Story of the Year: The October Surprise
With Radiohead, Madonna, and Nine Inch Nails leading the charge against major labels, one month in 2007 may be remembered as birthing a revolution that shook the industry to its core. But have they truly created a brave new world?
By David Peisner 01.05.08 2:53 AM
October 10, 2007, is a day that will live in infamy in the hearts of major-label executives. That was the day Radiohead, after more than a decade with Capitol Records, self-released their seventh album, In Rainbows, digitally, without a price tag.
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Wiley, 'Playtime Is Over' (Big Dada)
Grime pioneer broadens his worldview - just a touch.
By David Peisner 10.31.07 3:00 AM
Grime's relative nonimpact on America isn't puzzling: With its disorienting beats, unfamiliar slang, and melody-averse choruses, the U.K.-born genre has always felt forbiddingly local. Wiley only occasionally departs from that script on an album he's threatened will be his last.
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Black Francis, 'Bluefinger' (Cooking Vinyl)
A resurgent icon rediscovers a handful of Pixie dust.
By David Peisner 10.29.07 3:00 AM
Returning to the Black Francis moniker he used when fronting the Pixies, Charles Thompson has fittingly made an album that sounds more like the Pixies than any of his previous solo efforts. The outer-space-fixated "Captain Pasty" opens behind a rumbling surf guitar, then plows forward at a breakneck pace.
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The Go! Team, 'Proof of Youth' (Sub Pop)
A trashy record collection turns into cinematic ear candy.
By David Peisner 10.23.07 3:00 AM
The Weakerthans, 'Reunion Tour' (Anti-)
Canadian smart guys make poetry out of awkwardness.
By David Peisner 10.03.07 3:00 AM
Every Weakerthans album has moments that provoke cries of "Why aren't these guys huge?" But those are inevitably followed by moments that make it abundantly clear why they're not.
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