Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice are, by all indications, a happy indie-rock power couple. But you wouldn't know it from I'm Having Fun Now. In their solo work, Lewis and Rice are bards of the bummer, and these shapely power-pop numbers are no exception: songs about hard times ("Big Wave") …
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Everybody has a favorite incarnation of Heart — the acoustic hippie troubadour sisters of "Crazy on You"? The arena-rock warriors of "Barracuda"? The bustier-clad glitter queens of "Nothin' at All"? For some fans, Heart's finest moment might be right now, as the Wilson sisters keep making good music years after …
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On their debut, this shaggy quartet conjure classic West Coast folk rock like they were baptized by David Crosby and reared by the members of Love. The guitars on Modern Rituals are mostly electric, but the sound is slow-rolling and slightly surreal. Chief pile up lush, profoundly stoned harmonies on …
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"Head spinning, mouth open," sings tonsured Englishman David Gray on the tipsy "Only the Wine," the lead track of his handsomely tousled ninth LP. It's a promising start from a guy whose tastefulness too often trumps the spirit of experimentation that distinguishes him from his soft-rock peers. Better yet is …
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Perhaps the most fearsome figure to come out of Gary, Indiana, since Joe Jackson, Freddie Gibbs is a former-freight-train-robber-turned-hardcore-rap-revivalist. He's also poised to become hip-hop's next big thing, having generated serious heat with mixtapes like this 15-track powder keg. Gibbs is a technically gifted MC with a baritone voice and …
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