Tucson Weekly | Sean Bottai

Janelle Monáe: The Electric Ladynew

Janelle Monáe swung for the fences on 2010's hyper-ambitious The ArchAndroid, hustling between musical styles and sidestepping pop star shenanigans in order to announce the arrival of a serious artiste. The Electric Lady doesn't represent a reimagining of Monáe's project...

Tucson Weekly | Sean Bottai | 09-12-2013 | Reviews

Tags: Janelle Monae

Fuck Buttons: Slow Focusnew

One of the oddest and most impressive things about Slow Focus is how it manages to burble, groan, stammer and seethe and yet it never crosses the line from melody into discord. From the cacophonous percussion that ushers in the opening track, "Brainfreeze," Slow Focus often seems as if, at any moment, it might break apart into science-fiction static...

Tucson Weekly | Sean Bottai | 08-09-2013 | Reviews

Diamond Rings: Free Dimensionalnew

When Toronto musician John O'Regan transformed himself from punk-band frontman to glam-rock diva on 2010's Special Affections, the results were a wonderful and skeletal album of electro-glam.

Tucson Weekly | Sean Bottai | 11-15-2012 | Reviews

Tags: Diamond Rings

Sasha Go Hard: Do You Know Who I Am?new

Young rapper/vocalists like Rye Rye and Azealia Banks epitomize a post-millennial sass that's all about eclecticism.

Tucson Weekly | Sean Bottai | 08-16-2012 | Reviews

Lightships: Electric Cablesnew

Electric Cables, the debut album by Teenage Fanclub's Gerard Love (under the Lightships moniker), is as bright and breezy as a summer day. That's in keeping with Love's past in C86-style bedroom pop, most recently his contributions to 2010's Shadows.

Tucson Weekly | Sean Bottai | 04-20-2012 | Reviews

Zambri: House of Baasanew

The Zambri sisters' voices recall Siouxsie Sioux, almost to distraction. Part of House of Baasa's dark frisson comes from how it carries on Sioux's particular legacy, though it has less of the murky pulse of Kaleidoscope's "Christine" (though the Baasa song "Hundred Hearts" comes closest to that kind of minimalism, while cheekily suggesting the main riff to Berlin's "Take My Breath Away") and more of the symphonic clutter of Superstition's "Kiss Them for Me."...

Tucson Weekly | Sean Bottai | 04-20-2012 | Reviews

Nicki Minaj: Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (Young Money/Universal Republic)new

The politics of Roman Reloaded are fascinating and bewildering. On the cover, Minaj dons birthday-cake-frosted whiteface. She's Paris Hilton by way of FLCL.

Tucson Weekly | Sean Bottai | 04-05-2012 | Reviews

Tags: Hip-Hop, Rap, Nicki Minaj

Cloud Nothings: Attack on Memorynew

Attack on Memory is exciting for a lot of reasons, but mainly because it's the sound of a band finding its ambition. The group's last album was a solid, if unremarkable, affair—brief, propulsive garage rock with a bedroom-pop sensibility.

Tucson Weekly | Sean Bottai | 02-28-2012 | Reviews

Faves From 2011new

Our music critics discuss the best music from the year gone by.

Tucson Weekly | Gene Armstrong, Sean Bottai and Jarret Keene | 12-30-2011 | Music

Tags: 2011 in review, best cds of 2011, Best Music of 2011

Junior Boys: It's All Truenew

It's easy to underestimate the pleasures of an album like It's All True, which is content to just hang out doing its thing, trying not to bother anybody. "Kick the Can," for instance, chugs along like the theme to a lost Atari game.

Tucson Weekly | Sean Bottai | 09-22-2011 | Reviews

Tags: Junior Boys

YACHT: Shangri-Lanew

YACHT's latest is more pop, and more of a party album, than 2009's See Mystery Lights, which was a bit more avant, a bit puckish.

Tucson Weekly | Sean Bottai | 07-07-2011 | Reviews

Fucked Up: David Comes to Lifenew

If hardcore is the music of male aggression -- which, let's be honest, it totally is -- then Fucked Up discovers hidden multitudes of feeling within it.

Tucson Weekly | Sean Bottai | 06-09-2011 | Reviews

Tags: fucked up

Lady Gaga: Born This Waynew

Lady Gaga's new album Born This Way is neo-Nashville pablum and generally incoherent -- though I'm not sure it's fair to expect a coherent album from an artist like Gaga.

Tucson Weekly | Sean Bottai | 05-31-2011 | Reviews

Tags: Lady Gaga