U.S. Girls: Half Free
On her 4AD debut, a Toronto artist produces a damaged pop nightmare and one of the best albums of the year.
Mike Opal
Darwin Deez: Double Down
For his third release, a pretender to Prince's throne trips over his own nastiness.
Conservative Radicalism in Edmund Burke’s ‘A Philosophical Inquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful’
A reissued classic of aesthetic theory asks, Can the body be a critic?
The Banality of Destiny
Fateful Ties is exhaustive and exhaustingly catalogued history of the US' aggressively narcissistic relationship with China.
Robert Christgau Falls From Grace in ‘Going into the City’
We have here the post-apocalyptic wanderer, able to go anywhere because there’s nowhere he belongs.
‘The Mathematician’s Shiva’ Is Classically Middlebrow
There are secret plots, geopolitical rumblings, high-math technical language, and a parrot of interest, but as often as not these things wanly colorize an otherwise monochromatic narrative.
NONONO: We Are Only What We Feel
This electro-dance trio wants you to feel human. Easier done than said.
Homeboy Sandman: White Sands
Queens' militant pedagogue teams up with one of London's weirder producers.
GRMLN: Soon Away
On his third release as GRMLN, Yoodoo Park expands and explores pop-punk's roots.
Hamilton Leithauser: Black Hours
The Walkmen's bandleader becomes big-band bandleader.
Black Pus / Oozing Wound: Split LP
Two very noisy bands try out kinds of noise.