The context for Malcolm Lowry's masterpiece, "Under the Volcano," is simple: a single day in the life of Geoffrey Firmin. It happens to be his last. The place is Quauhnahuac, Mexico, the day the Day of the Dead. As the locals celebrate the souls of the deceased, Firmin (also known as "the Consul"), h

Death, Dense, Euphoric, Hallucinatory, Modernist literature, Sprawling, Tragic

Car accidents, spider bites, and head wounds are just a few of the subjects at the center of the Flaming Lips' 1999 album "The Soft Bulletin." But the album isn't dark, jarring, or the least bit disruptive. In fact, it's nothing if not light. This kind of light might be "chemically derived." Or is it

Bright, Death, Euphoric, Event, Expansive, Grand, Psychedelic, Quirky, Smarty arty pop

It's a little bit disconcerting when you realize that you actually like Stereolab. Have you really become so soft that you find this lush, easy-listening music pleasant -- and, even worse, interesting? Is something wrong with you? Most likely, you simply have a Baroque sensibility. For behind the su

Euphoric, Layered, Lush, Rhythmic, Smarty arty pop, Social revolution, Sophisticated

Victor Hugo once said that, in contrast to the sublime, the grotesque is the richest material that nature can offer art. Iva Gueorguieva heeds Hugo's words, fashioning wall-sized paintings laden with thickly rendered, sickly hued detail. Gueorguieva's works embody the hybridized and occasionally terr

Architectural, Cartoonish, Ecstatic, Euphoric, Expansive, Fantastic, Kinetic, Layered, Monumental