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2009-11-20

2009-11-18

2009-11-05

POPULAR MUSIC REVIEWS

MUSIC REVIEW HEADLINES

AC/DC: Backtracks
With gross earnings topping an astronomical $105 million, to say that its been a good year for AC/DC is a bit of an understatement. With a third generation discovering the bands music, theyre now more popular than theyve ever been, theres no venue too

Sufjan Stevens: Run Rabbit Run + The BQE (CD/DVD)
Grab your laypersons guide to orchestral music terminology. Its time for a couple of non-folk conceptual albums from arty wunderkind Sufjan Stevensactually, one is rearranged by Osso. Both of these albums will alienate some fans of Stevens virtuosic

Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound
Given Joan Baezs centrality to American cultural and political life over the past five decades, the greatest surprise this documentary is that it wasnt made much sooner. While Bob Dylans career has been the subject of a multitude of docs and bios, essays

Robyn Hitchcock: I Often Dream of Trains in New York [DVD]
Not too long ago, I reviewed the , and among my complaints was the charge that some of the songs didnt work without their accompanying visuals. Well, feel free to haul out your Emerson and find something foolish consistency, because Im to say that Robyn

Lowlights: Further/Free
, the title of the last Lowlights record, was a perfect name for the bands sound. Their lush country music has the deep feel of being isolated out in the vast, wide-open parts of America. And that stark, beautiful sound continues with Further/Free.

Miley Cyrus: The Time of Our Lives
(Hollywood) No matter how many provocative Annie Leibowitz shots Miley Cyrus poses for, as long as her sole professional association is with Disney TV and its record label, she'll always find it hard to convince those past puberty that there's much more

Reality Killed The Video Star
Reality Killed the Video Star is more complicated and interesting than that. 75 Los Angeles Times Like the verbal tricks he loves to employ, the appeal of might still be too tricky to be truly universal. But this album proves that he is a great brain

Del The Funky Homosapien & Tame One
Funky Homosapien and Tame One. Also On The Web: What The Critics Said All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. 85

John Mayer: Battle Studies
(Columbia) His name might not register much over here, but John Mayer is a real, live big deal in the States. This Grammy-winning, Jennifer Aniston-dating, sneaker-designing (no, really) AOR pin-up has sold 13m fearlessly commercial albums, veering

Susan Boyle: I Dreamed a Dream
(Syco) Susan Boyle's against-the-odds story was the biggest talking point of any talent show this year - months later, the memory of Simon Cowell's face at her Britain's Got Talent audition still warms the cockles. But this album is where sentiment

Rihanna: Rated R
(Mercury) Difficult to look past the lyrics … Rihanna Even by the standards of the R&B video – never the most opaque or subtle of the visual arts – the promo for Rihanna's single Russian Roulette is striking. It features the singer being gassed,

Plastiscines
Barfly, London It's amazing what a French accent can do to the word 'bitch'. Coming from the lips of Plastiscines singer and guitarist Katty Besnard, it's more caress than insult, even when squawked at the top of her (insubstantial) lungs during a song

Various: Rough Trade Shops Indiepop '09
(Rough Trade) In the 1980s, when indie was forged in bedrooms across Britain from a love of 1960s garage rock and girl-group pop, basic guitar chords and arch adolescent poetry, its proponents were derided as twee and incompetent. Two decades on, the

Monsters of Folk
Troxy, London It's their first London show, and Monsters of Folk have found their spiritual home at the Troxy. 'A temple of the roaring 20s painted in the colours of the roaring 80s,' says Jim James, looking around appreciatively. 'A collision of

Snow Patrol
Brighton Centre T The career of Snow Patrol is an example of pragmatism paying off. They began life as a winsome indie band with a passing resemblance to Belle and Sebastian, performing songs called things like Get Balsamic Vinegar ... Quick You Fool,

Real Estate: Real Estate
In todays culture, the blogosphere moves with such spitting tenacity, and wields such a ruly force over independent music, that once-loved darlings of the self-appointed press become enemies of the state before their first scrap of music is ever

Rakim: The Seventh Seal
Rakim Allah (who Ill refer to in a number of ways throughout this review) will always be known as one of the best to ever do it. His legacy can withstand even the most deadly blows to an artist, from album delays, of which he has suffered many, to a

Ola Podrida: Belly of the Lion
David Wingo, the man behind Ola Podrida, has clearly learned a thing or two from his past, back when he used to score films for his pal David Gordon Green. Slipping in the subtle evocative sound, establishing a sonic landscape, expanding out into swells

Q-Tip: Kamaal the Abstract
By Dave Heaton PopMatters Associate Music Editor

Stars of Track And Field: A Time For Lions
Theres a rule of thumb among the music industrys more professionally-minded producers and songwriters that three minutes and 30 seconds is the ideal length for a pop song. Its long enough for the rousing refrains to get repeated a few times, structurally

Them Crooked Vultures
by 75 9.6 User Score: Generally favorable reviews Based on Based on 14 votes Album Info Label: DGC/Interscope Release Date: 17 November 2009 Discs: 1 disc Genre(s): Rock Summary The debut album for the supergroup composed of the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl,

Beak>
81 David Bazan 72 Beak> 72 Brendan Benson 84 Biffy Clyro 72 The Big Pink 95 Big Star 46 Billy Talent 75 The Black Crowes 72 The Black Heart Procession 68 Blitzen Trapper 75 BLK JKS 53 Bon Jovi 76 A.A. Bondy 65 Boys Like Girls 76 Brand New 73 Tyondai

Annie: Dont Stop
Originally scheduled for a 2007 release, Annies follow-up to 2004s Annimal finally hits shelves and desktops in late 2009. The period in between saw the nearly inevitable leak of an album that resembles, but is ultimately inferior to, the finished

Dunkelbunt: Raindrops and Elephants
There are few pop music embarrassments more humiliating than trying too hard to sound fresh and falling flat. Likewise, mashing sounds and styles together with little apparent focus may earn you elite status with certain blogs and websites, but it rarely

Hank Williams: Hank Williams Revealed: The Unreleased Recordings
In the early 1950s, Hank Williams could be heard performing every weekday morning on radio stations all across the southern United States. These 15-minute morning shows were pre-recorded in Nashville, initially broadcast on WSM (also home to the Grand