Arctic Monkeys Ruined Me For Every Other Album This Year
If you culled together the critical reviews for Arctic Monkeys’ two previous albums—Humbug (2009) and Suck It and See (2011)—the common observation would be that the band was “maturing.” I’ve always thought that was a backhanded compliment because for a plucky British band like this, that seems to mean they were losing the raw (juvenile) […]
For Neko Case, Things Get Worse
As you may have gathered from my piece about Harold & Maude, there is a handful of art that connects me to a particular girl—specifically, to a shitty breakup. Neko Case’s previous album, Middle Cyclone, is another. The album was brash and empowered, wild, a nearly literal force of nature. High emotion is probably how […]
Kanye West Doesn’t Give a Fuck, and It Shows
I have no problem admitting that I love Kanye West. I love the Kanye that put out “All Falls Down.” I even love mousy-white-pop-star-humiliating, Shutter-Shades-wearing, Steve-Jobs-incarnate Kanye. But this Kanye—the one who just this week released Yeezus—I hate this Kanye West. The title alone should clue you in to how easy and pedestrian the effort […]
The Melody of Midwestern Drought: Joshua Robbins’ Praise Nothing
In “Washing in the Sangam,” Joshua Robbins writes, Son, through faith you’ve found this hunger answered even as I turn away in our ordinary house from the look of wonder in your face, the expression Christ must have had seeing Lazarus raised. His debut collection, Praise Nothing (University of Arkansas Press, 2013) is populated by this type of […]
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