Music Reviews

Critics' Picks: Sade meets the Marquis de Sade Critics' Picks: Sade meets the Marquis de Sade

Meshell Ndegeocello's unpredictable eighth album curses the darkness, then dives right in
By Heather Havrilesky Oct 7, 2009

  • Lily Allen doesn't want to grow up

    On her gleeful new album, the British pop star defends her right to have good sex and be just a girl -- in the best possible way.
    By Stephanie Zacharek February 26, 2009

  • Springsteen can't save us

    This should be Bruce's promised land. So why is his vision of America still so bleak?
    By Louis P. Masur January 27, 2009

  • The egos have landed

    Axl Rose and Kanye West dropped their larger-than-life albums this week. And one of them lives up to the hype.
    By Simon Reynolds November 29, 2008

  • A rock star is born

    Channeling Prince and David Bowie, Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes has become an unlikely sex symbol.
    By Michaelangelo Matos October 21, 2008

  • Why has it been so long since a black band ruled rock?

    With their passionate new album, "Dear Science," TV on the Radio stake their claim as a great American rock band.
    By James Hannaham September 30, 2008

  • The strangest live album ever

    The Fiery Furnaces know how to make perfect pop songs, and they know how to rock -- but on their first live album, they just want to tear things apart.
    By Michaelangelo Matos August 19, 2008

  • Turn around, Bright Eyes

    Singer-songwriter Conor Oberst was my guilty pleasure for years. But now that he has changed from angsty teen to Johnny Cash wannabe, why can't I enjoy his music?
    By Judy Berman August 7, 2008

  • Ripping Nine Inch Nails

    Trent Reznor doesn't just want you to steal his new songs, he wants you to tear them up.
    By James Hannaham July 28, 2008

  • Soundtrack for the great American road trip

    The Hold Steady are a New York indie rock band for people who hate New York indie rock bands, and their new album chronicles the country's dark underbelly.
    By Michaelangelo Matos July 14, 2008

  • Can Lil Wayne save hip-hop?

    He insists he's "the best rapper alive" -- and many agree. But can his smash-hit new album really redeem a flagging genre?
    By Jess Harvell June 19, 2008

  • Can Scarlett Johansson sing?

    On her debut album the velvety-voiced actress's dreamily erotic charms are not lost in translation.
    By Stephanie Zacharek May 28, 2008

  • Does Madonna still matter?

    On "Hard Candy," the 49-year-old disco queen gracefully walks a tightrope between sex, motherhood and aging.
    By James Hannaham April 30, 2008

  • Did Portishead kill trip hop?

    The moody British band is back, but they've ditched sensual black grooves and embraced their inner goth.
    By James Hannaham April 17, 2008

  • The punk stops here

    Forget the slick mall-punk that rules the radio. If you like your music chaotic and bratty, you need to hear Times New Viking and Be Your Own Pet.
    By Jess Harvell April 15, 2008

  • Hip-hop's biggest clowns

    Are Gnarls Barkley's wacky costumes and goofy antics just a smoke screen for the massively successful duo's angst?
    By Miles Marshall Lewis April 3, 2008

  • The music lover

    Why the dark and madly poetic Destroyer is my favorite rock band in ages.
    By Kevin Berger March 31, 2008

  • They're not there

    Disguised as Magnetic Fields and Cat Power, Stephin Merritt and Chan Marshall are still playing games with the singer-songwriter archetype.
    By Zach Baron January 25, 2008

  • What ever happened to Britpop?

    "The Brit Box" evokes an era of pale, sensitive, eyelinered boys -- and the Anglophiles who loved them.
    By Simon Reynolds December 8, 2007

  • Crazy for Jay-Z

    The hip-hop icon's inspired new release, "American Gangster," is his best album in years -- and the best rap album of 2007.
    By Bomani Jones November 6, 2007

  • "It's Britney, bitch"

    Spears calls us out in her new album, "Blackout," giving bad sex a half-assed hard sell. Do we still want a piece of her?
    By James Hannaham October 31, 2007
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