Album Reviews

When rap fans decry the atomization of the genre, they usually focus on its negative aftereffects: a lack of crossover superstars, an irrevocable split between Gen-Z internet kids and boom-bap old heads, and a surplus of ephemeral trends geared towards meaningless virality. But the emergence of solo auteurs like Aesop …

Any moment is an excellent one for new music from the long-running retro-avant pop band Stereolab, but Instant Holograms on Metal Film, Stereolab’s first full-length since 2010’s Not Music, is particularly well-timed. Blending gliding grooves, wowing-and-fluttering synthesizers, and lyrics that elegantly pine for more, Stereolab’s music blisses out without tuning …

You could say that Morgan Wallen has achieved his 2020s pop domination by brute force. His last two albums — 2021’s Dangerous: The Double Album and 2023’s One Thing at a Time — clock in at 30 and 36 tracks respectively, which thanks to streaming-era math is a boon to …

Jin has always been his own kind of romantic within the BTS universe, with his own style. This is the guy you go to for epic swoon-worthy love songs about space travel through the cosmos of the heart, in classics like “Epiphany” and “Moon.” (Especially “Moon.”) He summed up his …

For 30 years, it seems that there has never been a pitch too wild for Snoop Dogg. He’s done a reggae album, a funk album, two gospel albums, and even released an album on the blockchain. The Zelig of popular music, no collaborator is off limits: Willie Nelson, Stevie Wonder, …

Since her early days as a Maryland teenager uploading aggressive, trap-influenced music on Soundcloud, rapper Rico Nasty has carved out her own unique place as a colorful rager. Yet, when she spoke to Rolling Stone this past February to announce her third studio album, Lethal, the 27-year-old phenom revealed that …

In the classic-rock world, we’ve reached that alarming moment where many heritage bands are down to only or two surviving members — or, in some eerie cases, none. Mathematically speaking, Little Feat, who perfected a jukejoint-carnival mashup of nearly every form of American music more than 50 years ago, have …

Since emerging in 2016, the English prog-metal outfit Sleep Token have become one of rock’s most enigmatic success stories. Operating in cloaked pseudonymity — their core members are known as Vessel and II, and they perform in elaborately detailed costumes — they’ve crafted a wide-ranging musical world that’s felt distinctly …

Thom Yorke has quietly been on a bit of a tear the past year or so. In 2024, his side project the Smile — with Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood and jazz drummer Tom Skinner — put out two dazzling albums of crinkly art-rock, Wall of Eyes and Cutouts. He also …

“Feels like the worst year/ is always the one you’re in,” Maren Morris laments at the beginning of the loose-limbed “Carry Me Through,” which pops up near the end of the singer-songwriter’s fourth album. That plaint is tinged with hard-won wisdom — she’s reminding herself that while life’s journey might …