music commentary

Ratatat doesn't need words to take you on an emotional journey, all while sticking with its time-tested framework.

Fifteen years after fading into the ether, instrumental project Flying Saucer Attack returns, more desolate than before but no less beautiful.

Our writer is getting too old to know what White Reaper's whole deal is. He just knows its new album is a solid piece of good-time garage rock.

Blessed with a rare summer at home, the singer in a hard-touring band connects with this song because it reminds her of something important: friends.

This is no typical song of the summer. Celebrating resistance and community in the face of dehumanizing violence, it sends exactly the right message.

Majestic, broad and cinematic, this 12-minute epic takes jazz to the beach—and brings Mahler, McCoy Tyner and the Star Trek theme along for the ride.

The outspoken electronic musician tells us how the new Owl City album should have been made — complete with downloadable examples.

The band might be hard to Google, but Institute is worth looking up.

No longer angry young men, but still on the right side of the misanthropic line, the Pre New have created an album of streamlined, joyous contempt.

Horribly sleep-starved, our writer is completely insane right now. But she finds solace in Jenny Hval's dreamworld.

The microscopic patchwork of playing on Viet Cong's debut album allows stagnancy to blossom into excitement. It's also quite fun.

What makes Björk’s new album Vulnicura so devastating? The combination of the private and the ordinary.