Nine Inch Nails, 'Year Zero' (Interscope)
Trent Reznor vs. George W. Bush - Pro Tools at 50 paces.
By Lane Brown 01.18.08 4:17 AM
If anyone was worried that the disco tangents on 2005's With Teeth meant Trent Reznor was finally lightening up, fear not -- this one's about the apocalypse.
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Rufus Wainwright, 'Release the Stars' (Geffen)
If the gay messiah shows, here's his processional.
By Lane Brown 01.18.08 4:17 AM
The last time Rufus Wainwright walked into a recording studio, it was with a 50-piece orchestra and enough hooks for a pretty great EP. Unfortunately, he left with a double album's worth of material (released in two parts as the critically tolerated Want series, from 2003 and 2004).
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Radiohead, Inc.
The release of In Rainbows turned the music biz on its ear. But what's the rest of the story?
By Lane Brown 11.15.07 4:00 AM
On the evening of September 30, from his home in Oxford, England, Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood upended decades of music-business tradition with a simple post on the band's blog: "Well, the new album is finished, and it's coming out in ten days.
Super Furry Animals, 'Hey Venus!' (Rough Trade/ Beggars)
Ladies and gentlemen, we are no longer floating in space.
By Lane Brown 09.26.07 3:00 AM
Making art-rock epics is exhausting work, and if any band has earned the right to dial down the galaxy-hopping ambition, it's these Welsh oddballs. Their eighth album eschews the usual genre-splicing and orchestral sweep in favor of unfussy, hook-filled tunes that generally try to make a point in less than four minutes.
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Velvet Revolver, 'Libertad' (RCA)
For brand-name hard rock, it doesn't get any better - sadly.
By Lane Brown 07.27.07 3:00 AM
This supergroup, featuring former Stone Temple Pilot Scott Weiland and three ex-Guns N' Roses members, isn't a band from which major revelations are expected, and you won't find any here. But Libertad does improve slightly on the mostly hookless choogling of the band's 2004 debut, Contraband, with songs that are punchier and a bit more memorable.
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The Polyphonic Spree, 'The Fragile Army' (TVT)
Shedding their eternal robes, redefining their sunshine sound.
By Lane Brown 07.10.07 3:00 AM
Rare is the 24-piece symphonic rock collective that takes criticism constructively, but singer/songwriter Tim DeLaughter and his Dallas-based crew seem to have done exactly that. The Fragile Army trades the cluttered arrangements and too-long instrumental passages of their first two albums for tightly focused orchestral pop with big Technicolor hooks.
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