In an election year, there are a lot of political issues being discussed, argued, spun and distorted.

Eddie Van Halen’s health has forced his band to postpone a scheduled swing through Japan in November, but the good news is: It’s not a return of his cancer.

Silver Age is that rarest of Bob Mould records: An unadorned, primal rocker, all bloody-knuckled riffs and flinty attitude with little or no introspection, much less sentiment. That makes sense, in many ways.

Patterson Hood is an aspiring novelist, destined to someday become the next William Faulkner. Well, maybe; his day job often gets in the way of that.

Complex and brutally honest, Swedish band the Wife’s Bad Habits delineates the hard journey we all make through this world, yet finds a way in the end to make peace with its most difficult moments.

Something different was happening. Paul — (John’s) partner, friend, and, yes, sometime rival — whom John felt he knew as well as anybody, yet sometimes feel he didn’t know at all, was with him, on this magic carpet ride