Reviews

K-OsAtlantis: Hymns for Disco(Virgin)By now, hip-hoppers should be convinced that versatility is not a pretense if you can pull it off. This nice guy from Toronto keeps on strafing the spine with beats and rhyme, even as he works up a classy soul side and fuses fraChuck Teedals of rock to his own ends and…OK, […]

Regina SpektorBegin to Hope(Sire)Fuck anti-folk—Spektor is a pop superstar with the best wit and piano chops this side of Ben Folds. As “Fidelity” works its way into ubiquity scoring film trailers and Grey’s Anatomy previews, Spektor’s surprise dark side is waiting for you on “That Time” and the multi-language “Apres Moi.” Endlessly listenable.Tara Thornecategories: Best […]

Bon SavantsPost-Rock Defends the Nation (Independent) It happens all the time. One band flies under the radar that deserves attention on the end-of-year charts. Unless you’re an avid music blog reader or have a subscription to Spin, you probably don’t know the Bon Savants. But that could change, as the Boston-based quartet has followed the […]

The FratellisCostello Music(Drop the Gun)A thread flows from skiffle through the Small Faces, pub rock and the Sweet to make The Fratellis so identifiably British (two-thirds Scot, actually) that it’s refreshing. It’s like they can’t help it. The songs might change tempo from frenetic to jerky to flighty. Guitar aggression occurs with sparing but dramatic […]

Of MontrealHissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?(Polyvinyl)Following the release of the Inbreds’ brilliant Winning Hearts there was a review of the work in which the writer waxed on about how, for a music fan, there is nothing better than finding a pop songwriter when they hit their “moment.” It’s that time when an artist seems […]

Andrew RodriguezHere Comes the Light(Baudelaire)This is a record in search of an identity. Rodriguez nods to so many styles and singers—Sean Lennon, solo John Lennon, some Neil Young, orchestral motifs. What results is a blur. One song, “What I Done,” contains the lines: “Here comes another haunting memory/Leading us nowhere/Nowhere but home.” You could say […]

The AtarisWelcome the Night(Isola)Following 2003’s breakthrough So Long Astoria, the Ataris seemed poised to take over the emo-tinged, pop-punk throne. But frontperson Kristopher Roe fell into a quarter-life crisis—did he still want to be making music for disillusioned teenagers? The subsequent reevaluation of the band’s musical goals and loss of its rhythm section yielded Welcome […]

The PapercutsCan’t Go Back(GNOMONSONG)The Papercuts’ latest defies its title with a resurrection of the jangling backdrops to early Bob Dylan tracks or Neil Young’s complacent country moments. The overall construction, though, is more complex, cleaner and clearly modern. Jason Quever’s voice plunks into the centre of each song but drifts in and out with a […]

Cowboy JunkiesAt the End of Paths Taken(Latent)Just when you thought the Cowboy Junkies had started resting on its laurels, the band put out a stellar album of protest songs and covers in 2005—the political Early 21st Century Blues—that broke free of all expectation. And now it follows up with At the End of Paths Taken, […]