Peter Tabakis

Review: Jack White – Blunderbuss

Blunderbuss is outstanding, Jack White’s finest and most consistent work to date.

Review: Madonna – MDNA

A collection of grimaces and forced smiles, mixed with showy instances of elation, MDNA is a jumble of lows and just a few highs, an exasperating portrait of an artist seemingly in the midst of crisis.

Review: The Shins – Port of Morrow

Port of Morrow is the fourth and most potent Shins album. These songs are nearly all chorus, big and upfront where his first two records were twisty and plucky.

Review: Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball

Wrecking Ball, Bruce Springsteen’s 17th studio album, is his angriest and most vital work since 1982′s Nebraska.

Review & Stream: Tennis – Young & Old

Young and Old is the perfect sophomore album. Tennis has followed its newlywed gem Cape Dory with an album that does everything exactly right.

Review & Stream: Air – Le Voyage Dans La Lune

This is the album we’ve been waiting for, Air’s grand return to the cosmos, the proper follow-up to Moon Safari.

Album Review: Lana Del Rey – Born To Die

Most people — let’s call them The Lucky Ones — live in blissful ignorance of Lana Del Rey and the insufferable debate she has ignited. If you know her name, you’ve already entered the fray, however unwittingly.

Review: The Weeknd – Balloon Trilogy

I tend to bristle at the indie blogosphere’s obsession with taxonomy, the impulse to create ridiculous subgenres that group artists under arbitrary categories. But Eric Harvey got it right when he coined the term “PBR&B.”

Album Review: Amy Winehouse – Lioness: Hidden Treasures

What kind of fuckery is this?

Album Review: Rihanna – Talk That Talk

Talk That Talk is ultimately of a piece with Rihanna’s last couple releases and is just as flawed. But that’s OK.

Album Review: Cass McCombs – Humor Risk

Where Wit’s End lingered too long with intriguing twists and turns that seemed to go nowhere, Humor Risk – Cass McCombs’ second LP of 2011 – is for the most part direct, even punchy (thanks to its addition of the electric guitar).

Album Review: Florence + The Machine – Ceremonials

Ceremonials is at its core a stellar pop album draped in exquisite and perplexing cloths. Naked underneath is a major new Artist who is worthy of that capital A. Her remarkable new album is too.