
Don't let anybody tell you different: 1977 was not a good year. Not a good decade, not a good time for New York City. Remembering now, it's easy to wax rhapsodic -- the year gave us, after all, the first important explosion of punk rock and hip-hop. If you weren't there, through the pink-tinted prism of irony, even the clothes might look
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