Cloudspeakers

Frightened Rabbit’s last album, 2008’s The Midnight Organ Fight, was damn near perfect, and those who discovered it tended to embrace it passionately. While it’s pointless to speculate on the press... Read more

Boy, midlake's Tim Smith wasn't joking when he said that his band's third album -- and first since breaking bigger with 2006's breathtaking, Fleetwood Mac–inspired Trials of Van Occupanther -- wa... Read more

On this third album, Editors expand their sonic vocabulary by supplementing -- at times, even replacing -- straightforward Brit-rock riffing with dark, '80s new-wave keyboards that alternately... Read more

It's fun, if slightly jarring, to hear this infectiously hyperactive indie crew stretch out a little. <i>Romance</i>, their third album in 24 months, is more slickly assured -- and... Read more

And from a cocoon of hazy psych-folk comes…a masterful mash-up of '80s synth pop and tribal-beat tickles? Brooklyn's Yeasayer are going to need more hyphens. The biggest, boldest, and b... Read more

In recent years, slowcore pioneers Low have forcefully shaken their defining somberness and dabbled in what actually might be called rock. So it wasn't a total shock in 2008 when singer-guitar... Read more

It’s comforting to learn that Lady Gaga’s supposed dark side—<i>The Fame Monster</i> offers a flipside to <i>The Fame</i>’s sexy fun—is just as fun-loving and club... Read more

The band Rex made three albums in the mid-’90s—one decent and two excellent—that seemed to portend, at least at the time, much greater things. But the quartet—part of the sh... Read more

It’s probably safe to assume that most people heard Nirvana’s debut, Bleach, after already experiencing the massive, culture-shifting Nevermind. Though the albums clearly emerged from t... Read more

It’s easy to understand why other artists would want to get their hands on Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, and why Phoenix fans might be clamoring for more: It’s a frontrunner for album of th... Read more