Sometimes when a new band comes along, their music is just so affecting that it's like they grabbed you by the ears, slammed you face-first into the table at which you were sitting and then kissed you hard on the mouth while you were still trying to collect yourself and figure out what happened. The sensation is profound; it's shocking and fantastic and violent and inspiring and, when it happens, those who are stricken by it will find themselves just...

Has a record ever been able to blow a chill through you as you're listening to it? Such ideas get thrown around a lot in the press, but it rarely happens that a sound feels genuinely dangerous. It is rare to get the sort of excitement that comes from hearing something which feels forbidden or genuinely troubled, but those who crave it will find that feel on Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon. Murder By Death's seventh full-length album (first for Bloodshot...

It has often been said that change is inevitable in all things including music, but the first half of Coheed And Cambria's Afterman concept album proves that not all change is good. Now shockingly far from the mathy metal powerhouse that the band was when they released In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth (and now really only a shadow of the group who released Year Of The Black Rainbow too – and that was only in 2010), Coheed And Cambria...

As digital production techniques have proceeded to make it easier and easier to make larger, more luxurious and ambitious ideas come to life on an increasingly modest budget, the idea of simplicity has become missing in pop more and more. That so many artists have embraced the possibilities offered by digital production platforms is perfectly understandable – who wouldn't take the opportunity to make their dream album if they could? – but sometimes a simple sound can be more affecting...

It feels awkward to just blurt it out, but Mo Kenney has achieved a craft on the level with artists including Ani DiFranco, Stevie Nicks, Jolie Holland and Neko Case on her self-titled debut. Such a statement feels awkward because the album in question is her first; those other artists had to work for years to refine their talents and chops, but it's hard not to feel like you're bearing witness to the birth of a new star when you...

Hola junky!Y'see what I did there? I was speakin' Mexican – folks like it when you show a little worldly knowledge right? 'At's what'ey tell me, anyway. But who cares? Here we go again, an' here's me wit' anotha great bag o' SWAG fer youse ta peruse – i's a pretty good bag too. Firs' an' foremos' I scored two new tunes from'at band Crystal Castles that I know yer gonna like. You know dis group doncha? 'Ey're that Canuck...

Both fans and critics can say what they like about KISS, but the basic truth is that the band has never really changed over the last forty years. Be they masked, unmasked, sporting an all-original lineup or a new conglomerate featuring new players, there has always been a consistency in the band's music that is inescapable; iy is big, bombastic rock and it has always worn the cliches of its brand (the riffs, the hooks, the recurring lyrical images) in...

The thing about rhetoric in the music business is that it is as important to the success of a record as the instruments which are played on it – but while the instruments can be taken at face value, the rhetoric needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Why? Well, think about it – does a record really have the power to “change your life”? Can one album really tear down the established construct in which the rest...

Awrightcha mooks,Yeahyeahyeah, deal wit' it – betta late thin never, I showed up wit'cher newest bag o' SWAG. That makes ya smile, don'it? I gotcha some pretty killer gear too – even a coupla full-length releases, so le's get ta bizness. Kay, first, I scored ya some new Dum Dum Girls. This band keeps changin' junkie! They went from soundin' like a chick version o' The Stooges (sorta – I ain't no critic, that's every otha writer's trip 'ere) ta...

It's funny how some records age, given the sort of music they capture and the time period in which they were made. Some albums wear their age very well and easily slide into a “classic” categorization (the catalogues of The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin all immediately leap to mind), but others just have difficulty feeling as though they could have been recorded yesterday or twenty-five years ago. Michael Jackson's seventh album, Bad, falls squarely into...