The poetry of Sam Beam, otherwise known as Iron & Wine, can sometimes be lost behind the powerful folky melodies that take the forefront of his music. Iron & Wine…
It’s hard to imagine rocking out for more than twenty years, without much of a respite, but that is exactly what Spoon have done. The difficult-to-label rock group that formed…
Wilco has seen its fair share of adversity. The group, led by songwriter Jeff Tweedy, has picked up and dropped band members at various times between 1994 and 2004. However,…
Call it a love song, call it a crush song—either way, Mayer Hawthorne’s infectious track “Hooked,” off his 2011 album How Do You Do, reels us in and does not let…
It’s rare—and usually a good sign—when a debut album is met with acclaim from such well-respected hip hop names as Questlove, Erykah Badu, and Q-Tip. So it goes with Hiatus…
The Beach Boys might be best known for their bubbly early melodies celebrating wholesome teenage fun in a bygone era, but their more interesting work subverts this effervescence to beautiful…
Tom Waits is a master of irony. Just when we thought we understood his bone-clattering, tooth-gnashing, growling songs of woe, he hits us with “Another Man’s Vine.” The ballad—off the…
The War On Drugs decided to name themselves after a bitter conflict, but their last album, Lost in the Dream, invokes anything but strife. Though the lyrics of “Red Eyes,”…
The distinctive tone of influential blues man Jimmy Reid can be heard throughout modern rock music, from Z.Z. Top to The Rolling Stones. In his hit song “Baby What You…
The prolific soul artist Rufus Thomas released a number of singles during his career, including “Do the Funky Chicken,” “(Do the) Push and Pull,” and “Breakdown.” But it was during…
The late Johnnie Taylor boasted a prolific musical career spanning almost 40 years and several different record labels, including a number of collaborations with legendary crooner Sam Cooke. During his…