Featured

Playlists, albums, articles & videos from our Rhapsody music experts.

The Inbox: Nick Cave, Buckcherry, Lusine and More

by Rob Harvilla

Welcome to The Inbox, a recurring feature in which we take a spin through the week's hottest new releases (along with a bit of Rhapsody's own reviews) and pair each album with the weirdest, coolest, (sometimes unintentionally) funniest stuff we can find on the Internet. This week we've got everything from goth rock splendor to bedroom R&B lasciviousness; took a little while to shoehorn a Spongebob Squarepants reference in there, but we figured it out. Enjoy.

Best Goth-Rock Mix of Theatrical Splendor and Deep-Seated Soul-Deep Ugliness, Exemplified by This Video of a Dude Singing "I Dreamed a Dream" in Gollum's Voice:
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Push the Sky Away
After a visceral detour into feral horndog garage ribaldry via his Grinderman project, gothic rock's wiliest bard is back for his 15th (!) record with The Bad Seeds, and it's a softer, gentler, even more intimidating affair. [Rob Harvilla]

Best Awkwardly Erotic, Forward-Thinking Digital-Soul Jams for All You Lovers Out There Who'll Also Be Buying a Playstation 4 the Day It Comes Out:
Jamie Lidell, Jamie Lidell
Jamie Lidell is a Nashville resident now, but you wouldn't necessarily guess it from his fifth LP, even though it was recorded right there in Music City. Whatever his previous fealty to classic soul idioms, this time he's all about finding his own twisted interpretation of funk. [Mosi Reeves]

Best Virile, Blaring, Cocky Riff-Rock That Offers Our Favorite Spin on the Seven Deadly Sins Since Spongebob Squarepants:
Buckcherry, Confessions
In a twisted sense, the argument can be made that Buckcherry make Christian rock. Absurd, yes. Yet an obsession with guilt and sin (sex and booze mainly) has long fueled their neo-AC/DC mechano-chug and riff-raging. This hasn't changed on the aptly titled Confessions; in fact, it's even more potent. [Justin Farrar]

Best Feral Danish Punk Jams, If Goats Yelling Like Humans Isn't Histrionic and Cathartic Enough for You:
Iceage, You're Nothing
Following a 2011 debut that inspired more hipster blog bytes than the rest of Copenhagen's population combined, depressive Danes Iceage return with a squatter-rock sophomore set maybe even punkier than its predecessor -- at least if punk means varying your Killing Joke dolor with Hüsker Dü Zen Arcade barrage (see "In Haze" and "It Might Hit First") fronted by Darby Crash-style blabbermouthing through a Vaselined lens. [Chuck Eddy]

Best Purring, Snarling R&B Mixing Boudoir Technology and Old-Fashioned Narcissism Ideal for Accompanying the New "Poptarting" Craze:
Inc., No World
Slow, breathy, sinister indie R&B is all the (quiet, simmering) rage these days, and young California brothers Andrew and Daniel Aged have their fingers on that barely discernible pulse for their debut as Inc. Less overtly evil than The Weeknd and not quite as poppy as Maxwell or TLC, No World still has a familiar air of ethereal lasciviousness. [Rob Harvilla]

Best Kraftwerk-Tinged Techno Pop for Those Still Avidly Seeking Love in This Club:
Lusine, The Waiting Room
There's always been a pop heart lurking inside Lusine, but he's tended to keep it hidden behind intricate techno rhythms and shifting electronic textures. Here, he is meticulous as ever and even more carefree; hence the Stereolab-meets-Kraftwerk simplicity of "Get the Message," with its koan-like couplets, or the swirl of vocals that gives "Lucky" its sense of lift. [Philip Sherburne]

Best Triumphant, Absurdly Rousing, Prog-Leaning Irish Jams for Those for Whom Braveheart Will Always Be the Only Oscar-Winner That Matters:
Celtic Thunder, Mythology
Wow, could Celtic Thunder have picked a better name for this British Isles excursion? That name could sum up these nostalgic romantics' career, but this album in particular is an homage to the musical mythologies that frame the group's own story: The first half is all sweeping aural spectacle and Ireland-on-ice showiness. But things get ... interesting. [Rachel Devitt]

Jamie Lidell

Jamie Lidell is a Nashville resident now, but you wouldn't necessarily guess it from his fifth LP, even though it was recorded right there in Music City. Whatever his previous fealty to classic soul idioms, this time he's all about finding his own twisted interpretation of funk. George Clinton's electro-shocked squelch carries more weight this time than Otis Redding's dulcet touch; chrome and neon edge out warmer, gentler textures, and Lidell's stylistic pile-up sounds more unhinged than ever. His voice is the axle on which everything turns, a malleable yowl inimitable and unparalleled.

Push the Sky Away

Nick Cave

After a visceral detour into feral horndog garage ribaldry via his Grinderman project, gothic rock's wiliest bard is back for his 15th (!) record with The Bad Seeds, and it's a softer, gentler, even more intimidating affair. Unsettling anti-ballads like "We Real Cool" (dark bass pulse, gorgeous strings) dominate here, amid tons of R-rated mermaid imagery ("Their legs wide to the world like bibles open") and oddball digressions like the Miley Cyrus-referencing "Higgs Boson Blues." Thesis: "It's the will of love/ It's the thrill of love/ Ah, but the chill of love is comin' on." Bundle up.

You're Nothing

Iceage

Following a 2011 debut that inspired more hipster blog bytes than the rest of Copenhagen's population combined, depressive Danes Iceage return with a squatter-rock sophomore set maybe even punkier than its predecessor -- at least if punk means varying your Killing Joke dolor with Hüsker Dü Zen Arcade barrage (see "In Haze" and "It Might Hit First") fronted by Darby Crash-style blabbermouthing through a Vaselined lens. "Ecstasy" gets stressed out and spits staccato; "Interlude" goes the militia-drummed industrial instrumental route. "Everything Drifts" raises fists like the revolution's begun.

No World

Inc.

Slow, breathy, sinister indie-R&B is all the (quiet, simmering) rage these days, and young California brothers Andrew and Daniel Aged have their fingers on that barely discernible pulse for their debut as Inc. Less overtly evil than The Weeknd and not quite as poppy as Maxwell or TLC, No World still has a familiar air of ethereal lasciviousness; the off-kilter two-chord swoon of "Desert Rose (War Prayer)" is the highlight, "Tell me what it takes to be a man" repeatedly intoned in a mournful falsetto. You've tried How to Dress Well; consider this How to Mope Better.

The Waiting Room

Lusine

There's always been a pop heart lurking inside Lusine, but he's tended to keep it hidden behind intricate techno rhythms and shifting electronic textures. Here, he is meticulous as ever and even more carefree; hence the Stereolab-meets-Kraftwerk simplicity of "Get the Message," with its koan-like couplets, or the swirl of vocals that gives "Lucky" its sense of lift. "Another Tomorrow" similarly shows off Lusine's knack for combining spongy textures with crackling rhythms that get deep under the skin, while "Without a Plan" asks what My Bloody Valentine might have sounded like with clarinets.

Mythology

Celtic Thunder

Wow, could Celtic Thunder have picked a better name for this British Isles excursion? That name could sum up these nostalgic romantics' career, but this album in particular is an homage to the musical mythologies that frame the group's own aesthetic story: The first half is all sweeping aural spectacle and Ireland-on-ice showiness. But things get ... interesting with a straight-up cover of Aaron Copland's "Hoedown" that segues into Hollywood symphonies, Gregorian vocal jazz and even country. In short, it's the legend of Celtic Thunder, told through its musical touchstones.