Jason Heller

There's no denying just how derivative and calculating the music of The Airborne Toxic Event is. And while it would be easy to loathe the band out of hand—as Pitchfork did with its infamous 1.6/10 review of the act's self-titled debut—the fact remains that The Airborne Toxic Event is pretty...

The Court and Spark has long been shoehorned into the alt-country pigeonhole, but the band tweaks that equation by submerging its songs in icy washes of atmosphere. As waves of pedal steel, banjo, brass and mandolin wax and wane, guitars bob through the ether on upsurges of echo and reverb...