Jason Heller
[Copyright 2024 NPR]
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After 14 albums, Kevin Barnes' music still bursts like an overripe peach. He retains his knack for supple, indelible melody, as well as pomp, melodrama and lavish flourishes of texture and verse.
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Undimmed by the decades, singer Milo Aukerman and his band thrash, crash and blaze gloriously on the seventh album in their 39-year history together. -
More than 20 years into its career, the mostly instrumental Scottish rock band returns with an album that can be poignant, blood-curdling and beautiful.
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Thirty years after his breakthrough hit "The Way It Is," the singer-keyboardist once again hits the sweet spot between joyful improv and immaculate songcraft.
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Angry, righteous and redemptive, The Last Days Of Oakland celebrates survival, as Xavier Dphrepaulezz infuses his songs with hard-bitten perspectives on life, love, art, commerce, class and society.
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Tom Petty's old band returns with a cleansing wash of classic rock, crafted with just the right touch of sweet-natured sentimentality.
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Fatalism and hope, realism and romance from the acidic, adrenalized Portland punk trio.
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The Archers of Loaf and Crooked Fingers frontman keeps his rough edges and wit in a charming, impressionistic meditation on America.
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Jurado finishes a trilogy of albums with a sprawling, 17-song story arc that leaves loose ends while remaining anchored in gorgeous songwriting and lush, layered indie-folk arrangements.
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The rock legend's new album with Queens Of The Stone Age's Josh Homme is all sharp angles, hard muscles and decadent ecstasy.
