One of my favorite tropes in pop music is the readymade greatest-hits album, the album so packed with perfectly crafted pop nuggets that every one of its tracks seems destined for airplay. There aren’t too many of these albums, but they all feel earthshaking when they come along: Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, Def Leppard&#8217...

This week marks the release of Singles, the stupendous 4AD debut and apparent breakout LP by Baltimore synth-pop weirdos Future Islands. And if you, like David Letterman, are among those hypnotized by frontman Samuel T. Herring’s singing and dancing, perhaps you’d be interested in hearing him rap too. This weekend, video of H...

The group's fourth album is released next week    

Future Islands are ready to take over the world. At SXSW, the Baltimore synthpop weirdos were this year’s Odd Future — the one live show that nobody could stop talking about. (This, even though they’ve been touring steadily and consistently great live for years.) And that chatter is only going to increase once peopl...

Even before the horrible, tragic hit-and-run last night, Austin was dark last night. I’ve been coming to SXSW for six years now, and while prevalent drunkenness and corporate sponsorships have been a big part of the throwdown for as long as I can remember, they haven’t combined into a terrifying kaleidoscope the way I&#82...