Dreijer’s show proved the musician is stepping out of the shadow that covered her Knife and first Fever Ray project and into a more comfortable existence.

Plunge feels more immediate and open than Fever Ray’s debut.

It’s assaulting and explicit, yet remains danceable and fun.

Believe it or not, there was a time when the Knife didn’t really stand out from the crowd. The Swedish brother/sister duo of Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer—who are as likely to be cloaked in darkness with faces obscured by elaborate face paint or creepy bird masks as they are to stuff a Coachella stage with brightly-dressed dancers—are capable …

20. Julianna Barwick Nepenthe [Dead Oceans] Julianna Barwick’s Nepenthe leaves me feeling like I’ve opened a secret door, the light behind it thick and golden and twining around me. With ethereal loops and choir-strong harmonies and swells and flows that float you through her honeyed haze, Barwick does more than conjure an ambient space from oceans of sound. Her songs …

25. Janelle Monáe – “Dance Apocalyptic” [Bad Boy/Wondaland] On her stellar sophomore album, The Electric Lady, Janelle Monáe calls in the musical royalty. The likes of Prince, Miguel, Solange, Esperanza Spalding and Erykah Badu lend their talents to an album that’s a start to finish listen and a triumphant breakthrough for Monáe—nowadays it’s difficult to buy a cup of coffee …

[xrr rating=3.25/5]Blame it on “Heartbeats.” After the success of their most famous song (and its subsequent, ubiquitous cover by Jose Gonzalez), Swedish duo the Knife found themselves in what was doubtlessly an unexpected position: popularity. As with many edgy musical acts, their reaction was to move away from the very thing that brought them mainstream success. Their follow-up album, Silent …

The Great Gatsby (Dir: Baz Luhrmann) F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is one of the greatest novels ever written. That’s not even an opinion, that’s a fact by the consensus of close to 100 years of publication. But despite the fact that it’s an utterly cinematic novel, full of lush emotion, flashbacks, glamorous parties and violence, there’s never been …

Five years is an eternity in the life of a record. When coming up with this feature, the question the Spectrum Culture staff pondered was this: “How well do these albums play NOW!” Not five years ago, but how have they aged in our memories. While some acclaimed albums of ’06 remain strong on our list, some critically-lauded ones didn’t …