Album Reviews from Rolling Stone 60 Thu, 14 Jul 2016 19:34:40 -0400 © Copyright 2016 Rolling Stone en-US When feminist punk patron saint Kathleen Hanna launched her newest project, The Julie Ruin, in 2010 – after years spent out of the spotlight due to late stage lyme disease – expectations were high. Thankfully, the group's 2013 debut album Run Fast was triumphant, filled with the same searing energy and lo-fi DIY ethos... Wed, 13 Jul 2016 14:21:00 -0400 217686 The 14th album from New York art-bruisers Swans is the third thumbscrew twist in a series of roughly two-hour, two-CD epics, joining 2012'sThe Seer and 2014's To Be Kind as another journey into transcendence or tedium, depending on your tolerance for expressionist rock marathons. It's also the final album with... Mon, 11 Jul 2016 18:18:00 -0400 217524 Schoolboy Q's 2014 major-label debut, Oxymoron, marked him as the most street MC in L.A.'s Black Hippy rap collective. No less stressed or conflicted than that crew's breakout star, Kendrick Lamar, he's reporting from deeper within the fog of war on his follow-up. "I'll trade the noise for a piece of... Mon, 11 Jul 2016 15:54:00 -0400 217495 The Jenny Lewis-helmed, superbly-named Nice As Fuck arrives with its own theme song and an arsenal of chill breakup tunes. Au Revoir Simone’s Erika Forster and the Like’s Tennessee Thomas round out the trio with New Wave drum-and-bass syncopation. Meanwhile, Lewis pulls off subtly nuanced vocals. She coos like a... Fri, 08 Jul 2016 15:26:00 -0400 217433 This hard rock supergroup – which unites members of Mastodon, Queens of the Stone Age and the recently reunited At the Drive-In –couldn't possibly surpass its marquee billing. But the band's debut EP carves out its own compelling niche, combining Queens' scorched stoner-metal squall, Mastodon's grandiose prog-metal bombast and ATDI's bruising... Fri, 08 Jul 2016 11:30:00 -0400 217419 It's curious that a genre built from recorded artifacts has become one itself: the sample-based plunderphonics of The Avalanches, Fatboy Slim, DJ Shadow and others started doing the dinosaur around the turn of the 21st-century, when copyright lawyers began putting in serious overtime. Maybe that's why it took this Australian crew... Fri, 08 Jul 2016 11:19:00 -0400 217417 Bat for Lashes mastermind Natasha Khan has long cultivated the myth of the wistful chanteuse, presenting dusky, dreamy declarations of emptiness and yearning on her past three albums. She's like Stevie Nicks wearing bat wings instead of shawls, This Mortal Coil with a (very slight) backbeat or PJ Harvey with... Fri, 01 Jul 2016 09:50:00 -0400 217044 Think of Maxwell as R&B's Thom Yorke – a cosmic love man riding open-ended grooves that shift from inner exploration to booty motivation in the blink of an eye. He's always one kiss away from falsetto-powered interstellar overdrive – just seeing his lady's face inspires "a thousand races into space"... Fri, 01 Jul 2016 09:27:00 -0400 216975 The four sons of white South African Sixties rocker John Kongos were born overseas but came of age in Phoenix, and their mix of pan-African instrumental styles with familiar first-pumping rock feels both cosmopolitan and disorienting. Johnny's accordion wheezes in the tradition of the South African jive that inspired Paul... Thu, 30 Jun 2016 08:10:00 -0400 217046 Kaleo hail from Mosfellsbær, Iceland, but you wouldn't know it by frontman JJ Julius Son's fine-tuned biker-soul growl or the overheated garage blues on the band's major-label debut. "No Good," which appears on the soundtrack to HBO's Vinyl, stomps like the Black Keys at their meatiest, and "Broken Bones" is... Thu, 30 Jun 2016 08:04:00 -0400 217043 Fitz & the Tantrums have lost their soul – literally. Less than a decade ago, the group was singing Motown-influenced emotional soul, gilded with electro flourishes, and their 2010 single "MoneyGrabber" became a throbbing breakout hit. Then they focused more on pop on 2013's More Than Just a Dream, earned... Wed, 29 Jun 2016 09:47:00 -0400 216961 It's been almost 20 years since Blink-182 first blazed a pants-less trail across rock radio. But the pop-punk trio are still a generational touchstone: If you missed your junior prom because you passed out in the back of a rented limo while your date took off to hook up with... Wed, 29 Jun 2016 09:37:00 -0400 216974 Dev Hynes described his third LP under his Blood Orange moniker as something "like my version of [The Beastie Boys'] Paul's Boutique." It's that and plenty more: Opening with a butter-smooth R&B chorale that segues into a poetry-slam jazz collage using Ashlee Haze's incandescent "For Colored Girls (The Missy Elliott... Tue, 28 Jun 2016 10:57:00 -0400 216924 Foster co-wrote eight of the twelve songs on D'Angelo's comeback triumph Black Messiah, where her backing vocals melted into his in sinuous harmony. Solo, she draws from the jazzier strains of R&B that nurtured neo-soul heroines Erykah Badu and Jill Scott, though the woozy wending of her melodies also suggests... Mon, 27 Jun 2016 14:54:00 -0400 216893 On his third LP (and first minus additional songwriters), 22-year-old U.K. roots revivalist Jake Bugg mixes Americana and British folk as skillfully as ever – whether on the rockabilly- riot "Put Out the Fire" or the acoustic-blues title track, which begins, "I'm just a poor boy/From Nottingham." He's less successful... Mon, 27 Jun 2016 14:50:00 -0400 216894 If New Orleans is the source of America's greatest musical gumbo, Allen Toussaint was one of our master chefs. Before his death last year, Toussaint had worked with numerous local heroes, including Ernie K-Doe and Dr. John, and added some Crescent City stardust to collaborations with Paul McCartney and The... Mon, 27 Jun 2016 14:46:00 -0400 216892 With echoes of old-timey string bands, singalong folk revivalists,boozy Americana roots rockers and big-box singer – songwriter softies, the Avett Brothers have carved out a remarkably successful 21st-century space for themselves. On each of their last three albums, producer Rick Rubin has helped shape their sound without changing the artisanal recipe. On... Fri, 24 Jun 2016 16:19:00 -0400 216845 Drawn from a fabled string of shows, Van Morrison's 1974 …It's Too Late To Stop Now… (named for the shout that caps the outrageously teased-out ending of "Cypress Avenue," his usual set closer) is rightly considered among the best live LPs ever. This companion culls from three of the 1973... Wed, 22 Jun 2016 10:30:00 -0400 216641 The sixth Garbage album could've been released in 1995. Yet it's still totally relevant; singer Shirley Manson's brooding edge and producer-drummer Butch Vig's mix of sheer guitar buzz and moody industrial texture stake their claim as forebears to artists like Sky Ferreira and even Lana Del Rey. Manson plays the... Wed, 22 Jun 2016 10:01:00 -0400 216574 On The Blue Swell, Brooklyn duo Beverly has guitars that tumble, froth and curl like waves. But the closest singer Drew Citron gets to cooling off is sipping a blue Slurpee outside 7-Eleven. "I still think you do/The things that we would talk about in the parking lot," she sings on... Wed, 22 Jun 2016 09:59:00 -0400 216640 The people on the cover of this Massachusetts quartet's third LP are naked. So are the songs inside it: raw-hearted bursts of bald guitar churn backing lyrics that hunger for meaning in terms that'd be corny if the music didn't hit so hard. There's some latent emo here (one song... Wed, 22 Jun 2016 09:47:00 -0400 216576 Following in the wake of Chance the Rapper's critical smash Coloring Book, his Savemoney crewmate Joey Purp debuts with the bright iiiDrops, another Chicago dispatch full of soaring horns and impassioned deliveries. Purp juxtaposes optimistic beats and unflinching lyrics about growing up in "Chiraq": "I ain't been church in a... Wed, 22 Jun 2016 09:45:00 -0400 216577 On last year's vivid The Lights From The Chemical Plant, Texas-to-Nashville transplant Robert Ellis showed off poetic American songcraft recalling James Taylor and Paul Simon, folk and classic country roots branching into pop-rock with a deep twang. His fourth LP takes that impulse further. "California," about a modern Tom Joad leaving... Tue, 21 Jun 2016 10:48:00 -0400 216573 Brandy Clark's 2013 debut, 12 Stories, heralded a Nashville songwriting renaissance, alongside pathfinders like Kacey Musgraves and Eric Church. Its sequel, and proper major label debut, ups the ante: It's music tooled alternately for stadiums and songwriting circles, commercial and public radio, line-dance bars and coffee shops. Clark's a badass who... Fri, 17 Jun 2016 12:04:00 -0400 216453 On his self-titled 2012 debut, Australian producer Harley Streten (a.k.a. Flume) came off as an EDM artist with a pop side, mixing shades of R&B into his relaxed tracks. His follow-up is more aggressive (check the bass-driven banger "Wall Fuck"). Layered, abrasive electronics set a grimy backdrop for MC guest... Fri, 17 Jun 2016 11:59:00 -0400 216456