Much has been made of the fact that Olivia Rodrigo—unlike Phoebe Bridgers,Beabadoobee and Sabrina Carpenter—wasn't asked to join Taylor Swift on her Eras tour after failing to give Swift songwriting credit on two tracks from Sour, Rodrigo's 2021 debut. (The non-collaborative credits, largely for influence, were added later and to much hullabaloo.) But Rodrigo shouldn't be opening for anyone. She's a towering pop star with an appealingly awkward edge, admired by Annie Clark and Kathleen Hanna, who has called Rodrigo "a revelation." She lives up to that potential on her second album, a bottle rocket messily shooting off excitement and confusion and barbs, some of which land right back in her own heart. As a tween, Rodrigo starred in an American Girl movie. At 20, she's singing "all-american bitch," a clever roller coaster that goes from dreamy folk—her voice soft like breath on a dandelion puff—to giddy pop-punk. "With perfect all-American lips/ And perfect all-American hips/ I know my place, I know my place and this is it ... I scream inside to deal with it," she howls with sarcasm and angst. "bad idea right?" is an irresistible made-for-radio song, with head-banger guitar and new wave bounce, about hooking up with an ex against all better judgment ("See you tonight/ It's a bad idea right? Whatever, it's fine"). "Vampire" deliciously melds traces of Swift (bite your tongue) and My Chemical Romance as Rodrigo aims for the rafters and commits to the to the metaphor: "You sunk your teeth into me/ Bloodsucker, famefucker/ Bleedin' me dry, like a goddamn vampire." "Lacy" is a surprising bit of gothic folk that taps into complicated feelings of friendship and jealousy, its sweet guitar darkly contrasting with a sinister vocal effect. "ballad of a homeschooled girl" bounces on spring-loaded bass and careening '90s indie-rock guitar as she lays bare self-perceived social awkwardness: "I'm on the outside of the greatest inside joke/ And I hate all my clothes/ Feels like my skin doesn't fit right over my bones … Everything I do is tragic/ Every guy I like is gay." Rodrigo and producer Daniel Nigro have a keen sense of dynamics, varying the pop-punk and piano ballads that made Sour a smash. "Making the Bed" makes the most of a big swoony bridge, "Logical" lashes out at a "master manipulator" and "Teenage Dream" finds Rodrigo already worried about outgrowing her youthful charms: "And when does wide-eyed affection and all good intentions start to not be enough?" It's fucked-up and scary and sad, and it builds to a scream-along that is pure catharsis. "get him back!" is anthemic and unafraid to look a little crazy: "Wanna kiss his face (And then I want to get him back)/ With an uppercut (Then I want to get him back)/ I wanna meet his mom (And then I want to get him back)/ Just to tell her her son sucks (Then I want to get him back)." A former Disney girl, Rodrigo is never going to be able to hide her theater-kid tendencies, but there's plenty of room for the drama here. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

Middle-age looks great on Vampire Weekend. Singer Ezra Koenig has said Only God Was Above Us, their fifth studio album, contains "some of our most ambitious swings ever"—and it's fascinating to hear a band once known for being mannered, maybe even twee, really go for it. "Ice Cream Piano" initially taps into Beatles classicism with a dreamy melody and solemn piano, then kicks into Xanadu madness: shotgun spray drums, peppy keys, strings like a gossamer waterfall, and the gleeful racing rhythm that was a hallmark of VW's early work. "‘Fuck the world,'/ You said it quiet … ," Ezra Koenig sings. "Cynical, you can't deny it/ You don't want to win this war/ 'Cause you don't want the peace." But there is, blissfully, nothing cynical about Only God Was Above Us. The Flaming Lips' go-to guy Dave Fridmann is the engineer here and brings a signature sense of buoyancy to Koenig and longtime producer Ariel Rechtshaid's earthbound cool. On spacey "Capricorn," Koenig sounding like he's floating untethered through the cosmos amidst big, tumbling drums, Chris Baio's well-deep bass, and guitar like a streaking, shooting star. (Note the Easter egg of "too old for dying young, too young to live alone"—a seeming nod to 2013's "Diane Young" as the once-babyfaced members stare down 40.) There's a lot going on, and you can hear everything beautifully. Ditto the howling, yet elegant sax and '90s acoustic jangle guitar on "Classical," which also draws on the band's old-favorite Graceland influences. Free-range piano and slide guitar collide in "Gen-X Cops." And fascinating, maximalist "Connect" is otherworldly with its wild-prodigy piano, cartoon sci-fi bloops and bleeps, and jazzy rubber-band bass. It's orchestral mania that hops and skips all over the place, yet somehow feels cohesive. Koenig—who was influenced by raga and studied with composer Terry Riley in Japan in preparation for the record—sounds as youthful as ever (keep in mind, this is a guy who sounded a lot like Paul Simon at 22), and there are so many winks to now-classic VW flourishes. "Prep-School Gangsters" borrows the spiky, chime-note guitar of early records and complements it with sawing strings. Even though the band is now based in Los Angeles, their NYC home is still a major character. "The Surfer" references Manhattan's water system and its legendary role in pizza dough and bagel supremacy; it's also haunted by the city's '90s hip-hop moodiness. A song is named for iconic '80s Soho gallerist Mary Boone; daubed with ennui, it feels a lot like A Tribe Called Quest's "Can I Kick It." Album closer "Hope," the band's longest song ever put to record, gets woozy on slide guitar as Koenig wonders if we can ever learn to choose our battles: "The bull has gored the matador/ The US Army won the war/ The meaning died in metaphor … The righteous rage was foolish pride … Your bag fell down onto the tracks … The moving train accelerates/ It's always fast and always late … I hope you let it go." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

Adrianne Lenker is an astoundingly prolific songwriter. As leader of Big Thief, she wrote the band's 2022 double album, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You. Bookending that, she penned a pair of solo albums (2020's Songs and Instrumentals) and the new Bright Future. Lenker recorded Bright Future in a solitary analog studio with co-producer Philip Weinrobe and a core group of musicians: Nick Hakim, Mat Davidson, and Josefin Runsteen. Owing to this stripped-down configuration, the album possesses an earthy feel dominated by acoustic guitars, spectral piano, and Lenker's intimate vocals. The musicians layer bewitching harmonies on the country-leaning "Already Lost," while opening track "Real House" starts with an audible creak, as if someone is settling into a chair, and gives way to vivid, stream-of-consciousness lyrics: "Do you remember coming to the hospital when I was 14?/ My friends all left me there spinning/ Dad was angry that you saw everything." The latter track sets the tone for the rest of Bright Future, which finds Lenker in an especially vulnerable, confessional mood. "Candleflame" is a solemn acoustic number infused with a spiritual vibe; "Fool" recalls the homespun songs of early Liz Phair; and Lenker reaches into her falsetto range to match light-touch piano on "Evol." The original recording of Big Thief's "Vampire Empire" is scratchy, lo-fi indie rock instead of spectral pop, giving the song new dimensions. And the album-closing "Ruined" is gentle and devastating, with spacious arrangements, deep-space twinkling production and Lenker sounding weary as she sings, "Can't get enough of you/ You come around I'm ruined." In the end, Bright Future illustrates that Lenker's quality control never wavers in spite of her songwriting productivity—and celebrates the joy of collaboration and creativity. © Annie Zaleski/Qobuz

If ever there were a manifesto for 1970s rock, one that prefigured both the decadence of the decade's burgeoning heavy metal and prog rock excesses and the rage of punk rock, "This Ain't the Summer of Love," the opening track from Agents of Fortune, Blue Öyster Cult's fourth album, was it. The irony was that while the cut itself came down firmly on the hard rock side of the fence, most of the rest of the album didn't. Agents of Fortune was co-produced by longtime Cult record boss Sandy Pearlman, Murray Krugman, and newcomer David Lucas, and in addition, the band's lyric writing was being done internally with help from poet-cum-rocker Patti Smith (who also sings on "The Revenge of Vera Gemini"). Pearlman, a major contributor to the band's songwriting output, received a solitary credit while critic Richard Meltzer, whose words were prevalent on the Cult's previous outings, was absent. The album yielded the band's biggest single with "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," a multi-textured, deeply melodic soft rock song with psychedelic overtones, written by guitarist Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser. The rest of the album is ambitious in that it all but tosses aside the Cult's proto-metal stance and instead recontextualizes their entire stance. It's still dark, mysterious, and creepy, and perhaps even more so, it's still rooted in rock posturing and excess, but gone is the nihilistic biker boogie in favor of a more tempered -- indeed, nearly pop arena rock -- sound that gave Allen Lanier's keyboards parity with Dharma's guitar roar, as evidenced by "E.T.I.," "Debbie Denise," and "True Confessions." This is not to say that the Cult abandoned their adrenaline rock sound entirely. Cuts like "Tattoo Vampire" and "Sinful Love" have plenty of feral wail in them. Ultimately, Agents of Fortune is a solid record, albeit a startling one for fans of the band's earlier sound. It also sounds like one of restless inspiration, which is, in fact, what it turned out to be given the recordings that came after. It turned out to be the Cult's last consistent effort until they released Fire of Unknown Origin in 1981.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

The meteoric rise Olivia Rodrigo experienced after Sour would have been thrilling and challenging for any artist, but navigating the cusp of adolescence and adulthood at the same time gave her a bounty of material for her second album. GUTS reveals that she didn't crumble under expectations -- instead, she took notes. Recorded with returning producer Daniel Nigro in the same garage studio where he and Rodrigo made Sour, the album hones in on her soaring, soul-baring ballads and spiky pop-punk manifestos and perfects them. "Driver's License" may have been her debut album's mega-hit, but many fans connected with fiercely catchy singles like "Good 4 U." Several of GUTS' standouts are in the same throbbing vein: Rodrigo cringes at herself and throws shade at an old flame on the new wave-y "love is embarrassing." She makes mistakes gleefully on "bad idea right?," a witty recollection of hooking up with an ex that rivals Wet Leg when it comes to chugging post-punk-pop with droll singalong choruses. Songs like these suggest that Rodrigo's record collection is growing along with her confidence, and though the way "all-american bitch" swings from deceptively winsome folk to raging punk shares pages with Phoebe Bridgers' and Courtney Love's songbooks, she ties it all together even more convincingly than she did on Sour. Likewise, GUTS' not-too-raw, not-too-slick production bolsters her talent for giving complex moods wide appeal. The song "get him back!" tangles revenge and longing in some of the album's most scathing lyrics ("I wanna meet his mom/Just to tell her her son sucks"), but it sounds like a direct hit. This gift is almost as uncommon as her ability to write lyrics so relatable that it feels like she's read her fans' diaries -- or minds. Rodrigo confronts the sting of second and third heartbreaks with hard-earned wisdom, and tracks like "making the bed" and "logical" add a refreshing dose of self-awareness to the catharsis of "Driver's License." And while "vampire"'s recriminations against older men who leech off of her and "sell (her) for parts" may not reflect the everyday reality of her listeners, it brings them into her world with as much authenticity as her other ballads. GUTS even features songs her listeners might not know they need yet: The breathy "pretty isn't pretty" tackles lookism and body dysmorphia, near-universal experiences for young women with surprisingly few songs written about them. Rodrigo does a remarkable job of balancing moments that are very much of the time when she made the album with moments that hint at more: "teenage dream" yearns for the day when she won't be wise beyond her years, and "lacy" explores the intricacies of jealousy and yearning with nuance that a singer/songwriter of any age would be proud to possess. GUTS is emphatic proof that Rodrigo isn't just good for a kid -- she's grown into an artist with plenty of things to say, and the confidence and eloquence to say them her way.© Heather Phares /TiVo

In a little more than a decade, Vampire Weekend has taken it slow. After the eponymous Vampire Weekend (2008), Contra (2010) and Modern Vampires of the City (2013), Ezra Koenig’s band took a six-year break punctuated by the departure of the very influential Rostam Batmanglij who released an excellent solo record Half-Light in 2017. Their last album to date, Modern Vampires of the City, was a distinctive evolution in the works of the New York combo. The Talking Heads influence had been abandoned for a more refined and polished pop sound, found as much in the melodies and harmonies as in its style.Koenig, now the main creative force left in the group, has left New York and relocated to LA. Father of the Bride confirms his artistic ambition. His central style remains inherently pop, but each of the 18 songs in the album offer a different outlook. There is a bit of everything in this copious record; The Beatles, Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, Supertramp, Paul Simon, Wilco, Grateful Dead and hundreds of other influences can be noted. The collaborators on the album are equally diverse: the pedal steel and impressionist guitars of Greg Leisz, the voice of Danielle Haim of HAIM, the guitar of Dave Longstreth of the Dirty Projectors, Steve Lacy of the Internet and even Rostam enters the fold on two titles. While listening to the record, one might ask themselves if Ezra Koenig has made a White Album (the most eclectic album by the Beatles) all by himself… © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

The scholarly Upper West Side Soweto of Vampire Weekend’s debut sounded self-assured, but on Contra, they step out of their ivory tower with just as much confidence. In all senses of the term, this is a sophomore album. The band still flaunts the collegiate sense of discovery that made Vampire Weekend charming -- and sometimes too precious -- but with more maturity and creativity. Another Discovery is just as much of a force on Contra as any of the band’s much-noted influences (Afro-pop, Paul Simon’s Graceland): Rostam Batmanglij’s electro-hip-hop-pop project with Ra Ra Riot’s Wes Miles, which released its album LP after the pair found acclaim with their day jobs. While Vampire Weekend aren’t as shiny and sugary as Discovery, some of that adventurousness rubbed off on Batmanglij’s Contra production, which plays to the band’s biggest strength: inspired juxtaposition. The album’s artwork, which pairs a blonde WASP princess in a popped-collar polo shirt with the term given to Nicaraguan rebels, hints at the flair with which Vampire Weekend play mix-and-match on Contra. They throw listeners into the deep end with “Horchata,” which features a four-on-the-floor beat, thumb piano, rubbery synth bass, and massed harmonies -- almost everything except the spry guitars that helped define their first album. “California English” goes farther, tweaking Ezra Koenig’s yelp with Auto-Tune, the bête noire of those who value “realness” in their music; for Vampire Weekend, it’s just another instrument for them to play with. On paper, Contra’s hybrids seem more contrived than they actually sound: “Giving Up the Gun” fuses baile funk, house and stadium rock into a sweet melody propelled by choppy rhythms. “Diplomat’s Son” is even more far-fetched and fantastic, adding samples of M.I.A. and Toots & the Maytals -- exactly the kind of things you’d expect to hear on a young globetrotter’s iPod -- to nostalgic chamber pop. The album bustles with so many sounds and ideas that it challenges listeners to decide where to put their ears first, particularly on the single “Cousins,” a blur of guitars and jump-cut drums that sounds like abstract punk. Despite this busyness, Vampire Weekend are looser and less cryptic than on their debut, allowing them to tell stories like “Holiday,” an Iraqi war protest set to skanking guitars (ever the font snob, Koenig can’t resist mentioning a headline in “96-point Futura”). Even the few quiet moments are complex: “I Think UR a Contra” closes the album by wanting, and hating, the kind of privilege that brings “good schools and friends with pools.” And though the band is committed to change, the same joy that soared through Vampire Weekend pops up on “White Sky,” which boasts a melody so irrepressible that Paul Simon just might want to borrow it. With Contra, Vampire Weekend make Auto-Tune and real live guitars, Mexican drinks, Jamaican riffs and Upper West Side strings belong together, and this exciting lack of boundaries offers more possibilities than anyone could have expected.© Heather Phares /TiVo

With the Internet able to build up or tear down artists almost as soon as they start practicing, the advance word and intense scrutiny doesn't always do a band any favors. By the time they've got a full-length album ready to go, the trend-spotters are already several Hot New Bands past them. Vampire Weekend started generating buzz in 2006 -- not long after they formed -- but their self-titled debut album didn't arrive until early 2008. Vampire Weekend also has just a handful of songs that haven't been floating around the 'Net, which may disappoint the kind of people who like to post "First!" on message boards. This doesn't make those songs any less charming, however -- in fact, the band has spent the last year and a half making them even more charming, perfecting the culture collision of indie-, chamber-, and Afro-pop they call "Upper West Side Soweto" by making that unique hybrid of sounds feel completely effortless. So, Vampire Weekend ends up being a more or less official validation of the long-building buzz around the band, served up in packaging that uses the Futura typeface almost as stylishly as Wes Anderson. At times, the album sounds like someone trying to turn a Wes Anderson movie back into music (it's no surprise that the band's keyboardist also writes film scores); there's a similarly precious yet adventurous feel here, as well as a kindred eye and ear for detail. Everything is concise, concentrated, distilled, vivid; Vampire Weekend's world is extremely specific and meticulously crafted, and Vampire Weekend often feels like a concept album about preppy guys who grew up with classical music and recently got really into world music. Amazingly, instead of being alienating, the band's quirks are utterly winning. Scholarly grammar ("Oxford Comma") and architecture ("Mansard Roof") are springboards for songs with impulsive melodies, tricky rhythms, and syncopated basslines. Strings and harpsichords brush up against African-inspired chants on "M79," and lilting Afro-pop guitars and a skanking beat give way to Mellotrons on "A-Punk." It's a given that a band that's this high concept has hyper-literate lyrics: the singer's name is the very writerly Ezra Koenig, and you almost expect to see footnotes in the album's liner notes. Once again, though, Vampire Weekend's words are evocative instead of gimmicky. The irresistible "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" rhymes "Louis Vuitton" with "reggaeton" and "Benneton" and name-drops Peter Gabriel (though it's clear the band spent more time with Paul Simon's Graceland) without feeling contrived. "Campus" is another standout, with lines like "I see you walking across the campus...how am I supposed to pretend I never want to see you again?" throwing listeners into college life no matter what their age. Koenig has a boyish, hopeful quality to his voice that completes Vampire Weekend, especially on bittersweet but irrepressible songs like "I Stand Corrected" and album closer "The Kids Don't Stand a Chance." Fully realized debut albums like Vampire Weekend come along once in a great while, and these songs show that this band is smart, but not too smart for their own good.© Heather Phares /TiVo

In a little more than a decade, Vampire Weekend has taken it slow. After the eponymous Vampire Weekend (2008), Contra (2010) and Modern Vampires of the City (2013), Ezra Koenig’s band took a six-year break punctuated by the departure of the very influential Rostam Batmanglij who released an excellent solo record Half-Light in 2017. Their last album to date, Modern Vampires of the City, was a distinctive evolution in the works of the New York combo. The Talking Heads influence had been abandoned for a more refined and polished pop sound, found as much in the melodies and harmonies as in its style.Koenig, now the main creative force left in the group, has left New York and relocated to LA. Father of the Bride confirms his artistic ambition. His central style remains inherently pop, but each of the 18 songs in the album offer a different outlook. There is a bit of everything in this copious record; The Beatles, Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, Supertramp, Paul Simon, Wilco, Grateful Dead and hundreds of other influences can be noted. The collaborators on the album are equally diverse: the pedal steel and impressionist guitars of Greg Leisz, the voice of Danielle Haim of HAIM, the guitar of Dave Longstreth of the Dirty Projectors, Steve Lacy of the Internet and even Rostam enters the fold on two titles. While listening to the record, one might ask themselves if Ezra Koenig has made a White Album (the most eclectic album by the Beatles) all by himself… © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

The meteoric rise Olivia Rodrigo experienced after Sour would have been thrilling and challenging for any artist, but navigating the cusp of adolescence and adulthood at the same time gave her a bounty of material for her second album. GUTS reveals that she didn't crumble under expectations -- instead, she took notes. Recorded with returning producer Daniel Nigro in the same garage studio where he and Rodrigo made Sour, the album hones in on her soaring, soul-baring ballads and spiky pop-punk manifestos and perfects them. "Driver's License" may have been her debut album's mega-hit, but many fans connected with fiercely catchy singles like "Good 4 U." Several of GUTS' standouts are in the same throbbing vein: Rodrigo cringes at herself and throws shade at an old flame on the new wave-y "love is embarrassing." She makes mistakes gleefully on "bad idea right?," a witty recollection of hooking up with an ex that rivals Wet Leg when it comes to chugging post-punk-pop with droll singalong choruses. Songs like these suggest that Rodrigo's record collection is growing along with her confidence, and though the way "all-american bitch" swings from deceptively winsome folk to raging punk shares pages with Phoebe Bridgers' and Courtney Love's songbooks, she ties it all together even more convincingly than she did on Sour. Likewise, GUTS' not-too-raw, not-too-slick production bolsters her talent for giving complex moods wide appeal. The song "get him back!" tangles revenge and longing in some of the album's most scathing lyrics ("I wanna meet his mom/Just to tell her her son sucks"), but it sounds like a direct hit. This gift is almost as uncommon as her ability to write lyrics so relatable that it feels like she's read her fans' diaries -- or minds. Rodrigo confronts the sting of second and third heartbreaks with hard-earned wisdom, and tracks like "making the bed" and "logical" add a refreshing dose of self-awareness to the catharsis of "Driver's License." And while "vampire"'s recriminations against older men who leech off of her and "sell (her) for parts" may not reflect the everyday reality of her listeners, it brings them into her world with as much authenticity as her other ballads. GUTS even features songs her listeners might not know they need yet: The breathy "pretty isn't pretty" tackles lookism and body dysmorphia, near-universal experiences for young women with surprisingly few songs written about them. Rodrigo does a remarkable job of balancing moments that are very much of the time when she made the album with moments that hint at more: "teenage dream" yearns for the day when she won't be wise beyond her years, and "lacy" explores the intricacies of jealousy and yearning with nuance that a singer/songwriter of any age would be proud to possess. GUTS is emphatic proof that Rodrigo isn't just good for a kid -- she's grown into an artist with plenty of things to say, and the confidence and eloquence to say them her way.© Heather Phares /TiVo

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