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RYAN REED

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Cat Power | Sun

Matador (2012)
Mental illness, bankruptcy, heartbreak, sonic impotence: Chan Marshall has suffered through her share of crises since her last album of original material, 2006's highly praised The Greatest .

By: RYAN REED | September 12, 2012

The xx | Coexist

Young Turks (2012)
The xx's sleeper electro-soul debut was defined by its silences as much as its sounds: by the pauses between dusty, cymbal-less beats, stoned basslines, and echoing guitar pings, and by the pregnant tension between the voices (the unison NyQuil croons of Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim).

By: RYAN REED | September 04, 2012

Lynyrd Skynyrd | Last of a Dyin' Breed

Roadrunner Records
The eponymous track of Lynyrd Skynyrd's 13th studio album opens with a tease of gritty gusto — a skank-nasty slide riff a few ghostly notes short of Led Zep's "In My Time of Dying."

By: RYAN REED | August 28, 2012

Nathan Fake | Steam Days

Border Community (2012)
Even though it's difficult to feel a human pulse on his third studio album, Steam Days, Nathan Fake's brand of laptop-tronica remains uniquely organic.

By: RYAN REED | August 21, 2012

Yeasayer | Fragrant World

Secretly Canadian (2012)
To promote their excellent third album, Fragrant World, Brooklyn's resident art-pop weirdos sent their fans on a psychedelic audio-visual Internet scavenger hunt.

By: RYAN REED | August 15, 2012

Niki & the Dove | Instinct

Sub Pop (2012)
On their debut full-length Instinct, these electro-pop Swedes strike a delicate balance between trance-y hooks and artful, world music weirdness — and the results typically sound like Cyndi Lauper covering Fleetwood Mac, as produced by Kate Bush.

By: RYAN REED | August 07, 2012

In This Moment | Blood

Century Media (2012)
After In This Moment's 2007 debut, the Los Angeles quintet took part in something called the "Hot Chicks of Metal Tour."

By: RYAN REED | July 31, 2012

Icky Blossoms | Icky Blossoms

Saddle Creek (2012)
Icky Blossoms prefer their retro-styled dance music deep-fried and nasty.

By: RYAN REED | July 24, 2012

The Very Best | MTMTMK

Moshi Moshi/Cooperative Music (2012)
"World music" is an archaic label, but there's no better way to describe the Very Best's MTMTMK .

By: RYAN REED | July 17, 2012

The emotional electronics of Hot Chip

Head music
"You don't always just feel one thing at one time," says Alexis Taylor, Hot Chip's nerd-genius frontman, referencing the grand ambiguity of pop music.

By: RYAN REED | July 10, 2012

Twin Shadow | Confess

4AD (2012)
4AD Ever since his 2010 synth-pop sleeper debut Forget blew up like a critical landmine, Twin Shadow mastermind and former Bostonian George Lewis Jr. has been pigeonholed as an '80s-pop revivalist, mostly to his own annoyance.

By: RYAN REED | July 10, 2012

Dirty Projectors | Swing Lo Magellan

Domino (2012)
In the indie-rock academy of musical tomfoolery, Dave Longstreth has always earned excellent marks.

By: RYAN REED | July 03, 2012

The Smashing Pumpkins | Oceania

Martha's Music (2012)
Billy Corgan's ego alone has probably gone triple-platinum, and he's never been afraid of calling himself a genius (even while promoting skanky, mediocre albums like Machina and Zeitgeist).

By: RYAN REED | June 19, 2012

Fawn | Coastlines

Quite Scientific Records (2012)
Jaded girl-boy harmonies, gleeful three-chord riffs, healthy doses of punkish noise and emo melody: Coastlines , the debut LP from Detroit indie-pop quartet Fawn, feels like a charming souvenir from a musical era two decades in the rear-view.

By: RYAN REED | June 05, 2012