Blog: PopMatters

Daft Punk unleash their inner disco auteurs and release a colossal, self-indulgent mess as their comeback album . And make it work. Like PopMatters on Facebook and Twitter to double and triple your chances to win. a Rafflecopter giveaway

This album is that rarity of a gem, it's an instant classic, and it is utterly flawless. Jerry Miller is a guy who will turn 70 years old this year and a dude who certainly has learned his way around the guitar during his long lifetime. He was a founding member of the critically acclaimed '60s band Moby Grape, and Rolling Stone lists him at No. 68 on their countdown of the 100 greatest guitarists ... of all time. So while he may not exactly be a household name, Miller is certainly...

Here's another song for your summer 2013 soundtrack. "Sure Stuck" by Honeymoon has that laid-back groove of '60s and '70s psych pop without being stuck in the past, which is always a fine line. This catchy tune begins with a buzz of synths that weaves throughout vocal harmonies and a percussive swagger. It luxuriates to almost seven minutes, enough to lounge outside and get a sunburn. Honeymoon is a new musical project by two Australian LA-based producers, Aaron Shanahan and Benjamin Plant. After years producing and writing electronic music, they decided to indulge in their love of lo-fi psychedelia. [...]

There isn't a moment here that isn't danceably, head-bangingly fun, but it's also a kind of fun you've probably had before. New York's Dirty Fences are a rock 'n roll band in the most timeless sense of the world. They chug through power chords at breakneck speed, but this isn't about a punk sneer, a galvanizing against, but instead a gathering around. Too High to Kross is a series of heavy-hitting but party-light rock tunes that will get you banging your head and, sometimes, humming along. Songs such as "Heaven is Tonight" or "Under Your Leather"...

Silver Arm are a new British band specializing in hard-hitting, post-punky psychedelia. "Dead Tongues" is one of the group's demos that FatCat is showing off at present. This ravaging two-minute blast is a jolt of kinetic energy that highlights a bright future for Silver Arm.

• Silver Arm - Dead Tongues

Guitar troubadour wants you to laugh along with his pain Phil Lee is a Nashville-based singer and guitarist who feels that humor has its place in the blues-preferably front and center. On tunes like the jaunty "Blues In Reverse" or the vicious "Every Time", he uses his vocals to presumed comic effect; album opener "I Hated to See You Go" opens with the lines "When you left, I said at last / And gave you twenty bucks for gas". If you're fond of such Dylan-esque...

Another anthem for this summer's soundtrack. Here come the summer anthems -- Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" and Empire of the Sun's "Alive" are already getting plenty of airplay, and now there's "Dumb Disco Ideas" by DFA artist Holy Ghost! Check out the recent Red Bull Academy film, "12 Years of DFA Too Old to Be New, Too New to Be Classic", about the label (home of LCD Soundsystem, YACHT and Holy Ghost!) Their credo is basically that all music is dance...

With the subtlety of an air raid siren blaring positive vibes, this Dutch rapper's ambitious new record should be classified as a WMD. The sort of competent rapper that would have stayed well-fed in the late '90s, when scores of big beat also-rans strived to be the next Apollo 440 or Lo Fidelity Allstars, Skiggy Rapz has undeniable ambition. Tragically, the Dutchman's zeal and pulsating positivity yields exponentially more cringes than cheers on Satellites. Something this strategically commercial and unreservedly saccharine shouldn't sound so downright dreadful in the execution. An abominable amalgamation of rap cliches with outright gibberish,...

• Beats Broke - Skiggy Rapz - Circle Round

Why do modern adaptations of Shakespeare work? Yet Baz Luhrmann's adaptations of period pieces don't? PopMatters seeks feature essays (min. 1,200 words - no max. limit) arguing the pros and cons of anachronism in film, literature, video games, music and other products of pop culture.

These diverse songs allow Natalie Maines to showcase her uncanny knack for delivering a wealth of emotional information without over-playing her hand. Like PopMatters on Facebook and Twitter to double and triple your chances of winning. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Despite its rich tradition, the future of gospel music in various parts of the world has been an issue of contention and heartbreak in recent years, but he Electrifying Crown Seekers make a case that the genre is still going strong. It's hard to pinpoint exactly when and where gospel music began. Common wisdom would suggest that it's been around for centuries, originating far before a recording button even existed, thus making a precise date, time and place for its genesis an impossibility to distinguish. And because it is most associated with religion, an idiom with a timeline that [...]

Having established himself at the forefront of global progressive music, Steven Wilson won't rest on the success of Porcupine Tree if sonic borders remain to be breached. But first he has to find a way to signal past the noise, in a world where too many choices often send listeners screaming for the exits. Steven Wilson remains, as ever, a busy man. Having established himself at the forefront of global progressive music over the past twenty years, Wilson -- whose diverse career spans microambient to pop -- has earned the right to explore whatever musical tangent he chooses. Even [...]

Shining have followed up its career-defining masterwork, Blackjazz , with the exuberant One One One , which takes its unparalleled sonic and places it within the framework of the pop album. With 2010's career-defining Blackjazz, Norwegian band Shining (not to be confused with the Swedish depressive black metal outfit of the same name) held back from polishing the roughness that was always present around its sonic edges. Despite moving away from its origins as an acoustic jazz ensemble and into the realm of extreme metal over the latter part of the '00s, even when it went all-out [...]

• The Shining - 'One One One'

Mark E. Smith's production reveals a band determined to explore its denser, edgy, introverted character. The songs burrow down and hunker close. You approach them; they do not reach out to you. As with nearly all of the Fall, this album does what it wants to do, forcing the listener to submit to its terms. Re-Mit sustains the claustrophobic ambiance and subterranean moods of the Fall's recent releases. Produced by Mark E. Smith, it captures the spookier, isolated feel of the latest incarnation of the long-lived group, on its 30th studio record since 1977. With attention to depth, the [...]

The latest from Amidon succeeds in its unhurried easiness. Sam Amidon's strength lies in his interpretive imagination, typically revisiting traditional roots and folk music but occasionally digging up, say, an R. Kelly nugget. His reinventions have ranged from spare and stripped-down to more complex and fuller, as developed on 2010's I See the Sign. His latest work, Bright Sunny South, ostensibly works as a return to a simpler sound, but it's simpler only through the lens of a greater maturity, with Amidon's ability to...

Conceptual and ambitious, Love Lust Faith + Dreams has finer moments as well as moments that are overwrought, overextended, and overproduced. Alternative rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars return with their fourth studio album and first album in four years, Love Lust Faith + Dreams, following 2009's This Is War. Conceptual and ambitious, Love Lust Faith + Dreams has its finer moments as well as moments that are overwrought, overextended, and overproduced. The best material graces the front of the album while the middle and back-half are less triumphant. "Birth" establishes the tone, with magnificent production...

• Joseph de marcos - Thirty Seconds To Mars - Conquistador (Album Delux) "Love Lust Faith + Dreams"
• Universal Music Backstage - THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS - Up In The Air

It might not rank with the best of the 1990s, but Blind Melon's debut holds up as a solid rock record that also happens to contain one of the best pop songs of the past two decades. It starts with ringing guitar tones that glide through the air like ripples in a pond. Then comes a breezy, shuffling beat, propelled by finger-snap percussion and jaunty strums of an acoustic guitar. The vocals enter last - earnest, plaintive, a bit of distortion hinting at some inner darkness. There you have the first few seconds of "No Rain", the breakout hit [...]

Justin Ancheta can come off at times as a San Francisco-flavored Jack Johnson, but he and his band definitely have a promising start here. Justin Ancheta's Plant is a fine, unassuming full-length album. His website refers to his music as reggae flavored funk and jazz -- this fits most of the time, with reggae featuring most prominently in the mix. At times he sounds like a San Francisco flavored Jack Johnson - albeit a more permanently relaxed Jack Johnson. Opening "Forever" paints a slow-burning blues-pop groove with just the lightest touch of reggae hints -- a fine song to...

Mark de Clive-Lowe doesn't turn big band music on its head so much as he injects it with new blood. The title for this project can work as a piece of foreshadowing. There is a Duke Ellington cover inside, but it's not the Strayhorn original "Take the 'A' Train". This is big band music, but it is not firmly rooted in the earth. This is big band jazz that can swing just as well as it can hover in the atmosphere, thanks to some electronically enhanced performances. Take the Space Trane is one of those...

One of the finest American musical interpreters hits us where it counts with spirityouall ... the heart. No one should ever dismiss Bobby McFerrin. It's easy to forever associate him with the theme from The Cosby Show and "Don't Worry, Be Happy", but that disservices the listener far more than it does McFerrin. Yes, his innovation in the realm of a cappella is what he is best known for, but beyond the rhythmic body lies a voice so incredibly emotive. spirityouall is by all means a departure from jazz, and jazz in...