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Tanlines | Mixed Emotions

True Panther Sounds (2012)
Mixed Emotions is a shiny bear-hug of an album — sometimes short on fresh ideas, but never lacking in heart.

By: RYAN REED | March 13, 2012

The Cranberries | Roses

Downtown (2012)
As a gift, roses are generic. It's fitting, then, that this would be the title of the Cranberries' first effort in more than a decade.

By: MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER | March 13, 2012

The Shins | Port of Morrow

Aural Apothecary/Columbia (2012)
Meet the new Shins. Same as the old Shins? Kinda sorta.

By: ZETH LUNDY | March 13, 2012

Black Bananas | Rad Times Xpress IV

Drag City (2012)
It's a rare thing when you listen to a record and can actually hear drugs spewing from the speakers, but such is the gift of Rad Times Xpress IV , the latest from Jennifer Herrema, the exRoyal Trux chanteuse now doing business as Black Bananas.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | March 06, 2012

Bruce Springsteen | Wrecking Ball

Columbia (2012)
There was a time when Bruce Springsteen didn't need rousing choirs, swelling orchestrations, or repetitive Pogues poses to broadcast anthemic populist subversion.

By: ZETH LUNDY | March 06, 2012

John K. Samson | Provincial

Epitaph/Anti- (2011)
His inaugural gathering of bona-fide solo work summons an aura of full-blown tranquility.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | March 06, 2012

Nite Jewel | One Second of Love

Secretly Canadian (2012)
Los Angeles songstress Ramona Gonzalez began home-recording dark dance music in 2008, attracting the attention of blogspots and boutique labels with her soulful voice, lo-fi post-disco beats, and distinct sense of weirdo minimalism.

By: LIZ PELLY | March 06, 2012

Scuba | Personality

Hotflush Recordings (2012)
Believe it or not, there still exist some pockets of the globe where dubstep remains sacred, with champions of purism deflecting the ever-tainting mainstream intrusions.

By: MICHAEL C. WALSH | March 06, 2012

The Woodrow Wilsons | The Devil Jonah

Whitehaus Family Records (2012)
The Woodrow Wilsons are a haushold name — to anyone familiar with Jamaica Plain's Whitehaus Collective, that is.

By: EMMA DESSAU | March 07, 2012

Andrew Bird | Break It Yourself

Mom + Pop (2012)
Big freaking surprise: Break It Yourself, Andrew Bird's seventh collection of intimate chamber-pop, is . . . beautiful.

By: RYAN REED | February 28, 2012

Ava Luna | Ice Level

Infinite Best (2011)
Ava Luna is an experiment in off-kilter pop songcraft that melds R&B, soul, and synth-funk into an unusual shade of noisy post-punk gold.

By: LIZ PELLY | February 28, 2012

††† | EP 2

Deftones/Far (2012)
Don't be fooled by †††, a/k/a Crosses.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | February 28, 2012

Magical Mistakes | Special Friends

Kassette Klub (2012)
Before working as Magical Mistakes, Erik Luebs made bedroom electronica in California as Death by Panda.

By: NINA MASHUROVA | February 28, 2012

The Magnetic Fields | Love At The Bottom Of The Sea

Merge Records (2012)
The Magnetic Fields' last three albums all eschewed the synthesizers that typified their sound in the '90s, but Fields main man Stephin Merritt makes up for it on Love at the Bottom of the Sea, where he deploys at least 10 albums' worth of synths in a brisk 35 minutes.

By: GARRETT MARTIN | February 28, 2012

Xiu Xiu | Always

Polyvinyl (2012)
"I Luv Abortion" is the most disturbing song of 2012.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | February 28, 2012

Archers of Loaf | Vee Vee [Deluxe Remaster]

Merge
In all of indie rock there's no classic lyric more apt than Archers of Loaf's "Greatest of All Time": "The underground is overcrowded."

By: DAN WEISS | February 21, 2012

Hunx | Hairdresser Blues

Hardly Art (2012)
The idea of Hunx and His Punx's Seth Bogart doing a solo album is kind of silly.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | February 21, 2012

Memoryhouse | The Slideshow Effect

Sub Pop (2012)
When Evan Abeele and Denise Nouvion created Memoryhouse, they never intended to start a band.

By: LIZ PELLY | February 21, 2012

Poliça | Give You the Ghost

Totally Gross National Product (2012)
R&B, meet prog.

By: RYAN REED | February 21, 2012

School of Seven Bells | Ghostory

Vagrant (2012)
To enter School of Seven Bells' world, you have to share their refined sense of beauty.

By: REYAN ALI | February 21, 2012

Sleigh Bells | Reign of Terror

Mom + Pop (2012)
At least three unrelated people we know responded to Treats, the 2010 opening salvo from this Brooklynian pop duo, with statements like, "It's drum loops that took five minutes to write, cock-rock guitars, a singer who usually sounds like she's parodying a porn actor faking an orgasm — and it's super cool?"

By: BARRY THOMPSON | February 21, 2012

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