Ke$ha: A 'Warrior' In Search Of Legitimacy
Ke$ha uses a dollar-sign instead of an "s" in the middle of her stage name. It's one of those gestures that's meant to bait her detractors — suggesting before anyone else does that she's only in it for...
View ArticleKen Tucker's Top 10 Albums Of 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIlLq4BqGdghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNBD4OFF8cchttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0DkddeTSEMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfhBHu6yFQAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l...
View Article'Nashville' Soundtrack Stands On Its Own
"Telescope," the fictional hit single by the fictional country star Juliette Barnes on Nashville, is sung by the actress who plays Juliette, Hayden Panetierre. If it didn't become a real-life hit when...
View ArticlePaloma Faith's 'Fall To Grace' Is A Keeper
In culling through albums released late last year that I still play with pleasure, Paloma Faith's Fall to Grace was a real keeper. In contrast to my joy, Faith was singing about her agony: her broken...
View ArticleRichard Thompson's New Album Examines 'Electric' Love
Delicate phrasing, with both voice and guitar, has always made Richard Thompson a musician worth hearing — and sometimes even liking on a personal level. For a man who can make such pretty music, it's...
View ArticleAshley Monroe Is 'Like A Rose,' Briars And All
The high lonesome sound of Ashley Monroe's Tennessee voice in "Like a Rose" serves as a clear signal that she's working within a tradition that extends back well beyond her twentysomething years on...
View ArticleDavid Bowie Awakens To 'The Next Day' Of His Career
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH7dMBcg-gE
View ArticleTegan And Sara Reach Out To New Audiences With 'Heartthrob'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e9NSMY8QiQ
View ArticleJustin Timberlake Returns To Music With Enthusiasm and 'Experience'
The orchestral swirls, the transition to a soul-man groove, the falsetto croon — there you have some of the key elements to Justin Timberlake's album The 20/20 Experience.
View ArticleKacey Musgraves: Country's Blunt And Poetic New Voice
Kacey Musgraves is something of an anomaly. A Texas native in her mid-20s, she fits most easily into the contemporary "country" category, but the work she co-writes with a variety of collaborators is...
View ArticleBrad Paisley's 'Wheelhouse' Of Good Songs — And Intentions
Brad Paisley's Wheelhouse is yet another very good album from a singer, songwriter and guitarist who's made a bunch of them in a row. It features a slew of shrewd songs about finding pleasure and...
View ArticleCaitlin Rose: A Singer Grounded In The Details Of Yearning
"Pink Champagne," a song on Caitlin Rose's second album The Stand-In, presents Rose's voice in its sparest purity and veiled shrewdness. She sends her voice skyward, the notes as buoyant and light as...
View ArticleNatalie Maines: A Country-Music Rebel Rocks On Her Own
Natalie Maines doesn't hesitate to make audacious moves, and wresting away "Mother"— Roger Waters' hymn to oppressive maternal authority figures from Pink Floyd— is the biggest one on her first solo...
View ArticleDawes Knows Where It's Been And Where It's Headed
If you heard the Dawes song "Just Beneath the Surface" and said, "Somebody's been listening to their old Jackson Browne albums," you're not exactly insulting Dawes. The band has actually backed Browne...
View ArticleDaft Punk: Accessing Electronic Music's Humanity
I freely admit that, until the new Random Access Memories, I wasn't much of a Daft Punk fan. I could appreciate the craft and imagination that went into creating the French duo's mixture of electronic...
View ArticleVampire Weekend Comes Of Age In 'The City'
The New York City band Vampire Weekend has carved out a sense of immaculate melancholy for our era as surely as Steely Dan once did for Upstate New York in the '70s. Characterized most immediately by...
View ArticleJason Isbell: Literary, But Keeping An Edge On 'Southeastern'
When Jason Isbell was part of Drive-By Truckers, his guitar contributed to the band's sometimes magnificent squall of noise, while his songwriting contributed to the eloquence that raised the band high...
View ArticleSlaid Cleaves: 'Still Fighting' With Smart Lyrics And Stories
Raised in South Berwick, Maine, and residing in Austin, Texas, Slaid Cleaves is no one's idea of a music-industry insider. He writes and sings songs primarily about working-class people and romantics...
View ArticleOn 'Yeezus,' Kanye West Sounds Strikingly Self-Aware
Kanye West is having some serious fun with us on his new album, Yeezus, starting with the title; it's a play on his nickname, Yeezy, and his penchant for placing himself just this side of the Son of...
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