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Listening Room: Album Reviews

Sylvan Esso: No Rules Sandy

Think you’ve heard every iteration of the “pandemic album”? Think again. Electro-pop duo Sylvan Esso is back with No Rules Sandy, the follow-up to their 2020 album, Free Love.

Sylvan Esso: No Rules Sandy

Maggie Rogers: Surrender

It’s no secret that the aughts are back: the teens are reviving low-rise jeans, Crocs are no longer worn ironically, and the nostalgia around an age before the pervasiveness of social media has never been stronger. So how do you make music that encapsulates that feeling without being completely derivative? Enter Maggie Rogers’ newest album, Surrender.

Maggie Rogers: Surrender

Two Door Cinema Club: Keep On Smiling

Grab your sunglasses, pack your sunscreen, and make sure you’ve still got your summer weekends all freed up, because Two Door Cinema Club has done it again!

Two Door Cinema Club: Keep On Smiling

Interpol: On the Other Side of Make-Believe

On the heels of Interpol’s Turn on the Bright Lights 20th anniversary comes the band’s seventh studio album, On the Other Side of Make-Believe. Ebbing the flow of any fanfare that will arise from celebrating TOTBL, one of the best indie/alt-rock album releases of the 2000s, Make-Believe has ushered in a new era of Interpol music.

Interpol: On the Other Side of Make-Believe

King Princess: Hold On Baby

King Princess makes her grand return with her long-awaited sophomore effort, Hold On Baby. Under her moniker, songwriter and producer Mikaela Straus has created some of her most earnest work yet.

King Princess: Hold On Baby

Arcade Fire: WE

From the outset, Arcade Fire’s latest album, WE, is about looking, reflection and perspective.

Arcade Fire: WE

Angel Olsen: Big Time

How do you reconcile newfound love and freedom with unimaginable loss? It’s a question most would struggle to answer, but one Angel Olsen—master of heartache and grief—tackles head-on in her new release, Big Time.

Angel Olsen: Big Time

Florence and the Machine: Dance Fever

Rock’s witchiest star (okay, aside from Stevie Nicks) is back in a blaze of glory. Florence + the Machine’s Dance Fever is the long-awaited fifth studio album for the London-based band, helmed by coven leader Florence Welch.

Florence and the Machine: Dance Fever

LucaBrasi: Prefader Postfader

It’s not often that an album you eagerly anticipate takes 10 years to be released (make it 11), but for St. Louis’s LucaBrasi, it’s understandable.

LucaBrasi: Prefader Postfader

Kevin Morby: This Is A Photograph

Muffled voices, birds chirping and slight strumming greet us in the intro of Kevin Morby’s latest album, and they guide us into the album’s namesake, This Is A Photograph.

Kevin Morby: This Is A Photograph

Sharon Van Etten: We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong

Indie-rock darling Sharon Van Etten breaks new ground and gets deep in her latest full-length release, We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong.

Sharon Van Etten: We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong

Hembree: It's A Dream

This album is a masterpiece, and I do not say that lightly. It is far and few between that an album is able to nuzzle itself inside your brain like It’s a Dream can.

Hembree: It's A Dream

Districts: Great American Painting

Indie-rock outfit The Districts returns with their newest LP, Great American Painting, an exploration of the paradox of the modern American Dream.

Districts: Great American Painting

Spoon: Lucifer on the Sofa

Three decades into their career, Spoon continues to impress with their newest project, Lucifer on the Sofa.

Spoon: Lucifer on the Sofa

Deap Vally: Marriage

Los Angeles-based, loud-and-proud rock duo Deap Vally returns with their sixth studio release, Marriage.

Deap Vally: Marriage

Big Thief: Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You

On their newest LP release, Brooklyn-based Big Thief delivers a sprawling display of the band’s talents, with each member bringing something new and unexpected to fans of their previous releases.

Big Thief: Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
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