staff picks

  • Half pioneering, synth-driven new wave act and half performance art group, The Units challenged as many preconceptions as they could, and this collection showcases the often thrilling results. Songs like "High Pressure Days" and "Warm Moving Bodies" prove they rock as hard as any of their guitar-wielding peers.
    ~ Heather Phares

  • While I generally feel that most albums are too long, Flood is one of the few records with a sprawling track list that's just rock solid from start to finish. Definitely an album I can listen to without even considering skipping to the next track.
    ~ Gregory Heaney

  • Following 2002's homemade masterwork Light Green Leaves, nomadic songwriter and sometimes Microphones/Devendra Bandhart collaborator Kyle Fields took the mood down a notch on 2004's Magic Wand. Rainy day folk songs drift by under the loving watch of Fields' Will Oldham-esque mumble, revealing subtle truths and tender observations.
    ~ Fred Thomas