By J. Edward Keyes, Editor-in-ChiefBy now you've no doubt noticed the wealth of coverage we've got surrounding the first record credited to 'Iggy & the Stooges' in 40 years. How does Ready to Die compare to the feral glory… more »
By eMusic Editorial Staff, eMusic ContributorPhoenix, Bankrupt!: Of this week's biggest release, Barry Walters argues that Phoenix are still "the epitome of rock-disco dialectic." Their new one picks up where 2009's mainstream breakthrough Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix left off, maintaining that album's… more »
By eMusic Editorial Staff, eMusic ContributorA lot of big names this week! Starting with: The Flaming Lips, The Terror: Darker things lurk in the cheery public persona the Flaming Lips have offered in the last decade. Dan Hyman says of their… more »
By eMusic Editorial Staff, eMusic ContributorEvery week, eMusic's editorial team assembles a newsletter called The Crib Sheet, which features the five new records we think are essential listening. This is your chance to tell us what you think of the… more »
By eMusic Editorial Staff, eMusic ContributorThere's not a whole lot out this week, probably because everyone is in Austin for SXSW (including eMusic's editorial team: Follow our coverage here) — except that, oh wait, there's a new David Bowie record… more »
By eMusic Editorial Staff, eMusic ContributorEvery week, eMusic's Editorial Team assembles a newsletter called The Crib Sheet, which features the five new records we think are essential listening. This is your chance to tell us what you think of the… more »
By eMusic Editorial Staff, eMusic Contributor[Listen to a radio program featuring selections from this week's New Arrivals here.] Kendrick Lamar, good kid, m.A.A.d. city: PICK OF THE WEEK. Interscope debut from the most promising new rapper in ages lives up to… more »
By eMusic Editorial Staff, eMusic Contributor[Listen to a radio station featuring selections from this week's New Arrivals here.] Kendrick Lamar, good kid, m.A.A.d. city: PICK OF THE WEEK. Interscope debut from the most promising new rapper in ages lives up to… more »
By eMusic Editorial Staff, eMusic ContributorMumford & Sons, Babel : This breakout folk act returns with their follow-up to 2011's stratospherically successful Sigh No More. To hear Kevin O'Donnell it, they're reaching even higher this time around: It's fitting that… more »
By eMusic Editorial Staff, eMusic ContributorMumford & Sons, Babel  : This breakout folk act returns with their follow-up to 2011's stratospherically successful Sigh No More. To hear Kevin O'Donnell it, they're reaching even higher this time around: It's fitting that the… more »
By J. Edward Keyes, Editor-in-ChiefThe fall avalanche has begun! After several weeks with only a handful of scraps, we have a veritable embarrassment of riches. So Many Records. So Many Records. Here's what we like, you tell us what… more »
By J. Edward Keyes, Editor-in-ChiefA pretty hefty new release week! Here's what we found -- what did we miss? Animal Collective, Centipede Hz: Surely you remember these guys? Animal Collective come back with more woozy, multi-colored psych-pop sure to bend… more »
By Jayson Greene, Managing EditorGreat stuff this week, the last week of the summer. My personal favorite is the Swans record, but I have a taste for the dark and the slightly perverse. Even if you don't, however, there's… more »
By Jayson Greene, Managing EditorGreat stuff this week, the last week of the summer. My personal favorite is the Swans record, but I have a taste for the dark and the slightly perverse. Even if you don't, however, there's… more »
By J. Edward Keyes, Editor-in-ChiefAntony & the Johnsons, Cut the World: Live album from Antony featuring symphonic takes on his best-loved songs. Barry Walters says: Unlike most musicians making strikingly contemporary art, Hegarty isn't beholden to technology; his voice-and-piano-based, largely acoustic studio arrangements only occasionally draw on electronic effects. The orchestral renditions heard here open the music up with heightened dynamics that compliment the fragile nuances of his expression. “Cripple and the Starfish,” for example, is far more romantic than the 1998 album version, and the change heightens the contrast between the brutality described in the lyric and the gentleness with which the singer regards his abusive lover: This discrepancy is devastating. Eraserhead (Original Soundtrack Recording): If you've seen Eraserhead, you can guess what the deal is here: lots of ambient wooshing, clanging, some extracts of the film's bizarro dialogue and the bewitching "In Heaven" make this a Highly Recommended offering for those with more avant-garde… more »
By J. Edward Keyes, Editor-in-ChiefNew week, new albums! Here's what we've got: Passion Pit, Gossamer: Arguably the day's most anticipated release. Passion Pit return with another album that pairs bleak subject matter to deceptively upbeat music. As you might guess, this one is Highly Recommended -- especially the lithe R&B jam that is "Constant Conversations." Here's what Annie Zaleski thinks: Gossamer isn't quite as playful as its predecessor, but that's a good thing: The album's forays into slinky R&B (“Constant Conversations”), sleek Swedish indiepop (“Cry Like A Ghost”), neon new wave (“Carried Away”) and Disney-movie whimsy (“On My Way”) evince more depth. The songs themselves are also rich with detail, from the music-box-gone-mad twinkles at the start of “Love Is Greed” to the warm background coos from Swedish a cappella group Erato that are sprinkled throughout. The Gaslight Anthem, Handwritten: Pardon me, sirs, but you seem to have a bit of heart on your sleeve. Everyone's favorite… more »
By J. Edward Keyes, Editor-in-ChiefA whole ton of new releases this week, so let's not waste time with preambles. Let's get right to it: Frank Ocean, channel ORANGE: Arguably the week's most anticipated new release. Frank Ocean caused a huge stir by confessing that his first true romance was with a man, but as brave and moving a confession as that was for someone affiliated with the Odd Future crew, don't let it be the only thing you know about Frank Ocean. His music is just as warm and rich and deeply felt, and this album is Highly Recommended. Barry Walters says: R&B auteur Frank Ocean's masterful and disarming major-label debut channel ORANGE is meticulously structured like a long-planned confession, and as Ocean announced shortly before its release, it presents a major one: The first love Ocean alludes to in lead track "Thinkin Bout You"; the unreciprocated love that haunts him in "Bad Religion" and who… more »
By J. Edward Keyes, Editor-in-ChiefThe Flaming Lips, The Flaming Lips & the Heady Fwends: Let's get two things out of the way right away. First, this is Highly Recommended. Second, the cover of the vinyl version is about a… more »
By J. Edward Keyes, Editor-in-ChiefFiona Apple, The Idler Wheel...: If I start talking about this Highly Recommended, Best of 2012 So Far album, I will never shut up. So I'm going to leave it to Barry Walters, who says: There's a lot of Apple here. Throughout The Idler Wheel, she's front and center so simply that the starkness feels almost avant-garde. As she admits on that first cut, she's fighting with her brain and there is no referee — just Apple, her drummer/co-producer Charley Drayton, and generous doses of silence between notes. Nothing comes between her and us. The extra space gives the 34-year-old songwriter the room to be baldly ferocious, particularly when she's vulnerable. “Gimme, gimme, gimme what you got in your mind in the middle of the night,” she implores in “Daredevil” with a lust so unguarded it borders on wacky. But it's nevertheless inviting, because she's musically, as well as emotionally, naked. Neneh… more »
By J. Edward Keyes, Editor-in-ChiefThe Tallest Man on Earth, There's No Leaving Now: New outing from everyone's favorite Swedish folkie. Dan Hyman says: Those taken with the first two offerings from Kristian Matsson, the Swedish folk troubadour who performs as the Tallest Man On Earth, may be put off by the cleaner, more expertly-produced selections on There's No Leaving Now, his third album. But it's hardly surprising: Matsson has said this was the first album he recorded primarily in one setting, with proper studio trappings to match. Otherwise, it's a refreshing, familiar affair: As with 2008′s Shallow Grave and its follow-up, 2010′s The Wild Hunt, intricate finger-picking matches Matsson's ragged Dylan-esque croon. Charli XCX, You're the One: Pretty excellent electropoppy EP from this young breakout star. Let's call it somewhere between Robyn and Katy B and split the difference. Charlie's got a great, sobbing voice, and it sounds fantastic against the clanging sheets of synths. Highly… more »
By J. Edward Keyes, Editor-in-ChiefWe've got a whole huge batch of new arrivals today just waiting for you to dive in. Japandroids, Celebration Rock: I am sorry that this is such a cliche thing to say, but man, this has been a great year for rock records. Cloud Nothings, The Men, and now Japandroids have all unleashed big, brawny records that boasted a sort of mule-kicking defiance. This one is Highly Recommended. I'll let Jayson Greene take care of the rest: Japandroids' Celebration Rock begins and ends with fireworks — not the county-fair variety, but the cheap, barely legal kind you set off in the woods with friends and then run away, giggling uncontrollably. The sound sets the tone for a sizzling, incandescent burst of a record, one that conjoins punk-rock fist-aloft solidarity and weepy heartland-rock sentimentality in one 35-minute-long bro-hug. Liars, WIXIW: Today is just a great day for new records! Liars are back… more »
By J. Edward Keyes, Editor-in-ChiefA real quick run through this week's major titles -- fill in what I missed in the comments! Beach House, Bloom: Big, bright, dazzling and transfixing, Beach House once again deliver the goods on this radiant guitar-pop record. Guess what? Highly Recommended. Rachael Maddux has more: Alex Scally's guitar ribbons and diddles over synths that twinkle and grind, and Victoria LeGrand's voice is woozy and dark and supple. Increasingly, the words she sings hardly seem to matter, but listen close and there are snippets of sleepless nights, strange paradises, and the ability of the world to swallow you whole. It functions incredibly well as an intimate headphones album: Even piped through dinky earbuds, it makes one hell of a private soundtrack, rendering the most gloriously mundane moments of life unreasonably, fiercely cool. Best Coast, The Only Place: Bethany Cosentino grows up and, with a little help from Jon Brion, makes a record… more »
By eMusic Editorial Staff, eMusic ContributorLots of new stuff this week, including the long-awaited sophomore LP from Santigold, an awesome George Harrison collection, new Rufus Wainwright and more. Let's dig in: George Harrison, Early Takes Volume 1: A collection of George… more »
By J. Edward Keyes, Editor-in-ChiefIT GOES IT GOES IT GOES IT GOES GUILLOTIIIIINE. Or so went a song on Death Grips grab-you-by-the-throat breakout mixtape Exmilitary. I was obsessed with that after my first listen, and was therefore stunned when… more »