Archive Search Results

1. 5ingles

   The Songs We Can't Escape

   By Ray Cummings

   Published: February 10, 2010

   Gorillaz feat. Bobby Womack and Mos Def"Stylo" The unlikely, long-running project of cartoonist/illustrator Jamie Hewlett and pop auteur Damon Albarn has a knack for...

2. A-List

   Jason Castro

   By Ray Cummings

   Published: February 3, 2010

   Last autumn, Saturday Night Live aired a fake talk-show sketch poking fun at contemporary mellow pop strummers like Jason Mraz and Dave Matthews, in which Andy...

3. 5ingles

   The Songs We Can't Escape

   By Ray Cummings

   Published: February 3, 2010

   Vampire Weekend"Holiday" Peppy, wan lil' third-world tourism dispatch can't choose between whimsy and more-Fannon-than-thou haughtiness, settles for teasing pulse rates....

4. 5ingles

   The Songs We Can't Escape

   By Ray Cummings

   Published: January 27, 2010

   Cormega"Rapture" Rap's salvation? Cormega's def, but maybe what the genre needs now, more than ever, is gratuitous DJ cuts, scratches, and skips. Maybe it's just that...

5. 5ingles

   The Songs We Can't Escape

   By Ray Cummings

   Published: January 20, 2010

   Muse"Uprising" Plague-contagious agitprop synth wonder is content to be addictive, generalist in its revolutionary fervor, and vaguely subversive as long as it gets to top...

6. 5ingles

   The Songs We Can't Escape

   By Ray Cummings

   Published: January 13, 2010

   Dinowalrus"Electric Car, Gas Guitar" Here these NYCers crouch comfortably in a whammy-barred bunker, munch illicit co-op brownies, turn a signature Ramones riff I can't quite...

7. 5ingles

   The Songs We Can't Escape

   By Ray Cummings

   Published: January 6, 2010

   Mya feat. Nicki Minaj"Ponytail" How many strip-club anthems are this sinuously sensual or concentrate on hair like this, and how exactly to throw it around while...

8. 5ingles

   The Songs We Can't Escape

   By Ray Cummings

   Published: December 30, 2009

   YOGA"Fourth Eye" Whoa, what? Doom metal's crunchy, blaring low-end overlaid with the kaleidoscopic, wide-eyed psych wonder of early Boards of Canada, basically....

9. 5ingles

   The Songs We Can't Escape

   By Ray Cummings

   Published: December 23, 2009

   The Very Best"Warm Heart of Africa" Ah, there. Tie-knot loosened, head a-swim, nerves smoothed and soothed, loafered feet dancing a complicated jig, frigid temperatures...

10. 5ingles

    The Songs We Can't Escape

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: December 9, 2009

    Adam Lambert"Time for Miracles" All sentimental sap, multi-tracked vocal fireworks, and majesterial pomp, "Miracles" asks—nay, demands—that we believe that...

11. 5ingles

    The Songs We Can't Escape

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: December 2, 2009

    Pastels/Tenniscoats"Boat" Sedate pianos limn the frame and daydreaming guitars shade the inside while the vocalists co-harmonize and hum along with all the listlessness of a...

12. 5ingles

    The Songs We Can't Escape

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: November 25, 2009

    Islands"No You Don't" Nick Thorburn is a genius at taking pieces of sordid, sorted subject matter—dying, say, or Whitney Houston, or a burglar breaking into one's...

13. 5ingles

    The Songs We Can't Escape

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: November 18, 2009

    Tape Deck Mountain"Dead Doctors Don't Lie" Guaranteed to be adored by space-rock cosmonauts and effects-pedal enthusiasts, to confuse Jonas Brothers fans, to totally tick off...

14. A-List

    The Fiery Furnaces

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: November 11, 2009

    Until this year, being a Fiery Furnaces fan meant that one had an especially high tolerance for cracked musical-theatre narratives, live revisionism, and wonky, disjointed...

15. 5ingles

    The Songs We Can't Escape

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: November 11, 2009

    GIRLS"Ghostmouth" It's true: America needed its own Teenage Fanclub, which meant that we needed our own Bandwagonesque, too. But I'm almost afraid to ask what that actually...

16. 5ingles

    The Songs We Can't Escape

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: November 4, 2009

    Shakira"She Wolf" Queasy. Awkward. Yup, this disco slinky is queasily, awkwardly appealing, despite coming across like a well-meaning 12-year-old's concept of an anthem for...

17. 5ingles

    The Songs We Can't Escape

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: October 28, 2009

    Birdman feat. Drake"More Milli" Lil Wayne's guardian/label benefactor would like you to gape at his stable of whips and swag (ergo "Foreign grinds, hard times, gettin'...

18. A-List

    Thao with the Get Down Stay Down

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: October 21, 2009

    If Know Better Learn Faster—the new salvo from Thao Nguyen and the Get Down Stay Down—doesn't boast quite as rollicking barnburners as 2007's We Brave Bee Stings...

19. Music

    Aquarelle nails dreamy sweet-spot electro

    Ryan Potts experiments with translating experience and memory to music

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: October 21, 2009

    Ryan Potts laughs easily. That disarmingly agreeable laughter is one of the first things you notice in conversation with him: It radiates a companionable warmth, demonstrates...

20. 5ingles

    The Songs We Can't Escape

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: October 21, 2009

    Julian Casablancas "11th Dimension" Phrazes for the Young? Based on this first single, very literally so: double- or triple-entendre advice, depending on who's listening,...