1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Login or Register to rate this item.

Times New Viking have truly mastered the no-fi game: No matter how they defile their sound (with razor blades, broken glass, tape hiss), they make sure there's bubblegum at the center. Here, TNV intensify the sweet and the abrasive.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Login or Register to rate this item.

Hollywood brooder Ryan Gosling doesn't reverse the rule that actors make dubious pop musicians (see Keanu, Jared Leto, ScarJo), but his rickety collaboration with budding thespian Zach Shields has an undeniable dark charm. At its best, the duo's debut shambles along like a Tom Waits-led, Tim Burton-produced Halloween recital -- "My

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Login or Register to rate this item.

Led by effects-pedal guru Oliver Ackermann (the Edge is a customer), this Brooklyn trio further their rep for insane volume on their first proper studio album. "I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadows of Your Heart" is straight-to-the-head industrial rock, bull-rushing into a two-minute coda of pure squall and feedback that's not unlike having hot club soda poured in your ears.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Login or Register to rate this item.

Not that long ago, No Age's recorded output sounded as if it were being captured in the middle of a wash cycle. But since 2008's Nouns, their debut Sub Pop fulllength, the eldest brothers of L.A.'s Smell scene have further embraced melodic punk soundscaping.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Login or Register to rate this item.

Shout Out Out Out Out could be long-distance disciples of Brooklyn's punky mirror-ball tribe DFA. The Edmonton, Alberta six-piece's 2006 debut, Not Saying/Just Saying, was a Juno Award–nominated disco beast, and standard vocoder vocal turns and cowbell antics aside, their latest boasts a varied collection of Kraftwerkian dance-floor workouts. On cuts like "How Do I Maintain Pt.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Login or Register to rate this item.

Three years after her major-label splash Begin to Hope, New York pianist Regina Spektor went back into the studio with four (!) multiplatinum producers of varying pop backgrounds, including Dr. Dre/Eminem/Fiona Apple enabler Mike Elizondo and former McCartney/Harrison/Wilbury collaborator and ELO founder Jeff Lynne.