Tara Thorne

The Porcelain GodsEmergency Band Meeting(independent)While Wintersleep and the DP crew take the Halifax scene in a new direction, the Porcelain Gods update the classic New Seattle sound in a way that’s less homage than evolution. This three-song EP takes the uptempo pep (hand claps!) and three singers of old and pairs them with lyrics that […]

Giant DragHearts and Unicorns(Kickball)Indie rock outfit Giant Drag is Annie Hardy and Micah Calabrese. Annie sings and plays guitar (and the odd bassline). Micah drums and plays synth (and the odd riff). As girl-boy duos go, they’re more serious than Morningwood, less self-important than the White Stripes and more accessibly clever than Mates of State. […]

Death Cab for CutiePlans (Atlantic) Death Cab for Cutie hasn’t made its best record. The lush Transatlanticism (2003) — the mainstream score that landed this new deal with Atlantic — came close. Closer still was 2001’s The Photo Album, tinged with more anger than usual and coiled up under tight production. As for individual song […]

Juliana HatfieldIn Exile Deo(Rounder)After 2000’s gorgeous Beautiful Creature and last year’s downright peppy side project Some Girls, Juliana Hatfield has returned to her Boston-honed indie rock roots. Like Joni Mitchell’s, Hatfield’s high girly voice has deepened with time, so it’s easier to accept lines like “I know I’m a fairweather fuck.” Featuring some of her […]

Tori AmosA Piano: The Collection(Rhino)Three of Tori Amos’s last four releases have been repackages: 2003’s Tales of a Librarian, a collection of her best-known songs (“hits” is inaccurate); last year’s Bootlegs, a web-only 12-disc series of six live shows from the Original Sinsuality tour; and the mother lode, this five-disc, 80-song retrospective. But none of […]

Fall Out BoyInfinity on HighUniversal“Welcome, it’s here,” intros Jay-Z off the top of the quartet’s how-you-like-us-now follow-up to the breakthrough From Under the Cork Tree. Pete Wentz’s antics detract from his band’s massive hooks, great lines like “long live the car-crash hearts” and a generational rally call in “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s An Arms […]

ColdplayX & Y(Parlophone)When wags call Coldplay the next U2, they mean the British quartet is the Next Great Anthem Band. Coldplay finds strength in the crescendo, the ethereal chorus, the dramatic pause and the spare outro: songs to sing along to with 20,000 of your closest friends. Think of “Yellow,” their biggest single, and its […]

Tori AmosThe Beekeeper(Epic)Old fans sniffing that Tori Amos has lost it are like indie dopes who can’t grasp that bands want to sell records: If you don’t get it now, you never did. Buzzing in three years after Scarlet’s Walk, her epic interpretation of post-9/11 America, The Beekeeper blends Under the Pink’s balladry with Boys […]