Reviews

All media is adored, but, unfortunately, not all of it meets our exacting standards for greatness. Reviews of TV, film, books, and music, as well as the more esoteric arts.

Six-Word Reviews of 763 SXSW Mp3s

The South by Southwest music festival begins in Austin, Texas, today. Of the hundreds of acts hoping to break big, 763 have offered an mp3 of their still-unknown sound. PAUL FORD listened to them all, all the way through. (Reviews | March 12, 2008)

The Top 10 Albums of 2006

The “record” industry is dead and 99-cent singles are now the rule, and yet terrific, cohesive rock LPs keep appearing every week. TMN founding editor ANDREW WOMACK picks his best albums of the year. (Reviews | December 20, 2006)

This Modern Love

If your dance taste errs towards women in potato sacks, can you still applaud for men in tights? CLAIRE MICCIO takes in opening night at the Boston Ballet’s new staging of Don Quixote. (Reviews | October 25, 2006)

L.A. Figments

A visit to the Hockney exhibit, now en route to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Expecting more of the same, CLAIRE MICCIO ends up finding a portrait of her own. (Reviews | May 22, 2006)

Panning the Gold

And so another Oscar season draws to a close. Though all the outfits have been judged, all the montages wept over, and all the envelopes opened, there remains one last Academy Awards ritual to perform: grousing about who won. MATTHEW BALDWIN looks back at previous Oscar winners, and the critics who hated them. (Reviews | March 6, 2006)

The Top 10 Albums of 2005

After a year of music, thousands of hours of listening time, and one worn-out iPod, ANDREW WOMACK brings us his picks for the very best music this year. (Reviews | December 21, 2005)

Lone Star Statements

Recently, Time magazine published a list of the 100 best novels. But the praise of professional critics hardly matters to the book-reviewing readers at Amazon.com. A compilation of the best of the worst… about the best. (Reviews | October 21, 2005)

The First Annual TMN Tournament of Books: Final Round!

Humiliating upsets, stunning defeats, the ever-surprising longevity of Tom Wolfe—it has all come down to this: the last match of The First Annual TMN Tournament of Books, sponsored by Powells.com. (Opinions | February 28, 2005)

Announcing The First Annual TMN Tournament of Books

Place your bets! Thumb your books! It’s time for literature to quit its prissy posturing and get pummeled! Introducing The First Annual TMN Tournament of Books, sponsored by Powells.com. (Opinions | February 7, 2005)

The First Annual TMN Tournament of Books

Too often are literary awards arbitrary, dull, or meaningless. Too rarely are they determined by an NCAA-style Battle Royale of bloodthirsty competition. It’s time for a change. ROSECRANS BALDWIN and KEVIN GUILFOILE announce The First Annual TMN Tournament of Books—complete with downloadable brackets poster!—sponsored by Powells.com. (Opinions | January 20, 2005)

The Top 10 Albums of 2004

There were thousands of albums released by thousands of artists in 2004, so it must be hard to determine which were the 10 greatest, right? No, not really. ANDREW WOMACK has his picks for the best of this year in music. (Opinions | December 20, 2004)

A Dallas, Texas, of the Mind

A new computer game lets players compete to reenact the assassination of President Kennedy—from the vantage point of Lee Harvey Oswald. Taking a break from the controversy over its release, KEN WOMACK sees the new future of gaming, then gets ready to take aim again. (Opinions | December 1, 2004)

Knee-Jerk Notes on New Fiction

To properly find a new book to read takes a great deal of time and energy. Barring that, one might as well resort to scanning the shelves with gut instinct. And that’s exactly what Claire Miccio does with the current crop of fiction. (Opinions | September 30, 2004)

2004 Editors’ Awards for Online Excellence

The web is an awfully tangled place, but there are jewels in the strands. Presenting The Morning News 2004 Editors’ Awards for Online Excellence, where advanced technology, top-notch prose, and pictures of cats are equally admired. (Opinions | May 18, 2004)

The Top 10 Albums of 2003

The iPod got a lot of use this year. After hundreds of albums and thousands of hours of listening to music, ANDREW WOMACK narrows it all down to his top 10 albums of 2003. Here are his findings. (Opinions | December 15, 2003)

Thriller

The allegations have set a fire in the media and a guilty verdict in the public’s mind. But the reason anyone cares at all in the first place is the music. Writer and once-Michael SARAH HEPOLA recalls what his landmark album means to her. (Stories | November 24, 2003)

Rock This County!

Mega-selling pop music may seem to be more about navel-sculpting than song-writing, but that won’t cut it for a stadium full of Shania Twain fans. SASHA FRERE-JONES finds out what it takes to sell 19 million records. (Opinions | October 15, 2003)

Forever and a Day: Songs for Summertime

After a weekend of heavy research, summer expert TOBIAS SEAMON gives us his survey of music for surviving the heat, and your drunk friends. (Opinions | July 7, 2003)

Branded for Life

Teenagers: They’ve got cell phones, credit cards, and brand identities. JOHN WARNER reviews Alissa Quart’s Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers to find a shared past not too dissimilar, and a terrifying prospect that may lie ahead of us all. (Opinions | June 11, 2003)

Unloading on The Matrix Reloaded

The first Matrix was cool, but this new one needed a bit more work before they let it out of the gate. Upset moviegoer Philip Graham writes an open letter to the Wachowski brothers. (Opinions | May 20, 2003)

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

Psychoanalysis in literature is old hat, but there were days when it was new. Clay Risen returns to Mary McCarthy to see which neuroses still ring true. (Opinions | May 5, 2003)

Amanda Hesser, Mr. Latte, and Me

A new cookbook arrives in the mail, and with great surprise, ROSECRANS BALDWIN discovers that its author, Amanda Hesser, has included a cryptic footnote just for him. (Opinions | April 23, 2003)

The Queen is Dead

Love, swimming pools, road trips, and burritos: Lance Arthur remembers a favorite album for our recollections series, The Smiths’ The Queen is Dead. (Stories | April 7, 2003)

The Nine Coolest Albums of 2002

Want to be cool but don’t have the time? Leave it to Brad Barrish to clue you in. But remember, in the world of indie-rock, what you actually listen to isn’t as important as what you claim to. (Opinions | December 18, 2002)

To Bring You My Love

Love, desire, heartbreak, gettin’ wet and makeovers: Claire Miccio remembers a favorite album for our recollections series, PJ Harvey’s To Bring You My Love. (Stories | October 29, 2002)

Accounting for Taste: Exo, Say Hello to the Master Siege Control

Four TMN writers get their paws on something and give their reviews. This time it’s an album from Chicago band Exo, selected by Kevin Guilfoile. (Opinions | July 16, 2002)

Doolittle

Rarely should you regret albums you loved in high school. Luckily, MENA G. TROTT had the good sense to love the Pixies, even if they were the devil’s music. Recollections based on the eternal Doolittle. (Stories | June 5, 2002)

The Secret Machines, September 000

The Secret Machines’ new EP, September 000, is magnificent: an inspiring work from what could be the best live band New York has seen in years. ANDREW WOMACK reviews. (Opinions | May 22, 2002)

Ten Great Beatles Moments

Universally beloved, the Beatles changed everything with their personality, their experiments, and, of course, their music. Because, ‘With the Beatles, the music is the point,’ John Lennon said, and ‘you have all this great music.’ KEN WOMACK explains why. (Personalities | May 17, 2002)

The Early Lines

The Early Lines are a good band. But they could be a great band. Yancey Strickler thinks they just might be on the right track with their new album, Hate the Living Love the Dead, and offers them advice on how to get over the hump. (Opinions | May 8, 2002)

Songs From the Big Chair

Music can inspire nostalgia, assigning memories to songs we relish, or would prefer to forget. Elephant-minded JOSHUA ALLEN remembers each track from Songs from the Big Chair by Tears for Fears and sifts the music for a little personal history. (Stories | May 7, 2002)

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Source Tags & Codes

…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead have released their major-label debut, singularly their finest record to date and the most blistering, blissful album to be released by anyone in years. ANDREW WOMACK reviews. (Opinions | February 27, 2002)

Chris Lee, Plays & Sings Torch’d Songs, Charivari Hymns & Oriki Blue-Marche

The production has an overt sense of confidence: some tracks are multi-layered, with relaxed horns, vocal harmonies, extra keyboards or guitar; others are strong and simple, just bass, guitar and Lee’s voice. And God, that voice: often compared to Jeff Buckley, Al Green or Nick Drake, Lee’s singing is masterfully sincere, at once longing and grateful, wistful and pained. ROSECRANS BALDWIN reviews. (Opinions | September 19, 2001)

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