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PopMatters

PopMatters

Founded in 1999, PopMatters, edited in Chicago, Illinois, is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture.

135 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Richard Ashcroft: Human Conditions

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 24 January 2003

PUT ON A Richard Ashcroft record, and suddenly, everything changes. ...

Richard Ashcroft, Clinic, Beth Gibbons, Interpol, Low, N.E.R.D., The Streets, Supergrass, Gary Wilson: Best Music of 2002

Guide by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 16 December 2002

...

Badly Drawn Boy: Have You Fed the Fish?

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 1 November 2002

BOTH OF Badly Drawn Boy's full-length albums begin the same way. There's the rush of esotericism right away, the musical equivalent to gibberish, which lasts ...

Badly Drawn Boy: Irving Plaza, NYC

Book Excerpt by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 1 May 2001

YOU COULD CALL Damon Gough, aka Badly Drawn Boy, the British indie equivalent of the Little Engine That Could. ...

Badly Drawn Boy: Various Artists: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Twisted Nerve But Were Afraid to Ask

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 5 November 2001

EVEN THOUGH he won the UK's prestigious Mercury Music Prize, Damon Gough, a.k.a Badly Drawn Boy, isn't much for hubris. In fact, he seems to ...

Badly Drawn Boy, Björk, David Bowie, Broadcast, Coldplay, Doves, PJ Harvey, Primal Scream, Radiohead, Elliott Smith: The Best of 2000

Guide by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 18 December 2000

FOR A MUSIC whore like myself, even a good album can be a little like a one-night stand. There's that lovely moment of courting, checking ...

Erykah Badu: Worldwide Underground

Review by Mark Anthony Neal, PopMatters, 15 October 2003

SHE WAS QUEEN of the head-wrap set. A generation of young black folks trying to navigate the pitfalls of cultural negation in an era when ...

The Beatles, Danger Mouse: More Than Words: Musings on Music Journalism — Life Goes On

Comment by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 10 March 2004

FEBRUARY 24 WAS a banner day for the Copy Left, a loose network of computer activists, intellectuals, forward-thinking musicians and zealous fans who continue to ...

Jeff Beck: Blow by Blow/Wired

Review by Simon Warner, PopMatters, 26 March 2001

IN THE ANNALS of British rock guitarists it is hard to escape the spectre of Clapton, Page and Beck, a great triumvirate, linked not just ...

Dickey Betts & Great Southern: BB King's Blues Club, New York

Live Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, PopMatters, 27 June 2002

THE ALLMAN Brothers Band has been the central musical group of my life, their œuvre most vital to my worldview. ...

Björk: Radio City Music Hall, NYC

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 5 October 2001

IT'S RARE WHEN a pop star is also a prophet. The awesomeness possessed by those few who transcend celebrity to enter the echelons of cult ...

Björk, Charlatans, The (UK), Clinic, Liars, LiLiPUT, Pulp, Radiohead, Spiritualized, Starsailor, Turin Brakes: Music for a Divine Moment: The Best Music of 2001

Guide by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 17 December 2001

IN THESE DAYS of crusades, jihads, and God-Bless-This-Lands, I've been wondering why so much music writing is riddled with religious imagery. ...

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Spiritualized: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club/Spiritualized: Beacon Theatre, New York

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 8 May 2002

The Drunk and the Junkie: A Concert Review in Two Parts ...

Blur: Think Tank

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 9 May 2003

IT'S finally happened: Blur have become one of those bands. ...

(British) Sea Power: British Sea Power: Northsix, New York

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 26 August 2003

NORTHSIX IS JUST a cinderblock box with cold metal pillars that reach from floor to ceiling, obstructing the view in what would otherwise be ideal ...

James Brown: The Last Soul Brother: James Brown (1933-2006)

Retrospective by Mark Anthony Neal, PopMatters, 2 January 2007

JAMES BROWN was of a generation of black men—mythological in many ways—who helped define the contours of freedom and possibility for black folk in the ...

Mariah Carey: Greatest Hits

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 8 May 2002

THERE'S A popular mythology out there that says that certain things–like pop divas and Fortune 500 companies–never die. ...

Charlatans, The (UK), Starsailor: The Charlatans/Starsailor: Irving Plaza, New York

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 29 January 2002

What it feels like for a boy: The Charlatans, Starsailor, and musings on transatlantic masculinities. ...

Cody Chesnutt, Etta James, Joi, Raphael Saadiq, Res: Etta James/Joi/Res/Raphael Saadiq/Cody Chesnutt: BB King's Blues Club & Grill, New York

Live Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, PopMatters, 24 July 2002

Flight to Amazonia (Slight Return) ...

The Clash, Joe Strummer: Less Rotten Than Reasonable: Joe Strummer and My Punk Damascus

Memoir by Simon Warner, PopMatters, 27 December 2002

ALTHOUGH I saw Joe Strummer in action many times, I only met him once and, embarrassingly, confused him with someone else. ...

The Clientele: The Violet Hour

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 19 August 2003

YOU HAVE TO turn up the volume to hear the Clientele, and it's still quiet. Alasdair Maclean sings in a breathless whisper; their music itself ...

Clinic: Winchester Cathedral

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 23 August 2004

CALL IT WHAT you will—consistency versus predictability, innovation versus identity abandonment: whatever the name, this is the most serious quandary that bands face as they ...

Clinic: Walking With Thee

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 25 February 2002

IT CERTAINLY FEELS as if things are starting to shift, right? Britney Spears launches an (ahem) acting career, Ryan Adams making a (relative) splash at ...

Clinic: Bowery Ballroom, New York City

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 6 April 2002

IN 39 MINUTES, the world is going to end. We are all waiting for that end to begin. There's a sickness in the air, like ...

Color Me Badd: The Best of Color Me Badd

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 2000

IT SPEAKS VOLUMES that, at this historical moment, viable cred can come the title "Original Boy Band". Throughout The Best of Color Me Badd, you ...

The Coral: The Coral

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 17 January 2003

IT TAKES BALLS to begin an album as pompously as The Coral begin their eponymous debut. The opening bars of country wrangle swagger into a ...

The Coral: Bowery Ballroom, New York

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 19 March 2003

SURE, THE CORAL are just a few yards in front of me, but they're not really here. ...

The Coral: Magic and Medicine/Nightfreak and the Sons of Becker

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 10 May 2004

WHEN IT COMES TO new music, we rock critics are not unlike 15-year-old straight boys who have finally pilfered a copy of Jugs from the ...

Elvis Costello & The Imposters: Cruel Smile

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 10 January 2003

ELVIS COSTELLO is one of those artists that people love. Not just listen to and like, not just appreciate and admire, but actually wholly love, ...

Elvis Costello: Beacon Theater, NYC

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 7 November 2001

THIS WAS NOT a show for the half-hearted. Even the nosebleed seats in the Beacon Theater that night ran a hefty $35. For prime position, ...

Cousteau: Village Underground, New York

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 23 May 2001

IN THIS ERA of the cult-status rockstar who can elicit bewilderment and terror just with facsimiles of his/her likeness, there's something to be said for ...

Crosby Stills Nash & Young: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale

Live Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, PopMatters, 1 May 2002

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This tour journal is the last testament of the lost expedition of Mayfair. Last reported near the Grand Canyon, the members of the ...

The Decemberists: Her Majesty the Decemberists

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 15 September 2003

AN IMPORTANT DETAIL about Her Majesty the Decemberists—and one I'm venturing you won't read about in many other reviews of the album—is that there's a ...

Destiny's Child: Survivor (Columbia)

Review by Simon Warner, PopMatters, May 2001

POP HISTORY IS as slippery as a Tom Parker, as mysterious as a Brian Epstein, as mercurial as a Malcolm McLaren. Like its great managerial ...

John Doe: Dim Stars, Bright Sky

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 3 March 2003

JOHN DOE IS on a mission, albeit an undefined one. He tells us as much in 'Magic', a song that comes two thirds of the ...

Donnie: Bowery Ballroom, New York

Live Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, PopMatters, 22 July 2003

The Love Manifesto ...

Doves: Bowery Ballroom, New York City

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 26 February 2001

TONIGHT, IT'S obvious that Doves don't yet think of themselves as proper English rock stars. ...

Drive-By Truckers: They Caught Me Smilin' Agin: Drive By Truckers at Brownie's, NYC

Live Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, PopMatters, 15 December 2001

FORGED IN THE fabled hamlet of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, the Drive-By Truckers are magnificent in concert. ...

Earth, Wind & Fire: Earth Wind And Fire: Beacon Theater, New York

Live Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, PopMatters, 15 2003

MY TRAGEDY AS a music fanatic has always been one of being a spirit out of time. I have spent a goodly portion of my ...

Elastica: Bowery Ballroom, New York

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 4 October 2000

I WENT WITH my friend Shannon, who almost didn't get in. We were both lax in terms of buying our tickets, and it seemed that ...

Elbow: Bowery Ballroom, NYC

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 5 March 2009

TODAY IS lead singer Guy Garvey's birthday, and he's in a gaming mood. "How old do you think I am?" he asks the crowd, early ...

The Electric Soft Parade: Electric Soft Parade: Holes in the Wall

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 12 June 2002

ANOTHER SIBLING duo with the surname White have come to breathe life into a dying musical genre. While Meg and Jack White (of the White ...

The Embarrassment: Blister Pop

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 2001

BLISTER POP opens with an edited assembly of The Embarrassment trying to characterize themselves for local radio programs. They bounce back and forth between categorizations—rock, ...

Embrace: If You've Never Been

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 2001

"No, I won't feel ashamed": Embrace-ing Emo-Pop ...

Erase Errata: At Crystal Palace

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 8 January 2003

THERE'S A MOMENT in 'Ca. Viewing' — the second song off the second record from the first band to give women a meaningful place in ...

The Fiery Furnaces: Gallowbird's Bark

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 16 October 2003

IT'S A HIGH-FALUTIN' seaside carnival from another time, where maidens don pinstripe stockings and pantaloons, click buckled shoes as they jitterbug with spry sailor gentleman ...

Aretha Franklin: Preacher's Daughter

Book Excerpt by Tony Scherman, PopMatters, 12 March 2021

Our recent glimpse of Tony Scherman's biography in progress, I Gave My Heart and Soul to You: The Triumph of Aretha Franklin, told the story ...

Fruit Bats: Mouthfuls

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 6 May 2006

WHAT A MOUTHFUL is: too much stuff crammed in, can't get enough, taking in the world by taste. An experience so overwhelming it's worth sacrificing ...

Peter Gabriel: Peter Gabriel [2]

Review by Steven Ward, PopMatters, 3 December 2003

FIRST, THERE'S THE voice. It's a scratchy tenor. Peter Gabriel was only 28 when he recorded his second solo album in 1978. I'm sure his ...

Gene: Maxwell's, New Jersey

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 25 September 2002

WHEN I first heard Gene, it was 1995, and I was a senior in high school. ...

Ed Harcourt: Fez, New York

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 26 March 2003

ED HARCOURT has always been a solo artist, but tonight, he seems even more alone, maybe even lonely. ...

Ed Harcourt: Bowery Ballroom, NYC

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 29 May 2002

AFTER TAKING A healthy swig from what appeared to be a bottle of cheap red wine, Ed Harcourt became possessed. It was the culmination of ...

Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Neil Young: Farm Aid: Germain Amphitheater, Columbus, Ohio

Report by Kandia Crazy Horse, PopMatters, 23 September 2003

I WAS EATING Neil Young when the highest points of my sojourn to this year's Farm Aid benefit concert occurred: veteran Crazy Horse bassist Billy ...

PJ Harvey: Hammerstein Ballroom, New York

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 3 September 2001

APPARENTLY I'D HEARD correctly — and the critic was the gangling boy behind me, piping up shortly after lead singer Polly Jean Harvey joined her ...

Donny Hathaway: Ed Pavlic: Winners Have Yet to Be Announced – A Song for Donny Hathaway (University of Georgia Press)

Book Review by Mark Anthony Neal, PopMatters, 21 April 2008

I'VE SPENT better part of that last 20-years – what seems like a lifetime – trying to write about Donny Hathaway. It's not as though ...

Donny Hathaway, Laura Nyro: Donny Hathaway and Laura Nyro: Live From Planet Soul

Retrospective by Mark Anthony Neal, PopMatters, 24 August 2004

Donny Hathaway and Laura Nyro were both products of an era when Soul music had a transformative power and These Songs for You, Live! and ...

Richie Havens: Bottom Line, NYC

Live Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, PopMatters, 7 August 2002

MOST OF MY generation ("X") peers - especially indie rock & dance music critics - and a wide swathe of bitter boomers relentlessly disparage veteran ...

Richard Hawley: Late Night Final

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 21 January 2002

WARNING: WHAT you are about to experience contains not a hint of irony or pessimism, skepticism or half-truths, denial or doubt. ...

Richard Hell: Time

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 30 April 2002

RICHARD HELL can walk down the street in New York City's East Village without being recognized. ...

The Hives: Veni Vidi Vicious

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 11 September 2000

I'M CONVINCED that there's something about Veni Vidi Vicious, that elicits borderline personality. One minute I'm singing its praises to everyone I know (including an ...

Interpol: Turn on the Bright Lights

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 30 August 2002

I FIND SOMETHING terribly tragic about Interpol. It's more than Paul Banks' elegiac vocals, which stir my gut every time I hear them, so much ...

Interpol: Bowery Ballroom, New York

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 11 September 2002

YOU'D NEVER guess from the pre-show mania that New York rockers Interpol are not yet superstars. ...

Michael Jackson: Can You Remember?

Comment by Mark Anthony Neal, PopMatters, 11 December 2003

Can You Remember when we were babies? — Michael Jackson (Age 11) ...

Judah Johnson: Fez, New York

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 10 June 2003

EVERYBODY KEEPS talking about Detroit. Detroit – New Rock City. Car exhaust and downtown decay. Stooges resurrected. Blah blah blah. ...

Alicia Keys: Songs in A Minor

Review by Mark Anthony Neal, PopMatters, 25 June 2001

IN THE AFTERMATH of Jill Scott's surprising breakthrough last year and in what is year four of the Badu evolution, there have been several remarkable ...

The Killers/Menlo Park/The Prosaics: Don Hill's, New York City

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 23 October 2003

IT'S 10:15PM, the venue is already behind schedule with the showcase, and nobody cares. Instead, more and more bodies cram their way into downtown venue ...

Ladytron: Bowery Ballroom, New York

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 5 March 2003

JUST ONE DAY after I saw the Ladytron concert, I experienced its antithesis. ...

Arthur Lee, Love: Love with Arthur Lee: House of Blues, Los Angeles

Live Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, PopMatters, 19 August 2003

SOMETHING STARDUST and sunshine had characterized those days of flowers and civil unrest in the western canyons of America's other neverland of dreams, Los Angeles. ...

Sondre Lerche: Two Way Monologue

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 26 March 2004

I'M LISTENING to Sondre Lerche and drinking tea on an unseasonably cold spring evening. It's been a rather shit season so far. A few pretty ...

Sondre Lerche: Bowery Ballroom, New York

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 24 June 2003

SONDRE LERCHE is a tease. He'll pause dramatically in the midst of a song to give the audience a mischievous wink, inciting us to squeal ...

Liars: They Threw Us All In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On Top

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 19 August 2002

THESE DAYS, there's been a lot of talk about the resurrection of punk/post-punk by New York City bands. ...

Liars: They Were Wrong, So We Drowned

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 15 March 2004

THE MYTH of the Ugly Duckling is prevalent in our culture; equally important, though with less prominence, is that of the Deteriorating Swan. Let me ...

Liars: Brownie's, New York City

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 17 January 2002

BY THE night's end, it seemed everything had been destroyed — including the band. ...

Lil' Kim: The Notorious K.I.M.

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 2000

MS. KIMBERLY "Lil' Kim" Jones, here's your most telling lyric: "You can never be me. You can only resemble." ...

Lupine Howl: The Bar at the End of the World

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 14 August 2003

LUPINE HOWL are over the top. Their moniker is peculiar, severe; their album titles, obscure and potentially off-putting (The Carnivorous Lunar Activities of Lupine Howl, ...

Maplewood: Lads of the Canyon: Maplewood at the Knitting Factory, New York

Live Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, PopMatters, 8 April 2003

ONCE UPON a time not so long ago the musical sub-genre variously known as alt-country / y'allternative / No Depression / cosmic country / cosmic ...

Marah: Mercury Lounge, New York

Live Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, PopMatters, 17 July 2002

Independence Day ...

Marillion: An Interview With Pete Trewavas

Interview by Steven Ward, PopMatters, 10 June 2003

MARILLION MAY BE the best-kept secret in rock. Formed in London in 1981, Marillion started out like any other young band. The band members, including ...

Metric

Profile by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 18 December 2003

THE ONLY thing that tops hearing 'Succexy' — the shit-kicking superpop social commentary that is an instant calling card for Metric's debut Old World Underground, ...

Mull Historical Society: Loss

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 23 July 2002

CALL ME SHALLOW, but the cover art of Loss almost kept me from buying the thing. Nevermind the obsequious musings from the British press prominently ...

Samantha Mumba: Gotta Tell You

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 2000

FOLLOW THE ANALOGY: Britney is to McDonald's as Christina is to Burger King, as Jessica is to Wendy's as Mandy is to Dunkin' Donuts or ...

Muse: Origin of Symmetry

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 2001

TO SOME, they were the band that would have been king. Just over a year ago, the now-defunct British music magazine Select boldly went where ...

Music, The : The Music: The Music

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 7 February 2003

I HAD A dream about The Music. No: I had a memory. ...

Nada Surf: The Proximity Effect

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 28 August 2000

SO, I'M STRANDED on a desert island. No, worse: I'm stranded in nothing town in AnyState, where a McDonald's, a WalMart, and a tired bar ...

Me'Shell Ndegeocello: Irving Plaza, New York

Live Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, PopMatters, 12 June 2002

Two Tribes (Go to War) ...

Northern State: Dying in Stereo EP

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 1 July 2003

THE FIRST THAT you'll read about Northern State in just about any review are their stats – these are three 20-something women who are from ...

North Mississippi Allstars: The North Mississippi Allstars: Irving Plaza, New York

Live Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, PopMatters, 22 March 2002

AT THIS POINT, going to witness the North Mississippi Allstars live in performance is somewhat akin to seeing god. Now a four-piece including guitarist/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist DuWayne ...

The Notorious B.I.G., Puff Daddy: Sean Combs: Diddy-cized

Overview by Mark Anthony Neal, PopMatters, 18 May 2004

Hip-hop has always been — and always be — about fabulousness and myth. 
 — Scott Poulson-Bryant, "This is Not a Puff Piece" The hip-hop ...

Ocean Colour Scene: Mechanical Wonder

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 30 April 2001

WHERE WERE we again? Oh yeah: we were discussing what country and western music from a modern English rock band would sound like. ...

Joan Osborne: Righteous Love

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 11 September 2000

THE FIRST TIME I turned on the radio and heard 'St. Theresa', (the opening track off Osborne's 1995 release, Relish) I felt branded for life. ...

Paloalto: Heroes and Villains

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 1 October 2003

I THINK SOMETIMES as music reviewers we don't think about how hard it is to be in a band. You have to find similarly-minded, dedicated ...

Rahsaan Patterson: R&B Conversations: Rahsaan Patterson's Slow Burn

Profile and Interview by Mark Anthony Neal, PopMatters, 24 August 2005

The soul singer's career momentum has built slowly since he lost the major labels' love, but out of the spotlight he's been able to remain ...

Teddy Pendergrass: Life Was a Song Worth Singing

Retrospective by Mark Anthony Neal, PopMatters, 22 January 2010

HEARING THE SOOTHING voice of the late Teddy Pendergrass singing lead on the Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes classic, 'If You Don't Know Me ...

Teddy Pendergrass: Life Was a Song Worth Singing

Obituary by Mark Anthony Neal, PopMatters, 21 January 2010

Pendergrass' popularity lay in his performance of a masculinity that was virile and tailor-made for a cultural discourse in the '70s that had moved beyond ...

Phantom Planet: Phantom Planet

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 7 April 2004

I'LL CUT RIGHT to the point: I like Phantom Planet, and I like this eponymous new record. Here's why: ...

Wilson Pickett, Lou Rawls: Gritty Soul Men: Remembering Lou Rawls and Wilson Pickett

Obituary by Mark Anthony Neal, PopMatters, 26 January 2006

Grit was not just about the "sound" of soul, but also the grittier social and political realities that soul music offered transcendence from. The recent ...

Powderfinger: Odyssey #5

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 19 March 2001

YOU DON'T REALLY hear what all the fuss is about until you're well into Odyssey Number Five's third track, 'The Metre'. ...

The Psychedelic Furs: The Psychedelic Furs/Talk Talk Talk/Forever Now

Retrospective by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 12 July 2002

I see the future and it will be the Psychedelic Furs. ...

Pulp: Hits

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 5 September 2003

PULP HAVE a greatest hits record, and it’s about goddamned time. The enigmatic group, fronted by the inimitable Jarvis Cocker, are by far the oldest ...

Radiohead: Kid A

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 3 October 2000

TO LIVE THROUGH October 2000, when music's critical landscape has eaten, slept, and breathed Radiohead. To watch the drama unfold: It Band, shaken by Internet ...

The Ramones: Joey Ramone 1951-2001

Comment by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 26 April 2001

SINCE JOEY Ramone’s death, countless journalists have commented, with varying mixtures of pessimism and solace, that punk is dead, literally. ...

Rare Earth: The Best of Rare Earth (Motown)

Review by Simon Warner, PopMatters, 6 February 2001

MOTOWN'S GOLDEN decade – over 100 US Top Ten hits in the Sixties – was as steady and profitable as the Detroit auto plant conveyor ...

The Raveonettes: Whip It On

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 14 March 2003

THE RAVEONETTES are sneaky little devils, aren't they? How dare these wily Danes cause such a stir with their debut Whip It On, just over ...

The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Red Hot Chili Peppers: Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Retrospective by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 3 December 2003

TRUTH BE TOLD, Blood Sugar Sex Magik is not my all-time favorite album, no matter how you slice it. ...

Eileen Rose: Bowery Ballroom, New York

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 5 June 2002

INSIDE THAT tiny red dress is a tinier woman, and she's standing before the tiniest crowd I've ever seen at the Bowery Ballroom. ...

The Shins: Bowery Ballroom, New York

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 23 September 2003

THE SHINS are fantastic. When I say fantastic, I'm not speaking of their musical ability or creative chops — fantastic here is not a synonym ...

Sigur Rós: Radio City Music Hall, New York City

Live Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, PopMatters, 26 March 2003

THERE IS A BEE GEES song that goes, "I started a joke which started the whole world crying." This lyric highlights one of two overriding ...

Snow Patrol: Final Straw

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 20 April 2004

ONE OF THE REASONS we listen to music is because it provides a vehicle for expressing feelings that would otherwise go unexpressed. Rage, passion, fear, ...

The Softies: Holiday in Rhode Island

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 11 September 2000

SIGH. THE SOFTIES. Sometimes it's so great to know exactly what you're getting in a band. Take the Butthole Surfers, or the Beastie Boys. Names ...

The Sound: Jeopardy

Retrospective by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 31 March 2003

JEOPARDY IS the album missing from your music collection. ...

The Soundtrack of Our Lives: Welcome to the Infant Freebase

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 8 October 2001

FIRST, I'D LIKE to devote a little time to talking about schizophrenia. There are those who toss the word around often, especially those whachamacalit academic ...

Spacehog: The Hogyssey

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 16 April 2001

THE YEAR WAS 1995 when Spacehog hit the world with their silver-bullet hit, 'In the Meantime'. It was the era when Oasis was gonna live ...

Dusty Springfield: The Ultimate Collection

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 3 December 2001

OH, POP MUSIC! One minute, it pushes the envelope wide-wide open, then the next seals it up tight as can be! Such a force it ...

Squirrel Nut Zippers: Bedlam Ballroom

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 16 October 2000

THERE ONCE WAS a year called 1996. Hit songs came from bands like La Bouche. Humanity, near the brink of ruin, tottered, desperate for salvation. ...

Starsailor: Silence Is Easy

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 26 January 2004

THIS TIME around, Starsailor have created an album that's the musical equivalent of wearing a "Kick Me" sign through a crowded high school hallway. ...

Starsailor: Love Is Here

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, January 2002

BEFORE THE Q magazine awards, a rally of sold out headlining tours, and industry buzz that promised the next Coldplay or Travis, Starsailor was simply ...

Starsailor: Bowery Ballroom, NYC

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 10 December 2001

WAIT — DID HE drop the guitar on purpose? The song continued, but James Walsh quit playing in the midst of the action, visibly overwhelmed ...

Stereophonics: Irving Plaza, New York

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 6 February 2002

WHAT COMES AFTER Britpop? Or, the Stereophonics take your American hype and shove it ...

Sufjan Stevens

Comment by Devon Powers, PopMatters, February 2004

POSTMODERNISM HAS jacked it all up. In its wake, the cultural zeitgeist of irony has become so prevalent and requisite that plain old earnestness ceases ...

The Streets: Irving Plaza, New York City

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 30 June 2004

LISTENING TO The Streets, one gets a clear indication that Mike Skinner is a punk. He's the kind of guy who'd borrow your car and ...

Take 6: Beautiful World

Review by Mark Anthony Neal, PopMatters, 19 June 2002

WHEN TAKE 6 dropped their self-titled debut in 1988, contemporary R&B and gospel were both at crossroads and the idea of an a cappella gospel ...

Lewis Taylor: Soul Enigma: Lewis Taylor Comes to America

Report and Interview by Mark Anthony Neal, PopMatters, 8 February 2006

FOR MUCH OF THE LAST DECADE, arguably the most brilliant R&B artist of this generation has toiled in relative obscurity in Britain. ...

Robin Thicke : Robin Thicke: A Beautiful World

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 7 August 2003

Impressions of sound: the thinness of Thicke. ...

Travis: CMJ Music Marathon, NYC

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 23 October 2003

TONIGHT, LUCK WOULD have it that I've landed tickets to see Travis, a band I've liked throughout their career and one of the few Britpop ...

Turin Brakes: Bowery Ballroom, New York

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 1 July 2003

THEY'VE DEDICATED 'The Road', the second to last number of the night, to Jean. Jean is the slight, wide-eyed woman with her hands in prayer ...

Wax Poetic: Wax Poetic

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 19 June 2000

IT'S BEEN SO long since I've listened to something and truly felt it was new. Something so daring, so confusing, you want to swear by ...

Kanye West: Kanye Walks

Comment by Mark Anthony Neal, PopMatters, 1 February 2006

By making public his struggles with living a devout life, Kanye West makes such a lifestyle so much more accessible and valuable to the very ...

Kanye West: Le Zénith, Paris

Live Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, PopMatters, 19 March 2006

College Dropout Studies Abroad ...

Whitesnake: Various Artists: Heart of Metal 2

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, January 2001

THAT HEAVY METAL and its hair – in all seriousness – had such tremendous clout during the 1980s is one of the greatest, and most ...

Gary Wilson: Forgotten Lovers

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 14 February 2003

Portrait of the Artist as a Sex-Crazed Eccentric ...

Gary Wilson: The Cult Of Personality

Profile by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 3 June 2002

IN THE LATE 1970s, Gary Wilson was 24 years old and living in the basement of his parents' house in Endicott, NY. ...

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