Almost exactly 20 years ago, I cut a morning class with my college roommate Scott and my friend Molly, went across the street and bought a copy of Achtung Baby, came back to the dorm, ordered a pizza and took in the album from beginning to end. I was deeply disappointed. The Joshua Tree was [...]

There’s a line in the title track of Belle and Sebastian’s new record that’s a dead giveaway of the album: “Write about love, it can be in any form. Hand it to me in the morning.” This album comes off like an assignment. It’s not drudgery math homework but more of an creative writing essay: [...]

Welcome to The National Day at Naive Harmonies! The band has already earned this week’s Fine Tune Friday honors. Now it’s time for bonus coverage; what follows is a review of their new album High Violet. It’s easy to forget that, with the release this week of their new album High Violet, The National is [...]