Will Hermes
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Chan Marshall's songs have traditionally been sad and sparse, pecked out on piano or guitar. Sun, her first collection of new songs since 2006, takes a different approach.
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Critic Will Hermes says the singer's new record is an instant classic that sounds fresh even as it mines the golden era of Jamaican R&B.
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The duo, which sounds like Tom Petty after some Red Bull-and-vodkas, hones the scream to an art.
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Helm played superpowered, shifting backbeats, helped Bob Dylan go electric and sang some of The Band's biggest hits, including "The Weight" and "Up On Cripple Creek." He was 71 years old.
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The new album Wrecking Ball surveys just about every style Springsteen has ever played, from Irish stomp to anthem rock.
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Van Etten's new album, Tramp, is titled after the touring artist's time of essential homelessness. It's full of unresolved restlessness, infinite-loop longing and expansive vocals.
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The Brazilian artist's new album, Sem Nostalgia, is a tribute to the spirit of the traditional bossa nova movement in Brazil.
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The San Francisco band's latest is called Father, Son, Holy Ghost, but the reverence it displays is more musical than spiritual.
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Carll's new album gets its name from the military slang for abandoning a mission. But on KMAG YOYO and Other American Stories, the Houston country rocker sounds as committed as ever.
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Superchunk's new album, Majesty Shredding, fits the textbook definition of indie-rock: the pomp and spectacle of marketplace rock 'n' roll turned inside out to show the seams, revealing the men and women behind the curtain who aren't much different from the rest of us.