Listening Room: Album Reviews
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Arcade Fire: WE
From the outset, Arcade Fire’s latest album, WE, is about looking, reflection and perspective.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Deap Vally: Marriage
Los Angeles-based, loud-and-proud rock duo Deap Vally returns with their sixth studio release, 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.
Spoon: Lucifer on the Sofa
Three decades into their career, Spoon continues to impress with their newest project, Lucifer on the Sofa.
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.