Tara Thorne

GomezOut West (ATO)From the rise and fall of Britpop stars Oasis and Blur through the recent surge of nu-New Wave acts like Bloc Party and onto the wuss rock of Coldplay (and lesser Coldplays Keane and Snow Patrol), everybody forgot about Gomez. A terrific British five-piece with three singers and a name like a Mexican […]

VariousMaybe This Christmas Tree (Nettwerk)Nettwerk’s winning compilation series—you could call it A Hipster Christmas—goes three for three with this collection of classic holiday tunes covered by bands normally holding onto an unhealthy amount of irony. The Polyphonic Spree’s “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” turns into jaunty Raveonettes effort “The Christmas Song” and then Death Cab’s […]

GrandaddyJust Like the Fambly Cat (V2)“We’ve been doing this a long fucking time,” says Grandaddy drummer Aaron Burtch in the new Magnet, “and it’s still not happened for us the way it happened for other people we toured with: Coldplay, Bright Eyes, Snow Patrol. We’re too weird, too fuckin’ ugly. We’re not rich kids, and […]

Kelly ClarksonMy December(SonyBMG)Draw a line in your mind. Write “Alanis Morissette” at the top and “Kelly Clarkson” at the bottom. From the top, add these titles: Alanis (1991). Now is the Time (1992). Jagged Little Pill (1995). Thankful (2003). Breakaway (2004). My December (2007). See the picture? Though Morissette’s trajectory—she fled to LA and found […]

Matthew GoodWhite Light Rock and Roll Review(Universal)From the opening riffs of “Put Out Your Lights,” Matthew Good’s short and sour second solo record rocks and bitches and questions and condemns for 40 minutes. Most songs are under four minutes, but Good can do a lot in that time—the record’s best track, “We’re So Heavy,” is […]

Robert Plant and Alison KraussRaising SandRounderThere have been some novelty pop pairings recently, most of them heinous—Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow, Tim McGraw and Nelly. In the pairing of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, we have something in the vein of the Emmylou Harris and Bright Eyes collaboration–logic wouldn’t have matched them up, but hearing […]

Maria Taylor11:11(Saddle Creek)Maria Taylor’s first solo outing does nothing to dull the shine on Saddle Creek, the Omaha label reaching early-’90s Sub Pop proportions. On a break from her day job as half of Azure Ray, Taylor offers 10 pretty, electronic-brushed pop songs perfect for scoring daydreams. She never does better than lead track “Leap […]