Album Reviews8.4/10
The Cure’s ‘The Top’: Ambition, Unevenness, and One of Their Most Interesting Albums
A record of contradiction: a dark, ambitious work wherein ambition and discord contend within one soul.
CLAY TRIBUNE / THE ARCHIVE
Category: Album Reviews
Records we have scored.
Album Reviews7/10
Thirty Years On, The Cure’s Wild Mood Swings Still Can’t Shake Its Singles-and-Filler Formula
A review of The Cure's 1996 double album Wild Mood Swings, weighing its strong singles against its weaker filler.
Sixteen Years On, Sufjan Stevens Still Rewards Patience on The Age of Adz
A record of memory, technology, and longing, wherein Sufjan Stevens bridges pop and strangeness with a bold, sprawling vision.
Album Reviews7.2/10
Nine Years On, Planetarium Still Sounds Like Sufjan Stevens Reaching For The Stars
A suite of seventeen songs about the planets, wherein a solitary wanderer seeks wisdom amid the vastness of space.
Album Reviews7/10
Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois Review: 7/10 — Flawed But Essential Portrait of a State
A sprawling portrait of Illinois, from Chicago to its darkest legends, rendered in song and silence.
Album Reviews8/10
Sufjan Stevens’s Convocations Turns Grief Into Silence — 8/10
A record of grief without words, piano and strings bearing the weight of loss across forty-nine tracks.
Album Reviews8/10
‘Let England Shake’: PJ Harvey’s War Record Still Rewards Attention
A review of PJ Harvey's 'Let England Shake,' a grim, stripped-down album about a nation lost to war.
Album Reviews7.9/10
PJ Harvey Maps Washington’s Monuments and War on The Hope Six
A song cycle of Washington, D.C.'s monuments and military halls, told quietly and with sorrow.
Album Reviews9.2/10
PJ Harvey’s Dry at 34: A Wall Built From Pain, Anger and Refusal
A grim chronicle of a solitary record wherein a singer, armed only with guitar and voice, lays bare her soul to the world.
Album Reviews8/10
PJ Harvey’s ‘To Bring You My Love’: Desire as the Engine, Not the Gift
A look back at PJ Harvey's 1995 album To Bring You My Love, a record of desire and demand.