René Spencer Saller

Arcade Fire Funeral (Merge) Funeral, the first CD from Montreal’s the Arcade Fire, came out in September, and already it’s induced scores of worshipful music writers to churn out drool-slick paeans to the young sextet’s astonishing genius. Hard as it is to imagine that any band could live up to the hype, somehow this one […]

Carla Bruni QuelquÕun mÕa dit (Na•ve/V2) Don’t hate Carla Bruni because she’s beautiful. If you’re going to hate her, there are plenty of other, better reasons. The 36-year-old Italian-born, French-bred former supermodel has dated Mick Jagger, Donald Trump, and Eric Clapton. Her father is a wealthy industrialist (and respected avant-garde composer); her sister is the […]

Various Artists The Late Great Daniel Johnston Discovered Covered (Gammon) History will prove you poor enlightened blue-staters right someday, but that’s cold comfort now, when Christian nutjobs and reckless neocons have hijacked your country. Instead of flouncing off to Canada, heed the wisdom of Daniel Johnston: “Do yourself a favor, become your own savior/Don’t let […]

Augie March Strange Bird (spinART) Don the bard mantle at your peril, rockdudes. Before you break out the thesaurus, think of the sick-making excesses of Rush. Think of Lou Reed’s recent Edgar Allan Poe travesty. Think of Rick Whatshisname’s excruciatingly stupid line about how he needs some chick “like Leda needs her swan” (that swan […]

Björk may be the most unpopular pop star alive. Sure, she had a gigantic hit single in her native Iceland when she was 11 years old, and she’s sold millions of records over the subsequent decades. She earned critical praise and several award nominations for her film debut in Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the […]

Tom WaitsReal Gone (Anti) At 54, Tom Waits is weirder than he’s ever been, which is quite an accomplishment when you consider that he’s been weird — deeply, uniquely, unrepentantly weird — for at least 20 years now, when Swordfishtrombones erupted like a beautiful boil on the polite posterior of the singer/songwriter scene. Over the […]

Elvis Costello and the Imposters The Delivery Man (Lost Highway) On the title track of his latest album, Elvis Costello sings, “I want to be your delivery man.” True to form, he’s layered the line with several coats of irony, taking the perspective of a murderer who served time for a minor offense and is […]

Sally Timms In the World of Him (Touch and Go) Sick unto death of so-called security moms and their effect on the upcoming election? Are women the new white men? The latest solo CD by Mekons singer Sally Timms seems spookily relevant, even though its timing is probably coincidental; In the World of Him has […]

Nelly Sweat (Fo Reel/Universal) Nelly is all things to all people — there are no multiplatinum weirdoes — and therein lies his charm. Beloved by all races, the photogenic St. Louis rapper is blasted from suburban softball fields and ghetto stoops alike. Strippers grind to him; preteens load him on their iPods; politicians praise him […]

Various Artists Future Soundtrack for America (Barsuk) Pity the young Republican who aspires to hipness. The nation might be evenly polarized, but the rock community, particularly the indie faction, is pretty much unanimously disgusted with W. The Bush twins claim to love Modest Mouse, the Strokes, and the Postal Service, but the likelihood that any […]

Ricky FantéRewind (Virgin) Ricky Fanté makes soul music, nothing “neo” about it: just sweet, buttery, Stax-sounding soul that’s wholesome as a plate of hotcakes. No hip-hop flourishes, no Pro-Tools preening, no freaky dancehall textures, no pottymouth innuendoes for this 26-year-old ex-Marine. Rewind is truth in advertising, a trip back in time to when nice girls […]

Doug Hilsinger and Caroleen Beatty Brian Eno’s Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (DBK Works) Thirty years after Brian Eno released his second solo album, Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), multi-instrumentalist Doug Hilsinger and vocalist Caroleen Beatty, both of the San Francisco indie-rock outfit Waycross, pay it a peculiar homage, performing all of the Maoist opera’s […]