ALBUM REVIEW: COLDPLAY — “EVERY TEARDROP IS A WATERFALL”
By Ryan Leas Not too long after the release of their last full-length, 2008's excellent “Viva la Vida or Death and All of his Friends,” Coldplayseemed to be in a prolific mood. About six months later...
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ALBUM REVIEW: CULTS — “CULTS”
By Ryan Leas After an immense degree of hype in the wake of a few Internet hits and a massive amount of attention from media outlets like Pitchfork, New York duo Cults finally arrives with their firs...
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ALBUM REVIEW: MY MORNING JACKET — “CIRCUITAL”
By Ryan Leas My Morning Jacket has always had a penchant for stunning first tracks, the sort of first songs that simultaneously function as gutsy opening salvos and markers that set the stage for wha...
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ALBUM REVIEW: EDDIE VEDDER — “UKELELE SONGS”
By Ryan Leas 2011 marks Pearl Jam’s 20th anniversary, an occasion the band is commemorating with a series of events and releases, ranging from a documentary to a band-curated festival in Wisconsin. O...
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ALBUM REVIEW: JOAN AS POLICEWOMAN — “THE DEEP FIELD”
By Ryan Leas With “The Deep Field,” Joan Wasser returns with her third album under the Joan as Police Womanmoniker in only four years. It’s refreshing to see an artist be so prolific in a ...
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ALBUM REVIEW: GORILLAZ — “THE FALL”
By Ryan Leas Last March, Gorillaz released their third album, “Plastic Beach.” By the end of the year, notorious workaholic and Gorillaz mastermind Damon Albarn had recorded “The Fall” on his iPad ...
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ALBUM REVIEW: ELBOW — “BUILD A ROCKET BOYS!”
By Ryan Leas To the surprise of many, Elbow won the Mercury Music Prize in 2008 for their album “The Seldom Seen Kid.” It wasn’t that they didn’t deserve it -- they very much did, as it is an excelle...
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ALBUM REVIEW: FOO FIGHTERS — “WASTING LIGHT”
By Ryan Leas Leading up to the release of the Foo Fighters’ seventh album, “Wasting Light,” Dave Grohl often commented on how it was by far their heaviest disc to date. The claim is mainly accurate, ...
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CONCERT REVIEW: WYE OAK AT BOWERY BALLROOM
By Ryan Leas When listening to Wye Oak’s brilliant new album “Civilian,” it is hard to imagine only two people reproducing the reverb-drenched layers of the record’s spectral shoegaze/folk blend. How...
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CONCERT REVIEW: TV ON THE RADIO AT RADIO CITY
By Ryan Leas A few songs into their April 13 show at Radio City Music Hall, TV on the Radio’s multi-instrumentalist Jaleel Bunton jokingly asked for a “holy shit” moment so that the band could take i...
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