Gwen Stefani Love Angel Music Baby Interscope By: Eric Greenwood Solo albums are somewhat gratuitous when your band is still fully functioning. Unless you're planning to redefine some obscure genre, what's the point, other than saturating the market with your ego? Gwen Stefani's venture into solo-land is not without suspicious motive. Her status in the […]

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Jens Lekman When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog Secretly Canadian By: Kerry M Oh Jens Lekman, how I love thee, let me count the ways. Your Merritt-like vocals, your Knox worthy lyrical musings, your tinny Glaswegianesque symphonies, your Butterfly Child-like orchestrations and last but not least your lovable Richman inflections. You slyly […]

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Earlimart Treble Palm Pictures By: Eric Greenwood With lush instrumentation (acoustic guitars, piano, hazy atmospherics) reminiscent of a less quirky Jon Brion soundtrack, Earlimart follows up 2003's Everyone Down Here album with more of the same Elliott Smith-inspired, maudlin pop. Gone are the days when Earlimart would even remotely be compared to the likes of […]

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Dirty On Purpose Sleep Late For A Better Tomorrow EP Dirty On Purpose By: Kerry M. This Brookyln quintet's catchy lyrics and borderline ethereal vocals poured like honey over shoegazed riffs and shimmering hooks evoke memories of that early '90s sound that propelled so many indie bands into that brief Kendall-approved “120 minutes” limelight. These […]

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Top 20 Albums Of The Year 2004 Various By: Eric Greenwood 01. The WalkmenBow + Arrows[Record Collection] Their roots may be in line with traditional post-punk architecture, but The Walkmen rarely stray from a distant, graying out of noise. Hamilton Leithauser's scruffy voice cracks and crackles even when he's singing delicately, while the music sounds […]

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Silkworm It'll Be Cool Touch And Go By: Eric Greenwood Silkworm records come and go every few years. Touch and Go just keeps releasing them out of habit, I suppose. They never make much of a splash, and barely anyone even notices, apart from longtime fans. I imagine they press and sell the same amount […]

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U2 How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb Island By: Eric Greenwood After spending the bulk of the '90's experimenting itself into a caricatural hole, U2 responded to tapering record sales and a hopelessly cartoonish persona with a self-proclaimed return to form on 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind. Wisely, the band ditched the disco […]

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