Die Antwoord are rap's new aliens: a trio of "zef" (i.e., white trash) South Africans led by an MC with a craggy, off-his-meds flow and a pipsqueak hype girl with a crazy mullet. Their major-label debut piles up techno beats, Afrikaans lyrics and choruses that sound like warped schoolyard chants, …
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"Take ya to the Tate Museum," sneers Rhett Miller on his band's eighth LP, begging a question: Why would Dallas twang rockers name-check a British tourist attraction — over a Clash-style guitar stomp, no less? It's because the Old 97's have always been Anglophiles, and 15 years into their career, …
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The challenge for Antony Hegarty is just how best to use that quivering, purring, sobbing, ecstatic, altogether original voice. Though he's a great disco diva (see Hercules and Love Affair's 2008 "Blind"), his Johnsons work tends toward the sepulchral. On their fourth set, ghosts still haunt Hegarty's piano-and-string-sketched chamber songs. …
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The Union is a rare gesture in a dying business: an act of gratitude. Elton John repays a long-standing debt of inspiration to Leon Russell — particularly the rowdy merger of soul, country and gospel rapture Russell perfected as a writer, pianist and arranger on 1969 and '70 albums by …
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Turn on your radio. Hear that voice, a feathery tenor with a hint of soulful grit? It belongs to Bruno Mars, the 25-year-old Hawaiian newcomer featured on smash hits like B.o.B's "Nothin' on You" and Travie McCoy's "Billionaire." Doo-Wops & Hooligans proves that Mars is a natural — a lavishly …
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