March 03, 2021
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    . .

    Bargain Bin Babylon: Sister Sledge: We Are Family

    . .

    Bargain Bin Babylon: Cowboy Junkies: ‘Cause Cheap Is How I Feel

    . .

    Bargain Bin Babylon: Earth, Wind & Fire: All ‘n All

    . .

    Bargain Bin Babylon: Henry “Buzz” Glass: Square Dance Variations Volume I

    . .

    Concert Review: Tool

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    Concert Review: Refused

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    Concert Review: The Mountain Goats

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    Concert Review: Tove Lo/Broods/Alma

    . .

    Discography: MF Doom: Special Herbs

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    Discography: MF DOOM: Operation: Doomsday

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    Discography: MF DOOM: Bl_ck B_st_rds

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    Discography: MF Doom: KMD: Mr. Hood

    . .

    Holy Hell! Yeah Yeah Yeahs EP Turns 20

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    Holy Hell! Bath Turns 20

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    Holy Hell! Very Soon, and in Pleasant Company Turns 20

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    Holy Hell! Fixed:: Context Turns 20

    . .

    Interview: Nonagon

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    Interview: Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil

    . .

    Interview: Janette King

    . .

    Interview: Joseph D’Agostino of Empty Country

    . .

    Chet Baker: (Chet Baker Sings) It Could Happen to You/Chet Baker in New York/Chet/Chet Baker Plays the Best of Lerner and Loewe-review

    . .

    Buzzcocks: Late for the Train – Live & in Session 1989-2016

    . .

    Mexican Institute of Sound: Distrito Federal

    . .

    A Winged Victory for the Sullen: Invisible Cities

    . .

    A Winged Victory for the Sullen: Invisible Cities

    . .

    Black Sabbath: Vol. 4 (Super Deluxe Edition)

    . .

    Melvins: Working with God

    . .

    Julien Baker: Little Oblivions

    . .

    Resequence: Childish Gambino: 3.15.20

    . .

    Resequence: Smashing Pumpkins: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

    . .

    Resequence: Prince: 1999

    . .

    Resequence: Chance the Rapper: The Big Day

    . .

    Rediscover: Todd Rundgren: A Wizard, A True Star

    . .

    Revisit: Titus Andronicus: The Airing of Grievances

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    Revisit: Amy Grant: Heart in Motion

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    Rediscover: Lisa Germano: Geek the Girl

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    . .

    Criminally Underrated: Spider-Man 3

    . .

    Criminally Underrated: Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest

    . .

    Criminally Underrated: Message in a Bottle

    . .

    Criminally Underrated: The Counselor

    . .

    Night of the Kings

    . .

    Crisis

    . .

    The Father

    . .

    Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry

    . .

    Night of the Kings

    . .

    Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry

    . .

    The Swordsman

    . .

    Nomadland

    . .

    Holy Hell! The Wedding Planner Turns 20

    . .

    Holy Hell! A.I. Artificial Intelligence turns 20

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    Holy Hell! What Time Is It There? Turns 20

    . .

    Holy Hell! Monsters Inc. Turns 20

    . .

    Oeuvre: David Cronenberg: A History of Violence

    . .

    Oeuvre: David Cronenberg: Spider

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    Oeuvre: David Cronenberg: eXistenZ

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    Oeuvre: David Cronenberg: Crash

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    Rediscover: Town Bloody Hall

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    Revisit: Postcards from the Edge

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    Rediscover: Agatha and the Limitless Readings

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    Revisit: Come and See

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    From the Vaults of Streaming Hell: Two of Us

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    From the Vaults of Streaming Hell: Death House

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    From the Vaults of Streaming Hell: Santa Jaws

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    From the Vaults of Streaming Hell: Stalked By My Doctor: The Return

  • Books
    • Reviews
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    . .

    The Awkward Black Man: Stories by Walter Mosley

    . .

    The Hearing Trumpet: by Leonora Carrington

    . .

    Telephone: by Percival Everett

    . .

    What Becomes a Legend Most: by Philip Gefter

    . .

    The Hearing Trumpet: by Leonora Carrington

    . .

    Telephone: by Percival Everett

    . .

    What Becomes a Legend Most: by Philip Gefter

    . .

    The Best: by Mark Williams and Tim Wigmore

  • Lists
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    Five Years Later: The Best Music of 2015

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    Five Years Later: The Best Music of 2014

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    Five Years Later: The Best Films of 2013!!

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    Bob Dylan’s 20 Best Songs of the ’10s and Beyond

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    Five Years Later: The Best Films of 2015!!

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    Bob Dylan’s 20 Best Songs of the ’00s

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    Bob Dylan’s 20 Best Songs of the ’90s

    . .

    Top 20 Albums of 2020

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    Best Films of 2020

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    The 25 Best Songs of 2020

    . .

    Best Film Performances of 2020

  • Podcast
Home Tag Archives: jay-z

Tag Archives: jay-z

Holy Hell! The Dynasty: Roc la Familia Turns 20

By Jeff Heinzl
June 17, 2020
in :  Holy Hell, Music, Music Features

A tribute to combined action in music, multiplying outwards from era to era and street corner to street corner like so many loaves and fishes.

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Concert Review: Jay Z

By David Harris
December 18, 2017
in :  Concert Reviews, Music, Music Features

Though Jay Z moves a little slower than many of the emerging rappers in their 20s, his set confirmed that he is still on top of his game.

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Jay-Z: 4:44

By Dominic Griffin
July 10, 2017
in :  Music, Music Reviews

Easily Jay’s most well-conceived album since American Gangster.

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PLAYLIST: Jay-Z

By Spectrum Culture Staff
August 4, 2013
in :  Music, Music Features, Music Playlist
jay-z

Welcome to PLAYLIST, a re-occurring feature where our staff creates a playlist (with mix tapes and CDs becoming so unfortunately passé) centered around one artist or band with a deep catalog. For each LP we choose one song and pick a writer to rhapsodize its virtue. This feature is especially challenging when facing the discography of Jay-Z. In a career …

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Jay-Z: Magna Carta…Holy Grail

By Nathan Kamal
July 14, 2013
in :  Music, Music Reviews

[xrr rating=3.0/5]Victory has defeated Jay-Z. The drug dealer turned rapper turned mogul’s career is an American success story to a nearly mythical degree, like a Horatio Alger fable with a lot more guns and crack rock. And while Jay-Z has always manipulated his public image to a degree normally only seen in the most successful of political spin doctors, he …

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List Inconsequential: Runt of the Litter: Weak Albums By Strong Artists

By Spectrum Culture Staff
May 3, 2012
in :  List Inconsequential, Lists, Recommended

Sky Blue Sky by Wilco (2007) Drugs help. When Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy went to rehab (no, no, no) in 2004, the band had just come off the masterful one-two punch of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002) and A Ghost Is Born (2004), two of the most experimental, sophisticated albums of the decade. Then after he cleaned up, they produced Sky …

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Best of 2011: Honorable Mentions

By Spectrum Culture Staff
January 2, 2012
in :  Lists, Recommended, Year End Lists

These excellent records fell just short of our Top 20 of 2011 list. The Antlers- Burst Apart [Frenchkiss] I suspect I’m not the only one who slowly scrolled through this very site’s Top 20 Albums of 2011 feature a few times in a vain attempt to locate Burst Apart. It had to be there somewhere, right? It wasn’t, though, and …

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Top 25 Songs of 2011

By Spectrum Culture Staff
December 14, 2011
in :  Lists, Recommended, Year End Lists

25. St. Vincent – “Surgeon” [4AD] To know Annie Clark is to love her. The versatile songstress and musician has been making indie hearts melt since her time with the Polyphonic Spree, and her 2007 debut Marry Me was beloved for its cheeky sense of humor (see: the album’s “Arrested Development”-inspired title) and the sheer skill she exhibited. She’s released …

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Jay-Z and Kanye West: Watch the Throne

By Chaz Kangas
August 12, 2011
in :  Music, Music Reviews

Jay-Z and Kanye West Watch the Throne Rating: 3.8/5.0 Label: Roc-A-Fella / Roc Nation / Def Jam The superstar monumental collaborative rap album isn’t a particularly new concept in hip-hop. From 2Pac and Scarface’s mid-’90s album through Ghostface Killah and MF Doom coming together to make an underground rap fan’s wet dream, the genre has had its attempts at chocolate-in-peanut …

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Decoded: by Jay-Z

By Chaz Kangas
March 27, 2011
in :  Books, Recommended Books, Reviews

Decoded by Jay-Z Rating: 4.1/5.0 Publisher: Spiegel & Grau I’ve always taken issue with Hip-Hop academia, especially when it comes to actual books about rap music. With few exceptions, most of them tend to function as a soapbox for authors to validate their thesis on how “Tupac’s views of women through the masculine gaze of capitalism as deconstructed by the …

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