The Useless Critic 2.0

Banks, Goddess LA siren Jillian Banks is much more than a product of the recent crop of minimal, futuristic "alt-R&B." Paired with her dusky vocals, Banks' entrancing debut album employs woozy beats, pulsating bass shudders, and distorted electronic effects to create a soundscape that is dark, moody, sultry, enigmatic, and brooding. The raw, confessional tales of seduction, scorned love, and heartbreak showcase Banks as both empowering ("Fucking with a goddess and you get a little colder," on the shadowy title track ) and vulnerable ("Please, give me something to convince me that I am not a monster," on album opener " Alibi "), but there's also room for playfully sinister lyricism ("My words can come out as a pistol / And I'm no good at aiming / But I can aim it at you," on the menacing "Beggin for Thread"). Top tracks: "Beggin for Thread" • " This Is What It Feels Like " • ...

A few days ago (why am I always late?), The Knife unveiled the first single from their highly anticipated album Shaking the Habitual , which is due out April 8 internationally and April 9 in the United States. "Full of Fire" is a nine-minute club banger featuring urgent techno beats and weird-ass electronic noises. I can definitely picture myself slut-dropping to it in a sweaty, underground Stockholm club with some guy I've just met. The gender-bending, equally bizarre music video/short film for the song was directed by Swedish filmmaker and visual artist Marit Östberg, who contributed a film to the 2009 Swedish feminist porn compilation Dirty Diaries (which includes music by Fever Ray). The duo also revealed the album's eye-piercing artwork and track listing (mind you, it's almost 100 minutes long): 1. A Tooth for an Eye 2. Full of Fire 3. A Cherry on Top 4. Without You My Life Would Be Boring 5. Wrap Your Arms Around Me 6. Crake 7...

The wait is finally over, my friends. Enigmatic and totally awesome Swedish electronic music duo The Knife (siblings Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer) announced this week that their next album, titled Shaking the Habitual , will be released on April 8, 2013. It's been six years since the critically lauded and highly influential Silent Shout , and almost four years since Karin's equally haunting solo album under the pseudonym Fever Ray. Sure, they collabored with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock (aka the poor man's Fever Ray) to release the Darwin-inspired electro-opera Tomorrow, In a Year in 2010, but it's far from a proper follow-up. Additionally, the duo will tour Europe next year on yet-to-be-announced dates. Earlier this week, the duo posted a typically mysterious teaser trailer for the album, which contains the following description: "Music can be so meaningless. We had to find lust. We asked our friends and lovers to help us." I loved dem sho...

this song really always makes me feel like fall. or early winter. WHICH VERSION DO YOU PREFER, GENTLE READER The Knife's original version: or Jose Gonzalez' stripped-down cover? I didn't like this at all at first but it has since grown. thoughts! belated happy fall, everybody!