With a huge output of great records and songs this year, there were a ton of contenders for this year’s best albums. So many of pop’s biggest names either took a gap year to tour last year’s records (Taylor Swift, Lorde), take time to build hype (Carly Rae Jespsen, Adele), or indulge in passion-projects (Beyonce, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar), this year has been an open opportunity for a number of smaller acts and newcomers to make a big splash, and there’s been a ton. Continue reading
This is all terrible to write about. Last year’s A Crow Looked at Me was a career-defining album for Phil Elverum. That’s terrible to say, because it’s an album so rooted in the tragic loss of his wife, Geneviève. It’s also somewhat ignorant, because Elverum had been working as a musician for over two decades. While a popular artist in his own rite, A Crow Looked at Me was the sort of album that propelled him into a certain level of mainstream success. His near-immediate follow-up Now Only should not be nearly as good as it is, but it’s a similarly haunting and honest album. Continue reading
Where Painkillers served to bridge the gap from the crumbling Gaslight Anthem’s worst album to Brian Fallon’s solo career, Sleepwalkers sees Fallon comfortable in a singer-songwriter role. His sophomore solo effort marks a massive step up from the previous album. Fallon leans on the nostalgia that made him a punk celebrity, and the album is a good supplement to The Gaslight Anthem reunion this summer. Continue reading
Burger-A-Day 