Mclusky The Difference Between You And Me Is That I'm Not On Fire Too Pure By: Eric Greenwood
My, how we've toned down since Mclusky Do Dallas. Andy Falkous' full-throttle shriek has morphed into a far more digestible, dare I say, singing voice? The ghost of The Jesus Lizard is alive and well [...]

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Junior Boys Last Exit Kin By: Eric Greenwood
Invariably, when you invoke synthpop in any context the discussion turns retro, but with a record like Last Exit by the Canadian trio, Junior Boys, one can look to the future without seeming too out of touch. The synths are glassy and oblique, underscored by beats [...]

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Fitzgerald Light A Match And Let It Burn Slowly 2024 By: Eric Greenwood
Most of the time it's easy to guess what genre an album is just by glancing at the artwork. This is, admittedly, a pretty shallow practice, but it's a knee-jerk reaction, deeply imbedded in my brain. I've always done it, [...]

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Fuck Those Are Not My Bongos Future Farmer By: Eric Greenwood
Ignoring the fact that this band is called Fuck would be way too passive aggressive. But at the same time, I hate being forced to comment on it. It's neither shocking nor particularly clever. It's just awkward- like when a retarded [...]

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The Cure The Cure Geffen By: Eric Greenwood
Why can't Robert Smith ever quit while he's ahead? If The Cure had broken up after The Prayer Tour in 1989, supporting its masterpiece, Disintegration, the band would have an unshakable, absolutely bulletproof legend. But, no, Smith had to keep pushing and pushing until his [...]

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Mission Of Burma OnOffOn Matador By: Eric Greenwood
Seeing Mission of Burma last year was truly one of the most exciting concerts of my life. I couldn't believe it was actually happening. I'd long since given up the idea that a band I was too young to have experienced in its heyday would [...]

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Muse Absolution Warner Bros. By: Eric Greenwood
Matthew Bellamy's voice is so similar to Thom Yorke's that it makes me uncomfortable for him. He even has Thom Yorke's exaggerated, breathy gasp and awkward facial ticks down pat. This is not news to Muse, however, who have been beleaguered with the Radiohead imitators tag [...]

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The Magnetic Fields I Nonesuch By: Eric Greenwood
On 69 Love Songs, Stephin Merritt all but abandoned his signature tinny electronic sound in favor of the baroque setting yielded by cello, guitar, and that unmistakable baritone. Five years later, Merritt revisits his most substantive moniker with a collection of songs linked loosely by the [...]

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The Good Life Lovers Need Lawyers Saddle Creek By: Eric Greenwood
The Good Life is Tim Kasher from Cursive's less, abrasive, more emotional (if that's even possible) "other" band. Kasher feels he can't quite express his "softer" side in Cursive (though, I'm not sure how much softer one can get than bearing one's soul, [...]

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The Walkmen Bows & Arrows Record Collection By: Eric Greenwood
The steady speed of the opening guitar strum on "The Rat" sounds exactly like something from The Wedding Present's heyday, circa Sea Monsters in 1991. Once those sixteenth notes on the high-hat kick in, I am so sold. It's an instant classic. [...]

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The Walkmen Bows + Arrows Record Collection By: Eric Greenwood
The steady speed of the opening guitar strum on "The Rat" sounds exactly like something from The Wedding Present's heyday, circa Sea Monsters in 1991. Once those sixteenth notes on the high-hat kick in, I am so sold. It's an instant classic. [...]

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Pixies Bam Thwok iTunes By: Eric Greenwood
As utterly anti-rock and roll as reunions are, I was positively giddy when I heard that the Pixies were actually going through with it after months of teasing and rumors. Upon hearing evidence of the new live show, my fears were somewhat quelled: the Pixies still rock [...]

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Blonde Redhead Misery Is A Butterfly 4AD By: Eric Greenwood
Blonde Redhead's foray into strings and synths has muted what made it great on its first four albums. Despite, Kazudo Makino's uniquely shrill yelp and Amedo Pace's countering tenor, Blonde Redhead's delineating factor has always been the nuanced way it incorporated discordancy into its [...]

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Bonnie Prince Billy Greatest Palace Music Drag City By: Eric Greenwood
This is a terrible idea, even on paper. Will Oldham re-records an album's worth of his best songs from his Palace years with a professional studio backing band in Nashville, Tennessee, presumably to introduce a new crop of hipsters to what they might [...]

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Prince Musicology Columbia By: Eric Greenwood
Despite all the recent press and hype, Musiclogy is not a return to form for Prince. It's simply a case of the public being nostalgic for his former greatness, as he blatantly coasts on his own legend. Granted, it's about time people started noticing him again (and [...]

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PJ Harvey Uh Huh Her Island By: Eric Greenwood
PJ Harvey's Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea was my favorite album of 2000, hands down. Yes, it was the slickest album of her career, eschewing the raucous caterwauling of Rid of Me as well as the low-end semi-trip-hop of Is This Desire?, [...]

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Stereolab Margerine Eclipse Elektra By: Eric Greenwood
Stereolab never fails to remove me from whatever my surroundings are. I am instantly carried off to moog Utopia (Potatoes, Comrade?), thanks to Laetitia Sadier's otherworldly monotone and Tim Gane's lush and locked melodic grooves. I never really try to distinguish one song from another on [...]

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Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand Domino By: Eric Greenwood
Franz Ferdinand has panache. That word is applicable to very few bands these days, especially when most hide behind bandwagon-esque trends and slacker cool. It takes a rare class of insight, personality, and cleverness to attain such a descriptor, but Franz Ferdinand exploits it freely. [...]

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Trans Am Liberation Thrill Jockey By: Eric Greenwood
Remember back when people gave a shit about Trans Am? What happened? That double album, Red Line, certainly didn't help matters, but it wasn't all bad. I mean, I distinctly remember at least two good songs on it ("I Want It All", "Play in [...]

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Modest Mouse Good News For People Who Love Bad News Epic By: Eric Greenwood
Producing the follow up to your career-defining album is no small feat, evidenced by the fact that it took Modest Mouse four years just to rear its head again. Good News for People Who Love Bad News better represents Modest [...]

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