Artist: Kate Miller-Heidke Album: Nightflight Year: 2012 Grade: A In Brief: This classically trained, yet unconventionally clever singer/songwriter from Australia first got her big break in the late 2000s, thought for my money, the early 2010s were when she really hit her stride. Equal parts bouncy, mischievous, dark, and profoundly wise, Nightflight is a difficult album to do justice without it sounding like I’m lumping Kate in with a bevy of other piano-based female artists from around that same time frame. Just trust me on this one – her music is worth seeking out on its own terms. Ask me ..read more

Artist: Geographer Album: A Mirror Brightly Year: 2024 Grade: B+ In Brief: Geographer’s smooth and cerebral blend of synthetic and organic pop sounds may not hid you over the head with big hooks on his new album as strongly as some of his past work has. But he still strikes a compelling balance between soothing melodic goodness, a few surprising experimental moments, and heartfelt and meaningful songwriting. To pigeonhole his music simply as “synthpop”, “indie pop”, or “dream pop” might do it a disservice, but he’s quite good at finding the boundary between the concrete and the ethereal, and ..read more

Artist: Peter Bjorn and John Album: Gimme Some Year: 2011 Grade: A- In Brief: These three Swedes belatedly broke into my Top 10 for the year 2011 – a year where that might have been a more difficult feat than most of the others I’ve been alive for thus far. They hit just the right mix of scrappy garage rock and psychedelia with relentlessly sunny power pop here, which catches me off guard in the best possible way every time. There are plenty of jangly and muscular guitar riffs to keep you smiling here, but the real triumph is the rhythm section, with strong bass lines and almost manically hap ..read more

Artist: Sleep Token Album: Take Me Back to Eden Year: 2023 Grade: B In Brief: One of 2023’s most acclaimed – and most polarizing – metal records is largely concerned with making sounds that one would be hard-pressed to describe as “metal”, or really even “rock”. Sleep Token is a band that is capable of being blisteringly heavy, but that is also fascinated with ambient soundscapes and computerized “bedroom pop”-type sounds, dodging genre expectations from one song to the next, or even at multiple points within a song. At times it sounds like an attempt to be all things to all listeners gone ho ..read more

Artist: The Beths Album: Expert in a Dying Field Year: 2022 Grade: B+ In Brief: While this New Zealand outfit’s blend of indie rock and power pop sensibilities with the occasional burst of noise might seem like the kind of thing I’ve heard a bunch of times, they sweeten the deal with solid vocal harmonies and really smart, self-aware lyrics. This is the kind of record I can listen to and relate to its confessions, its moments of overly analytical awkwardness, its small victories that are won as a person who feels rather unlovable comes to realize they’re loved anyway. As much as I’ve come to ..read more

Artist: Wye Oak Album: Every Day Like the Last: Collected Singles 2019-2023 Year: 2023 Grade: B+ In Brief: Calling this an “album” would be incredibly generous considering its short length and inconsistent pacing. But as a summary of what the incredibly prolific Jenn Wasner and her bandmate Andy Stack have been up to over the past four years, it turns out to be more satisfying than most stopgap releases of this nature, turning my attention back toward some intriguing gems I’d forgotten about while adding a couple of new compositions to the mix as well. Most of this is more on the cerebral/ref ..read more

Artist: The New Pornographers Album: Continue as a Guest Year: 2023 Grade: C+ In Brief: An acute case of mid-tempo-itis and a strong sense of “been there, done that” prevents the latest effort from The New Pornographers from ever taking flight. They can add electronic touches and smooth horn breaks to their songs all they want, but all the intriguing textures in the world aren’t making up for the slow erosion of their once playfully subversive personality. If they wanted to expand their musical palette and explore more subtle territory, that’s fine, but they’ve done both of these things many ..read more

Artist: The Burning Hell Album: Garbage Island Year: 2022 Grade: B+ In Brief: This music isn’t trashy, nor is it hellish to listen to. Despite whatever first impressions the band name, album name, or the seemingly monotone musings of Mathias Kom may give you, there’s actually a wealth of treasure to dig up from the pile of oddball genre influences that he and his band have stacked up on this record. In the process of telling a story about humans trying to make the best of what’s left after some sort of cataclysmic global event, The Burning Hell manages to build something new out of a bunch of ..read more

Artist: Nilüfer Yanya Album: Painless Year: 2022 Grade: A- In Brief: Nilüfer Yanya’s music is easy for me to love, but hard for me to classify. Her choice of guitar tones, moody chord progressions, and throwback drum programming gives me a strong whiff of 90s alt-pop and the mellower side of grunge, but then the sultry depth of her vocals throws me for a loop. The heavy focus on rhythm brings to mind genres ranging from R&B and soul to trip-hop, yet this never seems to clash with the rock instrumentation. This is one of those introverted records that takes a few listens to really connect ..read more

Artist: Tennis Album: Pollen Year: 2023 Grade: C+ In Brief: Tennis has been on cruise control with their mostly mid-tempo, 70s and 80s nostalgia-heavy brand of keyboard-driven indie pop for as long as I’ve known them. Sometimes that leads to blissful results, as heard on their 2017 LP Yours Conditionally. But the two records they’ve put out since then have largely felt like more of the same, and I’m getting a strong whiff of deja vu as I try to pay closer attention to the details on this one in particular. Three years almost to the day before the indie pop duo Tennis put out their sixth album ..read more