Will Hermes
-
Staged spectacularly between a beach and a rainforest mountain peak in Malaysian Borneo, the festival grows its local music scene and tourism industry, while also raising consciousness — along with, in this case, some uncomfortable questions — about its environmental stewardship.
-
With tracks like "Southern Comfort Zone" and "Accidental Racist," the superstar's new album performs a balancing act of cultural examinations. But there are still enough twangy guitar solos and all-purpose love songs to engage country-music tradition.
-
On her major-label debut, the 24-year-old singer-songwriter explores themes steeped in tradition, yet views them through the lens of youth culture.
-
Four of the Brazilian singer-songwriter's classic records are being re-released this week. Critic Will Hermes says that, while the music is steeped in a political climate of the past, they still resonate with the present.
-
The latest album by Berlin-based electronic artist Pantha du Prince is a collaboration built around a decidedly nondigital device: a series of large church bells.
-
The British group's moody debut carried the ring of 1980s post-punk. The grooves are magnified on its second album, and plenty of moments feel like straight-up club music.
-
Chan Marshall's songs have traditionally been sad and sparse, pecked out on piano or guitar. Sun, her first collection of new songs since 2006, takes a different approach.
-
The duo, which sounds like Tom Petty after some Red Bull-and-vodkas, hones the scream to an art.
-
Despite a constant flood of new music, people still like to insist it was all better in times past. But Marianne Faithfull, who has survived a bunch of musical decades, recognizes that right now is a golden era of its own. Her new record, Easy Come, Easy Go, is all covers, but alongside old standards are what might be some new staples.
-
More than anything Malkmus has done, Real Emotional Trash engages in the sort of shape-shifting that marked Bob Dylan's career. He wears a different mask on virtually every song, and it certainly helps that the band is his strongest post-Pavement outfit yet.