album reviews

December 21, 2010

Duran Duran

All You Need Is Now iTunes exclusive

Duran's Mark Ronson-produced 13th disc is a return to roots for a band that's all implants — which is part of the album's charm. "Being Followed" and the tawdry "Runway Runaway" are every bit the chic Riviera rock of Duran's 1980s classics, and the years have added posh-boy crankiness to Simon Le Bon's lyrics: "I should've known when I bought into the dream," he moans like the Miss Havisham of New Romantic overkill. It's the kind of empty thought that ... | More »

Vampire Weekend

iTunes Session (EP) XL

Vampire Weekend don't reinvent the six songs they run through on this live-in-the-studio session, but they do some nifty interior decorating. Trumpets add a Victorian air to VW's Afro-tinged hits "A-Punk" and "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa," and the band slows down the ska-tinged "Holiday," making it groove like a stoned Christmas party. On a loopy-yet-reverent cover of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm Going Down," Jersey native Ezra Koenig slips into the Bruce impression that lurks in e... | More »

Ghostface Killah

Apollo Kids Def Jam

Ghostface Killah is so charismatic, he can brag about being an old coot and make it sound badass. "New rappers need to skip town/This is East Coast music, Grandpa Ghost is around!" Ghost, now 40, raps. His ninth album is a return to gritty form after an uneven 2009 R&B experiment, Ghostdini: On track after track, he blows dust off some dirty-soul loop, with boasts as inspired as ever ("Catch me in a little hut in Benin, village-style, feeding the children") and street-crime storytelling a... | More »

Jamie Foxx

Best Night of My Life J

If you want depth from Jamie Foxx, go see one of his movies. On his fourth album, Foxx dedicates himself almost entirely to hard-edged party tunes and sexed-up ballads, making for a convincing Casanova on the thundering bedroom jam "Hit It Like This." The one break from the good times is "Fall for Your Type," a somber track in which Foxx drops into a pained purr and gives guest Drake a run for his melancholy-player money. It's refreshing to hear him finally switch up his script. Video: ... | More »

Keyshia Cole

Calling All Hearts Geffen

Cole is a multiplatinum star who had a hit reality show and recently became a mother. But the Oakland diva's fourth album is by no means a celebration: Cole is a heroine who thrives off tales of conflict, betrayal and survival. Her voice is as grit-flecked as ever, chewing through blaring beats and going pound-for-pound for ferocity with fellow bruiser Nicki Minaj ("I Ain't Thru"). It's not all fisticuffs — "Sometimes" is a wistful ballad built around acoustic guitar and ... | More »

December 14, 2010

Michael Jackson

Michael Sony

This is not a Michael Jackson album. Jackson was one of pop's biggest fussbudgets: Even when his songs were half-baked, the production was pristine. He would not have released anything like this compilation, a grab bag of outtakes and outlines assembled by Jackson's label. And yet, it's a testament to the man's charisma that Michael can be compelling. Jackson gets songwriting credit on eight of 10 tracks, and they are recognizably Michael Jackson songs. "Behind the Mask" i... | More »

Ryan Adams

III/IV Pax Am

Around 2006, prolific, hard-drugging singer-songwriter Ryan Adams cleaned up and began spitting out even more music. III/IV is 21 songs from 2007's Easy Tiger sessions, supplanting that album's wired folk rock with a blend of punk head rush, New Wave twitch, metal crunch and hippie noodling. "The Crystal Skull" is Morrissey with a girlfriend; "Ultraviolet Light" posits Ian Curtis fronting the Byrds. Does it cohere? Please. Just tighten your scarf and savor the storm. Keep up with r... | More »

R. Kelly

Love Letter Jive

R. Kelly is R&B's reigning king of outrageousness: Whether inspiring listeners to reach for the sky ("I Believe I Can Fly") or the Astroglide ("In the Kitchen"), he can always be counted on to deliver horny double-entendres and vocal acrobatics. But on his 11th studio album, Kelly experiments with a novel concept: restraint. Kelly is the consummate gentleman on the PG-rated Love Letter: The sunny title track finds him giving praise to "sweet dreams, butterflies, holding hands," and o... | More »

Phish

Alpine Valley 2010 JEMP

Jam kings hit a blissed-out peak on live setFor many Phish fans, the band's nights at Wisconsin's Alpine Valley Music Theatre in August were their best gigs of the summer. This new CD-DVD box set proves why, delivering focused jams and set lists that include rarities — "Fuck Your Face" has been played only five times since 1987 — and new nuggets like "Alaska," a funky hommage to the Dead's "Tennessee Jed." The peak? A 17-minute "Down With Disease," which segues into... | More »

December 7, 2010

Daft Punk

Tron: Legacy Walt Disney

This should have been a match made in disco heaven. Tron: Legacy is the sequel to a movie about a man trapped in a 1980s video game. Daft Punk — the vocoder-crazed, spacesuit-clad French electro duo — have always seemed like musicians trapped in a 1980s video game. Whether Daft Punk have created a worthy soundtrack is for filmgoers to decide. As for the album they've made — it's so-so mood music, full of dramatic, string-suffused sounds that are sometimes moving an... | More »