I have exactly one complaint with Black Holes and Revelations, and it’s so minor that I’m going to start the review with it knowing it will turn approximately zero people away from picking up this masterpiece: As with Absolution, they once again failed to cover a jazz standard. Ok, maybe I’m being unrealistic, since […]

(Atlantic, 2006) Zero 7’s third album continues in the direction suggested by their previous release, moving further from Air-inspired downbeat electronica and towards electro-pop, folk rock, and soul. Ten of the twelve tracks on The Garden feature guest vocals from either longtime Zero 7 collaborator Sia Furler or Swedish sensation José González, and each […]

(Kemado, 2006) The Fever know that, first and foremost, a good album must be interesting. Getting trapped in a genre is many bands’ worst nightmare, and their debut, 2004’s Red Bedroom, had them pegged as a dance-punk band just as the dance-punk revival was jumping the shark. There are any number of things […]

(Equator, 2006) The Lovely Feathers’ debut is one of the best records of the year. There, I said it. The Canadian indie post-punkers have made a wonderfully energetic, bizarre, catchy, and downright fun album in Hind Hind Legs, and there’s no use denying it. The band’s success is tied largely to their […]

(Atlantic, 2006) Directions is a visual companion piece meant to accompany Death Cab For Cutie’s 2005 release, Plans. It’s a rather fascinating idea, really. The band recruited filmmakers of several different kinds to create what they called short films for each song on the album. What this really means is that Directions […]

My Morning Jacket’s Z isn’t really a perfect record by almost anyone’s standards. But it is very, very good. If you kind of mash The Flaming Lips, Coldplay, Mercury Rev, and Lynyrd Skynyrd into one band, you’d get something close to Z. Vocalist Jim James’ voice occasionally sounds like Chris Martin’s, sometimes […]