Despite the fact that nearly every great artist will reach a point where everything they do will be considered a “comeback” of sorts, the fact remains that very few songwriters seem to have much left to say after their 50th birthday. Stretching from Paul McCartney and Neil Young to Brian Wilson and David Bowie, the list of artists who have simply become lesser versions of their earlier selves is long, littered with onetime visionaries who are left to make warmly received but soon to be forgotten albums. But some songwriters do manage to find a second life, and the select few that have experienced a career renaissance have done so by moving away from what they have already proven they do best. Take Bob Dylan and his back-to-the-basics exploration of bedrock American music forms or Tom Waits and his willingness ...

  When I chatted with the four members of the Raconteurs two years ago, doing an interview for a cover story I was writing, I was immediately struck by how they seemed to have little to say about the album that was then rumored to be Detroit’s answer to Nirvana’s Nevermind, the moment when Jack White finally turned loose in the studio and proved what he could do with a conventional band. But, knowing that his role as the White Stripes dynamic lead vocalist and guitarist gave him a stature which towered above those of his bandmates, White wasn’t going to say anything that made it seem like every moment of their debut wasn’t worked out and signed off on by each and every person in the band. And, so, he said little beyond stating the obvious; the band of longtime ...

  Though it’s generally true that music has lagged behind the other major forms of art in reaching its most abstract conclusions, the last 30 years of underground noise have gone a long way toward proving John Cage’s dictum that music is whatever we say it is. As a lover of melody and lyric, I was admittedly skeptical about such loose definitions and the sorts of deconstructions they encourage, but after several months of combing through the variants of the modern noise movement, I decided Cage was right. In as much as melody is only a succession of differing notes or pitches, and rhythm is a pattern of repeatable sound events, it becomes arbitrary to argue that music must fall within the narrow strictures of what we find pleasing to our ears. That’s preference, something that varies from culture to culture ...

So much music, so little time. Here in the music section of AVRev.com we try to cover a wide variety of styles. It’s possible we haven’t missed a single genre, even in just the three years I’ve been Music Editor. Personally, I’ve reviewed rock, rap, reggae, Hasidic reggae, country reggae, Celtic reggae, Celtic, classical, blues, bluegrass, jazz, hip hop, Christian pop, Satanic thrash, sacred steel, Japanese steel drum lounge, Vegas lounge, speed metal, country, soul, soul country, Nigerian drum, prog-rock, Cajun, Cambodian ‘60s psychedelic rock – you know, the usual. We’ve gone out of our way to locate and evaluate hi-res recordings, digital downloads, music DVDs and other goodies of particular interest to our readers. But with only 7-10 reviews per issue, there’s a lot of interesting music that never made it to the electronic page. So this “Ya Missed It” review ...

  For as much as they seemed like the typical gimmick band, an act formed by two comically mismatched artists adopting a jokey moniker and wearing stage costumes that parodied iconic film duos, Gnarls Barkley obliterated all stereotypes with their 2006 hit “Crazy.” A truly transcendent pop song cut from dark chord changes and a desperately soaring chorus, it was three minutes of bliss that was hailed by Top 40 pop fans and indie hipsters alike. By the end of the year, the song had proven so powerful that everyone from Nelly Furtado to the Raconteurs to Charlotte Church had covered it, and the band had achieved cult status, with auteur producer Danger Mouse and R&B heavyweight Cee-Lo earning a following that crossed all demographic and genre barriers. But that said, St. Elsewhere, their debut album, was a bit of a ...