Listening Booth »
Listening Booth: Vampire Weekend, “Vampire Weekend”
Taylor Long January 30, 2008 17Coming into their first full-length, Vampire Weekend are in the precarious position of having a reputation that precedes them. Before their self-titled debut can be properly digested and enjoyed, let’s get a few buzzwords
Read More »Listening Booth: Cat Power, “Jukebox”
Taylor Long January 30, 2008 5Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) makes two ballsy moves with her new album, Jukebox, largely considered her second covers album, though it contains two originals. She leads off with the first, a cover of
Read More »Listening Booth: Chris Walla, “Field Manual”
Taylor Long January 30, 2008 3Dear Chris Walla, As a longtime Death Cab for Cutie fan, I was pretty excited to hear about your solo album. By “longtime fan,” I mean longtime fan. We’re talking around the time that
Read More »Listening Booth: Kate Nash, “Made of Bricks”
Taylor Long January 23, 2008 8Quirk is a risky thing to play with. If it’s not done in the right way or if it’s taken too far, it can seem insincere, gimmicky, or severely limit its longevity. Used in
Read More »Listening Booth: CoCo B’s, “CoCo B’s”
Robert Cass January 23, 2008 7Throughout the CoCo B’s self-titled debut album, frontman Kevin Castillo’s casual, somewhat sleepy vocals, similar to those of the Strokes’ Julian Casablancas or Phoenix’s Thomas Mars, initially lulled me into thinking their songs were
Read More »Listening Booth: Thao Nguyen & the Get Down Stay Down, “We Brave Bee Stings and All”
Taylor Long January 16, 2008 0Not since the Riot Grrl movement has there likely been a better time for alternative female singer-songwriters. With the likes of Feist, M.I.A., Lily Allen, and (on a smaller scale — for now), St.
Read More »Listening Booth: Black Mountain, “In the Future”
Taylor Long January 16, 2008 8The two biggest criticisms that Black Mountain’s In the Future is likely to receive are the following: 1. STONERS 2. They’re not doing anything “new” These points do hold weight. It’s highly likely that
Read More »Listening Booth: Finian McKean, “Monsters of the Deep Woods”
Taylor Long January 9, 2008 3At first, Finian McKean’s Monsters of the Deep Woods seems deceptively simple, with its sparse acoustics and oblique lyrics. Each successive listen, though, reveals a new layer of meaning and thought, another piece in
Read More »Listening Booth: Lupe Fiasco, “The Cool”
Taylor Long January 9, 2008 4Like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, rapper Lupe Fiasco mixes sentimentality with harsh attacks on the hand that feeds him in his sophomore effort, The Cool. He attempts to do it all, and he
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