Land of Talk Find Peace and Quiet Amid 'Indistinct Conversations'

Published Jul 28, 2020

Scattered across Land of Talk's fourth album are interest-piquing fragments of chitchat. You can pick out "Fuck you, Debbie," or "When the s...

Man Man Let Their Freak-Rock Flag Fly on 'Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between'

Published Apr 30, 2020

On their first release since 2013, LA's Man Man offer a sprawling oasis of orchestral freak-rock. Over 17 tracks and 50 minutes, Dream Hunti...

Jenny Hval The Practice of Love

Published Sep 12, 2019

Jenny Hval has never shied away from sparring with dogma. Unpacking it is her forte: over six albums, the Norwegian songwriter has rooted he...

Jom Comyn Crawl

Published Sep 05, 2019

Jom Comyn's music conjures the sensation of weathering a storm. For almost a decade, his albums have passed through sounds like shifting sea...

Bruce Springsteen Western Stars

Published Jun 12, 2019

Is there any element of Bruce Springsteen's mythology more important than the road? New Jersey, maybe, but being born to run inevitably mean...

Rich Aucoin Release

Published May 15, 2019

Rich Aucoin has never been afraid to go big. Whether in lyrical content or musical scope, it might be the very scale of the Halifax-based mu...

​Rich Aucoin's 'Release' Was Almost Titled 'Death'

Published May 14, 2019

The colour-blasted skull that stares out from the cover of Rich Aucoin's new album, Release, is his own.   The Halifax-based musician had...

The Hold Steady's Craig Finn The Exclaim! Questionnaire

Published May 07, 2019

As the frontman of the Hold Steady, Craig Finn's character-driven tales of massive nights and bad decisions have anchored the band's blockbu...

Craig Finn I Need a New War

Published Apr 25, 2019

"I've been keeping up with payments, man / I've been managing the pain," Craig Finn offers at a warm mid-point on I Need a New War. The song...

Beth Gibbons and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Henryk Górecki: Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs)

Published Mar 28, 2019

Henryk Górecki's Symphony No. 3 took 15 years to become a hit. After premiering in 1977, a 1992 recording gave the then-living composer an a...

Jenny Lewis On the Line

Published Mar 22, 2019

"I've been searching for the heart to tell you something," Jenny Lewis offers on "Hollywood Lawn." "I could get down on my knees / I've had...

The Faint Egowerk

Published Mar 19, 2019

For the better part of the Faint's 20-plus-year career — from dance-punk pioneers to enduring electro-pop stalwarts — their true calling has...

Light Conductor Sequence One

Published Mar 06, 2019

If the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey overshot the great apes and instead appeared before a mid-'00s rock band, the moment might culmin...

Praises In This Year: Ten of Swords

Published Dec 06, 2018

In tarot, the ten of swords represents a bottoming out: a low point to pull yourself out of or succumb to, depending. As a title, it sits pe...

Ensign Broderick BloodCrush

Published Nov 08, 2018

Jason Sniderman's Ensign Broderick alias has quietly existed for decades: the NQ Arbuckle/Blue Peter member has crafted whole album's worth...

We Are the City At Night

Published Oct 03, 2018

We Are the City's At Night finds the Vancouver three-piece joyfully embracing rough edges without worrying about sanding them into perfectio...

Foxtrott Meditations III

Published Oct 03, 2018

As the culminating piece of Foxtrott's Meditations I-II-III LP — released as a sequence of EPs over the year — Meditations III finds Marie-H...

Coheed and Cambria The Unheavenly Creatures

Published Oct 02, 2018

After an album away from their long-running sci-fi narrative, Coheed and Cambria return to the Amory Wars saga with The Unheavenly Creatures...

JOYFULTALK Plurality Trip

Published Aug 22, 2018

What a trip. On JOYFULTALK's second album, Jay Crocker and Shawn Dicey meld electronic sounds into curious alignments, coaxing compelling se...

Foxtrott Meditations II

Published Aug 07, 2018

On Meditations II, Foxtrott's Marie-Hélène L. Delorme inlays her inner reflections into orbits of synth and groove.   Not that rhythm-led...