Will Hermes
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With a new record, the band Arcade Fire is trying to top their 2011 release, which won a Grammy for Album of the Year. Critic Will Hermes says that on Reflektor, they turn to dance music to try to reinvigorate their sound.
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Producer and singer-songwriter Abel Tesfaye became an Internet phenomenon in 2010, when he began self-releasing free mixtapes of woozy, haunted R&B songs. His proper major-label debut, Kiss Land, marks his official step into the limelight.
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Staged spectacularly between a beach and a rainforest mountain peak in Malaysian Borneo, the festival grows its local music scene and tourism industry, while also raising consciousness — along with, in this case, some uncomfortable questions — about its environmental stewardship.
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With tracks like "Southern Comfort Zone" and "Accidental Racist," the superstar's new album performs a balancing act of cultural examinations. But there are still enough twangy guitar solos and all-purpose love songs to engage country-music tradition.
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On her major-label debut, the 24-year-old singer-songwriter explores themes steeped in tradition, yet views them through the lens of youth culture.
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Four of the Brazilian singer-songwriter's classic records are being re-released this week. Critic Will Hermes says that, while the music is steeped in a political climate of the past, they still resonate with the present.
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The latest album by Berlin-based electronic artist Pantha du Prince is a collaboration built around a decidedly nondigital device: a series of large church bells.
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The duo, which sounds like Tom Petty after some Red Bull-and-vodkas, hones the scream to an art.
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Van Etten's new album, Tramp, is titled after the touring artist's time of essential homelessness. It's full of unresolved restlessness, infinite-loop longing and expansive vocals.
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The Brazilian artist's new album, Sem Nostalgia, is a tribute to the spirit of the traditional bossa nova movement in Brazil.