Music Reviews

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  • Don't try to take him to a disco

    In a new greatest-hits time capsule, Michigan's monumentally unhip Bob Seger stays true to his vision of a now-extinct America -- and makes you nostalgic for nostalgia.
    By Andrew Beaujon November 11, 2003

  • Death and glory

    Punk legend Joe Strummer bows out with "Streetcore," a hit-and-miss farewell studded with a handful of gems.
    By Shannon Zimmerman October 21, 2003

  • The soccer mom's sex symbol

    It's encouraging that Sting seems to have chugged a Red Bull-Viagra smoothie on some tracks of his new "Sacred Love" LP, but his didactic, smugly penitent music still seems designed to be played by an adulterer returning to Westchester in his Jag.
    By Laura Sinagra October 16, 2003

  • All this useless beauty

    Thanks to the pristine, prettified and precious new album "North," a longtime Elvis Costello die-hard finally dies. Hard.
    By Shannon Zimmerman October 11, 2003

  • Hip-hop's odd couple gets odder

    OutKast's new double album is a critic's dream -- a self-indulgent but thrilling mixture of Southern funk, indie rock and art music.
    By Baz Dreisinger September 24, 2003

  • Out of the aeroplane into the sea

    It's been five years since Neutral Milk Hotel released their masterpiece and disbanded. With the arrival of the Decemberists, have indie-rock obsessives (like me) found a new mannered, quirky band to love?
    By Jesse Jarnow September 16, 2003

  • Graceful exit for an excitable boy

    Funny, smart and touching, Warren Zevon's "The Wind" -- his latest album and presumably his last -- is also one of his finest.
    By Shannon Zimmerman August 26, 2003

  • Return of rock's Angry Old Man

    Neil Young knocks the mass media and consumer culture in his brilliant -- if sometimes incoherent -- new "musical novel."
    By Shannon Zimmerman August 20, 2003

  • Never mind the bell-bottoms

    Was Led Zeppelin really a proto-punk outfit in hippie garb? With the million-selling live box set "How the West Was Won," Jimmy Page wants you to think so.
    By Shannon Zimmerman July 31, 2003

  • Say it ain't so, Willie

    Gentle, gray-bearded Willie Nelson comes out as a post-9/11 vigilante with his and Toby Keith's creepy new hit "Beer for My Horses."
    By Kate Haulman July 16, 2003

  • Building the perfect diva

    With "Dangerously in Love," Beyonce Knowles serves up a sultry solo debut oozing with '70s-style R&B. She's got real diva-superstar potential -- but is that a blessing or a curse?
    By Shannon Zimmerman July 1, 2003

  • Hail to the geeks

    Most of Radiohead's new album is pretentious jive. But by fighting their fans' expectations, the dork-rock gods continue to do important things with music -- even if those things aren't musical.
    By Joey Sweeney June 18, 2003

  • Hard luck, red wine and loneliness

    Lisa Germano made her hauntingly beautiful record alone, then turned down a tour so she could take care of her cat.
    By Julene Snyder April 1, 2003

  • Her aim is true

    Despite 20 million records sold, Alison Moyet might be the planet's least famous pop star. Now she's back with a smoldering, bluesy new album -- why hasn't anybody noticed?
    By Ken Foster January 14, 2003

  • All that you want to leave behind

    U2 spent the '90s making rebellious music that strayed into weirdness and irony, but a new compilation sticks to the band's trademark earnestness.
    By Annie Zaleski November 19, 2002

  • Old men take longer

    At long last, Peter Gabriel releases a new record. Is it worth the wait? If you have to ask you're missing the point.
    By Jonathan Kiefer September 24, 2002

  • Party like it's 1988

    Tequila! Kung fu! Spandex wedgies! Catching an end-of-summer buzz with ex-Van Halen frontmen Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth's nonreunion tour.
    By Porter Fox September 5, 2002

  • The right man for the job

    His county -- and his country -- cried out for him. And Bruce Springsteen came through.
    By Joyce Millman August 6, 2002

  • Listen Hear

    In Salon's latest CD roundup, the Counting Crows get Petty, the Flaming Lips reinvent and Marianne Faithfull shacks up with younger men -- again.
    July 30, 2002

  • The undeniable truth about Burma

    Mission of Burma recorded 21 songs, helped invent post-punk, and left a legacy that resonated from R.E.M. to Moby. More than 20 years later, no one will let the band die.
    By Greg Milner July 9, 2002

  • Listen hear

    In Salon's roundup of recent CD releases, Eminem bores, the Hives reinvent garage and Paul Westerberg charges back to mono.
    May 30, 2002

  • When he was cruel

    It used to be easier for Elvis Costello to write good rock songs. Is it because on his newest album, this angry young man really isn't either?
    By Ira Robbins April 30, 2002

  • Listen hear

    A roundup of recent CDs from Uncle Tupelo, Alanis Morissette, Clinic and more.
    By Salon's critics April 2, 2002

  • After the gold dust

    The dot-coms went bust, but the Chemical Brothers are still office-partying like it's 1999.
    By Michelle Goldberg January 29, 2002

  • The Grateful Dead, alive again

    In a box set that captures the earliest (and best) of this problematic band, you can find a dark side that meshes perfectly with the times.
    By Will Hermes October 17, 2001
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