Tegan and Sara, 'Sainthood' (Vapor/Sire)
Canada's most intense sister act grows up (but not apart) in public.
By Mikael Wood 10.15.09 9:51 AM
"I know it turns you off when I get talking like a teen," sings Sara Quin in "On Directing," a cut from the sixth studio album by Quin and her twin sister, Tegan.
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The Flaming Lips, 'Embryonic' (Warner Bros.)
With all the plushies gone, Wayne Coyne's fantasia takes an inscrutably dark turn.
By David Marchese 10.14.09 9:32 AM
The universe tends toward disarray. Stars explode. Planets collide. Singers in white suits douse themselves in fake blood.
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Flight of the Conchords, 'I Told You I Was Freaky' (Sub Pop)
Even quality jokes wilt when they're rehashed.
By David Peisner 10.13.09 10:59 AM
If you laughed when you heard these musical parodies on the New Zealand duo's HBO show, you'll probably laugh again the first time you hear them here. But like most comedy albums, this one loses its luster upon repeated hearings. Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement are uniquely talented mimics -- the title track's R.
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Devendra Banhart, 'What Will We Be' (Reprise)
Folkie pied piper reins in the freakiness (a little).
By Mikael Wood 10.10.09 8:03 AM
Nobody comes to a Devendra Banhart record for trenchant insight into the human condition. "All my thoughts are hairs on a wild, wild boar," he muses here on "Chin Chin & Muck Muck." Instead, Banhart's albums offer ashram-appropriate guitar strums, trippy-hippie tone poetry and, if you're lucky, at least one tune where he sings from the perspective of a rodent.
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Karen O and the Kids, 'Where the Wild Things Are Motion Picture Soundtrack'
Yeah Yeah Yeahs diva cuts her inner tomboy loose
By Steve Kandell 10.09.09 5:59 PM
Spike Jonze's adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are is a woolly testament to the thrill of building (and breaking) stuff. It's about a boy -- about being a boy -- which might render Karen O an odd choice for soundtrack muse.
