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Articles by Eric Danton
Todd Snider’s first posthumous album feels unfinished
Todd Snider was always good at finding a balance between absurd and profound. Throughout his career, he was a jokester with a sincere streak, as good at finding pathos in the guy carrying the boom box in Mike Tyson’s entourage as he was at voicing sly, righteous anger, or letting his wistful streak show every now and then.
Tom Morello is ready to fight on Everyone Gets Everything They Want
Since Tom Morello came to prominence in the nineties, his CV includes Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, the Prophets of Rage, Street Sweeper Social Club (with Boots Riley), Bruce Springsteen, and the Nightwatchman, Morello’s one-man-army acoustic protest persona. Plus, he has released a trio of Atlas Underground projects under his own name.
Perennial light the fuse on Modernism
Pressing play on a Perennial album has a lot in common with lighting a fuse: it means an explosion is imminent. The title track that opens the New England trio’s latest, Modernism, features about four seconds of keyboard noise and guitar sizzle before the drums kick in, the guitar riff detonates, and the whole song ripples outward like a blast wave.
Low Cut Connie push back against the regime on Livin in the USA
With Adam Weiner racing up and down the keys like a man who just lit the piano on fire, Low Cut Connie has built a reputation more for high-octane rock and roll that verges on mayhem than for political commentary over the past fifteen years. On the band’s latest, Weiner poses a simple enough question: Why not both? Livin in the USA is very much a protest album.
Fruit Bats consider what-ifs on The Landfill
Skip to the content After using the “morning pages” technique to write Fruit Bats’ stripped-down, mostly solo 2025 album Baby Man, frontman Eric D. Johnson tried a similar approach in a different context for the follow-up. The Landfill is a full-band effort, largely recorded live in the studio.
Shakey Graves steps into fatherhood on Fondness, etc.
Musicians who become parents sometimes feel compelled to write songs about it. But really, what is there to say? Every parenthood experience is unique, and also very much the same, and probably has been for something like three hundred thousand years since humans evolved. All the wonder or magic inherent in the process is deeply personal, and therefore dreary as hell when someone else sings about it.
Metric think big on Romanticize the Dive
Metric’s music in recent years has taken a more reflective turn that created a context for their new album, Romanticize the Dive. Before 2020, the punk-minded synth-pop band may have been too busy to fully recognize the extent of the autonomy it had created. That changed with Formentera, the album Emily Haines, Jimmy Shaw, Joshua Winstead, and Joules Scott Key began making during the first year of the pandemic.
I Don’t Know Right From Wrong: Lost La Peste 1976-1979, Vol. 1
Punk rock would have come to Boston soon enough anyway, but maybe Peter Dayton gave it a head start. Dayton was a 20-year-old art student when he took the train to New York City in October 1975 to see a rock concert that got canceled at the last minute. He ended up on the Bowery instead, at CBGB, where the Ramones were wrapping up a three-night stand, six months before the release of their debut album.
No Album Left Behind: Brian Dunne goes looking for the good life on 'Clams Casino'
The hard truth is, no matter how many albums we review each year, there are always countless releases that end up overlooked. That’s why, from now until the end of December, we’re bringing back our No Album Left Behind series and singing the praises of our favorite underrated records of 2025. It’s an age-old story: a kid from the exurbs yearns for the big city, lured by the glamor and lights, and the implied promise of success. Brian Dunne knows that story.
midori jaeger connects with nature, and herself, on “dark green”
After a big breakup in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, singer-songwriter and classically trained cellist midori jaeger was feeling isolated in a new London flat, that looked out on a stand of evergreen trees. Alone and unable to visit her parents and extended family in Japan, where she was born, jaeger found a measure of solace in the view from her window.
midori jaeger connects with nature, and herself, on “dark green”
After a big breakup in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, singer-songwriter and classically trained cellist midori jaeger was feeling isolated in a new London flat, that looked out on a stand of evergreen trees. Alone and unable to visit her parents and extended family in Japan, where she was born, jaeger found a measure of solace in the view from her window.
The Antlers, 'Blight' Album Review
Silberman doesn’t spare himself—in fact, he’s most often examining his own culpability through lyrics that are piercing and direct. “What becomes of what I throw away? Broken cord, takeout tray,” he sings on album opener “Consider the Source.” “Leaky battery and shattered screen, spilling ink I can’t clean.” He’s singing in a ghostly whisper over mournful piano chords, but the sentiment lands with thunderous force. That’s true throughout Blight.
Amanda Shires, 'Nobody's Girl' Album Review
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David Byrne, 'Who Is the Sky?' Album Review
David Byrne has never lost his love for discovery. At 73, the veteran singer, songwriter, author, Broadway composer, and filmmaker retains a curiosity about the world around him that is rare at any age. Combine that with a nimble mind and a restless spirit and the result is a musician who is continuously exploring new creative avenues.
Lord Huron, 'The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1' Album Review
Ben Schneider has spent his career so far steering Lord Huron through the American West. Not the Old West, necessarily, though Schneider went so far as to invent an imaginary series of Western adventure novels as part of the backstory for Lonesome Dreams, the band’s 2012 debut. The old days of horse rustlers, bandits, and broad-shouldered sheriffs are part of that mythos, of course, but Schneider is at least as interested in evoking the setting as telling the stories on Lord Huron’s latest.
On Lucius, the Indie-Pop Band Sounds Like Itself Again
Listen to this article Your browser does not support the audio element. When Lucius emerged more than 15 years ago from the wilds of Ditmas Park in the outer reaches of Brooklyn, they didn’t sound much like anybody else. They still don’t, but a lot has changed in the meantime. Then a quintet, Lucius were a self-contained unit—not a gang, exactly, though their music felt like an initiation rite.
Blondshell, 'If You Asked For a Picture' Album Review
Sabrina Teitelbaum was hailed as something of an alt-rock revivalist when she released her first album as Blondshell in 2023, after pivoting during the pandemic from a poppier project under the name BAUM. She proves her bona fides on the follow-up, If You Asked For a Picture. But Blondshell’s second album does more than just pick up where the first one left off: The hooks are sharper and the music is livelier and more dynamic.
Following Craig Finn's Trail of Curiosity
Craig Finn has never created a character as fully developed as the one at the center of his new solo album, Always Been. Vivid personalities have long been a focus of Finn’s songwriting, along with Catholic imagery and what happens when they intersect. That’s been a running theme in Finn’s work, especially with his band the Hold Steady.
Alison Krauss & Union Station, 'Arcadia' Album Review
It’s bound to be a little disappointing to fans of Alison Krauss & Union Station who waited 14 years for a new album only to find that Dan Tyminski, a mainstay of the band on vocals, guitar, and mandolin since 1992, isn’t on it. Fortunately, Russell Moore was available instead. With Tyminski focused on his solo career, Moore slipped right in like he and Krauss have spent a lifetime swapping songs.
Lucy Dacus Pushes in New Directions on Forever Is a Feeling
If Lucy Dacus sounded forthright on her first few albums, she circumvents any remaining filters on her latest. For all Dacus’ directness as she parsed, say, a flinty breakup on “Night Shift,” from 2018’s Historian, or wrestled with the ambivalence she felt about adulthood throughout 2021’s Home Video, the Virginia-born singer and songwriter goes even further on Forever Is a Feeling.
Michael Imperioli’s Band ZOPA Find Momentum
Listen to this article Your browser does not support the audio element. It didn’t take long after he first picked up a guitar for Michael Imperioli to join a band. The guitar was a nylon-string acoustic, because that’s what he could afford as a 19- or 20-year-old drama school student in Manhattan in the mid-‘80s. The band was a no-wave-inspired instrumental trio with no singer. If playing an acoustic guitar in what amounts to a noise band seems like a curious choice, well, yes.
Review: Patterson Hood Looks Inward on 'Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams'
Patterson Hood has long demonstrated a knack in his songs for finely wrought character studies, from everyman working-class folks to Southern rock icons to abusive preachers whose kinks get them killed. This time, Hood applies his powers of observation to his own life. To be sure, the singer, guitarist and songwriter has written about his (misspent?) youth before. In fact, it’s the subject of “Let There Be Rock,” one of the best songs by his band the Drive-By Truckers.
My 10-year-old is allowed to roam alone. I want him to have independence. Original
Parenting The author encourages his 10-year-old son to have independence. Courtesy of the author This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? . We allow our 10-year-old to go places on his own. He bikes alone to the library, a place that says that kids under 10 need to be present with an adult. It all started during the pandemic, but we agreed with other parents to let it keep happening.
Franz Ferdinand Push Boundaries on The Human Fear
Listen to this article Your browser does not support the audio element. Not to get all philosophical about it, but Franz Ferdinand are saddled with the weight of history on The Human Fear, the band’s latest album. Their own history, to be clear—that wasn’t a set-up for some weak World War I joke. Considered on its own, The Human Fear, Franz Ferdinand’s first LP since 2018, is a well-constructed, sometimes playful album about confronting, well, human fears. Alas, there’s always context.
Michael Kiwanuka, 'Small Changes' Album Review
Considering everything that has happened in the world in the five years since Michael Kiwanuka last released an album, his latest feels more like a reset than a follow-up. KIWANUKA in 2019 was a highly present LP full of sharp corners, softened by gorgeously rendered musical arrangements steeped in the sound of 1970s soul.
Mount Eerie, 'Night Palace' Album Review
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Japandroids Wrap Up the Party with Fate & Alcohol
Every party eventually comes to an end. Japandroids are shutting it down on their own terms, before the beer is gone, before the cops come, before the bouncer has to throw everyone out into the street. It’s an about-face for Brian King and David Prowse, two guys who made the epicenter of the party into the core of their band.
Wild Pink, 'Dulling the Horns' Album Review
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Los Bitchos Are in Full Party Mode on Talkie Talkie
There’s a good chance that a group of musicians who call their instrumental album Talkie Talkie have a smart-ass streak. Ladies and gentlemen, Los Bitchos! The London-based quartet comprising members from across the globe is back, this time with a more expansive approach.
'Across the River of Stars' Album Review
Beachwood Sparks are good at reunions, but continuity is an issue. The Los Angeles-based country-rockers are back after a 12-year hiatus, which followed a four-year break, which came after a five- or six-year break. All told, since forming in 1997, the band has spent more time apart than together. No surprise, then, that Beachwood Sparks have released just a handful of albums over the years, including Across the River of Stars—the group’s first new LP since The Tarnished Gold in 2012.
The Decemberists: 'As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again' Album Review
It’s been six years since the Decemberists last released an album, a period that you can imagine frontman Colin Meloy describing as “a lustrum and twelvemonth.” It’s the longest interval between LPs so far for the Portland band, and the break seems to have served as something of a reset—one that has resulted in the longest album the group has made to date. It’s also one of their best.
'Gemelo' Album Review
Strictly speaking, Angélica Garcia is not a twin. That is not to say the singer doesn’t possess a certain duality. She’s the American-born daughter of Mexican parents, fluent in Spanish and English, and guided by her formidable intellect as much as by a sense of intuition that’s harder to define. That dualism is at the core of Garcia’s new album, Gemelo, which is the Spanish word for “twin.” Fittingly, Gemelo marks the first of Garcia’s three albums on which she sings mostly in Spanish.
Bonny Light Horseman Are Ageless on Keep Me on Your Mind/See You Free
A double-album initially seemed like too much. Bonny Light Horseman had already demonstrated a knack for interpretation on the trio’s self-titled 2020 album, comprising 10 reworked folk songs that sometimes dated back hundreds of years. Eric D. Johnson, Josh Kaufman and Anaïs Mitchell next showed they could write original songs with the same ageless quality on their 10-song 2022 collection, Rolling Golden Holy.
'Santa Cruz' Album Review
Now we’re getting to the good stuff. After unpacking his childhood on albums in 2019 and 2022, David Bazan has arrived at his teenage years and early adulthood on Santa Cruz, the third entry in an autobiographical arc by Pedro the Lion. This is when Bazan starts coming into his own, figuring out who he is and shaping the musical identity that has carried him through more or less until now.
Camera Obscura: 'Look to the East, Look to the West' Album Review
Camera Obscura came right at you on a string of albums in the early 2000s with bright melodies that were at once effervescent and gloriously plaintive. Many of the songs from Let’s Get Out of This Country in 2006 and especially My Maudlin Career in 2009 took up residence in your brain and refused to leave. The Scottish group takes a more subdued approach on their latest, Look to the East, Look to the West.
John Moreland Takes Stock on Surprise New Album Visitor
John Moreland’s new album, Visitor, arrives in much the same way as his decision to take a year-long break from playing shows—without prior notice. After returning from a grueling tour toward the end of 2022, Moreland decided to go dark for a while. He turned off his iPhone and stashed it in his sock drawer, where it stayed for six months. He ignored social media.
The Black Crowes Come Blazing Back on Happiness Bastards
There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical when a once-prominent band reassembles decades after its cultural peak. Do they need the money? Are they addicted to the attention? That goes double for bands comprising brothers who are known for their fraught familial relationships, from the Everlys right on through to the Gallaghers (not that Oasis will be re-forming anytime soon) and Chris and Rich Robinson, the siblings and driving force behind the Black Crowes.
'Daniel' Album Review
There was a while when Real Estate was pretty much the musical embodiment of youthful ennui. The Brooklyn-via-New Jersey band made languorous songs—on albums like In Mind and Atlas—about self-doubt in its various forms, most often in the context of relationships. Eventually, though, adulthood comes creeping in, and the ennui changes shape, even if the existential uncertainty doesn’t fully go away.
Willi Carlisle Practices Radical Empathy on Critterland
Willi Carlisle has been described as a folk singer who “speaks his truth,” which is almost right. More accurately, the Arkansas singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist is on a rambling, itinerant quest to live his truth—that is, to live a way that’s true to himself, which ends up reflected in songs that often display a radical sense of empathy. That sensibility underpinned his 2022 album Peculiar, Missouri, and a similar idea is at the heart of his latest, Critterland.
No Album Left Behind: Department Builds an Emotional Arc on Dumb Angel
There’s a particular art to plunderphonics, the practice of taking samples of other music and stitching them together into something new, cohesive and, ideally, compelling. Not only must practitioners have a clear idea about how they want to put together their musical collages, it’s helpful to have an encyclopedic mental catalog of the sounds that will get them there.
No Album Left Behind: Katie Von Schleicher Finds Her Comfort Zone on A Little Touch of Schleicher in the Night
Katie Von Schleicher doesn’t get enough credit for her wit. Understandably, listeners more often focus on her voice, which can sound low and sultry one minute and pure and clear the next. Go beyond the arresting vocals on Von Schleicher’s fourth album, though, and the Brooklyn singer is funny, in a dry, understated way.
Autogramm Live for the Moment on Music that Humans Can Play
It’s telling that Autogramm describe themselves as “plastic punx,” which is also the name of a song on their new album. There’s no punk-rock manifesto anchoring the band, no doctrine or dogma—just pliable, catchy songs that split the difference between bright synthesizers and punchy guitar riffs. At its core, Music that Humans Can Play is pastiche, but in a non-pejorative sense. These 10 songs make no pretense at breaking new ground.
Jeffrey Martin Finds Beauty in the Mess on Thank God We Left the Garden
One of the basic tenets of conventional Christian doctrine holds that human beings are born inherently flawed because Adam and Eve blew it and got themselves kicked out of the Garden of Eden. The idea of original sin is foundational for Jeffrey Martin on his new album, too, but for a different reason. As Martin sees it, that apocryphal bite of the apple wasn’t some catastrophic downfall for humanity. On the contrary, it was an awakening—the moment when things got interesting.
The Gaslight Anthem Let Go of the Past on History Books
Brian Fallon’s music has always had a nostalgic streak. His work fronting the Gaslight Anthem is full of signifiers of bygone days set alongside a yearning for a time when everything seemed simpler, before love fractured, friends died too soon and dreams withered. The band addressed those topics with the urgent fervor of youth, pushing the tempo on propulsive songs stacked with punk-rock power chords and a certain wringing emotionalism. Yet the nature of nostalgia shifts with age.
Sun June Find Their Way Through Uncertainty on Bad Dream Jaguar
Sometimes adulthood doesn’t work out quite the way you thought it would. There are moments when things that once seemed so clear start to look blurry, and what you took for granted feels less settled. Expectations change and priorities shift in a way that can rearrange our lives. Sun June’s latest is a soundtrack for those occasions. Bad Dream Jaguar is a collection of songs threading their way through the uncertainty.
Wilco Fall Short of Their Best on Cousin
Jeff Tweedy laid out his approach to crafting lyrics in his entertaining 2020 book How to Write One Song, an instructional manual of sorts. Among other advice, the Wilco frontman suggested making a list of words, connecting the nouns and verbs that don’t seem to naturally fit together to see what images or feelings they evoke, and then following where they lead.
Lydia Loveless Shows Resilience on
Lydia Loveless arrived with all the subtlety of a runaway train with the 2011 LP Indestructible Machine, a raw alt-country album full of scorching guitars, blunt lyrics and Loveless’ full-throttle voice. The Columbus, Ohio, singer burned so hot that they seemed at risk of flaming out. Loveless has learned a few things since then, many of which inform the singer’s latest album. Nothing’s Gonna Stand in My Way Again shows how they have become more thoughtful as a songwriter.
The Handsome Family Return With Western Gothic Fatalism on Hollow
The Handsome Family got a boost last year when Phoebe Bridgers turned in a bleak cover of their already wrenching Christmas-adjacent song “So Much Wine.” It was a nice shoutout for the husband-wife duo, yet Brett and Rennie Sparks have been making harrowing music together for 30 years. Their power remains in full effect on their latest, Hollow.
The Hives Sidestep Maturity on The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons
When the Hives announced their first new album in more than a decade this spring, singer Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist told fans exactly what to expect. “There’s no maturity or anything like that bullshit, because who the fuck wants mature rock ’n’ roll?” he quipped. Almqvist continued, “Rock ’n’ roll can’t grow up, it is a perpetual teenager and this album feels exactly like that.” Not only is that an impressive display of self-awareness, it’s also 100-percent correct.
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