Alec Hanley Bemis

Rihanna’s irresistible yet clinical R&B jam “Umbrella” sounds like a worthy candidate for any Best of ’07 list. Though it debuted in March, its cagey, multiseasonal lyrics kept it on the charts during the summer months: “When the sun shines/We’ll shine together/Told you I’ll be here forever . . . Now that......

Indie Rock’s Peter Pan Complex (A Protest): Pop music will always fetishize broad emotions, petulant attitudes and tight-bodied adolescent sex. It’s in the music’s DNA. That’s why we like it. If you’ve enjoyed the indie-rock boom of the early 21st century, however, notice that many of the scene’s biggest artists......

Bonde Do Role: With a name that good, does it matter whether they are? Math Rock Matures: I used to think math rock was the music of frustrated desire. The epitome of the genre, Don Caballero, were a ’90s group from Pittsburgh, PA, who re-formed in ’06 with a new......

{mosimage} Björk as Middle-Aged Pixie Can you judge a female diva based on how she copes with middle age? Cher has managed several fascinating career reinventions, but generally female artists fare no better than their male peers (e.g., the unseemly evolution from Casanova front man to pot-bellied leather pants–wearer). Thirty-seven-year-old......

   Amy Winehouse: “Rehab” (Republic/Universal): Everything about Amy Winehouse is a screaming defense of binge drinking — even her last name. I’m in love with her breakout single, “Rehab,” a grand R&B song dipped in analog warmth, and propelled by her soulful, deeply knowing voice. “No no no!” sings Winehouse,......