POSTDATA’s ‘Twin Flames’ Wears Its Dark Heart on Its Sleeve
The new solo album from Wintersleep’s Paul Murphy as POSTDATA comes on strong with professions of love but in a genuinely compelling way.
Rod Waterman
Full-time apparatchik for Big Education, occasional poetry instructor, amateur painter, all-the-time seeker of new music.
Jane Weaver’s ‘ Flock’ Is a Virtuosic Tour de Force
Jane Weaver’s ‘Flock’ is perfectly complete, hermetically sealed while suggesting any number of influences and reference points that never usurp the originality of the songs themselves.
Brijean’s Electro Lounge-Pop Songs Defy Time on ‘Feelings’
It’s the sense of time passing and time co-existing with other times that stays with you after you hear Brijean’s’ Feelings’. It becomes almost an experience of existential exploration and wonder.
Cloud Nothings’ ‘The Shadow I Remember’ Is a Life-Affirming and Defiant Statement
Cloud Nothings’ ‘The Shadow I Remember’ caps a remarkably prolific 12 months for leader Dylan Baldi with a reminder about the possibilities for community that music can provide.
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Sleaford Mods’ ‘Spare Ribs’ Offers a Rich and Welcome Catharsis
Sleaford Mods’ 11th studio album runs a glorious gamut from righteous anger to poignant introspection in a masterpiece of incisive cultural commentary and fully realized artistic vision.
Apparat’s ‘Soundtrack: Capri-Revolution’ Stands Alone As a Great Ambient Experience
Apparat's (aka Sascha Ring) re-imagined score from Mario Martone's 2018 Capri-Revolution works as a fine accompaniment to a meditational flight of fancy.
Half Waif’s ‘The Caretaker’ Is a Small Art Pop Treasure
Half Waif's second album, The Caretaker, takes a microscope and a scalpel to the mysteries and wonders of the quotidian, to great effect.
Hiss Golden Messenger’s ‘Forward, Children’ Offers “Beauty in the Broken American Moment”
Hiss Golden Messenger offer up a welcome serving of musical communion, and in the service of others, during a time when we all need consolation and reassurance. Forward, Children is a PopMatters Pick and aids a worthy cause: education.
Four Tet’s ‘Sixteen Oceans’ Explores a Rich Sound Palette
Four Tet's 10th album, Sixteen Oceans, begins on the dancefloor, travels to the woods, and ends becalmed, invoking, and bestowing peace and tranquility.
Electronic Artist Burial Creates Flawless Music of Bewilderment and Compassion
Burial's Tunes 2011-2019 is music that describes our alienation while it also provides us no little comfort in the face of that gloomy reality. This is flawless music of bewilderment and compassion in equal measure.
Mark Mulcahy’s ‘The Gus’ Is an Elusive and Mysterious Delight
Taking inspiration from the short fiction of George Saunders and featuring guest appearances from Rain Phoenix and J. Mascis, Mark Mulcahy condenses ten brilliant and baffling short stories into barely a half hour of music.
Monomotion’s ‘Fujisan’ Effortlessly Synthesizes Beats and Ambience
Monomotion have crafted a gorgeous suite of songs that you can dance to and relax with in a beautifully satisfying conclusion to a trilogy that began in 2015.