album reviews
Fiona Apple
The Idler Wheel... Epic
A Fiona Apple record is a study in meticulousness and mayhem. The meticulousness is in the music – the rigorous art-pop constructions that mark Apple as an heir to songwriting sophisticates like Stephen Sondheim and Elvis Costello. And the mayhem? That's Apple herself. For a decade and a half she has been one of pop's most volatile presences: pouting, lamenting, raging, jabbing a poison pen at ruthless fate and callous ex-lovers, but always turning her most savage attacks inwa... | More »
Kylie Minogue
The Best of Kylie Minogue EMI
With electronic grooves dominating Top 40 radio, Australia's Kylie Minogue and her euphoric dance pop are more relevant than ever. This 21-track set plays like a crash course in the history of international club style – from the aerobic corn of her fluke 1988 hit "The Loco-Motion" to 2010's feistier French house-inspired "Get Outta My Way." Listen to 'The Best of Kylie Minogue':Related• Photos: Random Notes | More »
Smashing Pumpkins
Oceania Martha’s Music/EMI
Billy Corgan has never been one to make things easy, on himself or others. Oceania is an "album within an album," the next 13 songs in the Pumpkins' ongoing 44-song art-rock odyssey Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, which began in 2009. Luckily, it's also a good stand-alone record, a bong-prog take on the alt-rock grandeur of Gish and Siamese Dream: "One Diamond, One Heart" sounds like Yes hanging in a German disco circa 1977, and "Pinwheels" is folky moon worship with laser-show guitar s... | More »
Kenny Chesney
Welcome to the Fishbowl BNA
Fans still find his tractor and Tiki bars sexy, but Welcome to the Fishbowl continues Kenny Chesney's trajectory away from Margaritaville and toward singer-songwriter introspection: Sad songs set in El Cerrito and New York; a title track peevishly protesting lost privacy. Fairly depressive, in total – but these days, Chesney sounds more convincing when he's less upbeat. Listen to 'Welcome to the Fishbowl': Related• Photos: Random Notes | More »
Rush
Clockwork Angels Anthem/Roadrunner
It's got a dystopian sci-fi plot and lyrics like "All I know is that sometimes the truth is contrary." But the first Rush album in five years isn't just one of the band's Rushiest; it's also very good – frenetic and heavy, low on prog thought puzzles, high on power-trio interplay that could put guys half their age in the burn ward. Nickelback-like meathead modern-rock production actually adds power to these ancient masters' gnomic turgidity: Even the seven-minut... | More »
Diplo
Express Yourself EP Mad Decent
Exercising none of the production restraint that made Usher's "Climax" spring's best quiet-storm jam, Diplo achieves awesomeness the opposite way on this six-song set. He throws synthesizer tantrums full of chest-beating bass lines and calls in pottymouthed MCs like Nicky Da B, who helped turn "Express Yourself" into a NSFW YouTube classic. Listen to "Express Yourself": Related• Photos: Random Notes | More »
Liars
WIXIW Mute
Maybe it was only a matter of time before these former Radiohead tourmates took a shot at their own Kid A. The unpredictable noise rockers come pretty close on their sixth album, although WIXIW packs too many weird twists to feel derivative. Liars build a haunted palace of smeared synths and dysfunctional drum machines around Angus Andrew's echo-cloaked incantations. "This spiral down, no coming back/ A dead end, again and again and again," Andrew moans on "No. 1 Against the Rush," one o... | More »
Public Image Ltd.
This Is PiL PiL Official
Since John Lydon last made an album, he reunited the Sex Pistols and appeared on TV as a Judge Judy litigant, a reality-show contestant and a spokesman for Country Life butter; in short, he's become the punk-rock Kelly Ripa. But This Is PiL proves that the taunting weaponry of his voice is still a delight, as he drawls out syllables like an over-the-top TV villain. It's tough to sharpen a rusty tool, and Lydon's lyrics are often overshadowed by Lu Edmonds' piercing guitar ... | More »
Tedeschi Trucks Band
Everybody’s Talkin’ Sony Masterworks
On this two-disc live album, slide guitarist Derek Trucks, blues shouter (and Trucks' wife) Susan Tedeschi and nine friends cut a path between the improvised and the carefully arranged. Check the way horns reappear throughout Trucks' winding, tumultuous solo on the 13-minute "Bound for Glory," bringing order to chaos. Related• Photos: Random Notes | More »
Fela Kuti and Egypt 80
Live in Detroit, 1986 Knitting Factory
When Fela Kuti played this 1986 gig, he'd just spent 20 months in prison on charges brought by a Nigerian dictator. So the Afrobeat godfather's always-present indignation has particular bite on this live LP, as he and a band of 27 unspool powerful jams that mix funk, jazz and traditional African music. The sound quality isn't ideal, but Fela's bruising music is. Listen to 'Live in Detroit, 1986': Related• Photos: Random Notes | More »
Music Reviews
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star ratingBelieve -
star ratingThe Idler Wheel... -
star ratingOceania
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star ratingThe Best of Kylie Minogue -
star ratingWelcome to the Fishbowl -
star ratingEurope
Photos & Videos
Random Notes: Hottest Rock Pictures
Gallery: Bush Tour Gallery
