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Music Reviews
Dawes' Story Gets A Fine New Chapter
April 22, 2013 The L.A. roots-rock quartet is often described as a band on the verge of greatness. Its new album, Stories Don't End, features disarmingly beautiful, refreshingly unflashy songwriting. It may not make the musicians superstars, but that's just fine.
The Record
Producer Phil Ramone, Who Made The Simple Sublime, Dies
March 30, 2013 In making classic albums by Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto, Phil Ramone's greatest talent as a producer and engineer may have been finding ways to make songs sound the way the musicians wanted.
Music Reviews
Justin Timberlake's Musical Vision Isn't '20/20'
March 18, 2013 The multifaceted star's first solo album since 2006, The 20/20 Experience, offers a muddy view of pop. Critic Tom Moon says Timberlake "is a celebrity feeling out his place in 2013, and you hear his worry."
Music Reviews
Atoms For Peace: Thom Yorke's Electronic Shadow-World
February 28, 2013 Inside the famously fevered head of the Radiohead lead singer, the ghosts and phantoms are still working overtime. Hear a review of his new project.
Music Reviews
Jim James: On A Spiritual Quest In The Digital Age
February 13, 2013 The My Morning Jacket singer seeks authenticity in a world of artifice on his first solo album, Regions of Light and Sound of God.
Music Reviews
Is Fleetwood Mac's Expanded 'Rumours' A Bit Much?
February 4, 2013 The reissued 1977 album includes several bonus tracks, but critic Tom Moon wonders if it's worth it.
Music Reviews
A 1969 Bootleg Unearths Miles Davis' 'Lost' Quintet
January 30, 2013 Columbia Records' latest release from the jazz maverick's vault is a three-CD, one-DVD live compilation. The previously unreleased material captures a little-known burst of creativity, recorded between two vastly different periods in Davis' career.
Music Reviews
Bruno Mars Goes Anyplace And Everyplace On 'Jukebox'
December 11, 2012 On his second album, Unorthodox Jukebox, Mars traverses the pop landscape, pulling in far-flung influences and making them his own.
Music Reviews
Neil Young Still Vital On 'Psychedelic Pill'
October 30, 2012 Whenever things get too cozy on Psychedelic Pill, Crazy Horse is there to rearrange the furniture. When the singing stops and Young falls into one of the band's epic guitar journeys, the music positively erupts.
Music Reviews
Elina Duni: Love, Lust And Albanian Folk Songs
October 19, 2012 On Matane Malit, the singer and her group offers a transfixing balance of old and new, laying expansive instrumentation over traditional Albanian folk melodies.
Music Reviews
Lianne La Havas: A Cool Antidote For Late Summer's Heat
August 8, 2012 Critic Tom Moon says the chilly moodiness of La Havas' tracks sets the young British singer apart. Her debut has perhaps too many songs about heartbreak, but in the best ones, she sounds almost shattered.
Music Reviews
A Posthumous Masterpiece Adds To E.S.T.'s Legacy
June 25, 2012 The Swedish jazz trio sculpts epic soundscapes on its first posthumous album, released four years after pianist Esbjorn Svensson's death.
Music Reviews
Melody Gardot Aims For The Space Between Notes
May 31, 2012 Gardot captures the sensibility that guides, shapes and defines so much Brazilian music.
Music Reviews
Dr. John: Swamp Grooves From The Bayou Underworld
April 3, 2012 With help from Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, Dr. John returns to the spooky, percussive sounds of his first records on Locked Down.
Music Reviews
Gospel Meets Jazz, With Unpredictable Results
March 12, 2012 Two recent albums, from Don Byron's New Gospel Quintet and Charlie Haden and Hank Jones, offer contrasting perspectives on the intersection of two quintessentially American music styles.
