It would be too easy to shunt indie-pop idea machine Japanese Breakfast’s records into categories — here’s the sad one, the science fiction one, the happy one — especially given the title of her latest, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women). It’s spelled out in the title, right? Not quite. …
Read More »Playboi Carti Deepens His Gen Z Rap Dominance
At 30 tracks that span an hour and 16 minutes, Music is the long-awaited banquet of fresh – or, at the very least, reheated – Playboi Carti material that fans have clamored for. The Atlanta rapper’s prior album, 2020’s Whole Lotta Red, currently stands as a foundational text for dozens …
Read More »Jennie's 'Ruby' Is a Fast-Moving Good Time
The first solo full-length from Blackpink‘s Jennie floats in on a cloud. “Jane,” the pillowy opener, begins with the singer cooing over a tinkly music-box accompaniment; guided by Jennie’s looped voice and the French producer FKJ, it slowly gains its sea legs, with a click-clacking beat rising and synths coming …
Read More »Lady Gaga's 'Mayhem' Is More Than Just a Return to Her Pop Roots
In the lead-up to Lady Gaga’s latest album, Mayhem, there’s been a lot of talk about Gaga returning to her roots. It’s been five years since her last pop release, the Nineties-house-inspired, cyberpunk concept album Chromatica. Chalk it up to timing (it was released at the dawn of the pandemic), …
Read More »Tory Lanez Goes to Prison, Gets Mad, Finds God on 'Peterson'
“[Suge Knight] tellin’ me he think I could be bigger than Pac,” claims Tory Lanez on “MAWA Interlude x Lunch Tray,” a track from his new album Peterson. Recorded over the past several months while he serves out a 10-year sentence in California Correctional Institution for shooting Megan Thee Stallion, …
Read More »Yes' Prog-Rock Classic — Now Even Proggier!
Together with Floyd’sDark Side of the Moonand Genesis’Foxtrot, Yes‘ 1972 masterpieceClose to the Edgeis probably the most fully realized album in progressive rock. It captures the band during an incredible (if fleeting) creative peak, and perfectly sums up the prog ethos; its lofty ideals and natural attraction towards the whimsical …
Read More »Bob Mould Thrashes Toward Enlightenment on 'Here We Go Crazy'
The 15th album from Bob Mould opens with the 64-year-old indie-rock icon searching for serenity in a world on fire. Over slow, spaciously grinding guitar-pop, he finds himself alone on a mountain, surveying an expanse of natural beauty despoiled by strife and terror — warplanes in the sky, cities in …
Read More »Jason Isbell Falls in Love and Starts Strumming
Jason Isbell has earned his reputation as one of America’s greatest living songwriters by writing detail-rich tales about family schisms, working-class struggle, and Southern identity, but it’s his gift for gut-punch love songs that has cemented his legacy. The Alabama singer swore off his demons under the nurturing care of …
Read More »Lisa Explores Her Many Sides on 'Alter Ego'
Pop stars have to possess at least a few chameleonic tendencies—quickly snapping from thrill-ride energy shots to weepy ballads demands a willingness to switch things up, at least in terms of mood. On her first solo full-length, Blackpink member Lisa takes that ideal to heart and beyond — Alter Ego, …
Read More »Mdou Moctar's Quiet Revolution
There have always been two sides to the music of Nigerien guitarist and bandleader Mdou Moctar: the electric and the acoustic, the sweaty ballroom and the evening campfire, the wedding dance and the lament.If Mdou Moctar’s terrific 2024 album Funeral for Justice was the electric sound of the furious political …
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